The Ordeal of a 10-Hour Power Outage
It happened again when I was still lying on my bed in the morning. I was gazing at the ceiling and thinking about the many tasks I had to complete that Thursday. I reckoned that it was going to be an impossible day. Suddenly, I felt the speed of the fan blades decreased and I glanced at it. Finally, the blades stopped turning. I didn’t proceed to check what the issue was with the fan. I knew it had to be a power cut because during the past two weeks, there’s been numerous power outages during the day and sometimes at night.
The power outage was the impetus for me to rise and face the insurmountable day ahead. I took a cold shower in the dark, got ready and rushed out of the house.
When I arrived home in the evening, I greeted some neighbors who were outside discussing the power outage. I asked the group when the power was back on and they informed me that it wasn’t until 6 p.m. that the lights were back on in their houses. 10 hours of no electricity, I thought.
Spoiled meat and dairy products
After dinner, I decided to take a walk in the neighborhood. On my way back, I stopped at a local boutique to buy a laundry detergent. As I was leaving after paying for my item, I saw the refrigerator and the freezer by the entrance of the boutique. This piqued my curiosity. I then turned back and walked to the counter to ask the manager a couple of questions.
“Was there a power outage in the shop today?”
“Yes boss, the whole day no electricity. In the entire area, no electricity!”
He seemed a bit nonchalant, as if he was used to the power cuts. I then asked him another question. I tried to formulate this one as impromptu as I could. “You do sell meat and seafood right, didn’t anything spoil with that crazy power outage?” All of a sudden, the store manager was alarmed by my question, so he also attempted to reply casually: “no boss, the freezer is excellent, so everything is perfect!” I said “Ah, of course, it looks brand new”.
He quickly sent me off with a thank you and a goodnight. A few other customers were in the store, so he wasn’t going to entertain me in a conversation about power cut in a general food store.
As I walked out, I noticed the fridge again and through the glass door, I saw dairy products. But no, I wasn’t going to turn back to ask about the milk products in there. I remembered that I received a chilled thank you and a goodnight.
When I was walking back to my place, I chuckled and I kept thinking about the scene in the shop. Of course some meat had gone bad. Did the shop owner throw away all the spoiled food from the power outage? No, I doubt it. Many boutiques like the one I went to, don’t have a standby generator. As a result, during extended power outages shop owners use their discretion to decide which items to throw away — if any at all. Often, they use their sense of smell to determine which food items should be thrown away.
Selling quality food becomes a dilemma for small boutiques
Honestly though, can you blame them? These small neighborhood boutiques operate in very difficult business environments where issues such as bad roads, the high cost of electricity, and excessive taxes, reduce their bottom line. Also, most of these small neighborhood stores cannot afford back-up generators.
Even if they did, they wouldn’t be able to pay the fuel to run the machines (there are many power outages) or repair such an expensive fixed asset. It’s also worth to note that in Togo, the price of powering a refrigerator for a year as a percentage of GDP per capita is 20%¹. A very high percentage compared to the United States where this number is nearly 0%.
It can be argued that it’s a public health issue, therefore authorities should intervene to ensure that the stores don’t sell these products even if they would lose money. But wouldn’t it be much better to avoid this situation in the first place by ensuring that stores never have to compromise on the safety of their customers? This calls for an even greater effort in delivering accessible and affordable electricity to everyone, so that when a shop owner sells spoiled food items, a severe punishment would be entirely justified.
Lack of electricity becomes a burden for students
I kept walking and I turned to the last corner leading to my house. Ahead, I noticed three people under the lamppost near the house. As I approached them, I saw two young men sitting on bricks and one was standing up. The three young men were visibly focused on the notebooks in their hands, but when I got close to them, they greeted me.
Surprised by their presence there (I was aware that students had finished their exams), I asked them what they were doing. “Aren’t exams over for all students?” They replied that they’re in their first year at the university of Lomé. They looked quite young, so I mistakenly imagined they were still in high school. I wasn’t surprised that they were studying under a street light because I’ve seen a similar scene many times before. We chatted for a few minutes and I left them with some encouraging words.
The young men had electricity in their homes, but due to the high cost of the utility, their parents couldn’t afford to have them study until the wee hours. Whenever they want to study late at home, they must either use a kerosene lantern or find a street lamp. Even in urban areas, electricity remains too expensive for many people in Togo.
At home, I couldn’t stop thinking about the scenario. How can students in these conditions attain a first-rate education that will allow them to compete in the global job market in the future? Perhaps it’s unfair when stakeholders say that the future of Africa rests in the hands of the youth. Enough hasn’t yet been done to prepare the African youth for such a complex responsibility. For now, the future of Africa is in the hands of us, the adults, who must ensure that the African youth is truly prepared to lead the continent.
For this to happen, things such as access to affordable electricity and a quality education should become a right. It’s impossible for any country to compete in the 21st century without tackling these basic development milestones. We can’t begin to talk about the technological and industrial leaps in Africa when access to stable power supply is still considered as an amenity to many people on the continent.
The deficiency in electricity isn’t unique to Togo. It’s an issue that still plagues most countries in Africa. I remember in 2014 when I visited Ghana, there were five power outages during the four days that I spent there. According to the Brookings Institution², only 43% of Africans (excluding North Africa) have access to electricity while it’s 87% for the global access rate. The rate is much lower in rural Africa where only 25% of people have access to electricity.
It’s difficult to convince young Africans that they will be able to compete against the very best when they know in many other parts of of the world, the cost of electricity is an afterthought for students.
In 2015, as a candidate for the presidency of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Akinwumi Adesina wrote in his vision statement that:
“Nothing is more important to Africa than access to power. Africa’s total energy installed capacity of only 147 GW is the same as that of Belgium and its installed energy capacity must expand to 700 GW by 2040”.³
He’s correct. Without the reality of cheap and stable power, the industrialization of Africa will remain only a potential and the digital divide will widen on the continent.
I was ready to go to sleep when I received a call from Martin, the owner of an internet café that I often visit. He asked me if I had power at home during the day and I told him that power was back on in the neighborhood after 10 hours. He then explained to me the ordeal of his friend who also owns an internet café about 20 minutes away from his.
“It was an awful day for him today”, he began to narrate to me. When his friend left the house just after 8 am, power was already out in his house which is 10 minutes away from his café. He was hoping that there won’t be a power outage in his shop when he arrives. There wasn’t electricity when he arrived, but he opened his shop anyways. He imagined that in a maximum of one hour, power would be back on and his customers can work.
Martin continued, “he closed and went home at 4 pm because there was no power”. When he arrived home, his friend in a distraught state, called him to explain his agony. “He was almost in tears when we spoke on the phone. I could feel through his voice that he was disheartened that he lost a day of work.” It was close to month-end and he had bills to pay. A day of no work was simply too much for the young man to bear.
Three other internet cafés shut down during the power outage in the neighborhood
I was familiar with the internet café that Martin was telling me about. In that neighborhood, there are three other internet cafés and all three shut down during the power outage. The owners weren’t the only losers during the 10-hour power cut. Students, professionals, and anyone else that needed access to an internet café either was simply out of luck that day or they had to look for internet cafés in other areas.
As I lay on my bed, I thought about the people and the businesses that were affected during the 10-hour power outage. I realized that the light was on in my room and I switched it off. It felt strange that the light was on in my room while I was simply thinking when just outside my house, those young men were probably still studying under the street light. I stared at the ceiling and closed my eyes soon after.
