For residents of Tunga, a densely populated community in Dorayi, within Gwale Local Government Area of Kano State, electricity has become a distant memory.
For more than four years, the area has remained in darkness after its only transformer failed due to overload.
Despite repeated assurances and government interventions to improve electricity supply across the state, residents say Tunga has been left behind.
Venting her frustration, a resident and mother, Habiba Aliyu, said the prolonged blackout has had a disturbing effect on children in the community, particularly those under the age of five.
According to her, “many of the children, who were born after the transformer stopped working, now panic whenever they suddenly see electric light from nearby areas that still enjoy supply.”
She explained that the flashes of light from neighbouring communities, especially at night, often scare the children because they are unfamiliar with electricity in their own homes.
“Whenever they see electricity, or they see the fan working, they become scared. At times, they even start to cry because they feel like it will fall on them.”
Beyond the psychological impact on children, residents say the blackout has also disrupted livelihoods and basic services.
Another resident, Amina Sa’idu, said water scarcity has become one of the most severe consequences of the power outage.
She explained that most households now rely on well water because water vendors, who previously supplied the area, can no longer pump water without electricity.
The situation, she said, has made daily life more difficult, especially for women and children who now spend more time searching for water.
“There’s no water now because of this, so we depend on well water, which sometimes leads to cholera. My kids see the fan as a decoration, and they do not know electricity.”
Security has also deteriorated in the community.
The local vigilante commander, Nasiru Adamu Aliyu, told Nigeria Info that darkness has made the area increasingly vulnerable to crime, as unlit streets now provide cover for criminals, especially at night.
According to him, “patrols have become more challenging, while residents are often afraid to move around after sunset.”
Communities in Darkness
Tunga’s situation reflects the broader electricity crisis in Nigeria.
According to the Rural Electrification Agency (REA), about 15,000 communities across the country are either without electricity or are poorly served.
For a population of about 220 million people, Nigeria requires between 30,000 and 50,000 megawatts of electricity to meet demand. However, the national grid currently supplies only between 4,000 and 5,800 megawatts daily.
In Kano State, which has an estimated population of about 20 million people, electricity demand exceeds 600 megawatts. Yet, the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) says the state receives only between 270 and 300 megawatts from the national grid.
Further investigation shows that, despite the inadequate supply to residents, about 50 megawatts of electricity are still transmitted to the neighbouring Niger Republic. This leaves Kano with roughly 220 to 250 megawatts for domestic and commercial use.
The situation is even worse in underserved communities such as Tunga, where residents have been cut off entirely due to the lack of functional electricity infrastructure.
In an attempt to address electricity shortages across the state, Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf, in July 2025, distributed 500 transformers to communities across Kano.
However, while many of the donated transformers have since been installed in other areas, residents of Tunga say their community is yet to receive or install its own, according to Muhammad Adamu, a leader in the community.
Adamu further expressed frustration, saying, “It's very shameful that they gave us a transformer, but they haven’t brought it to the community.
We had repeatedly visited relevant offices and contacted officials without success.”
Zakari Idris Tunga, chairman of the Tunga Old Transformer Committee, said several follow-ups with relevant stakeholders within the electricity sector have not yielded any positive results.
According to him, “the community has written letters, held meetings, and reached out to both government agencies and electricity distribution officials, but no concrete action has followed.”
He noted that “residents are particularly disappointed because Tunga was among the communities listed to benefit from the state government’s transformer distribution exercise.”
Also speaking, the Ward Head of Tunga, Lawan Inuwa, appealed to the Kano State Government and other relevant agencies to urgently intervene.
He said, “The prolonged blackout has deepened hardship in the community and called on authorities to treat the matter as an emergency.”
Repeated attempts by this reporter to reach the Managing Director of the Kano State Rural Electricity Board were unsuccessful. Officials at the office said he was not on seat.
However, the Senior Manager for Communications at the Kano Electricity Distribution Company (KEDCO), Dan-Muhammadu Ismaila, said “the community had not filed an official complaint with the company.”
He added that KEDCO would inspect the situation in Tunga and take appropriate steps to “either repair or upgrade the faulty transformer once the matter is formally reported.”
At the federal level, the Rural Electrification Agency says it plans to provide electricity access to about “17.5 million Nigerians through various rural electrification projects.”
The Managing Director of the agency, Dr Abba Abubakar Aliyu, recently said more than “900 mini-grids have already been deployed nationwide, while over 50 interconnected mini-grids are currently under development to add more than 200 megawatts to the national electricity supply.”
For residents of Tunga, however, these national targets offer little comfort.
They say the continued delay in restoring electricity is more than an inconvenience. It represents a failure of governance at the most basic level.
Until the promised transformer is delivered and installed, homes, schools, and small businesses in Tunga will remain in darkness - a stark reminder of the gap between official policies and the everyday realities of ordinary Nigerians.
