You could hear her shrill cry from
meters away. The sound of her tender heart pounding in desperate search
for relief draws pity and utmost sympathy. Like the many that walked
past that morning, watching her wriggle in discomfort, the milk from her
mother’s full breast could do only little to assuage the agony of
eight-month-old Bolatito Adeoti whose cry grew louder as the rashes all
over her body itched bitterly.
The daughter of a commercial bus driver
and a mother who trades in petty items, the arrival of the little girl
into the family in September 2015 came with a lot of excitement. Tito,
as her parents fondly called her, was likened to a princess who would
soon take the world by storm as a result of her beautiful face and soft,
flawless skin. For these attributes, many mistook her for the child of a
wealthy man.
But fast-forward eight months later,
Bolatito’s radiant face and unblemished skin has given way to a stream
of rashes that have taken over most parts of her body. The rash, a
direct consequence of the heat wave sweeping across most parts of the
country today, has left the little girl battling sleepless nights and
days of restlessness. It has been a few weeks of frustration and
discomfort for the little girl.
“My daughter has hardly slept well over the last three weeks,” Bisi, her 29-year-old mother, told us.
Days of keeping close watch over her little baby appear to have taken
toll on her. “Since the heat became intense, there is no night that my
husband and I don’t wake up at least three times to use water and towel
to mob her body,” she added. “She would cry intensely and refuse to
sleep again even if I give her breast to suck. Her entire body has been
covered with heat rashes which makes her to feel uncomfortable most of
the time especially when it starts to itch her. As a result of this
problem, I only wear her pants when we are at home because putting
clothes on her would compound the problem. I am really worried, I wish
there was something I could do to help her situation, seeing her in
pains breaks my heart,” the young mother said, fighting back tears.
Sleepless nights
Like the Adeotis, many parents have had
to cut short their sleep at night these days to help their little
children find considerable comfort. Apart from using towel and clothe
pieces dipped into water to mob their bodies, a lot of parents wake
several times during the night to pour water on their children’s bodies
for them to at least find sleep. For many in this unenviable category,
it has been a very tough period.
Mrs. Mercy John, a 32-year-old bank
cleaner, is one parent who is feeling the fangs of the new
responsibility the prevailing weather condition appears to have dropped
on her shoulders. Working several hours a day, John hardly gets enough
rest these days, waking to bathe and attend to her children many times
during the night.
“My one-and-half-year-old daughter,
Regina, has been purging for several days now as a result of the heat,”
she said. “I have to be awake several times every night to bathe for her
and her brothers for them to be able to sleep. It’s a lot of task for
me considering the number of hours I spend at work. Most times when I
even get to work, I feel very weak and sleepy because of the stress I am
passing through. The heat is really causing us problem, it is affecting
our lives in a very serious manner,” she said.
Families adopt new tactics
For Mrs. Adebola Ayinla, a fashion
designer, the last few weeks could be described as not only hellish but
days filled with plenty of frustration and pains.
The 40-year-old, who lives with her family in the Ibafo area of Ogun State, told Saturday PUNCH
that most of what she and her husband earn these days goes into buying
dustin powder, hand fans and even drugs for their young children who
constantly develop all sorts of health conditions, especially stomach
ache as a result of the heat.
Ayinla said apart from not wiping their
bodies after bathing, her family no longer eat hot meals these days as
doing that, she believes, would compound their situation.
“We don’t eat hot foods any longer in
the house just to avoid feeling hot inside our bodies,” she said. “Even
when we bathe, we don’t wipe our bodies, we allow the water to dry on
our skin. This is one part of the ways the entire family is coping with
the hot weather in the country.
“In fact even customers who bring
clothes for me to make for them instruct that they do not want thick
linings while some even ask me not to put lining at all because of the
heat.
“It has been a very terrible season for
us as a family because there is no power supply and even petrol to put
on the generator. If you get inside our flat, you’ll find nothing less
than eight hand fans. The heat has really been dealing with us
mercilessly,” she said.
Multiple tragedy
A ferocious heat wave sweeping across
the country has made smooth night’s rest almost impossible in many parts
of Nigeria in recent weeks, leaving millions of households and
individuals highly frustrated in the process.
