Ex-BBNaija star Adekunle Olopade, a contestant on the 2022 Level Up season (finishing fourth), shared a reflective post on poverty in Lagos on X earlier this week.
In it, the 32-year-old Lagosian described a stark contrast he observed outside Eko Hotel. While elites gathered inside for a celebration, young, able-bodied men could be seen at night running after exotic cars, hoping for handouts. This scenario reflects poverty in Lagos, where some young people struggle to find decent work and look to wealthy motorists for handouts.
“There is little to no gratification for honest work anymore and the only hope people now have is sycophancy, illegal dealings, or turning to social media to chase clout,” he wrote. 
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Poverty in Lagos: Unfulfilled Promises by Government
Olopade, who has lived in Lagos his entire life, said he has watched four governors come and go, yet, he argued, the underlying ideology has remained the same. He challenged readers living in any of the state’s 20 local government areas to step outside and honestly assess whether they are satisfied with their surroundings.
He also pointed to the rising cost of living. Fuel that once cost him under N3,000 for 25 litres now costs around N35,000, he said, and with unreliable electricity, he buys it twice a week just to run a generator.
“Millions more Nigerians have been pushed into abject poverty in recent years,” he noted.
Official Claims vs Lived Reality
These observations come even as government officials have highlighted what they describe as progress on employment.
In early October 2026, the Director-General of the Michael Imoudu National Institute for Labour Studies, Comrade Issa Aremu, stated that Nigeria’s official unemployment rate has dropped to about 5% under the current administration. He cited National Bureau of Statistics figures based on the International Labour Organisation methodology, which is a sharp decline from the previous double-digit rates recorded under the old measurement system.
Yet the lived experience described by Olopade and many others appears at odds with the headline numbers.
In conclusion, Adekunle’s post highlights the gap between claimed official economic progress and the realities many Nigerians face daily. While unemployment figures may suggest improvement, rising poverty in Lagos and other parts of the country begs the question: where is the growth if ordinary Nigerians are yet to feel it?
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