Over the years there has been loss of lives and properties worth billions of naira, and most of these have been attributed to the use of fake and substandard electrical wires and cables by builders.
This is not a write up to trade blames who allows such substandard material versus who brings in such material. At the end of it all it is the end users who suffer it all.
The truth must be told, whatever statistics we pull out on the rate at which the incidence occurs in our country at a point in time when the country suffers epileptic power supply is a child play compared to what we would have when power supply becomes constant, I mean 24 hours of light 7 days in a week, all through the months. Some would argue that its not possible in our generation for there to be a constant power supply in our country but if one had told someone in the 1990s that someday mobile communication would be in every nook and cranny of the country and my grandmother would able to place a call to me from the village to the city, one would say “wake up bro from your fool paradise”
Wires and cables are very important products in erecting a building; electrical conductivity is a measure of how a material transports electrical charge. Copper is mostly used in wires and cables because it has the highest electrical conductivity of all non precious metal. Although copper is not used in aerial cable, aluminium is preferred partly due to it being light while copper is heavy.
A whole lot of qualities makes copper perfect for wires and cables which include its tensile strength, ductility(ability to deform under tensile), creep resistance (deformation of material from constant expansions and contractions under “load, no-load” conditions.) corrosion resistance (unwanted breakdown and weakening of a material due to chemical reactions) solderability (Ability to join two metals together and definitely ease of installation.
The big time question is what types of wires and cables are obtainable in Nigeria market. What do we have in the wires? Pure copper or adulterated copper or iron coated with copper? Nigeria wires have come a long way and can comfortable compete with the best wires in the world but even in spite of that the market is littered with substandard wires imported into the country and these days even the Nigerian wires have counterfeit. These substandard wires are like time bomb as they are not made with copper. I have had some encounter with some landlord who think because it’s a house that is for commercial purpose in which they wont be living in, they can afford to build the house with substandard wiring accessory to save money. Foolish thinking I call that. My cousin woke up around 2 am, with a raging fire tearing down his living room, he managed to escape through the back door but he lost all his properties. When we quizzed the electrician that did the wiring, he disclosed to us that the landlord instructed him to use cheap electrical material to wire the building.
Believe me people who sell substandard wires and cables, never use it in the house the live in, they are very aware of the danger. They still come to us to buy genuine electrical wires and cables and when I question them, they say “man must wack” at the detriment of another man safety. Man indeed has lost his conscience. If SON and government have refused to control the inflow of these substandard products into the markets, then it’s our duty to ensure that we don’t patronize them.
In these era where we have to help grow our naira, lets us patronize our made in Nigeria wires and cables. God bless Nigeria