The official Twitter handle of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, Eko Distribution Zone, @PHCNEkoZone has only been active for 24 hours since it was created.
An investigation by our correspondent showed that the company’s Twitter account, which was opened on November 3, 2010, became dormant the day after.
Before then, the company had tweeted only one message announcing that it could be followed on Twitter. “We are now on Twitter,” it said.
Nothing has been posted on the handle, which boasts a following of about 73 people, ever since that time.
Another handle credited to the PHCN on the social service, @PHCNnigeria, which was opened on April 10, 2011, was active for two days. Afterwards, it became dormant.
When some Nigerians from various geopolitical zones took to the social media on Friday and Saturday to lament what they called a “near total blackout” in the country, they were disappointed when their tweets to the PHCN account were not replied.
Apparently, the PHCN authorities did not deem it fit to engage the citizenry via its social media channels. But it did not deter the people from starting a buzz around the subjects on a popular online forum known asnairaland.com, with the title: “Nationwide blackout? 24 hours and counting”.
Thus, the two words, “#phcn” and “nepa”, went trending on the social media just as a member of the forum with the name, Digigamage, who resides in Abuja, opened a discussion on the subject at about 6.31am on Saturday.
Digigamage said he decided to open the thread when his friends in Kano, Port-Harcourt and Jos, with whom he had a conversation on telephone, complained of experiencing an unusual power outage in their various areas.
He said, “I stay in Abuja and for the past 24 hours, there has been no power supply. The soup wey I cook wonspoil. I called three friends in Kano, Port-Harcourt and Jos, respectively and they reported the same situation. Is this really happening nationwide?”
No sooner had he posted the comments than the forum was bombarded with similar complaints.
On sighting the thread, a resident of Lagos, called Ochuka, said he had been powering his generators for two days before he heard the news that it was not the usual outage.
“No light here in my part of Lasgidi. Thought it was the usual outage. I have been burning fuel since Thursday evening. Word from the grapevine says it’s a system collapse,” he said.
A resident of Enugu, Nora Jones, reported the same situation on the forum, adding that she had depended on her “I beta pass my neighbour” referring to a 1.5kv generator, for a while.
“Here in Enugu, we haven’t had electricity since Wednesday evening. It was restored at about 6.30 am on Saturday and an hour later, we were back to square one. Na I-pass-my neighbour levels we all dey o,” she said.
Another member of the forum, who lives in Calabar and is known as Skinny, said on Saturday that the power situation was biting hard, as public water supply to his area had been affected
“No light at Calabar for a while now and what makes it worse is that there is no water as well. It is like the water board is dependent on PHCN. This makes it look like a living hell,” he said.
Some affected electricity consumers tweeted messages to the Twitter handle of the Special Assistant to the President on New Media, Reno Omokri, to register their complaints. Later, they heaved a sigh of relief after power was restored on Saturday to many parts of the country where power outage had hitherto been reported.
Many of the consumers went back to the social media shouting “Up NEPA.”
Also, a Nigerian with the name Babajide Fadoju, who had earlier tweeted a message to Omokri; Presidential Adviser on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, and Presidential Assistant on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, said his 79-year-old grandmother shouted “Up NEPA” at 3.45am when power was restored.
Explaining the power situation in his area, he tweeted, “You know it has gone terribly bad when my old grandma screams ‘Up NEPA’ at 3.45 am and shouts ‘go and pump water.’”
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