Residents of the Bwari Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory have said they are uncomfortable dealing with the extreme heat since the unreliable power supply is making life even harder in their neighborhoods.
Our reporter talked to the residents in separate interviews yesterday in Abuja.
NAN says that areas like Kubwa, Bwari, Karu, Nyanya, Gwagwalada, and others have been having power outages almost every day for more than a month. This has made it hard for many families to deal with the hot weather.
Some people were worried about how the scenario would affect their homes, while others were upset about how it would affect their businesses that needed power to run.
Mrs. Esther Emoh, who lives in Bwari, said that the situation has made living hard, especially at night when fans and other cooling devices needed energy to work.
She added, “Our light here has been unstable since February.” We keep hearing excuses, and to make matters worse, the weather has turned too bad; the heat is terrible.
“I can’t sleep at night, even with the windows wide open. The little breeze outside doesn’t even come into the rooms, and everything I’ve stored in my freezer has melted.”
“Even when they fix the power, it only lasts for about an hour, which isn’t long enough to freeze anything.” Please, Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC), do what you can to fix the problem with the light. “We pay taxes, and we need value for what we pay for. The heat is too much,” she remarked.
Mrs. Rose Bawa, a private school teacher in Bwari, expressed the same thing: the situation had made her take her students’ studies outside of the classroom, where it is easier for them to learn.
She said that she teaches preschoolers who are “too young and sensitive to heat” to stay in a classroom with no fan and not much cross ventilation.
“There are only 10 kids in the class, but you know how kids react to weather.
Bawa stated, “We can’t take chances, so since there isn’t much power, we just take their chairs outside and have our lessons on the porch while enjoying the natural breeze.”
Another resident, Mr. Auta Amos, said that the heat and power outage forced him to sleep outside in his family’s compound.
He said that other people were too scared to join him, but he couldn’t stand sleeping inside in the heat.
Amos claimed that even though he sleeps outside to get the natural wind, he still takes more than two showers before midnight to cool off and get comfortable.
On the other hand, Mr. Ezra Bright, a trader in Dutse-Alhaji, said that the heat had not only made it hard to sleep, but it had also made people more dependent on generators, which had risen the expense of life because fuel prices had gone up.
Bright, who runs a frozen goods store, stated that it has been too hard to keep his products up to date, and even though he has tried everything, he has not seen many customers.
“It’s because there isn’t any light. Not everyone can store food in the freezers right now without light, only those with bigger generators. And the price of fuel has gone up.” He said, “It’s hot everywhere.”
In the same way, Mr. Abdul Farouk, a barber, claimed that the protracted power outage made him spend more on gas to keep his shop running, which cut into his daily income.
Farouk added that things had gotten harder, especially because they were still fasting.
He asked the right people and the electrical distribution corporation to make the power supply better so that Nigerians would have an easier time during the hottest part of the year.
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