Power Outage Cripples Academic Activities in Nigeria’s Gombe University

Amid the sweltering condition of Gombe state, Federal University Kashere (FUK) students grapple with a dire electricity shortage. The poor electricity supply, mostly blamed on a national grid issue, has affected the students and the staff, with many relying on expensive charging centres to power their devices. 

The students registered their grievances and lamented that this terrible situation has affected their academic activities. Emmanuella Onyekwere, a 200-level student, condemned the lack of sufficient electricity on the campus but commended the school management’s efforts to provide some relief through generator-powered electricity in the hostels.

“We’re not coping very well with the situation,” Emmanuella said. “Students have no electricity to pump water and charge their phones when the weather is hot. We appreciate the school giving us two hours of light at the hostel by switching on the generator daily.”

The constant power outage in the school is eating deep into the students’ pockets. Philip Hampson, a student on the campus complained that the blackout condition is both frustrating and devastating. He noted that he pays heavily for charging his gadgets, and sometimes pays for ironing his clothes. 

For Abbaas Abdul-Qadir, early resumption caused more pain than good; he spent up to ₦3000 in less than 15 days to charge his phone, laptop and power bank. Abbas praised the school management for providing solar panels for electricity supply in many departments and faculties of the university.

While power outage is a curse for students and staff of FUK, some other people see a business opportunity in their plight. Nurudeen Salisu is one such person. He told Campus Reporter that they charge Android phones, power banks and laptops for ₦100, ₦200, and ₦300 respectively.

Although many students we interviewed considered these charges highly exorbitant, Nurudeen claimed the charges could have been higher if authorities in the school had not subsidised the prices in many ways, including reducing the cost of shop rent on the campus.

Responding to questions from campus journalists in May,  Auwal Ibrahim, an electrical officer in FUK’s Department of Electrical Engineering, admitted that poor electricity supply is affecting the students’ education.

“It does not only affect their education but also their pockets,” he said. “At least you know even the charging fee has increased; apart from the demand for charging, there is also the increase of fuel prices which affects not only the students but also the staff. That is beyond the university’s control.” 

He urged the students to be more patient, noting that they are now working on generating electricity from internally in Gombe state, but that will take more time than the student would imagine, he said.

The students, management, and owner of charging centres on the campus blamed the federal government and the Jos Electricity Distribution (JED) for the poor power supply.  A few students blamed agents in charging centres for deliberately hiking prices despite the benefits they get from the school authority to bring down the costs.

Earlier this year, electric towers collapsed affecting Gombe, Damaturu, Maiduguri, Bauchi, Yola and Jalingo states. Then, the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), in a press release, stated that its contractors were working on erecting new transmission towers along the Jos-Gombe axis, to enable the restoration of power supply in northeastern Nigeria.

However, the students urged the university to negotiate with charging centre operators to reduce prices to support students and staff in the school.

This story was funded by the Campus Reporter project of the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID) and written by 8 students of the Federal University of Kashere after Campus Reporter’s 41st campus journalism clinic held in their institution:

1. Sani Abdullahi Kontongs
2. Mus’ab Ibrahim
3. Abdulhameed Aisha Liman
4. Abigail Onyeche Ameh
5. Israel Clement
6. Musa Muhammad
7. Faisal Dahiru
8. Chukwudi Chinweotito