Electricity back in Niger community, one year after

After twelve months of living in darkness without any intervention from government, the people of Nkangbe community in Bosso Local Government Area of Niger State are now have electricity thanks to two transformers installed in their community.

It was discovered that one of the transformers was donated by the House of Representatives member, Honorable Abdullahi Bago while the second one was said to have been donated by former Senator David Umaru.

When The Nation visited the community eight months after the investigation on electricity, the Reporter observed that the community now enjoys electricity.

However, the electricity has not been stable; the community enjoys electricity from 8pm to 7am daily, sometimes from 10am to 3pm.

When the reporter visited the community in August 2018, the community had been without electricity for more than ten months; however, it was learnt that electricity came to the community by October 2018.

When the reporter visited the community in July, the chairman of Nkangbe Landlords Association, Mohammed Qasim was grateful to the legislators for responding to the cry of the community by providing the transformers.

According to him, the electricity has greatly increased the standard of activities in the community as businesses are now booming while people who were reluctant to complete their houses had completed and moved in.

Most of the former respondents of the questionnaires distributed by the reporter were happy that electricity had returned to the community. They however want power to be stable.

Bose Abiodun, a hairdresser who spent between N300 and N500 on fuel during the period of power outage said she now enjoys electricity.

“Most times, they bring the light in the morning to late in the afternoon and I use that period to do work. I spend less on fuel these days. In fact, the last time I bought fuel of N200 was a week ago and I am still using it.

But sometimes, they take the light for one full day and do not bring it. The light is still not stable and we need stable light.”

• This report was supported by Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) Regulators Monitoring Programme (REMOP) for the electricity sector.