My experience surviving Nigeria as a Gen Z is a mix of resilience, laughter, and frustration. Being part of Gen Z in Nigeria means navigating power cuts, job hunts, and endless queues with humour. The Nigerian youth experience is not for the faint-hearted, but it teaches strength.
When I share my experience surviving Nigeria as a Gen Z, it is about more than complaints. It is about how Gen Z in Nigeria creates opportunities where none exist. The Nigerian youth experience is full of struggles, but it is also full of creativity and innovation. We have mastered the art of turning frustration into fuel. Where others see roadblocks, we see raw material for innovation. The Nigerian Gen Z doesn’t wait for opportunity; we build it with our bare hands. From side hustles to startups, we turn struggle into strategy.
If you want to understand my experience surviving Nigeria as a Gen Z, you have to see the balance. The thin line between hope and exhaustion. Life is tough, but Nigerian youth are tougher. The Gen Z in Nigeria story is still unfolding, and every Nigerian youth experience carries lessons. We are creative yet constrained, visionary yet limited by systems that refuse to evolve. Still, we rise. Because life here doesn’t pause for you to catch your breath; you either fight or fade, and Nigerian Gen Z chooses to fight.
Who Are Gen Z in Nigeria?
Gen Z in Nigeria are those born roughly between the mid-1990s and early 2010s. My experience surviving Nigeria as a Gen Z reflects the hustle and resilience of this generation. The Nigerian youth experience is shaped by technology, creativity, and constant challenges.
This group is tech-savvy, bold, and unafraid to challenge norms. Gen Z in Nigeria often leads change in fashion, politics, and digital innovation.
What Is the Nigerian Youth Experience?
The Nigerian youth experience is a mix of daily struggles and groundbreaking achievements. My experience surviving Nigeria as a Gen Z shows that young people are constantly finding ways to thrive despite hardship.
From navigating poor infrastructure to creating businesses online, the Nigerian youth experience is about resilience. It proves that survival is not just possible, it is creative.
We are surviving beyond what we are presented with. Despite limited resources, unstable systems, and shrinking opportunities, we continue to rise. In sports, we dominate. In music, we lead the world. In sciences, arts, and tech, we break boundaries with little support but limitless ambition. Nigerian Gen Zs are not waiting for the system to save them. We are building our own. We are setting global records, breaking stereotypes, and proving that talent can bloom even in harsh conditions. In sports, we dominate. In music, we lead the world. In sciences, arts, and tech, we break boundaries with little support but limitless ambition.
We innovate from scarcity, dream from chaos, and create from challenges. Our voices echo far beyond borders; our creativity fuels global trends. We are rewriting what it means to be Nigerian, one breakthrough, one song, one invention at a time. We are a generation that thrives on resilience, powered by creativity and defiance. We make the world watch even when our own country barely sees us. We are not just living, we are surviving, rebuilding, and redefining what it means to be Nigerian youth.
We are not just living; we are indeed surviving. But the question remains, for how long will we keep surviving before we are finally allowed to live?
My Experience Surviving Nigeria As A Gen Z
Surviving Nigeria as a Gen Z is not just a phase; it’s a full-time job. Every day comes with its own test of patience, creativity, and resilience. From unreliable power supply to the constant hustle for stability, life here demands more than effort; it demands endurance. Yet, in the midst of the chaos, Nigerian Gen Zs are finding ways to laugh, build, and rise above it all. These are the real, unfiltered realities of what it means to live and keep surviving in Nigeria today.
1. The Struggle With Unemployment
My experience surviving Nigeria as a Gen Z starts with the constant battle against unemployment. The job market feels like a locked door, and even when opportunities exist, they’re often underpaid or exploitative.
We’ve been told education is the key, but many of us graduate only to discover the lock has changed. Degrees no longer guarantee stability, sometimes, they don’t even get you through the first interview. Employers demand five years of experience from fresh graduates, and by the time you’re “experienced enough,” you’re already “too old” for the role. The battle against age restrictions is real and disheartening.
Then comes the ugly truth. Getting a job isn’t always about merit; it’s about who you know. “Using connects” has become the unspoken rule. You can have the skills, the passion, and the drive, yet someone less qualified gets the role because of family ties or influence. For many, the only way in is through backdoor deals, splitting salaries with “helpers” who claim to have “secured” the job or paying bribes to get recruited. Merit has taken a backseat to manipulation.
