Let’s be honest — gone are the days when university students only worried about passing GST, dodging attendance sheets, and collecting handouts. Today’s Nigerian student is not just a student. They are:

A student by day ✅

A fashion plug / hair stylist / crypto trader by night ✅

A POS operator on weekends ✅

And a part-time philosopher wondering, “Is this really what education is supposed to be?” 😩

University is no longer a phase of learning. It’s now a battlefield of survival.

The Hustle Has Become the New Curriculum

Ask any student, “How’s school?” and they won’t tell you about lectures. They’ll tell you:

“Guy, this my baking hustle dey move small small.”

“I wan drop new thrift arrivals, help me repost.”

“Abeg, book no gree enter head, but alert go soon enter account.”

At first glance, it looks beautiful — self-reliant, street-smart, financially alert youth!

But dig deeper and you’ll realize something darker:

Most of them aren’t hustling because they want to. They hustle because they have to.

Allowance is not enough.

Parents are struggling.

Lecturers are on strike twice a year.

Hostel life is expensive.

Inflation is slapping left, right, center.

So instead of focusing on their books, they’re calculating profit margins during lectures.

The Psychological Cost Nobody Talks About

Balancing academics with hustle sounds like “grind culture”, but in reality, it’s chronic exhaustion wearing a determined smile.

You attend lectures sleepy because you were sewing wigs till 2am.

You miss group discussions because you went for deliveries.

You can’t read at night because NEPA took light and your power bank is dead from charging customers’ phones at your POS.

You’re praised as “hardworking”, but deep down, you’re burning out at 21.

So… Is Hustling in School Empowering or Evidence of Failure?

Let’s be fair — some students have discovered purpose and financial independence through side hustles. Some built real businesses before graduation.

But for many others, hustle is not empowerment — it’s economic trauma masked as ambition.

Education was supposed to be the way out of poverty. Now, education plus hustle is still not enough.

The Big Question

Must students suffer before they succeed?

Or should the system be restructured so that students can focus on learning without selling recharge cards between lectures?

Your Turn — Drop Your Thoughts 👇🏽

1. Do you think student hustling is admirable or a sign that the system has failed?

2. If you were given ₦200,000 monthly as a student, would you still hustle? Be honest.

3. Should universities include entrepreneurship officially in the timetable — or let students just face their books?

Let’s argue in the comments, but respectfully o! 😅