The trending word now on +234 Twitter — which is simply a fancy way of describing Nigeria X — is the LAPO vs NEPO debate.
You might ask: What is the meaning of these two words that they are trending?
NEPO simply means Numerous Endless Privileges and Opportunities (like someone whose papa and mama dey guide am).
LAPO means Little Access to Privileges and Opportunities (like someone wey na only him and God dey hustle).
A NEPO baby is someone that has access to connections, while a LAPO baby is just winging it with vibes and prayers.
You might also ask what brought about this trend.
If you ask me, I no know ooo.
But I think it all started when news broke about Femi Otedola’s book where he talked about building wealth from scratch.
Femi Otedola — whose father was a former governor of Lagos State between 1992–1993 — now wants to teach you about starting from scratch?
Someone will say, "I came from grass to grace."
Brother, your own grass and another person's grass no be the same ooh.
E be like say the grass dey greener where some people dey.
As Unkle Ayo started the debate about the privileges NEPO babies enjoy that give them a head start over LAPO babies, another Twitter user said, and I quote:
"Most of these NEPO babies work harder than you people (LAPO)."
Ah ahn. So you mean Temi Otedola, daughter of Femi Otedola, works harder than me?
Do you think she worked harder than Funke Akindele, who started from the bottom?
Temi was given the lead role in her first movie ooh. Funny enough, she even caused a problem in the film that made everyone die — except her.
Privileged in film and in real life. Chai! LAPO babies no dey breathe.
Someone even mentioned a guy named Farouk who ordered all the food in a canteen just because he didn’t want to wait in line — then dashed everything out.
Or that person who gave out ₦450,000 to people standing in an ATM queue just because they allowed him to withdraw ₦5,000 before them.
Omo, don’t let anybody pressure you ooh.
Nobody is saying a LAPO baby can’t make it, but as a NEPO baby, your life is already soft-coded.
Imagine Otedola's son making a ₦2 billion investment that went wrong and calling it a "mistake."
Meanwhile, me wey no guide lose ₦5k for forex, I almost run mad — and that was my entire pocket money ooh!
The most important thing is:
No let anybody pressure you ooh. Run your race at your own pace.