The History of Hustle Culture in Nigeria

Hustle culture has morphed from many things into so many other things, but more recently, it has become a culture that champions the idea that there’s always more to strive for, more money to be made, and more ceilings to breakthrough, as long as you work very hard.

When describing hustle culture, you often hear words like "sacrifice," “delayed gratification," “9 to 5," “side hustles," etcetera. But in Nigeria, you hear two phrases that not only describe the nature of Nigeria’s hustle culture but also represent the evolution of hustle culture in the homeland.

If you grew up in any Nigerian household of any social class, then your parents must have reiterated, in the most exhausting affirmative voice, the infamous “no food for lazy man." And if you’ve set foot in a Nigerian club before or watched a minute of Ola of Lagos’s content, then you must have heard a resounding “Hustle o” at least once in your life.

The two phrases mean the same thing, but they describe hustle culture’s evolution over decades when you look at them in the context that they are always used.

The statement—no food for lazy man—tells you that if you want to be able to feed yourself or survive, you have to do the hard work a lazy person wouldn’t do. This tells us about the perception of hard work at the time when the statement was abuzz. The hustle was about working hard to survive.

Survival was the primary interest of the average Nigerian, which was reasonable. However, it was greatly emphasized because of how difficult it was to survive in the country.

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

Surviving in Nigeria in any era is extreme sport. From warring empires to colonialism, military leadership, and bad government, it is no surprise that there was a lot of emphasis on working as hard as you could to do something as basic as feeding yourself and surviving. But over time, hustle culture is still promoted, but the goal post is a lot bigger and the goals are very different.

The hustle right now is no longer about surviving the hellish lifestyle; instead, it is now about rising above the baseline of survival and building lifestyles that may or may not ever be accessible to even a middle-class Nigerian.

This new focal point of hustle culture still comes with the same characteristics of prioritizing hard work, being busy, and making sacrifices to achieve the goal. However, the average Nigerian is very aware that consistent hard work alone will not give you the lifestyle that hustle culture promises. This realization and the relentless strife towards the Nigerian goal are what make hustle culture in Nigeria so different.

Hustling in Nigeria now means doing anything and everything, legal or illegal, shameful or shameless, to achieve the desired lifestyle.

So, how on earth did we get here?

Many Nigerians will say that social media is responsible for setting higher standards and changing everything. However, while that conclusion is true, it is only a fraction of the changes that happened in the country when you observe more crucially.

Social media just happens to be the most obvious difference in the present era, and the last, pointing fingers at it, is surely going to be easy. However, there are many things that have changed about the country that express the need to do much more than survive in an economy like Nigeria’s.

For example, our generation had to watch our parents work hard for most parts of our lives only to have everything, including their incomes, businesses, and quality of lifestyle, taken from them by corruption, inflation, and terrible government policies. On the other hand, there are people who seem to be living in a different dimension while standing on the same soil. People who don’t work as much, who don’t suffer as much, but live in luxury instead of just surviving.

Younger Nigerians believe that there is so much more to achieve in the country than our parents could imagine, which leads to our increased standards and expectations of life.

Social media also plays a huge role in making people aware of lifestyles that exist in the same country. Through social media, you can get a glimpse of the lives of wealthier Nigerians, celebrities, nepo babies, and politicians through any screen. While the bits and pieces you see are usually overemphasized and overhyped, they are still enough to make you think that yes, you would want to have that too.

Dreaming of rising to wealth and comfort is not actually a bad thing, and in this time period, rising from the ashes to wealth and glory is romanticized. However, in that belief that everyone can make it from nothing to something, lies a terrible problem.

As much as hustle culture tells you that you can rise to whatever heights in society simply because you work hard enough, that just isn’t the case. As much as society wants you to believe that you can do whatever you want by being crafty and working smart, there’s only so much you can do from where you sit as a Nigerian. The odds are grossly unfavorable, and we lack more privilege than we realize.

However, Nigerian cultures themselves do not allow excuses. We do things as they should be done, when they should be done, instead of accepting the reality that what we are trying to do may not be possible. As a result, we find ways to cut corners and adapt until a path finally presents itself. This path can take any shape or form, either good or bad.

In the end, we enforce these cultures and beliefs on ourselves in very unbelievable ways, to the point where we pressure ourselves to do good and succeed in multiple ways that normally wouldn’t be possible from where we are made to start.

The hustle is real, but nobody should tell you to “hustle o” so that you can buy a $2 million house in one of the most insecure countries on the planet.

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