</a>Some residents of Maiduguri on New Year’s Day appealed to the Federal Government to re-connect power supply to the city, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.
NAN recalls that electricity supply was cut in June, 2014, after a suspected insurgents attack on a power station in Damboa, headquarters of Damboa Local Government Area.
A cross section of residents interviewed by NAN in Maiduguri, expressed reservation over the delay by the government in restoring power supply to the city.
Alhaji Mohammed Zarami, a businessman, said that the lack of electricity in the city had caused severe damages to social and economic life of citizens.
“It is sad that we have had to stay for this long without electricity supply in Maiduguri.
“It is even more sad with the current improvement in power supply in the country where some states enjoy uninterrupted supply for days,” Zarami said.
He said that the situation had forced some residents to rely on power generating sets for power supply.
“Most residents depend on power generating sets for power supply daily, but those who cannot afford the high cost of maintaining the sets end up sleeping in darkness,” Zarami said.
Alhaji Bukar Bulama, an artisan, who spoke in the same vein, said that the situation had forced many artisans to look for something else to do for their survival.
“The prolonged power cut has negatively affected the economy of the state.
“Many artisans have been forced out of business as they cannot afford to power their system daily.
“Buying petrol or diesel to run power generating sets for business on daily basis is not an easy thing.
“Many artisans have either shut their shops or joined other businesses to survive,” he said.
Mr John Marie, a provision seller, said that the prolonged power outage had almost forced him out of business.
“ We are appealing to the government to reconnect the power supply to the state because the situation has almost crippled our businesses.
“We have to fuel our power generating set as well as buy ice blocks on daily basis to sell our soft drinks.
“ We hardly break even, sometimes we record losses at the end of the day’s business.”
NAN recalls that Alhaji Mohammed Wakil, the Minister of State for Power, had repeatedly promised that the Federal Government would restore electricity supply to the city.
(NAN)
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