According to medicinenet.com, a
health website, heat rash, one of the consequences of such unfriendly
weather, occurs when the skin’s sweat glands are blocked and the sweat
produced cannot get to the surface of the skin to evaporate. This,
according to the website, causes inflammation which results in a rash.
It often leads to discomfort and itching and is most common in babies
but may affect adults in hot, humid climates as well.
The effects of the hot weather on many
Nigerians have been further compounded by the epileptic power supply and
scarcity of petrol in the country over the past weeks. For example, on
Thursday, March 31, 2016, Nigeria’s power generation completely
crumbled, plummeting to a record low of zero megawatts at exactly
12.58pm. Over the next three hours, no part of the country was fed from
the national grid – a situation experts blame on the destruction of
infrastructure lining especially gas pipelines as well as the poor
upgrade of power installations across the federation.
Even though, the power stations have
slowly throttled back to life, electricity supply remains poor in many
parts of the country, leaving many households at the mercy of the
scotching heat. The ongoing scarcity of petrol, an essential commodity,
across the country over the last few weeks, has made running generators
suddenly become a luxury for many homes. A litre of fuel, which sells
for N86.5, now goes for as much as N300 for same quantity where it is
available.
Survival at all cost
A a result many homes now find it
extremely difficult to pump water into their storage tanks, thus
contending with the heat for the most part of the day and even night. To
surmount the challenge, individuals and families now adopt different
ways to brace the ‘storm’. For example, apart from spending so much on
purchasing dustin powder, hand fans, a lot of persons now sleep in open
places overnight like balconies, verandas, top of uncompleted buildings
and even passage ways in populated compounds. It has been a very
frustrating period for many nursing mothers.
“That is the second dustin powder I am
buying for my children in less than one month,” Mrs. Kadijat Aremu, a
mother of three said while pointing to a corner of her tiny shop in the
Ojota area of Lagos earlier in the week when one of our correspondents
came across her. “It is always inside my bag because even during the day
time when I am at the shop, I rub it on my baby and even myself. The
heat has destroyed the body of my children. I cannot remember how many
times we bathe in a day just to escape the heat. I have never seen this
type of weather before in my life,” she said, before reaching for a
plastic hand fan with which she blew her son, one-year-old Khalid.
In search of ‘Cool breeze’
But the latest heat wave to hit the
country has not only caused children sleepless nights, it has equally
unsettled adults as well. Besides spending substantial amounts of money
on the purchase of items such as dustin powder, hand fans, many adults
and families now boast of rechargeable fans, mosquito nets and even mats
to sleep in the open. In fact some people, as part of ways to sleep
peacefully at night, now leave their doors open till morning after
locking their nets.
“I have been sleeping with my door open
over the last two weeks,” Vincent Adoge, a young bachelor who resides in
the Diobu area of Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, told one of
our correspondents during a telephone conversation. “All I do is just to
lock the net and stay near the entrance so that breeze can touch me.
But this does not mean that I do not pour water on my body at least two
times before morning.
“The heat has got to a level where many
people would in fact start sleeping without putting anything on. When I
go outside, I am ashamed to expose my body because of the heat rashes
all over me. I have at least two hand fans in my room and have also
bought dustin powder recently just to combat the heat. It is a very
serious problem as far as I am concerned,” he said.
Mr. Bakare Genti, 59, has ditched shirts
and trousers in favour of tying towels and wearing shorts around his
house and neighbourhood these days as a result of the hot weather.
The house-owner, who could not hide his
frustration while speaking with one of our correspondents in Ogun State
recently, revealed that he has also stopped rubbing cream on his body
because of the prevailing heat.
“I don’t rub cream on my body anymore
because of the heat,” he said. “Except I have somewhere important to go,
all you’ll catch on me is just a towel around my waist or sometimes a
pair of shorts for air to touch my body very well.
“The weather has been very hot and now
that there is hardly power supply or fuel to run the generator, the
suffering has really increased. Even as an adult, I am really feeling
the pain,” he said.
