For many Nigerians, the lack of stable electricity affects many areas of their lives, from work and school to businesses, food, sleep, and everyday survival. These stories show how deeply a poor power supply shapes daily life. In this piece, Nigerians share their worst experiences with electricity outages.
1. “I’ve lost over a million naira worth of drinks because of poor power supply” — Benedicta*, 44, F
When I first moved into my house, we had almost 24-hour electricity, so running my drinks business was never really stressful. These days, it’s the complete opposite. I now take my drinks across town to places powered by solar just to keep the business going.
I’ve lost over a million naira worth of drinks because of poor power supply, and the situation has completely changed how I live. Anytime they bring light now, I immediately start thinking of everything I need to do before they take it again. Sometimes I’m rushing to toast bread or quickly cook on the electric stove because you honestly never know how long the light will stay on.
2. “Three days without light ruined months of research”— Moyosore*, 28, M
I was working on environmental research for my Master’s in Molecular Biology, and the school’s power supply was already unstable because the generator only worked on a schedule. One day, there was no electricity at all, and the school generator broke down too, so I couldn’t access the lab for two days.
By the third day, the microbes I had already grown in the incubator got contaminated, and I had to start the entire research process from scratch. It was painful because I had already spent so much time working on it.
3. “NEPA got me fired from my remote job” — Barry, 21, M
I was in my final year when I got a remote web development job, and at the time, it felt like everything was finally working out for me. Then there was no light for almost a week.
I kept moving from one friend’s place to another, trying to find somewhere to work and charge my laptop, but even people living in different parts of school were also dealing with blackouts. When I finally found someone who had electricity, I couldn’t even stay long because we weren’t that close.
Eventually, I couldn’t keep up with work anymore, and I lost the job.
4. “Almost a month without light and we were paying to buy water” — Bode*, 20, M
We once went almost a month without electricity. We couldn’t even tell if it was a real fault or just normal Nigerian things. Our generator had already been stolen, so we had to start going two streets away just to get water from someone who had a generator. We’d pay and carry it back home every single time.
5. “I spent double on transport because of NEPA” — Henry, 19, M
I was supposed to work from home that day and had a very important meeting, but they took light while I was in the shower, and my work laptop was dead because I forgot to charge it.
I panicked and rushed out to go to the office, then realised halfway through the trip that I forgot the laptop at home. After spending extra money going back stressed, I got home only to realise NEPA had already restored the light.
6. “NEPA almost left me stranded halfway through my haircut” — Doro*, 17, M
I was the last person at the barbershop that day. There was light when I got there, so everything was going smoothly until NEPA took light. The barber tried to turn on the generator, but the rope got stuck, and the generator refused to start.
I ended up waiting for almost an hour before he finally fixed the gen and finished cutting my hair.
7. “I had to pay twice for my content shoot because of NEPA” — Moses*, 22, M
I had to shoot content at a studio I had already paid for, everything was planned. We were like 10 minutes into shooting when they took the light. They brought it back like 7 minutes later, then took it again.
This kept happening till our time ended, so we had to come back the next day, pay again, and pay for the generator too. What’s funny is that there was light throughout the shoot that day. We just wasted money like that.
8. “My mum had to start taking food to her office freezer” — Moses*, 22, M
There was a period when we didn’t have light for a long time. At some point, my mum stopped cooking every day because it wasn’t sustainable.
Instead, she cooked everything on weekends, packed it, and had to take it to her office so she could store it in the freezer there for the week. Even at that, people were stealing the food.
9. “NEPA almost ruined my first big internship meeting” — Sammy*, 21, M
My first internship was a remote role with an international company, and I had a very important late-night meeting. There was no light all day, and by the time the meeting was about to start, my laptop was completely dead. I had to rush to church during a vigil I wasn’t even planning to attend, and asked my pastor if I could use his office to join the meeting. It was really stressful.
10. “Everything I plugged in got burnt the moment NEPA brought light” — Bolu*, 24, F
We hadn’t had light for weeks, so the day they finally brought it back, I started plugging in everything I could find out of excitement. The next thing I heard was one loud sound. Some bulbs, my phone charger and laptop charger all got burnt.
