For Gen Z in Nigeria, it arrived like a bad network signal. One day you could refresh your screen and see opportunity and the next day, everything loaded endlessly and nothing appeared. Jobs promised in

The report cards used to arrived every thursday, thick papers, put inside brown envelopes, sealed with the school emblem like a warning. From the moment the class prefect began calling names, a heaviness

There was this small restaurant I visited almost every morning, on my way to work partly for the tea they brewed, but mostly because of “her” the other waiter. She wasn’t the one calling out orders or

The hall was silent except for the scratching of pens and the ticking of the wall clock. Tunde stared at the final question, the one he had avoided for the past two hours. His mind was blank completely,

Kunle “Strings” Adeyemi was the force behind countless Lagos hits, every cast had his name in it, but buried deep amongst those acknowledged but no one ever looked that deep, he was a session musician

The sun had almost set, it was now orange in the sky over Alexandria’s harbor, reflecting on the British gunboat drifting in like an unwelcome bad omen. Fishermen paused, merchants stopped haggling, and

Rain hammered the rusted roof as pops stared at the ledger. Debts climbed like kilimanjaro mountain with no way down. But when his young daughter slipped a crayon drawing into his hand, two figures holding

Living with anxiety in a third-world country often feels like fighting a silent war in a place where no one believes the battlefield is real, its like your shadow boxing to people. Here, anxiety isn’t

In otiti village, everyone knew when somebody suddenly “hammered.”(that means became rich or succesful) New cloths, loud greetings, fresh swagger, new cars, huge mansion in the village, in short money

Everyone in the neighborhood thought Kene was always talking to himself when he was outside walking about. Walking around Ajah with an empty leash, calling, “Ndu! Come here!” would make anyone look suspicious

Timi stared at his screen, refreshing the Ecency app for the tenth time that evening. Always looking at the notification section. Another post, another single upvote but it was not valuable, the reward

Amina’s slippers flapped against the red earth as she ran through the narrow streets of Kawo. The evening sun dipped low, it was yellowish-orange sunset. Market women were packing up their tomatoes and

The neighbors cursed the noise of her generator. The Company hadn’t brought light in days, yet the government promised “electricity”. When officials arrived to collect electricity levies, she laughed.

Mark never believed love could hurt. Not the way razors cut, not the way fire burns, but he found himself wishing for physical pain than whatever this pain was. He believed in love wholeheartedly without

In Kad city, everyone loved Musa’s suya. People said it tasted different, spicier and tastier than anything they had ever tried. Some joked that he had a secret ingredient, Others said he must have made

When Mina moved to Kano for her new job, it was the first time she'd left her hometown where she'd grown and been all her life. The keke napeps hissed, the streets buzzed, and the people rushed past her

There is a certain ache you learn to live with when you grow up in a third-world country, especially after attining adulthood, an ache that settles quietly in your chest, reminding you every day that dreaming

Adam wasn’t just a minority in Nigeria he was a minority everywhere. He came from a tribe so small that most Nigerians didn’t know it existed, He was from Taraba State and those who did often mispronounced

In the quiet of the Waec exam hall, only the turning of papers could be heared and even the fans could not do anything about the heat but still Musa’s pen moved fast too fast. He had studied all night,

When K.B lost his junior brother, the world turned quiet too quiet, tears flowed uncontrollably. He was like a child sobbing uncontrollably with mucus hanging fromhis nose. It was the kind of silence that