•Some residents add ice blocks to fura, a food made from millet, during periods of extreme heat to stay cool
Sweat trickled down Hauwau Suleman’s face as she sat in front of her shop in the Upper Road area in the Sokoto Metropolis. She used the hem of her multi-coloured hijab to dab her forehead, but as soon as the hijab dropped from her hands, more beads of sweat formed on the spot she had just cleaned.
The sun hung overhead like a hot furnace, and the air was hot. It was midday in May and the temperature was 40 degrees Celsius. A mobile phone weather application indicated there were chances of the weather increasing to 42 degrees Celsius later in the day, reports The Guardian.
Suleiman, who sells drinks and sews clothes, had just returned from a military Barracks, where she went in search of ice blocks. Her cooler returned as it left, empty. But she did not come back empty-handed. The dull ache in her calves and the sharp sting in her heels were souvenirs from a journey that gave her nothing she asked for and everything she didn’t.
Far away in another part of the state was Ibrahim Gobir, a 31-year-old teacher.
Gobir sat under a tree in the school where he teaches. He had escaped his office, where the ceiling fan stayed motionless due to the lack of electricity to power it and reduce the heat.
‘Heat like hell’
Sokoto, like most states in Northern Nigeria, is known for being hot most of the year.
According to the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet), the northern states experience rainfall for approximately 180 days per year.
Findings by our correspondent reveal that many regions of the state have only experienced a few days of rainfall between the beginning of 2025 and the time of this report.
For many weeks, the weather in the state has fluctuated between 42 and 43 degrees. On some mornings, the weather temperature ranges between 39 and 38 degrees Celsius and increases to 42/43 degrees Celsius later, causing heat and discomfort for residents.
While describing how the weather has been in Sokoto recently, Aliu (not real name), a journalist, described it as a gateway to hell.
“This place is like a gateway to hell. I am literally just trying to stay alive. I couldn’t even concentrate in my own room because the heat was intense,” he lamented.
Gobir, the teacher, also compared the heat in the state to hell.
“We have experienced intense heat in Sokoto in recent weeks as if it came from hell. It has been very terrible. You see babies crying and people taking their baths repeatedly. This heat is different from that of last year.”
This is not new to residents. Around April 2019, the average daily temperature in the region was between 40 to 42 degrees Celsius.
Signs of extreme heat
With Sokoto recording temperatures between 39 and 43 degrees, it shows signs of extreme heat.
According to Casey Ivanovich, a postdoctoral fellow at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (NASA GISS), whose research focuses on the physical drivers of extreme humid heat, extreme heat can be defined in various ways, but it is usually described as a period of unusually high heat.
“Unusually high heat can refer to an absolute magnitude such as 40 degrees Celsius or a relative threshold like temperatures above a 95th percentile of the historical record for a given location,” Ivanovich explained.
”We can define heat as being extreme if it is a very high magnitude on just one day, if the heatwave persists for a very long duration, or if the high heat takes place in a time of the year we might not expect.”
In Nigeria, temperatures exceeding 38 degrees Celsius are considered extreme heat.
Extreme heat can have dire health impacts on people who live in regions experiencing extreme heat.
Some of the health risks associated with extreme heat, according to Ivanovich, are dehydration, kidney injury, cardiovascular illness, and heat stroke.
Other health risks include dizziness, nausea, headaches and skin rashes. In some cases, extreme heat can also lead to death.
In May 2024, an extreme heat wave in Adamawa State resulted in at least 200 deaths within a two-week period (May 1 to 13).
Findings by our correspondent did not reveal any heat-related deaths, but residents said they experienced discomfort, with some complaining of frequent headaches, stomach pain and fever.
One night in April, Gobir was fast asleep in his bedroom. A ceiling fan hung above his head. The fan’s blades stayed still since there was no electricity to power them.
Gobir was drenched in sweat and breathing heavily in his sleep. His sleep was cut short as he woke up abruptly. Sleepily, he walked to his sitting room and lay on a couch there. Gobir used the back of his palm to touch his neck. It was hot – he had a fever.
He told our correspondent that he spent the entire night with a fever and vowed never to sleep in his bedroom
“Since that day, I have never slept in my room. If I want to be comfortable in my sleep, I have to come to my parlour to open the doors and windows for ventilation,” he said.
Mariam Nofiu, a small-scale trader, also said the extreme heat makes her uncomfortable.
“Sometimes my body becomes weak. I have frequent headaches and stomach pains during this period,” Nofiu told our correspondent.
Poor power supply worsens the heat
Residents are grappling with extreme heat made even more unbearable by the persistent lack of electricity. As temperatures soar, the erratic power supply has stripped many of the basic comforts, such as fans and air conditioners, needed to cope.
Findings by our correspondent revealed that some parts of the state get power supply for about two or three hours a day, and sometimes go days without power supply.
