Power Outage Persists Hours After Promised Restoration Deadline
By Henry Agbu
For residents of Gombe, Yola and Jalingo, the darkness is no longer just a momentary inconvenience—it is fast becoming a way of life.
The ongoing power outage, which was initially scheduled to be resolved within five days, has now stretched into days in some areas, leaving homes, hospitals, businesses, and even public institutions groping in the dark. Promises of restoration have come and gone, yet the lights remain stubbornly off.
In Yola, the situation is equally dire. Hospitals are running on overstretched generators, while students preparing for examinations are forced to study under torchlight. The impact on small-scale entrepreneurs is particularly harsh. Tailors, welders, barbers, and cyber café operators say their businesses are grinding to a halt.
While official sources cite a “technical fault on the transmission line” as the root of the outage, details have remained vague. In a statement issued by the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), engineers are said to be “working round the clock to resolve the issue,” but no concrete timeline has been offered for when normalcy will return.
For the people of northeastern Nigeria, erratic power supply is not new. What’s different this time is the sheer duration and lack of reliable communication. Daily life has slowed to a crawl in urban centers that depend heavily on electricity for survival and productivity.
Children can’t do their homework. Water supply—largely dependent on electric pumps—has been disrupted. Mobile networks are also weakening as base stations struggle to maintain backup power.
Experts warn that repeated and prolonged blackouts without accountability deepen public distrust in electricity providers and government institutions. The issue goes beyond flickering bulbs—it’s about planning, transparency, and the basic dignity of life in the 21st century.
As of now, the lights remain off in much of Gombe, Yola, and Jalingo. Residents wait, wearily clinging to power banks, candles, and hope. The question on everyone’s mind is no longer just when the power will return—but if anyone is truly accountable for the blackout in the first place.
Until then, the darkness lingers—not just in the streets, but in the hearts of the people.
