…While women in Kano protest rising cost of flour affected the Gurasa making and market; food not sex…
…We lack romance with our husbands’, ‘Our husbands no longer touch us at night’, No light no payment’, ‘The heat is too much,’ ‘PHED help us to sleep well with our husbands – Ladies in Rivers
Some married women in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, staged a peaceful protest on Tuesday against the prolonged power outage in some parts of the state capital, prompting their husbands to avoid having romance with them at night due to the unbearable heat.
In Kano it was protest for food not sex as Bakers of local bread, popularly known as ‘Gurasa’ in Hausa parlance, in their numbers have staged a protest against rising price of flour in Kano state. The protesters, mostly women, staged the protest at Chediyar Yangurasa, in Local Government area on Friday morning.
The Rivers protest is coming days after the Minister of Power, Bayo Adelabu, held a meeting with electricity generation and distribution companies to proffer solutions to the lingering power problems in the country.
The women from the Mile 2 and Mile 3 axis of Diobu, Port Harcourt barricaded the PHED office near the Isaac Boro Park in Port Harcourt, carrying placards with various inscriptions marched through major streets in Diobu, including Wokoma, Dim, Wokoma lane, Obaziolu, Dim lane, Egbuagu, Azikiwe, and Ojoto Streets before heading to the PHED office to register their anger.
Some of the inscriptions on the placards carried by the Rivers women read: “We lack romance with our husbands’, ‘Our husbands no longer touch us at night’, No light no payment’, ‘The heat is too much,’ ‘PHED help us to sleep well with our husbands’, among others.
They expressed dismay that they pay light bills monthly without a corresponding power supply, particularly in Dim, Wokama, Azikiwe, and Ojoto streets .
The protesting women promised to re-mobilise and come for another round of peaceful protest if the condition did not improve.
According to them “This lack of light (electricity) is making our soup sour. Even when our husbands want to make love to us, the heat will not allow it. We can’t even charge our phones and preserve our food. We are worried.”
Another protester who gave her name as Nene, said “This protest is for PHED to give us light. We are paying bills but not seeing the light. Our pot of soup getting bad, and even having sex with our husbands is a problem because of heat.
“Last night, my husband wanted to have fun with me but the heat was too much, and I could not. We could not do anything. So PHED should give us light or else we will not pay the bill for this month.”
Livingstone Koko, the Public Relations Officer with the PEHD, said the current power situation was beyond the control of the company, saying it is a value chain issue.
“It is a value chain constraint. It is beyond our control. However, we also share their sentiments and try to let them know that we are working with other players in the industry to ensure that supply is being restored.
“It is nothing short of what is being experienced around the country. So we are aware of the challenge and we apologize and ask them to bear with us,” Koko said.