And for those who finally get employed, survival doesn’t stop; it just changes form. Some work for months without pay, others watch their salaries slashed without explanation. Many find themselves stuck in the same position for years, unable to grow, unable to move. The fear of unemployment keeps them trapped in toxic workplaces. Others wake up one morning to find their company has folded, leaving them jobless again, back to square one.
In the midst of all this, Gen Z Nigerians keep grinding. Some go back to school, piling up degrees in hopes that one will finally open the right door. Others turn to freelancing, remote work, or small businesses just to make ends meet. But the truth remains, the system is rigged against us, and we’re surviving despite it, not because of it.
2. The Power of Side Hustles
Many of us plan our days around whether there’s power. For creatives, remote workers, and students, it’s a daily obstacle that shapes everything, from productivity to peace of mind. One truth about my experience surviving Nigeria as a Gen Z is that side hustles are no longer optional; they’re essential. From selling thrift clothes to running TikTok pages, every extra stream of income counts. The economy has forced us to turn passion into profit and hobbies into businesses.
We’ve learned to monetise skills in ways our parents never imagined. Tech, fashion, design, social media influencing, and digital marketing have become survival strategies, not luxury choices. Everyone is building something, an online store, a content brand, a freelance career, just to stay afloat in a system that doesn’t reward hard work fairly.
The hustle is hard, but it builds resilience and independence. For Gen Z, survival means refusing to rely on one fragile income stream. But even when we finally make it, when our side hustles start to thrive, the system finds a way to fight back. You can blow from your hustle today, only for new government policies, bans, or regulations to shut it all down in a week. It’s like climbing a mountain that keeps rebuilding itself. Yet, despite the frustration, Nigerian Gen Zs keep finding new routes, new ideas, and new ways to win. Because here, survival isn’t just about working hard; it’s about staying two steps ahead of whatever tries to pull you down.
3. Coping With Power Outages
You can’t talk about my experience surviving Nigeria as a Gen Z without mentioning constant blackouts. NEPA takes light, and suddenly work, entertainment, and even rest are disrupted. It’s hard to plan anything when electricity is a gamble. One minute you’re editing content or attending a class online, and the next, darkness reminds you where you are.
Generators, inverters, and solar panels have become part of our everyday vocabulary, symbols of a nation where resilience has been forced into our DNA. We’ve been battling NEPA since childhood. First, it was NEPA, then PHCN, then DISCOs, and now, different “bands” of light. The names keep changing, but the struggle remains the same.
Every Gen Z Nigerian knows the rhythm: the sudden hum of generators, the mad rush to charge everything when power returns, and the disappointment when it disappears minutes later. We joke about it online, but deep down, it’s exhausting. Still, we adapt, because that’s what survival here demands. In the dark, we keep pushing, creating, and hoping that one day, “Up NEPA” won’t be a celebration but a normal way of life.
4. Navigating Economic Hardship
Inflation bites hardest at the youth. My experience surviving Nigeria as a Gen Z means dealing with skyrocketing food prices, transport fares, and rent that keep rising faster than income. Every market visit feels like a battle between your wallet and the economy. Even basic needs now feel like luxuries. We’re working twice as hard but seeing half the results, and it’s draining. The effort no longer matches the reward, and that imbalance weighs heavily on our generation.
Every outing requires calculation. Can I afford this Bolt ride? Should I cook instead of buying lunch? Can I even afford cooking gas this week? Financial discipline is no longer just a choice; it’s a form of self-defence. We’ve mastered the art of stretching ₦5,000 to survive for days. Yet, no matter how much you plan, something always changes: the price of fuel, the cost of food, or the value of the naira. Survival has become a constant math problem.
These hardships have pushed us into budgeting apps, saving hacks, and endless money talks that earlier generations never needed at our age. But even in our struggle to stay afloat, we face another challenge, classism and elitism. While many youths are hustling to make ends meet, a small fraction live in a bubble of privilege, flaunting a lifestyle that feels miles away from reality. Social media amplifies it all. Influencers with “soft life” aesthetics flood our screens, making many feel like they’re not doing enough or not doing life right.
It’s a cruel kind of comparison, one that steals your joy and peace of mind. You start questioning your own progress, forgetting that survival here is already a full-time achievement. A 25-year-old abroad might be chasing dreams of owning property or building startups, while a 25-year-old in Nigeria is praying for stable electricity, planning to drink garri for dinner, and saving the remaining beans for breakfast. Still, we endure. We adapt. Because despite everything, Gen Z Nigerians keep showing up, tired, frustrated, but never defeated.
