Residents of Mika Sabon-Gida community in Yorro Local Government Area of Taraba State, Nigeria, are appealing for urgent intervention after a prolonged electricity blackout left the community without power for more than four months.
The outage, reportedly caused by a faulty transformer, has disrupted businesses, weakened economic activity and forced some young residents to relocate in search of better opportunities.
Community leaders have called on the Taraba State Government, Yola Electricity Distribution Company (YEDC), elected representatives, philanthropists and other stakeholders to urgently replace the damaged transformer and restore electricity.
Jauro Baki, a community leader, said residents could no longer cope with the hardship caused by the prolonged blackout. He appealed to authorities and well-meaning individuals to intervene and ensure that electricity is restored.
Residents say the impact has been particularly severe on small businesses, artisans and other operators whose livelihoods depend heavily on electricity. Some businesses have reportedly closed, while others are operating at significantly reduced capacity because of the high cost of alternative power sources.
Andrew Helikiah, a resident, said the prolonged outage had contributed to the departure of several young people from the community because they could no longer sustain their businesses.
Alhaji Babangida Aliyu Mika Mika, a community representative and former Special Adviser to the Executive Chairman of Yorro Local Government Area, described the situation as increasingly unbearable.
He said the faulty transformer serves Mika Sabon-Gida and is also important to electricity connections serving surrounding communities around Yorro and Zing Local Government Areas.
“Our businesses are dying, and the economic growth of our people has been completely undermined,” Mika said, calling for the immediate provision of a replacement transformer.
Families have also been affected, with residents saying they have been forced to rely on generators and other alternative sources of electricity that are becoming increasingly expensive.
The community believes restoring electricity would help revive local businesses, improve household welfare and support economic activity across communities along the Yorro-Zing axis.
Meanwhile, a senior YEDC officer in Taraba, who spoke anonymously, confirmed that the company was aware of the situation and had begun plans to replace the faulty transformer.
According to the officer, YEDC is working to restore electricity to Mika Sabon-Gida and surrounding communities, although he directed further enquiries to the company’s headquarters in Yola, Adamawa State.
The development has renewed concerns about the impact of prolonged power shortages on rural communities, where small businesses and household livelihoods often depend on reliable electricity.
Residents are now waiting for the promised intervention, urging authorities to act quickly and end what they described as an unacceptable four-month period in darkness.
