In Bayelsa, solar powered street lights have become a source of relief and safety to residents of Yenagoa, the state capital. This new development has also brought respite to various communities in the Eight local government areas.
Unlike in the past, where mounted solar street lights have become obsolete and a relic of failure of past administrations, however the only difference is they are back and working this time around, providing light to residents and night life business owners.
Despite the possible high cost of procurement and installation of solar powered lights, some residents have said the price paid for solar lights cannot be compared to the number of deaths, damages, crime and injuries inflicted on innocent residents by hoodlums in the past years under the cover of darkness.
On the 10th of November, 2018, suspected cultists, under the cover of darkness, killed a teenager in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, in a bid to snatch her mobile phone. The 16-year-old girl, Siefa Fred, a 100 level student of the state-owned Niger Delta University (NDU) was shot dead while running an errand for her mother.
Like late Seifa, many other heinous crimes are committed in the state capital in the past few years due to lack of light.
For most Bayelsans, there is a simple and direct relationship between lighting and crime prevention. Some are of the opinion that since most parts of Yenagoa, including rural communities are illuminated with solar powered street lights, crime and criminality have reduced to it’s barest minimum.
While the State Government under Governor Douye Diri, seems to have taken a cue to lighting up the streets of the state capital and every of his administration’s new project sites with solar powered lights, politicians including members of the State and National Assemblies have adopted provision of solar powered lights as constituency projects. But one individual under the Mike Olomu Foundation has provided over 22 communities in Sagbama/Ekeremor areas with solar powered light under the NDDC/MBO partnership.
For any visitors to the state capital in the past years, the popular Etegwe/Tombia roundabout, Mbiama/Yenagoa road, Sanni Abacha express road, Azikoro/Ekeki area and others are now lightened up. Even the Popular Secretariat of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) is enjoying the solar powered light provided under the leadership of the state chairman, Comrade Samuel Numonengi. Yenagoa is no longer the ‘forest’ capital.
A resident, Emeka Ojuogu, commended the state government and individuals involved in provision of the solar powered light, stating, “Before now, some wicked politicians described the state as a ‘forest’ capital because it is always dark and due to poor epileptic power supply. But now, there seems to be no street without powered street lights.”
