Did you know that “NEPA don take light” is one of the most famous complaints in Nigeria, yet the company it blames has been defunct for over 20 years?

The National Electric Power Authority was created in 1972 through the merger of two older bodies: the Electricity Corporation of Nigeria, which ran power supply in towns and cities, and the Niger Dams Authority, which was set up to build hydroelectric dams. Electricity itself is much older in Nigeria. It first reached Lagos in 1896, only a few years after it began appearing in major cities of Europe. By the time NEPA was formed, the new body had a huge job, which was to generate, transmit and distribute electricity to the whole country. One of its early crown jewels was the Kainji Dam on the River Niger, which began producing power in 1968 and became a symbol of national ambition.

For decades, NEPA was the only name Nigerians associated with electricity. It sent the bills, it owned the poles and wires, and it was blamed whenever the lights went out. Over time, the blame stuck so firmly that the name became a nickname for power failure itself.

The official end came in 2005, when the Electric Power Sector Reform Act was signed and NEPA was renamed the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, or PHCN. The change was meant to be a fresh start, but many Nigerians never adopted the new name. Some even joked that PHCN stood for “Please Hold Candle Now,” just as NEPA had been mocked as “Never Expect Power Always.”

The bigger change came after that. The government broke the old monopoly into separate successor companies: six generation companies, one transmission company, and eleven distribution companies. In November 2013, the generation and distribution companies were handed over to private owners in one of the largest privatisation exercises in the country’s history. The transmission company stayed under government control. So today, if your light goes off, the company responsible is one of the private distribution companies in your area, not NEPA and not PHCN.

Yet the word survives, and not only as a complaint. When electricity returns after a blackout, many neighbourhoods still erupt with the chant “Up NEPA!”, a cheer that has outlived the organisation it was addressed to. Generations of Nigerians born after 2005 use the word naturally, without ever having received a NEPA bill.

Linguists have a name for this kind of survival. When a brand becomes so dominant that its name replaces the general word for a product or service, as with “Indomie” for noodles or “Pampers” for diapers, it often outlives the company. NEPA is a rare case where the name stuck to a *problem* rather than a product, and that may be exactly why it has been so hard to retire.

So the next time someone says “NEPA don take light,” remember that they are talking about a company that was renamed in 2005 and a sector that was privatised in 2013, but a word that Nigerians simply refuse to let go.