5. Finding Escape in Digital Spaces
One way my experience surviving Nigeria as a Gen Z feels bearable is through the internet. Social media, gaming, and online communities give us a brief escape from the chaos outside. When the noise of the real world becomes too loud, the digital space becomes our refuge. Online, we can breathe, express ourselves freely, and find people who understand the madness we live through daily.
Twitter trends, Instagram reels, and WhatsApp memes keep us laughing even when the streets are hard. Humour has become therapy for an entire generation trying to stay sane. We turn pain into punchlines, hardship into hashtags, and somehow make the world laugh at our struggles. The internet gives us power to speak, to connect, and to dream, even when everything around us feels limiting.
Digital spaces aren’t just for fun. They’re lifelines. They connect us to opportunities, friendships, and global conversations that make survival easier. But even that freedom has been attacked. We’ve survived a Twitter ban, a crypto ban, and several attempts to silence our voices, all on what we now jokingly call “Obasanjo’s internet.” Each ban reminds us that even our virtual freedom is fragile, controlled by leaders who don’t understand the world we live in.
As a Gen Z in Nigeria, we live in a bubble online, constantly defending our reality against other African countries, arguing about jollof rice supremacy, or debating politics on Elon Musk’s X. We fight for Nigeria, even when Nigeria doesn’t fight for us. We scroll through timelines that show how our lives pale in comparison to countries with working systems, yet we boast when we see other struggling nations, as if our pain is some badge of honour.
Between gambling, laughing, and protesting, we’re trying to fill the emptiness with purpose. We rage online, donate, organise, and hope for change, but sometimes it feels like we’re shouting into the void. We keep asking ourselves the haunting question: we’re doing all this, but for what?
6. The Pressure of Expectations
Surviving Nigeria as a Gen Z isn’t just about external struggles. It’s the internal pressure too. Families expect us to succeed, marry, and “make them proud,” often without understanding how different the world is now. The weight of expectations sits heavily on our shoulders, especially when you’re trying to build a life in a country that doesn’t give you a fair starting point.
But the system we live in doesn’t always make that possible. Balancing tradition with personal dreams can feel suffocating. In dealing with the Nigerian youth experience, you are expected to chase stability in an unstable country, to smile through the struggle, and to “just keep pushing.” It’s a silent battle between wanting to make your family proud and wanting to protect your own peace of mind.
This pressure often fuels anxiety, but it also ignites a fierce drive. The Nigerian youth experience has taught us to push through exhaustion, fear, and burnout, because the alternative is to fall behind. Our struggles don’t stop us from delivering; if anything, they make us stronger, sharper, and more creative. Even when everything feels like it’s falling apart, our personal drive keeps us going.
And when it comes to mental health? Most times, it’s not even a conversation. Therapy is expensive, and vulnerability is often mistaken for weakness. You just wake up, dust yourself off, and keep going. There’s no time to “not be okay.” We joke about our pain online, bury our stress in work or side hustles, and call it coping. Because in Nigeria, you don’t get the luxury to pause. You survive, and that survival becomes your strength.
7. The JAPA Reality
One of the biggest parts of my experience surviving Nigeria as a Gen Z is the reality of japa, the great escape. When growth feels impossible here, we run away. If the system won’t let us breathe, we find oxygen elsewhere. Nigerians are everywhere now, Canada, the UK, the US, Dubai, Ghana, building new lives and chasing the peace our home keeps denying us.
But even Japa life isn’t all rosy. Yes, it’s better. Steady light, working systems, dignity in labour, but new struggles emerge for your Nigerian youth experience. Racism, changing immigration laws, and subtle xenophobia remind you that you’re still an outsider. You leave home to find freedom, only to realise freedom comes with its own price. You have to work twice as hard to be seen as an equal, and even harder to prove you deserve to be there.
Still, the same Nigerian resilience shines abroad. We study, we work, we create, and we build the economies of other nations with our brilliance and diligence. Our nurses keep hospitals running, our engineers design systems, our tech experts innovate, and our artists export culture. But not everyone who leaves has pure intentions. The bad eggs also japa, staining the image of those who are genuinely trying to make something of their lives.
We are exporting our best minds, draining the country of the very people who could rebuild it. And the painful truth is, whether home or abroad, being Nigerian is not easy anywhere. You carry the weight of your country’s dysfunction everywhere you go. You love it, you miss it, but you can’t return to what keeps breaking you. That’s the paradox of the Nigerian Gen Z dream: we flee to live, but our hearts never truly escape.
