Federal Govt Colleges groan under poor power supply

Some of the issues unveiled by the unfortunate incident include the security of the students, teachers and other members of the community; water and electricity supply to schools as well as other vital needs of both students and staff.Daily Trust reports that shortly after the kidnap of the schoolgirls, there were strident outcries about electricity […]

Some of the issues unveiled by the unfortunate incident include the security of the students, teachers and other members of the community; water and electricity supply to schools as well as other vital needs of both students and staff.
Daily Trust reports that shortly after the kidnap of the schoolgirls, there were strident outcries about electricity supply to the school. It was alleged that there was no electricity at the time GGSS Chibok was raided and its generator was not functioning.
Consequent upon this, Daily Trust recently visited some Federal Government Colleges known as unity schools in some states and assessed the level of electricity supply to the institutions.  
Electricity supply to those schools is important not only for security purposes but also in ensuring conducive atmosphere for academic activities as students also read during the night hours before retiring to bed, some of the students said.
In Kano, the two Federal Government Colleges in the state put on their generator sets only for three and half hours at night, thus the students in their thousands spend the remaining part of the night in darkness whenever there is no power supply from the Kano Electricity Distribution Company (KEDCO).
Our correspondent reports that the state houses the Federal Government College (FGC), Kano, along Zaria road and another in Minjibir Local Government Area of the state.
At the FGGC Minjibir, our correspondent gathered that the college has three functional generators but they are only put into use for three and half hours. A staff of the school said the generators are normally put on by 6.30pm daily and that they are switched off by 10pm.
“We rely mainly on our generators because power supply from the PHCN now known as KEDCO is not reliable. So we put them on by 6.30pm and off by 10pm,” he said.
The case is the same at the FGC Kano as they put on their generators by 7pm and put them off by 10pm, which is the light out time of the college.
A senior staff of the college said: “We have four generators but the main one which is 500KVA is bad, so we rely on the three smaller ones to illuminate the school.”
In Katsina State, there are three Federal Colleges namely Federal Government College Daura, Federal Government Girls College, Bakori and the recently established Federal Science and Technical College, Dayi.
Investigation reveals that all the three colleges have functioning generators that are usually switched on to give light from 6pm to 10pm.
A staff at FGC Daura, Abdullahi Tanko told our reporter that the school has two units of generators which supply power between 6.30 pm to 10pm. He said the generators are alternated so that one rests and the other works and vice-versa.
Alhaji  Suleiman Isa Adamu, the Vice Principal Admin at FGGC Bakori said the school is fortunate to be situated in an area where power supply is relatively okay. “At least we get power from the power company for almost 12 hours daily,” he said.
However, when supply from the company goes off, the school starts its generator between 7 to 10 pm for students’ preps.
In Science Technical Dayi, the school solely depends on generators that were put on between 6-10 pm daily, a staff who pleaded anonymity said.
At the Federal Government Girls’ College, Zaria, Kaduna State, investigation by Daily Trust among students and staff showed that the school is relatively better off than many parts of Zaria in terms of electricity supply from the national grid.
It was gathered that the school receives at least 14 hours of electricity supply daily from the national grid unlike other parts of Zaria that spend days without light.
An SS II student of the college told Daily Trust that during the day time, have light as the fans in their classrooms work.
“In the night, we usually have light up to 10 pm, which is our time for light-out. Sometimes it is not that the light-out comes because of light failure but because that is the official time that every student must go to bed. Honestly speaking, in terms of electricity supply, we are relatively okay,” the student said.
However, the principal of the college, Hajiya Fatima Jiddum, said the light supply in the college was not achieved on a platter of gold.
“It was part of our efforts since the time we assumed office. We wrote severally to the Kaduna Distribution Company pleading for their intervention in our electricity predicament in the college, especially with the rise of security challenges in this part of the country. At the end of the day, we were lucky that the company reasoned with us and on compassionate ground they linked us with a dedicated line.
“They installed a 33KVA transformer that was linked with this dedicated line, and this is why we have 24 hours light in this college. In Zaria, I think it is only Nigerian College of Aviation Technology and Ahmadu Bello University that are linked with this dedicated line,” Hajiya Jiddum said.
She also explained that the school has three standby generators that complement the public electricity anytime there is failure on the national grid, saying that the school gets fund for maintenance and fuel of the generators from its annual budget.
“Every year we budget about N2 million for the purpose of maintenance and fuelling, and we used to get that from the Federal Government,” Hajiya Jiddum also said.