Nofiu and Gobir said that an adequate power supply would have made the weather bearable.
“We only get electricity twice a day for only two or three hours, and when they cease it ceases, they won’t restore it till the following day.
“I don’t have an AC in my house because I am a common man, but I have a fan. If there is no light, I can’t put on the fan because I don’t have solar. So I have no fan and have no choice but to use my hand fan to blow myself.”
The alternative to power supply for many Nigerians is generators. However, the cost of fuel has become too expensive, and many can no longer afford to power their generating sets.
For context, as of January 2024, the pump price was around N600 per litre and by the end of that year, it had reached ₦1,030 per litre. In 2023, before Nigeria’s President Bola Ahmed Tinubu announced the removal of fuel subsidy, petrol was around N238.11 per litre, but this increased to N545.83 in June after the removal of the subsidy and continued to rise throughout the year.
Improvising with ice blocks
Sani Maigari, a 28-year-old man, stood beside a road in Mabara. In front of him was a used rice sack that was starting to wear out. Inside the sack were blocked sachets of water, commonly referred to as “pure water.”
A motorcycle came to a halt in front of him, and the driver requested ice blocks. He handed Maigari N100 and N200 notes. Maigari gave him two sachets of blocks and the rider revved off on his bike.
Maigari comes here every day to sell ice blocks and he gets many customers in times like this.
As the power supply becomes unreliable and fuel has become out of reach for low-income earners like Gobir and Nofiu, many residents are forced to improvise with iceblocks.
Many residents buy ice blocks to add to their drinking water or bathing water. Some families spend between N1500 and N2000 weekly on ice blocks.
Whether at home or in school, Gobir, the teacher, carries a jug around with him, which he adds ice blocks and water to beside him.
“I prefer to buy ice blocks to cool myself. I need to stay dehydrate to get relief. I buy ice blocks. When I buy it, I store it in a cooler to keep it from melting. Then I put some in a jug and sip slowly to cool myself. This is the only way for common people like me in Sokoto.”
While Gobir adds ice blocks to his drinking water, others like Aliu and Nofiu add them to their bathing water and use them to shower.
Nofiu told our correspondent that she adds it to both drinking and bathing water to stay cool.
“We buy ice blocks and put them inside jugs or coolers. Sometimes we add it to our bathing water and shower with it.”
Although this is a cheaper alternative for many, it still comes at a cost, and some have to sacrifice other things to purchase ice blocks.
Gobir said about a time he exhausted the charcoal he used for cooking, bought iceblocks, and had no money left to buy charcoal.
“Buying ice blocks affects my household budget. My charcoal finished yesterday, and instead of buying another one, I forgot and bought ice blocks instead. My wife told me the following morning that we no longer have charcoal. I told her to wait till I return from work.”
“I have some money now but I am hungry. I need charcoal and ice blocks, so I have to manage my money and buy both.”
Gobir says if the power supply were stable, he wouldn’t need to buy ice blocks. He could make his own in the freezer or cool off with his fan. The money he now spends chasing cold comfort, he adds, could be channelled into other pressing needs.
A booming business
The sale of ice blocks in Sokoto is a booming business during extreme heat seasons like this. Roadside ice block sellers like Maigari make between N15,000 and N20,000 every day, while other vendors who have shops and ice block factories can make up to N80,000.
Umar Bello, a 35-year-old ice block seller who has been in the trade for about 10 years, said he gets customers from different local governments in the state, and some people come in cars to buy from him.
“The price of ice blocks depends on the size. If it is pure water size, we sell for N100, but the bigger sizes are more expensive,” said Bello.
“What we make depends on the weather. If it is hot periods like this, we can sell big blocks of ice for N300 or N400, but in the rainy season, the prices go down to N100 or N70. If we sell at the cost of N300 per one, we can make up to N80,000 or N100,000 per day.”
Maigari, who sells on the street, said that he had another business before venturing into the sale of ice blocks, but he abandoned it two years ago, seeing how lucrative it was.
“I noticed there is progress in this business, so instead of just sitting down in my shop and waiting for people to come buy things from me, I decided to join the business. If I decide to sit in my shop, I will just be sleeping and won’t even make up to N2,000 a day,” he said.
Even for these ice block sellers, there are rainy days when they record low sales. Maigari said they record low sales during the rainy season, and that he sometimes ventures into another business.
Bello, on the other hand, reduces the prices of ice blocks during rainy seasons.
“In hot seasons, we sell ice blocks for N300 or N400 but we reduce the prices to N100 or N70 in rainy seasons.”
NiMet has predicted that Sokoto will get between 110 and 150 days of rainfall this year, which means the days of heat are far from over.
Until power supply becomes stable and residents can power their fans at home and in shops, the people of Sokoto will continue to wish for cooler days while surviving the extreme heat season with ice blocks.
