Isaac Olusoga | Lagos Economics

Right now, many Nigerians are feeling squeezed from every direction. Fuel is expensive. Electricity is unreliable. The heat is intense and many homes are sitting in darkness. For many households, it feels like everything is rising at the same time — except income. Let’s talk about what is really happening beneath the surface.

“Oluwa, ma f’ikan gba’kan l’owo mi” is the greatest Yoruba prayer 🙏🏾

Friends who can buy you drinks and laugh with you but would see good business opportunities you qualify for and never recommend you for them, are NOT your friends. Spread it.

Stop acting surprised when good things start happening to you. You're a good person, and you deserve them.

Once you start making decent cash 1. Lock down a coffee spot where they know your order before you speak 2. Find a butcher shop for quality meat over supermarket trash. 3. A good restaurant for business purposes and dates. 4. Pick a bar to disappear, unwind, think. And a high-end bar, preferably a hotel lounge, for when the settings demands elegance Your life is your video game, build your map accordingly.

Since I saved these numbers on my phone: 09133333785 09133333786 I move differently. Anytime police stop me for search, I cooperate fully. No argument. No shouting. No aggression.

The Commissioner of Police, CP Tijani Fatai, psc, mnips, has directed all supervising officers to caution their personnel against any form of unprofessional conduct, noting that the Command’s internal disciplinary mechanisms have been strengthened and restructured. He further urges members of the public to report any officer involved in extortion or harassment, without engaging in confrontation, through the Complaint Response Unit on 09111111150 and 09111111151

I can write a whole thesis about this! Take it from me: most ladies who come to Abuja for NYSC with high expectations and without a strong support system usually end up frustrated, some become 304, squatting in one Abuja village with their friend, and finally return to their states after 2-4 wasted years in Abuja. I have seen this happen over and over and over, it’s no coincidence. The highest job in Abuja for a young female graduate is in real estate, which is not sustainable. Abuja is very expensive. You will meet rich guys, but the probability of them taking you seriously is 30%, because for some reasons most guys in Abuja don’t take women in Abuja seriously, especially if you are a corps member. Some of these ladies come to Abuja for NYSC to find connections and big Alhaji and Politicians but most of they end up disappointed because Chief, you go see, you don’t even have access to them.. na SAs and Aides to politicians go fvck you tire with promise of connecting you to “Oga”. When you advise these ladies who are desperate to do NYSC in Abuja that there are no job opportunities in Abuja, they don’t listen. Lagos is better for NYSC if you are looking for Hob opportunities. I have a whole lot to say but I will stop here.

Lagos is funny. By 10pm on Easter Sunday, the city is quiet… but not because things are okay. Just a pause. A temporary ceasefire. Tomorrow is a public holiday. No traffic. No pressure—at least on the surface. But underneath? Somebody is calculating how to stretch ₦5k till Wednesday. Someone is avoiding their landlord’s call. A business owner is already thinking about diesel prices on Tuesday. A salary earner is doing mental math on an alert that hasn’t even landed yet. That’s the real economy. Not the clubs that were full on Friday. Not the flights that were sold out. Not the “soft life” you saw on your timeline. Just people… managing. Nigeria doesn’t really crash. It adjusts. Quietly. Constantly. Brutally. And the people who survive here have mastered one thing: adaptation without announcement. But here’s the shift most people are not paying attention to: While you’re trying to survive Nigeria… the world itself is changing. AI is not coming. It’s already here. Quietly replacing, accelerating, and redefining value. The same way POS changed payments. The same way smartphones changed business. That’s how fast this one is moving. And in a place like this, where things are already hard… you can’t afford to be slow. Because now it’s not just: “Can you survive Nigeria?” It’s: “Can you stay relevant in a world that is evolving?” If you don’t learn, adapt, and plug into these new tools, you won’t just struggle—you’ll be left behind. So yes, survive. But more importantly—upgrade. Learn something new. Understand how AI can make you faster, sharper, more valuable. Position yourself where the world is going—not where it used to be. Because survival will keep you alive… but leverage will change your life. Enjoy the holiday tomorrow. Rest well. Reset. But when Tuesday comes—move differently. May this week open your eyes to opportunities others are ignoring. May you not just work hard, but work right. And may you find your place in the future that is already here.

INSTEAD OF WATCHING NETFLIX TONIGHT. Spend 1 hour with this. Claude AI FULL COURSE that teaches you how to BUILD and AUTOMATE anything. The people who watch this tonight will wake up tomorrow with a skill that most people will not have in 2 years. The people who skip it will still be watching Netflix next year wondering why nothing in their life has changed. Your call.

Lagos Will Look Affluent This Easter. It Isn’t. Easter weekend will bring the usual surge: booked flights, full hotels, crowded clubs. For a few days, activity will mimic a functioning economy. But beneath that surface, the fundamentals haven’t moved. FX remains volatile, power is unreliable, and rents continue to outpace wages. This is Lagos’s economy — neither collapsed nor booming, just layered survival. What looks like discretionary spending is often something else: short-term cash management. Households are not cash-rich; they are cash-flow emotional. Money is moving, but it’s moving tactically — transfers, wallet juggling, and last-minute liquidity decisions that keep life going in real time. “Soft life” here is not a stable lifestyle. It’s a system people build for themselves. When institutions don’t provide stability, individuals design their own — cutting across expenses, rotating credit, and leaning on fintech rails to smooth daily pressure. So while Easter will look like celebration, it’s also something deeper: a live demonstration of micro-treasury management. People are not just spending. They are managing survival — while maintaining appearances. That’s the real flex.

