Happy Birthday Christina. This makes three years in a row that I have been in Nigeria for your birthday.
I have not had power since 7 pm Sunday night. It is now Tuesday at 4:30PM as I was about to walk to the market where I can buy some cold water the power came on. Sunday night the wire that feeds electricity to my house came loose from the cut-out (fuse) over at the pump house. Power was on Sunday night due to the riots and stayed on until after midnight. Then there was power again Monday morning for a few early hours. If the wire had not come loose I would have had two bottles of ice in my frig and about 6 bottles of cold water on Monday and cold water today. By Monday afternoon there was no ice and the water was cooler than the house. The pump house operator fixed my line Monday morning when I told him I had no power. He grabbed the line feeding my house to show me that I should have power and discovered it was not connected. Monday evening the Church generator was on long enough for me to boil one pot of water to fill my Thermos. Today I put a bottle in a pan of water and set it in the breeze coming out of the bath and bedroom area to bring the temperature down a little. Now it is under the ceiling fan. Evaporative cooling. Monday night the Governor ordered a curfew to prevent further riots. Church activities were cancelled. So, the generator stopped early. At about 12:45 this morning as I was tossing in my bed when I saw a flash and heard a loud bang. The power had come on but the lines along the street had shorted out. The people on the other side of the street had lights on. We were dark.
Riots? I just mentioned riots twice and continued to talk about my comfort conditions of wanting a few hours of ceiling fan, refrigerator, computer power, and being able to boil water to drink my tea. The riots here will not make the news compared to the riots further north. Nobody killed, no churches burned, no houses burned. Lots of tires burned at various intersections. Two journalists had reported that Adamawa State had voted for General Mohammad Bahir a former military ruler. When the actual results were announced the General had only take 7 of the over 30 local government areas. His supports went from celebration to protest. Youth from the church came here and took up stations around the church and the compound to help protect the area. The police and army responded and a few shots were fired in the air. The protestors here are not armed. Up north the protestors were armed and killed two policemen including an Inspector. The only count I have heard is that Kano capital had two people killed. I heard it was worst in Kaduna and mostly southern Kaduna which has a high Christian population. The BBC “Africa Have Your Say” program had a lot of people call in to express their opinion. The largest opinion is that the poor education, lack of jobs have created a large amount of poorly educated unemployable youth that can be bought to cause trouble for a few dollars. The leaders in these northern states liked to have a group of thugs like these youth to do their bidding. Some expressed the opinion that there was a culture of IMPUNITY. That they can do whatever they want and the rules only applies to the others. This may partially, come from years of military rulers, years of rigged elections, and years of people doing what they want. The rulers in the northern states are going to have to reduce the money they put in their own pockets and start educating their youth and improving their economy.
Here in Yola the government built a new market. With a 4 lane divided street in front of it. Vendors set up in the street and blocked all but a narrow lane. This was an easy choke point for the protesters to stop traffic on one of the busiest streets in town. On Monday the police made them close down and get off the streets. We heard there was trouble there as we had just turned to drive that way. We made a U-turn and took another route back. That is when the Governor (A retired Admiral) called for the curfew. Tonight it does not start until 8 PM.
Tomorrow will be a long hot day. We are driving to Dingai, the other sight that the CBPHC will have their pilot project. The P in that is Primary not Public. I spent much of my Army career in Public Health I naturally say Public. Community Based Primary Health Care is the correct name. Dingai is about a four hour drive from here. We will go there have meetings with the people and then get back here. Friday and Monday have been declared national holidays for Easter. Tuesday is the last of the three elections. This is for the Governors of most states and for the state legislators. These are real important elections.
Until I was here for a while I did not understand why they had three separate elections. At home we have one big one. But here to make the elections fair and transparent, the people who want to vote arrive in the morning and get accredited. Then they return at noon and all have to stay at the polling station until the voting is over. Then the votes are counted in front of the voters. The voters go home knowing who won in their ward. Eventually, the wards will be combined at the Local Government Authority level (like our county) and then at the State level and finally at the National level for the President. The first election was for the Federal Senate and House. It was test for how it would work for the second week for the President. The first election was delayed a week. The pushed third election into Easter Weekend and then on to Tuesday after Easter.
These elections are important to the people because it directly affects them. If they elect a representative to the State Legislature and that candidate’s party becomes the ruling party they will get more money spent in their ward. If they elect a minority candidate they may not get much. This being the first “free and fair” election that was run by a college professor rather than former military officers the minority parties have a chance. Since, the number of people voting in each ward is known and counted in front of the voters the ballot boxes cannot be pre-stuffed with the ruling party votes.
With every election things get fairer. Four years ago the courts threw out several Governor elections due to massive fraud. That was a first. The courts went against the ruling party. Now they have a cumbersome lengthy but mostly transparent election system. Still a few ballot boxes went missing. But not the massive fraud of the past. With fair elections the elected officials have to be concerned about the electorate to get re-elected. They may not have as much government money going into their own pocket but more to the people. We pray that this is the result.
I just heard an announcement that one of the candidates in Tuesday elections wants everyone to know she has not dropped out of the race. She blames her opponents of starting the rumor.
Got to stop now and make some chicken Ramon like stuff while I have power. Maybe I will have cold powdered milk in the morning the frig has been on for an hour and a half. The water in freezer is down to 70 degrees.
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