iBAND Magazine

ARTROAD — Exhibition | Uche James Iroha’s Power and Powers at Omenka Gallery, One Exhibition That Reshaped Our He(arts)

Power and Powers stands as a record of a nation’s long struggle with power, political and electric and a reminder that artists can preserve truths that institutions often fail to confront.

Words Ireho Aito | Don’t Keep Your Art in the Finger! Photographs credit Uche James Iroha

When Lagos-based writer Ireho Aito decided to write about this epoch-making exhibition in 2014, it was written from the soul of a witness to Nigeria’s electricity problems. Nigeria was then 54 years old as an independent nation. Today, in 2026, Nigeria is 65 and approaching 66, while the photographer Uche James Iroha has relocated to America, the writer still lives in Nigeria. This exhibition therefore comes back to us as a commemorative reminder that artists are the mirror of society, and that some works continue to speak long after the gallery doors have closed.

Uche James Iroha’s Power and Powers was an exhibition born from a subject Nigerians had lived with for generations, complained about for generations and somehow learned to laugh about: electricity.

In Nigeria, the first spoken words coming from a toddler or infant while trying to mutter words and languages can almost be imagined as “Up NEPA!” The phrase became more popular than, and has outlived, many Nigerian presidents, living or dead. It became so synonymous with our modern lexicon that for decades it captured the excitement of electricity returning after an absence.

For over 54 years, the phrase remained with us as a nation, despite the change of name, logo and institutional identity from ECN to NEPA, then PHCN, followed by the legendary privatisation process and more promises of reform. Yet the script refused to change. https://ibandmagazine.com/2026/09/06/artroad-exhibition-uche-james-irohas-power-and-powers-at-omenka-gallery-one-exhibition-that-reshaped-our-hearts/