The Country of Garinja and the Molue-ism of Nigeria's National Grid

In the heart of Africa, lies a nation whose soul rides daily in a rattling, overburdened relic—the molue. Once yellow and bright symbolising newness and progress, but now mostly dusty brown and weary like a fallen hero. This bus called “molue” carries dreams, bodies, and burdens. Its wheels screech like a tired hymn; its engine groans like a prophet warning of doom— yet ignored.

To have been born in Lagos Nigeria, in the 1980s or earlier, is to have once been a passenger on a molue—jostled, squashed, sweating, surviving while forcefully learning resilience. It is to understand that speed and safety are luxury dreams in a bus that was built for motion, not for meaning.

And thus, we arrive at the metaphor: the National Grid, our very own molue of electricity—a structure long overdue for retirement but somehow still moving, swerving through decades of dysfunction, with little to no hope of sustainable functionality.

Mr. Leke Alder, in a stirring satire at the Daystar ELC 2024, christened this chaotic nation “Garinja”, drawing parallels between our national ethos and the molue’s tragic ballet. This paper, like an observer gripping the handrail in that bus, explores those haunting parallels—the Molue-ism of Nigeria’s National Grid.