When the loud bang goes off and everything that uses electricity follows moments after

You’ve lived in Nigeria long enough to know what this means. But in the first moments, you hold your breath and choose to live in denial. Maybe it was a plane crash somewhere close, or a bomb had gone off. But the transformer that services your area cannot decide to develop a fault now.

And you descend into a fit of prayers

You’ve always believed in prayers, and that’s what you fall back to immediately you realise what has just happened. Before you make an effort to confirm anything, the recurring words on your tongue are “God, please.” “God, please.”

The panic you feel when the reality starts to hit you

Again, because you’ve lived in Nigeria all your life, you know how the light schedule works. It’s time for power to come back on now, but the light bulbs are not illuminated with bright orange or white light, and the blades of the fan are still. That explosion was definitely from your transformer. 

And you remember how unprepared you are

You were not expecting this to happen, obviously. And this means that you’ve not ironed your clothes, or charge everything that needs to be charged. Also, you don’t have a lamp, which means you will be plunged into darkness at night.

Then you realise that water will soon run out

Well, no light, no water. That’s a universal pattern. You dash to the bathroom to fetch into buckets and anything else that can serve as a reservoir, and you see that you cannot collect more than two buckets because the other tenants have beaten you to it.

You fight the urge to meet your landlord

He’s the owner of the house; he should know what to do. But again, you think about the futility of it all. He did not spoil the transformer, and that’s exactly what he is going to tell you.

You know you’re helpless now, but you cling on to hope

The first thing that makes you a little hopeful is the fact that the whole street is affected. For all you care, this will spur them into taking action as soon as possible. A week later, and the whirring sound of generators have taken over the streets. But you keep hoping.