Hassan is my building’s trusted “know-it-all.” Probably best defined as the property manager of my compound, he is the go to person with all our problems. And last night, I had to go and find him at 2:29am.

Not sure you have been able to decipher from my many blog post that Nigeria has a problem (or wahala) with electricity.  Nigeria’s Minister of Power; Works and Housing blames the problem on “inadequate electricity supply to consumers on lack of sufficient financial investments in the power sector.” That’s a nice way saying Nigeria has not updated its power grid. So as the population boomed, the supply of electricity stayed the same. This is why at 2:29am, I am up talking with Hassan.

It is important to note that unlike the more than 75 percent of this country, I live on a compound that has two generators, so when the power goes out, I can go look for Hassan to solve the problem. The currently problem is the inability of three apartments to receive power when the large generator is on. The solution is to run the small generator until 8am when the problem can be fixed. This is just another day living on the grid in Nigeria. It feels very much like we live off the grid in Africa’s most populous country.