How “Lazy Nigerian Youths” Built Nigeria’s First Unicorns
On March 15, 2021, the President of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, congratulated Nigerian pop stars Wizkid and Burna Boy for clinching the Grammy Awards for Best Music Video and Best Global Album respectively. This is ironic, considering that nearly three years ago, he criticised Nigerian youths for being “lazy”.
“A lot of them haven’t been to school and they are claiming that Nigeria is an oil-producing country, therefore they should sit and do nothing, and get housing, healthcare, education free”, Buhari reportedly said at the Commonwealth Business Forum in London on April 18, 2018.
Beyond the fact that Buhari threw the nation’s youths under the bus at a public forum, it was (and still is) insensitive of him to have made such utterances, considering what young Nigerians have to do to survive daily. Staring them in their faces every day are unemployment, frequent interruptions in their educational pursuit, insecurity, poor healthcare facilities, and police brutality.
According to the latest figures from the National Bureau of Statistics, Nigeria’s unemployment rate has risen to 33.3%. This means that in a labour force of over 67 million young Nigerians, about 23, 187, 389 are either unable to find jobs, or are grossly underemployed. This is the reality that Nigerians are currently living in, but even with these challenges, the nation’s youths still get around to achieving major feats on a local and global scale.
Nigerian youths are breaking boundaries and building huge structures in the tech space. On March 10, 2021, Flutterwave, the payment solutions company co-founded in 2016 by Iyinoluwa Aboyeji and Olugbenga Agboola, announced that it had raised its valuation to $1 billion, making it only the fourth fintech unicorn in Africa. On March 15, 2021, Flutterwave also announced that it would be collaborating with electronic payment platform PayPal, in a move that would see African freelancers and entrepreneurs start receiving payment seamlessly through PayPal.
Flutterwave is achieving these milestones barely a few months after Paystack, a Nigerian fintech startup co-founded in 2015 by Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi, was acquired by Stripe (an online payment processing platform) in October 2020 for $200 million, scoring Nigeria’s biggest startup exit. In 2019, Interswitch, a payment solutions platform founded by Mitchell Elegbe in 2002, attracted a $200m investment from Visa in 2019, raising its valuation to $1 billion and elevating it to unicorn status.
The entertainment industry is another of the (very) few sectors that appear to be immune from the rot that is eating up the country, and the numbers are there to prove it. On March 14, 2021, Wizkid and Burna Boy became the first Nigerians to win a Grammy since Sikiru Adepoju in 2009. Davido made a cameo appearance and had his song featured on the recently-released comedy film Coming 2 America. On March 3, 2021, six young actors of Nigerian origin were nominated for the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Awards.
Nigerian youths are making these big moves, despite having to deal with profiling, harassment, extortion, and even murder at the hands of law enforcement, the very people supposed to protect them. In a 2018 interview with the New York Times, Ezra Olubi revealed how he had, on multiple occasions, been harassed by officers of the Nigeria Police Force. In December 2017, Nigerian rapper Falz shared a story of how his manager was assaulted by members of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).
During the #EndSARS protests in October 2020, Nigerian entertainer Ojahbee, a manager to pop star Oxlade, was arrested by the Nigerian Police for participating in peaceful demonstrations against police brutality, and tortured to the point of sustaining a brain injury. On October 20, 2020, peaceful protesters were shot and killed by soldiers at the Lekki toll gate, minutes after the lights at the gate were abruptly put out. In spite of video evidence provided (via live streaming) by Nigerian music producer DJ Switch on the night of the massacre, and a comprehensive investigative report published by CNN weeks later, the Nigerian Army has refused to admit that the actions of its officers led to the deaths of unarmed youths. Who knows how many potential Grammy winners, BAFTA nominees, and tech founders had their dreams cut short that night?
The success of Nigerian entertainers and tech enthusiasts on the world stage highlights the possibilities that abound if Nigerian youths are allowed to fly. It also raises the question of what would have been, if Nigeria had a smoother socio-economic and political terrain that allows young entrepreneurs to thrive. The fact remains that young Nigerians are thriving, even within the frustrating system where they find themselves.