I remember during my university days at Ekiti State University, I had a hostel mate whose parents had to struggle for months, sometimes starving to raise just ₦50K for his tuition. Whenever he knocked on my door, I already knew it was to ask for garri. So I would often leave a bowl of garri at my doorstep for him. At one point, he drank garri so often that he vomited it. Fast forward to now, on Sunday, he reached out to me from the United States. He is currently a Proffesor of Physics at Arkansas State University. He reflected on those difficult times, how I used to give him ₦30 for bike transport to and from lectures, how I would take him along to my girlfriend’s hostel so we could eat swallow, egusi spiced with sawa fish together, and how we would go to Ado Market to buy those ₦500 starchy shirts for both of us. He remembered how I would wake him up for compulsory night classes in the cold Ado nights, and how, when he fell sick, I used my own tuition fee to pay his medical bills, then lied to my mother just to get another one. He recounted everything… and then sent me ₦500K “to buy some green bottles.” And that’s just a fraction of what he has done for me in recent times. Never look down on anyone. Today’s struggle can become tomorrow’s success story. I think kindness is an investment that never loses value.

5 prayers to pray over your job 1. Prayer for Purpose and Alignment Lord, order my steps in my work. Place me where my gifts, skills, and calling align with Your will. Let my job not just pay bills, but fulfill purpose. Proverbs 16:9

@obaofph01 Thank you Bro 🙏

@topmostking Happy belated birthday to you brother 🥂

Yesterday was my birthday. I got calls from family and friends, and later in the day, while driving home from church, a friend called me from Canada. We started with football — Arsenal frustration 😅 Then the conversation shifted… to Nigeria. He has an Airbnb in Ibadan. Fuel there is around ₦1,400. In Lagos, ₦1,300+ depending on where you are. Then he asked me a simple question: “What can be done so Nigerians can at least breathe for a while?” That question stayed with me. Because on that same drive, from Ikorodu towards Ketu, I passed through Mile 12. The road was bad. Untarred. Potholes everywhere. In Lagos. In 2026. And I just thought to myself — people are really trying. People are working, hustling, paying rent, paying transport, buying fuel, managing electricity… all at the same time. Even where there is “Band A”, some people are still bypassing just to survive. And while I was still on that call, a policeman stopped me and asked, “Oga, what do you have for us?” In that moment, everything we were talking about just felt… real. At some point, the issue is no longer just policy — it becomes human. So what can actually help, even in the short term? 1. Stabilise electricity so people depend less on generators. 2. Support mass transportation to reduce daily transport costs. 3. Fix critical roads that affect movement and trade. 4. Create targeted relief for the most vulnerable, even if temporary. Not perfect solutions. But they can ease pressure. Because right now, too many systems are failing at the same time. And when that happens, the weight falls on ordinary people. But in the middle of all this, one thing is still clear: Nigerians are resilient. People are still waking up, still showing up, still trying. So maybe this week, beyond everything happening, we also check on each other. Encourage someone. Help where you can. Keep pushing. Better systems will take time. But we can still be better to each other now.

@niyetsel .

DO NOT SKIP THIS, THIS IS A SIGN! It's no coincidence you came across this tweet. Follow me and just leave a dot. I'm going to tell you something that will really surprise you.✨

Happy birthday sir. We share the same birthday, and it’s inspiring to see the depth of reflection you bring to it every year. “Hope is not just a feeling; it is a system we can build” is a powerful reminder that impact is intentional. Wishing you continued strength and greater impact.

Today, I turn a year older. And every year on this day, I reflect on something far bigger than me. For a long time, I believed luck was something that just happens to you. Then I realised, luck can be engineered. Opportunity can be democratised. Hope is not just a feeling; it is a system we can build.

@UfotUbon 4:19am and it's my birthday 🎈

Only interact with this tweet from 11:13 PM to 4:23 AM. If you’re early… wait. If you’re late… you missed it.

Eid Mubarak to everyone celebrating today. Days like this remind me that beyond all the noise — fuel prices, electricity issues, rising costs — people are still choosing faith, patience, and hope. And that says a lot about us as a country. Because even when things are tough, Nigerians still show up. For family. For community. For each other. My hope is that we don’t just pray for a better country — we also keep pushing for systems that actually make life easier for everyday people. Faith is important. But so is fixing what we can fix. Wishing everyone peace, strength, and better days ahead.

This applies far beyond football. Whether it’s sports, business or life — people will always have something to say. Too slow. Too fast. Too quiet. Too loud. The real challenge is staying grounded in your own decisions, even when the noise is loud. Because if you live by opinions, you’ll keep adjusting… and never truly move forward.

Eberechi Eze 🤯 Bradley Barcola 😮‍💨 Senny Mayulu 🎯 Declan Rice 😎 ⚽️ Best goal here? @Heineken || #UCLGOTD