NEPA!

Cries of NEPA can be heard in any Nigerian household on any given day. Why? Because NEPA stands for National Electricity Power Authority. A fact of life here is that power is not constant. In Lagos one can reasonably expect power to go down about 5 times a day. In Ife we are much more privileged. The power might only go out once or twice a day (depending where you live).

I have thought this a touch inconvenient, but it really becomes annoying when
a) The fan that is keeping the malaria-carrying mosquitoes from biting you stops in the middle of the night because the power has gone out (happened every night in Lagos)
b) You are watching a movie on TV only to miss the last 10 mins because NEPA has struck (which incidentally has left you in the dark in a strange house stumbling over furniture to get back to your room)
c) The only thing you have to cook is a two-plate electric stove (just about everyone, especially the students rely on these things to cook)
d) When it goes out during champions league time (remembering of course Nigerians are football mad). I'm surprised there wasn't a riot.

The locals actually prefer to say NEPA has taken the light (rather than the power is out). And having one’s relative working for NEPA is almost as much embarrassment as having them work for the police (generally police are not well-like around here).

But the funniest thing about this whole scenario is that NEPA has been renamed. It is not referred to as National Electricity Power Authority any more, but is called (and you can find this in a Nigerian Pidgin English dictionary)…

Never Expect Power Always