If you’ve remotely been anywhere close to the internet space these past couple of days, you would probably have heard the shouts of “Nepo baby vs. Lapo baby”. And no, it is not the latest Afrobeats diss track. It is a full-blown culture clash between two tribes of Nigerian youth: the privileged and those who have to struggle (hustle) to achieve what the former takes for granted.

It all kicked off after billionaire businessman Femi Otedola announced his new book, Making it Big, set to launch on August 18. The book hasn’t been released to the public yet, but it is already striking arguments and debate.

The term, Nepo Baby, short for Nepotism baby, is a person whose path to success is made smoother by family wealth, fame, or connection or, as some (with a hint of mischief) put it, it stands for Numerous Endless Privileges & Opportunities.

On the flip side, there are Lapo Babies, the ones whose hustle is raw and real, and often romanticised as the ultimate badge of honour. And some will say this stands for Little Access to Privileges & Opportunities, and so the internet did what it does best: roast, banter, and argue.

But beneath the banter, which in a few cases delved into insults, something deeper is bubbling, which is not just an X trend. It is about the pressure of hustle culture, the reality of Nigerian inequality, and the unspoken anger about how access to opportunities is available, or its unavailability to the vast majority of young Nigerians.

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Hustle now has class division

Let us be honest. The Nigerian dream looks different, depending on where you start. If your father is the chairman of a multinational company, or a Nigerian politician with unlimited access to the public till, your journey to “self-made” is a bit more cushioned and softer. Not that privileges mean no work, but you do not have to work a lot to afford a meal or save up for a long period to be able to afford a dream item.

And that is what brought up the recent rants on the internet about Otedola’s book. Nobody doubts he is smart. But when one does not have to face the difficulties of a middle or lower-class citizen in Nigeria, it can feel tone deaf. Like a man standing under an umbrella explaining how to survive the rain.

Beneath the banters to the memes flying around on X and the societal clash is the unspoken anger and exhaustion majority of Nigerians face. Hustle has been turned into an Olympic sport, they have mastered the art of surviving a broken system and somehow still showing up to work looking fresh, but they are also tired of pretending that if they just grind hard enough, it will magically pay off. Because in reality, many are not angry that the Nepo baby exists. They are angry that the system is so stacked that without certain levels of privileges, chances to truly excel are miniscule and closer to non-existent.

Who gets to give advice?

This is where the debate gets tricky. Should Nepo babies be silent about success just because they started from the top floor? Or should they simply be more honest about their ladders?

There is something powerful about transparency. Saying, “yes, I had help,” does not make anyone less successful. But makes the advice less like a lecture, and more like a conversation and an inspiration. Because, at the end of the day, Lapo babies want a space to breathe too and experience a real shot at success, a chance that does not require who-you-know.

The jokes may trend and the banter may bounce, but this is a current issue in society that the mass majority face daily. Many are tired of the grind, the inequality, the performance of the hustle when the system keeps breaking backs. What is needed is a society where everyone, regardless of who gave birth to them, has a fighting chance to win, where talent and effort actually pay off, and not just bloodline access.

Until merit moves up the ladder in selection processes, and opportunities are available to brilliant Nigerians, Nepo Baby vs. Lapo Baby will remain an issue, and if the inequality gap keeps expanding, could morph into something much bigger and uncontrollable.

Anita Chinedu