8. Protesting and Demanding Change
Surviving Nigeria as a Gen Z also means refusing to be silent. From the EndSARS movement to everyday acts of advocacy, we’ve learned that our voices carry power. We organise online, march in the streets, and speak out against injustice, even when it feels like no one is listening. We may not win every battle, but silence is no longer an option. That courage to challenge the system, to demand better, is what defines our generation.
For me, EndSARS wasn’t just a hashtag; it was personal. I remember that day vividly. I was stuck on the express while travelling, and chaos broke out between the community and the police. I had to walk miles under the hot sun just to get to the same spot, my heart racing with fear and uncertainty. At one point, I was stopped by thugs, and the only thing that saved me was being recognised as a corps teacher in that area. The tension in the air was heavy; you could feel the anger, the pain, and the desperation of a people pushed too far.
What followed was horror. The vandalisation of businesses, the burning of dreams, the sleepless nights that came with fear of what might happen next. Then came the denial, the cover-ups, the silence from those in power. People died. Some were never found. And many who survived haven’t truly healed. We were already recovering from COVID, fighting to rebuild our lives, and then we watched our country break our spirits again.
EndSARS wasn’t just a protest against police brutality; it was a protest against everything broken in the system: corruption, unemployment, inequality, and hopelessness. But the saddest part is that while we fought for change, some of the same people who benefited from the oppression were the ones cheering us on. The same yahoo boys who fund chaos, the politicians who manipulate pain, the citizens who turn a blind eye. We are all, in one way or another, part of the problem.
Surviving Nigeria as a Gen Z means living with that contradiction. Fighting for justice in a country where the lines between victim and villain blur every day. We protested because we wanted better. We wanted peace, fairness, and dignity. And though the scars remain, one thing is certain: our generation saw the truth, stood up, and refused to stay silent ever again.
9. Holding on to Dreams
Despite the chaos, my experience surviving Nigeria as a Gen Z is still filled with dreams. We dream in colour, even in a world that feels grey. We picture better lives, careers abroad, successful businesses, thriving relationships, and peaceful homes. Hope has become our rebellion against a system designed to break us.
As a Gen Z in Nigeria, dreaming keeps us going. It’s the spark that refuses to die, even when reality feels unbearable. Every rejection, every hardship, every blackout only fuels our desire to create something better. We manifest, we plan, and we work like our lives depend on it because, in many ways, they do.
This relentless hope is proof that survival isn’t just about getting through the day; it’s about believing there’s still something worth fighting for. It’s about faith that one day, our hard work will mean more than just survival. It will mean freedom. Because no matter how harsh the storm gets, the Nigerian Gen Z spirit still looks to tomorrow and says, We move.
10. Redefining Survival as Strength
At the heart of my experience surviving Nigeria as a Gen Z is one undeniable truth: survival is strength. Every challenge we face, every blackout, rejection, policy change, and heartbreak, sharpens our resilience. We’ve learned to adapt, innovate, and rise again, no matter how many times life knocks us down.
We’re not just victims of a broken system; we’re architects of new ways to live, work, and dream. From tech startups built in one-room apartments to global careers launched from mobile phones, we keep proving that creativity can bloom even in chaos. We are rewriting what it means to be young, Nigerian, and hopeful in a country that often forgets its youth.
Survival here is no small feat, but it has forged us into a generation of fighters, builders, and visionaries. We may be tired, we may be bruised, but we are unbroken. Our scars tell stories of strength, and our dreams are blueprints for a better tomorrow. In the end, surviving Nigeria as a Gen Z isn’t just endurance, it’s evolution.
My experience surviving Nigeria as a Gen Z is proof that this generation is tougher than it looks. Despite unemployment, inflation, and constant uncertainty, we’ve learned to create opportunities, adapt, and thrive in ways no one prepared us for. We’ve turned frustration into innovation and pain into purpose.
Being Gen Z in Nigeria isn’t easy, but it’s shaping us into dreamers who don’t give up and innovators who find light even in the darkest corners. Every struggle sharpens us, every setback fuels us. Survival here is not just a struggle. It is a strength, a quiet kind of courage that refuses to break.
But beyond the strength, some questions haunt us all. How are you surviving? How long can you keep surviving? Will the next generation also have to fight just to exist? These are not questions to ignore. They are mirrors we must look into.
So share this. Let these questions echo, grow, and build in our hearts until we find the courage, the unity, and the vision to finally answer them. Not with words, but with change.
Till I come your way again, don’t forget to subscribe to Doyin’s Honest Notes and enjoy a drop of honey for your day…
Originally published by HoneyDrops Blog.