Struggling As A Creative In Nigeria

Shooting a documentary in Enugu State Nigeria

It's around 12 noon, Monday May 9th.

I have a 6 hour deadline for something that could take about 12 hours to complete. I am doing some post production work on a high stake video documentary. It should be no problem. I have the required knowledge, skills and experience in cinematography, filmmaking, and photography. But I live in Nigeria, and this is a snapshot of what a typical Nigeria professional has to contend with:

Currently there is no electricity supply in my home office. There has been no light since 3.00 am. The battery meter on my laptop reads about 24%. I live in a serviced apartment. The agreement with the facility management was that for paying a large sum of money as service charge, I would be guaranteed near constant light.

However, the crazy rise in the price of diesel has forced the management to limit generator power supply to only 5 hours a day, with priority given to the night time. With the poor level of electricity supply in the country at the moment, I don't need to tell you how bad it has been.

So what do I do? What are my options? I don't have a generator at home. It was never needed from the outset based on the services we signed up for. Unfortunately also I have not been able to invest in an inverter system yet. Mind you getting an inverter system is not the same as buying a crate of eggs. You know what I mean? Expensive.

Option 2, go to my studio. There should be light there. I call my staff. Sir there has not been light since morning. In the not too recent past, I would have gone to the studio and put on the 7.5kva generator which I have had there for over 4 years. But alas, just last week, it was stolen, evaporated into thin Nigerian air. By the way even if I still had the generator, just yesterday, fuel became scarce again.

So a truck load of work before me, a 6 hour deadline, low battery on my laptop, no light at home because the price of diesel is crazy, no light at the studio because my generator is no more, no light in Abuja because we are being ruled by a bunch of amazingly incompetent Nigerian leaders and scarcely anywhere to go to be able to work non-stop till 6pm because I usually just work from home or my studio.

Any other option I consider is sure to take a large chunk of money and more importantly, time, the loss of which is even more consequential - drive around town to scout for a co-working office with available space and power supply; buy diesel and fuel the central gen (time consuming). Buy an inverter (expensive, not half a days job); and so on.

This is the typical work-life scenario for most self-employed, independent professionals in Nigeria today. I can even consider getting an inverter, or buying diesel etc. So many others can not. This is Nigeria - a society currently set up to stifle your productivity, frustrate your creativity, suck up your energy and steal your potential for greatness.

Still wondering why citizens want to relocate?

Have a great day guys!!!