Oju ti NEPA: Nigerians battle electricity outage with ingenious local device

INDIGENOUS light device: Oju ti NEPA

The body that is responsible for providing electricity in Nigeria, the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, formerly called National Electric Power Authority, was better known as Never Expect Power Always because of its poor performance. When NEPA was changed to PHCN, Nigerians still found humour in the new label and changed its name to Please Hold Candle at Night!

From the use of kerosene lanterns, Nigerians have graduated to the use of rechargeable lamps – made in Asia products that use fluorescent bulbs to illuminate the environment. Asian manufacturers, seeing its popularity, evolved the product for multiple uses and today, some of the rechargeable lamps which are imported into Nigeria are fitted with radio, cassette player and even fan. 

The popularity of the rechargeable lamp has largely waned. In most Nigerian cities today, the generator is a basic prop that is visible in residential homes, offices and even public gathering. Most Nigerians know better than to embark on any programme without this invaluable device.

However, a lower class level of Nigerians who can neither afford a generator nor maintain one regularly might have found solace in a contraption called Oju ti NEPA (shame on NEPA). The device, is made from a blank compact disc attached to a wooden contraption into which tiny holes have been driven and a metal thread run through. The metal thread has a ring of tiny, low intensity light-emitting bulbs arranged along the edge of the CD. The wired bulbs are connected to two D batteries which are kept in a small wooden rectangular box that supports the entire contraption. The device is operated by a simple on or off switch. When switched on, it give off a measure of illumination in a dark room; indeed it puts PHCN (or NEPA)‘s monopoly to shame.

The device costs between N50 and N100 while two sets of batteries, worth N50 each is needed to power the device. Oju ti NEPA can run for as long as the battery works. This simple device, according to the vendors (mainly traders from Northern Nigeria), is fairly popular and when it is lit at night, it not only illuminates their wares, it also attract customers. Some of those who buy the wares are also petty traders who cannot afford to buy generators to illuminate their goods at night.

A trader in Agege, Iya Basira, said she is very happy with the device as, to an extent, it is cheaper than rechargeable lamp, safer and cheaper than lanterns, more desirable and more comfortable than other locally made lamps.

The device is exciting in some aspects. It shows some ingenuity on the part of Nigerians, and the willingness to overcome a prolonged and seemingly intractable problem with basic inventions. It is sold at night markets where two or three of the device are turned on to illuminate the rest of the wares. When prodded,the vendors refused to disclose their source of supply. Oju ti NEPA is not the first Nigerian invention made to beat PHCN‘s inefficiency. Another Nigerian, Mohammed Bah Abbah, invented a refrigerating device that doesn‘t make use of electricity by using a simple law of physics: Heat of Evaporation. 

Abbah, 37, who hails from a family of pot makers in the northern part of Nigeria, is a local teacher. His invention is simple: a small earthenware pot is placed inside a large one. The space between the two pots is then filled with moist sand. Food items such as fruits, vegetables, soft drinks, etc to be preserved are then placed in the inner smaller pot and a wet cloth is used to cover everything. As the water in the moist sand evaporates through the larger pot, it carries heat away from the inner core of the whole contraption.

Tomatoes, pepper and similar perishable food items stored in this device last for up to three weeks while egg plants that normally doesn‘t keep for more than three days can last for 27 days.

The scientific explanation for the success of the mechanism is that every liquid requires some energy to evaporate. This energy, in form of heat, is taken from the surface on which the liquid is in contact. The more rapid the rate of evaporation, the faster the rate at which heat is extracted or drawn from the surface. In the northern part of Nigeria where it is hotter, the rate of evaporation is even more rapid.

This is the principle applied in modern electricity-powered fridges with the compressor pump circulating a volatile liquid through the pipes run round the refrigerator.

Abbah‘s invention is a clever application of this principle, and for it, he was a recipient of the Rolex Award for Enterprise. He got $75,000 cash award which he was supposed to use to make the invention available throughout Nigeria. He was listed by TIMES Magazine as one of the inventors of 2001.

But if Abbah got an international award for his efforts, the inventor of Oju ti NEPA might not be so well appreciated. An Introductory Technology teacher in a private school in Abuja, Mr. Oladipupo Ademola, scoffs at the idea that it marks the beginning of technological invention in Nigeria. The technology, he says, is a simple and most basic one, similar to what is used to make torchlight and is taught to their pupils as early as JSS1 and practical work conducted by JSS3. The idea is not even as advanced as the one used to make rechargeable lamp.

”There is no big deal about it. In fact, the ones our students make are not even as crude as the one called Oju ti NEPA. Anyone can do it. Batteries have chemicals within and the two charged ends – positive and negative – are known as cathode and anode. The transfer of ions from one end to another is electrical in nature. The wire connection only puts the bulb in the path of transfer of ions which then lights up. It can connect as many bulbs as possible, based on the strength of the battery. I have seen the Oju ti NEPA thing and I think that my pupils can do the same. It is no big deal. It is basic,” he said.

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