Rechargeable and hand fan to the rescue
While the heat wave has left many
households grumbling and lamenting bitterly, it interestingly has seen
to the emergence of new products and businesses. For example, hand fans,
dustin powder, mats and treated mosquito nets have become huge
favourites across many homes today, leaving traders in the items
laughing all the way to the bank. This is aside rechargeable fans of all
kinds now flooding the market. The fans with different features such as
water cooling, start from as low as N2000 to as high as N40, 000. It is
one of the hottest selling items in many markets across Nigeria today.
“I had to plead with my husband for us
to buy the rechargeable fan sold for N18, 000 when the heat became
unbearable,” Kelechi Anubo, a resident of Awka in Anambra State told one
of our correspondents during a telephone chat. “Since we bought the
fan, it has really helped a lot at least the children can sleep
peacefully. But it has been quite tough charging it these days as a
result of the electricity and petrol situation. Otherwise, it has been
very useful,” she said.
Mr. Kingsley Aniekwe, a trader inside a popular shopping complex in the Oshodi area of Lagos told Saturday PUNCH that he has sold more than 20 pieces of different brands of rechargeable fans over the last three weeks.
According to him, there has been more demand for the item and other rechargeable products like torchlight in recent times.
“There is hardly a day that customers
don’t walk into my shop asking for rechargeable fans. Even if they don’t
eventually buy one, they like to buy at least a chargeable torchlight.
In the last three weeks alone, I have sold more than 20 rechargeable
fans. I stock more of the product nowadays because it is selling very
well,” he said with a tinge of fulfilment.
But Aniekwe is not the only one making
cool cash from the demand of certain items as a result of the prevailing
heat situation across the country. For example, Morenike Badejo like
many stall owners at the Ketu market, have been making good money
selling hand fans and moju, a local powdery substance used to combat heat rash.
According to her, party organisers who
are among her biggest customers, now distribute hand fans as souvenirs
at such occassions, thereby ensuring steady demand for the product.
“In the last one month especially since I
noticed that the demand for hand fan has increased, I have been
stocking a lot of the product in my stall and customers have been buying
them. I hear it is one of the major items now distributed at parties
and people appreciate them a lot.
“Moju is also selling very well
because of the hot weather and how it is causing rash on the bodies of
children and adults. Even though I am also feeling the hot weather, it
is like a blessing in disguise for many of us at the market. I won’t lie
to you, we are making money from these items,” she said.
The rise of inverters and solar panels
Individuals and firms building and
installing inverters and solar panels in homes and offices are not also
left out of the windfall created by the latest heat wave sweeping across
the country. Many in the business have seen their bank accounts swell
considerably in recent weeks as a result of the growing demand for the
technology. Even though, quite expensive, those who can afford it have
continued to embrace inverters and solar panels. For them it is the
little price they have to pay to escape the venom of the hot weather
condition.
More heat to come
According to the Director General and
Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Meteorological Agency, Anthony
Anuforom, there will be low moisture and heightened dryness in Nigeria
this year as a result of a host of factors.
“We are all aware of how southern
African countries are currently going through a gruelling period of
drought. The dry spell may set in from May to June/July of this year,
when farmers will likely have planted their crops. If not well managed,
this could result in crop failure.
“It is necessary to state that the
expected lower-than-normal rainfall in parts of the country does not
rule out the possibility of isolated flash floods due to high intensity
rainfall at the peak of the season, especially in places that are
naturally prone to flooding.
“The summary of this prediction is that,
all things being equal, there will be low moisture and heightened
dryness in the country this year. Nigeria must be ready for the
immediate future and the long time effects of climate change,” he said.
But while the country braces for the
challenges emanating from climate change and the depletion of the ozone
in the coming months and years, the prevailing heat wave across the
country appears to be wreaking more damage by the day especially
following the unavailability of public water supply, electricity and
readily available petrol to power generators across most parts of the
country in recent days. Families and individuals have been forced to dig
deep into their pockets to withstand the battle so far. It has indeed
been a very turbulent few weeks for many households, especially
low-income earning homes who appears to be the biggest casualties.
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