Nigeria’s digital space has been awash with intense and diverse arguments over a trending phenomenon tagged the “Olodo Uprising”. “Olodo” is a Yoruba word meaning a slow learner, or an unintelligent person.
The hip-hop artist Oludemilade Alejo, known professionally as YCee, triggered the national conversation during an interview on the Afropolitan Podcast, in which he lamented what he viewed as the normalisation of mediocrity and a decline in educational values.
In YCee’s words, ”Nigerian society is no longer celebrating academic excellence. It is not even Yahoo culture anymore, now we have a Peller culture. This Olodo uprising we are witnessing is terrible.”
Responding to YCee’s comment, a popular TikTok streamer, Habeeb Hamzat, known online as Peller,, describing the remarks as disrespectful to young creators who are charting legitimate career paths out of harsh economic conditions.
Also defending the content creation ecosystem, popular digital creator and university graduate, Amadou Elizabeth Aminata, known professionally as Jarvis, also uploaded a video response addressing the systemic issues pushing youth into alternative careers.
The “Olodo Uprising” comment subsequently drew heating arguments online for and against it, with a comedian, Carter Efe, posting the image of his alleged graduation certificate on which it was stated that he graduated with a “first Class Upper honours”, an honour which in reality doesn’t exist in any institution of higher learning.
Leave a comment