GIVE ME ELECTRICITY AND I WILL SHOCK THE WORLD

In the developed parts of the world, electricity is an important input to the day to day activities of the people living in these countries; cooking, washing, heating, cooling, lighting, transporting, the list goes on.

Electricity is a utility that can almost not be lived without in this present times, its supply is one that has to be continuous for everyday use to maintain normalcy. Interruption in the supply of electricity for a few minutes would bring chaos to the system of these developed countries - a recent example of this happened in Amsterdam early this year when there was power outage for few hours. These countries run on electricity to keep the state and system running smoothly, so they cannot afford to have the supply of it cut for a few minutes, hence they keep finding ways to adding to their energy mix to ensure energy security.

Africa at night (pulled from national vanguard)

In contrast to the system explained above, electricity supply in some third world countries is nothing to write home about. Growing up as a Nigerian child in the city of Ibadan, I didn't enjoy that kind of luxury. Electricity was so epileptic that when it was supplied, people would shout and rejoice like football teams' fans do when they win a match. You could hear the shouts from every corner of the street and every apartment the supply had reached.

I learnt how to do all I could with little or no supply of electricity that is - cooking, washing, reading, heating, lighting and so on. It was not until about three years ago that I have started enjoying a decent supply of electricity of about an average of 15 hours per day ( there are still power outages of about one to three days especially during the wet season when it is rainy and windy). I have always wondered how much things I would have been able to do if I had electricity uninterrupted, how much creativity I would have had. In some poor urban areas and rural areas, there was no access to electricity at all and it is like that till now for some of them,it is very sad. So I was a lucky child to have had access electricity just that the supply was little. Some families could afford small petrol electricity generators to get power whenever they needed and there was no supply from the grid. My family had one at some point but could not keep up with the cost of fueling and maintaining the generator. Up till now, many homes, businesses, companies, hospitals etc are powered by electricity generators when supply from the grid is cut. Wealthier homes and businesses incorporate Solar systems to their existing generators increasing their sources of power. This is the way the power sector in Nigeria has been for years and we keep hoping things will get good soon.

Apart from the domestic use of electricity which I have tried to summarize above, industrial consumption of electricity is very important as it is more directly involved with economic activities such as production of goods and services. Studies have shown that economic development is closely associated with energy access and energy security, African countries with power outages therefore have to get their acts right and invest massively and deliberately to improve their power sectors and they would experience economic development more than ever. You will be surprised if you know the amount of money several governments that have come to power in Nigeria has spent on the power sector (I wish I could dig very deep and bring out the figures but no electricity supply; just kidding ) with little or no improvement. I wonder why it is so hard to deploy coal, natural gas and intense sunshine that we have in abundance to produce more than enough of electricity that the country needs- HOW CAN THAT BE SO HARD?

(pulled from solar-aid.org)

Now coming back to a Nigerian/African child and youth that rely mainly on the supply of electricity from the national grid that is frequently interrupted while some do not have access to, what great power he is being denied to be at his best and be creative. He has to do his thinking, reading - all he does to be productive, create immense solutions to problems and mind blowing inventions - in conditions that are not comfortable and conducive. The productivity level of an average African youth would increase tremendously if he can get the electricity that would help him find the balance between entertainment and information gathering - which opens his mind to endless possibilities.

When he was explaining that given a force any weight can be moved, Archemedes said 'give me a place to stand and with a lever I will move the whole world'; the African child and youth are saying - give me electricity and I will shock the world.