For about two months now the residents of Federal? Civil Services` Residential Quarters have been groaning under the weight of poor electricity supply caused by overloaded transformer, Nick Udenta writes.
The Federal? Civil Servants` Residential? Quarters in zone 6, Abuja ,was built in the early 1980s to accommodate most of the civil servants who were camping mainly in Suleja ,Niger State, and were going to work from there. The quarters were the first set of building or better still government quarters to be erected in the Federal Capital Territories (FCT).
Situated in between Bissau and Rabat Streets , cutting across Harare and Dodoma streets, the quarters? is made up of about 10 blocks of? 24 ,16 and? 12? flats of 3 stories.The blocks were named based on the ministry or parastatal allocated a particular block.Names like NYSC block, FCTA Block , University Block and so on can be seen. However, since the monetisation which threw up new owner s among the residents the buildings are now better known in blocks such as block 405,block 406 ,block 407…
In one of these blocks, 405, lives Mr? Aminu? Yahaya? a deputy director in one of the? ministry in the FCT.? Aminu has a family of five including his wife. He dismisses from his office around 4:30pm and lives for home, unless on rare occasion when office exigencies call for more time. Aminu has few friends and is not taken to going to joints after work,? but since January this year he has been turning into what can be called “a-joint-man”, thanks to PHCN.
The earliest time Aminu comes in is 9:30pm and he tries to justify his action when he says “What do you expect me to do? We hardly have light these days. If I stay in the house it can be very without? light.” According to Aminu their transformer has been performing very badly since this year . “The thing comes and goes off. It keeps sparking off light everyday and it has spoilt some of my appliances.”
The story , according to Aminu goes this way: The 500 KV A transformer? situated at Maseru by Harare? Street? junction? was installed by NEPA? in the 1990s when their office was still in zone 6. But over time as the population of those living within the vicinity increased the transformer? thus over -loaded. “When I did my NYSC in 1989 I was the only person living in a flat. In the whole blocks of about 10 you might find only 30 people living there. “ He says “Now we have so many people with their air conditioners ,computers and other heavy appliances.”
?Aminu`s wife? complains that she can no longer preserve anything in their fridge. She Says that the experience is very horrible. “I have lost so much money as a result of this constant power failure. Sometimes? they will deceive you and give light for some hours and you will believe that it is now fine and go and buy food stuff and put in the fridge only to wake up the following day to find out that you are back to square one.” She stresses that besides the appliances and food stuff she may lose her husband to this “Abuja girls. “You know, they move about like a hawk looking for a chick to devour” she adds jokingly.
Aminu is just one out of the many voices crying for help. Some of the residents of Bissau and Harare Streets are also on their knees begging as well as threatening to take the matter to the appropriate authority. They are specifically calling on the FCT? minister to intervene since PHCN is not living up to their duties in this area. One of them, Miss Angela Adim, a banker, who lives in one of the buildings affected in Bissau Street says that “What is most painful is that you see that your next door neighbours have light!? I will call it negligence or better still meanness on the side of PHCN. They keep sending those small? boys who come to collect money, make a quick fix and the next hour the light goes off” The lady is of? the opinion? that the boys are using them to make money as is often the custom.
Mr Ikechukwu? OKoh,? a student of engineering? suspects a fowl play. According him “These guys know that we need this light now that the whether is very hot and so they just decided to open a file for us. You can`t sleep in the night, even when you try the mosquitoes will not allow you but if the air conditioner or fan is on it helps? disarm the mosquitoes.”
Along Bissau Street, by old NITEL building, is space that used to accommodate a transformer . But as the residents say “ The transformer belonged to NITEL so they left with it when they were living this place” says? Mr Joseph Eke, a businessman ,who has lived in Bissau Street for over fifteen years. Ikechukwu suggests that PHCN can reinstall a transformer in that same position or replace the old one at Rabat by Harare junction with a bigger capacity. A suggestion that all those affected concurred.?
One may however want to know how much efforts the residents of the affected buildings, particularly the different blocks of the government quarters, have put in so as to get their light back.? Mrs Martha? Ogoni lives at block 407 of the quarters and says “We have lodged complaints several times? at zone 4 here but? PHCN doesn`t? seem to have? listening ears. My neighbour here can bear me witness”, she pointed at another woman who was just coming back from work.?
To really show how much aggrieved the residents are ,one? Jacob Ako, a native of Ibira in Kogi State who lives in one of? the flats in Block 408 exchanged some hot words recently with one of those small boys when they came to do their usual “quick fix.” Mr Ako`s grouse is that “Those people are playing on our intelligence.I watch them come and go. They believe we are stupid, that we don`t understand what they are doing.”?
A visit to PHCN wuse zone 4 revealed that so many complaints have been made in reference to the very case at hand, but officials of PHCN who LEADERSHIP approached were evasive as it concerns the matter, claiming that they were not aware. One of those affected Mrs Juliana Okeke says? they should endeavour to put the light in order if not for the consumer , let them do it so as to generate more revenue. According to her,?? “The one thousand naira credit I bought since first week of January is yet to finish. Under normal condition it is supposed to last for a month.”
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