Ever looked at your friend and thought, “Wait, how are you always this soft?” They might be a nepo baby in disguise.
If your friend keeps moving like they have connections you can’t imagine, this list will help you confirm your suspicions. Here are 7 signs you’re not just friends with any Nigerian, you’re friends with a nepo baby.
It’s pool time, any time.
If you visit your friend’s place for the first time and you find out they have a pool, you may just be rolling with a nepo baby. Tunde* (31) shares how he found out his friend was better off than he initially thought.
“There was a place in the area I grew up where some neighbourhood kids would play ball on the weekends. I befriended one of the boys there, and after a hot, dusty game one Saturday, he suggested we go to his place to shower since it was closer. I thought he was a lower-middle-class boy like me, but omo, when I got there, I saw they had a massive house, with a couple of cars parked out front and a large pool at the back. His house was the first place I ever saw an inbuilt bidet. I never got even the slightest hint that he came from a rich home. I learned not to judge a book by its cover.”
When they ask you, “Where do you summer?”
Once your friend starts asking you where you prefer to spend your holidays –implying you have a choice– just know they’re living that nepo baby lifestyle. Derin* (28) shares how she realised she had stumbled into a rich clique conversation.
“I was around 16 years old at the time and had just sparked up a friendship with a few babes I met at a house party. We went out to eat pizza a few weeks later and we were just talking about school, boys and our lives. Then one of them asked, “So where do you like to summer?” and I started hearing different things. One of them said her family always did at least three weeks in Dubai, another said she loved the vibe of UK summers.
I had never even travelled out of Ibadan in my whole life, let alone left Nigeria. I just kept quiet and ate my pizza. I already knew where I was going to be spending my foreseeable “summers”.”
They don’t understand black tax.
It’s easy to clock that your friend is a nepo baby if your firstborn responsibilities shock them. Tomiwa* (27) shares how her friend couldn’t understand the responsibilities she was shouldering at home.
“It was at my first workplace that I realised truly, all fingers aren’t equal. I complained to my coworkers about my younger brother calling to ask me for money. Sending him that money was going to scatter some plans I had already made for my salary, but I didn’t feel like I had a choice. One of my coworkers was so confused. She was like, “Can’t he just ask your dad for the money since it’s not convenient for you? Just say no.” I just laughed. What would the poor boy eat?
I was avoiding my dad’s calls at the time because I knew he also wanted to ask me for money. I knew she didn’t understand. She was shocked when I explained how, as the firstborn, some financial responsibilities like my brother’s uni school fees and pocket money fell to me. Her reaction immediately showed she wasn’t from my side of town.”
You need a security code to visit.
If your friend needs to generate a code before you can enter their street, feel free to offer them up when it’s time to eat the rich; that’s a nepo baby. Tade* shares how his first visit to his friend’s place went.
“I made a new friend at a bar in 2024. We bonded because we were both going through the trenches. We met up at the same bar for drinks every week, and I would buy him beers and vice versa. He asked me to visit him at home one day, and that’s when I saw that he wasn’t relying on his salary alone. My first hint was that he sent me security codes and told me to show them at the estate gate and his building so they could let me in.
His apartment was amazing. His dad was big in construction and had gotten him an apartment in a very nice part of town. I joked that I didn’t know he was rich, and he said his family is not “rich, just comfortable.” That was the last week I paid for any of his beers, sha. He can afford it better than me, anyway.”
Their broke is not your broke.
Some people say they’re broke and mean they have only ₦2k left. Nepo babies say they’re broke and mean their main account is low. Not the real one. Zainab* (29) shares how her friend’s “brokenness” opened her eyes to her nepo privileges.
“My friend kept complaining to me on the phone that she was broke. I understood; we were all broke at that time. But then, after a while, she said she needed to eat something to spark joy and wished she had money to order some food. I consoled her and said I was craving a cake too, but we’d have to wait until salary day.
I hung up, and a few hours later, a delivery rider came by to drop off a cake. I called her immediately and I asked her what kind of broke person could still afford to buy cakes for other people. She said she called her dad and asked him for the money, and he sent it through. I just thought about my own dad and sighed. I imagined telling Baba Zainab that he should send me money for a cake when it’s not even my birthday. I know what I would have heard.”
They work for passion, not food.
Nepo babies aren’t trying to pay rent, they’re trying to fuel their passions. Tola* (25) shares what it’s like working with someone who wasn’t working to survive, but for the love of the game.
“I worked as a marketer to make ends meet, not because I fell in love with digital marketing. I had a coworker who was really passionate about sales and marketing. One time at lunch, I was telling my coworker about how I was looking for another job because the atmosphere at work had become more toxic. She agreed and told me how she was also planning to quit and take a few months off before diving back into marketing. I asked her how she planned to sort her bills if she was going to stop working for a few months. I thought she was going to tell me she had savings or something, but she just said her parents would cover everything while she rested. She said it so casually and confidently, I started praying to God that I have the grace to offer that kind of security to my own kids.”
They’ve never shared a room before university.
If your friend has always had their own room and never shared with siblings, cousins or their parents, chances are high that they’re a nepo baby. Bibire* (30) shares how her roommate struggled to adjust when she first went to university.“ I attended a federal university, and in the hostels there could be up to six or ten people in one room. On the first weekend of resumption, I saw that I was in a three-person room and felt extra lucky. When the other roommates came in, I noticed one of them, Ire* was finding it harder to adjust. When I spoke to her about it, I found that the root cause of her issues was that she wasn’t used to sharing a room and bathroom like we did in the hostel. I couldn’t relate. In my house, we had my parents’ room and the children’s room; that’s it. She didn’t spend another week in the hostel before her parents moved her to a single-person room in a private hostel. On the bright side, I only had one roommate for the rest of the year, so that was nice.”
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