On Tuesday, 18th of May, the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) made an announcement that the scheduled blackouts in Ghana which were occasioned for the maintenance of electrical equipment had come to an end. This announcement was to the relief of electricity consumers in the country. However, in Nigeria, the occasions of blackouts are not scheduled and are too often than not without valid excuses. Both situations highlight the tale of two blackouts. The Ghanaian type and the Nigerian type.
Read More: Eight Day Load Shedding Comes to an End
Earlier, the ECG informed electricity consumers in Ghana that there would be planned blackouts across the country. The reason given was that there were to be maintenance works to connect the Bulk Supply Point (BSP) in Pokuase to Ghana Grid Company’s (GRIDCo) 330KV transmission line. The load shedding which was termed ‘dumsor’ in Ghana lasted for twelve (12) hours each day across the affected residential and commercial areas. In total, the blackouts lasted for eight (8) days, from the 10th to the 17th of May.
Despite this seeming following of due process by the ECG in informing electricity consumers of a valid reason they would not be getting electricity and giving a time supply would be restored, some consumers across the country remained dissatisfied with the situation as they saw no reason why they would not have electricity for twelve hours every day, for eight days.
Meanwhile, in Nigeria, there are electricity consumers that usually do not get electricity supply for up to 8 hours a day. To these consumers, blackouts have become the order of the day that they do not even identify as a situation that should be loudly complained about. What is worse is that the trickling electricity supply situation in Nigeria very often does not have an excuse (if it ever even does).
The tale of two blackouts, a comparison between the excused Ghanaian dumsor and the sheer incompetence of the Nigerian electricity sector, highlights the very deep problem of the normalcy of an absence of abundant electricity supply in Nigeria.