While women grind daily to survive, Delta’s midday streets tell another story—young men with tattoos and piercings loiter, smoke, gist, and waste away.
To onlookers, this isn’t just coincidence; it’s a culture that fuels the stereotype that men from Delta State are lazy.
In Effurun, Warri, Ruth burst into laughter when asked her thoughts. “Delta men? They are very lazy,” she stressed. “Na woman dey feed them.”
“Girls go de spend on guy and Dem still de collect beating ontop ”
• Fraud, flash, idleness
For many of the younger ones, hustling the hard way isn’t appealing. Some prefer fraud, parading in flashy cars, showering cash at clubs, and living off temporary highs.
It is not uncommon to see teenage boys and youths with earrings and tattoos, lounging in groups during work hours with no ambition, all they sit to gossip about is women they’ve laid with and plan to lay with, football, discuss celebrities and their network worth.
They want to make money but are not ready to struggle, they want it easy while women are out hustling for their families.
One woman narrated how she married her husband when he was thriving as a yahoo boy.
Back then, he rented a duplex, drove a luxury car, and took her shopping for designer clothes and bags.
She thought she had secured her dream life. But when the easy money ran out, he refused to work. She invested in a grocery store to keep the family afloat, only to watch it crumble, while her husband slept away the days.
“I’m tired,” she said, contemplating leaving the marriage.
I wish I had listened when friends and family warned me from dating a yahoo boy”
• Geh Geh’s controversial take
This debate gained fresh momentum after Geh Geh, a popular media personality, claimed on the Honest Bunch podcast that Nigerian women today see relationships as a form of employment.
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He went as far as urging men to stop marrying, insisting that in the past, women were the true providers.
“My dad got married because, in his era, it was women who work for men. Then the man is the king with plenty wives who work for him while he handles the authority and protection. The women work in the farm and provide for their husbands and children. But is it like that nowadays?” he asked.
• “This life, I can’t kill myself”
In many communities, the story is similar. Some men choose easy, low-effort jobs like collecting tickets from tricycle operators, while others echo the phrase “This life, I can’t kill myself” to excuse their refusal to hustle.
An Ughelli native pointed out: “If you go to my place and get to a construction site, you will see women carrying concrete and doing jobs meant for the masculine gender. In Jeddo town, women even butcher meat in the market. A lot of mothers are the ones raising the children.”
For grocery store owner Mommy Rukky, life has been a hard lesson. She once gave her husband her savings to start a business, but he squandered it.
Today, she singlehandedly pays the children’s school fees and feeds the family, while they live in her late parents’ home. “Na me dey pay children school fees. Na me dey put food for table. Na even for my papa house we dey stay,” she lamented.
• Not every Delta man is lazy
Still, it would be unfair to paint every Delta man with the same brush.
The state has produced some of Nigeria’s most hardworking and successful figures: Tony Elumelu, the globally respected investor and philanthropist; Jim Ovia, founder of Zenith Bank; Nduka Obaigbena, media mogul and founder of THISDAY and Arise News; the late Stephen Keshi and Austin “Jay-Jay” Okocha, football legends who brought pride to Nigeria; Richard Mofe-Damijo, Nollywood icon.
Alongside them are countless artisans, farmers, and professionals who work tirelessly but receive little attention.
• Beyond the label
While some Delta men are hardworking and responsible, the overwhelming testimonies of women struggling with idle partners keep the stereotype alive.
Perhaps the real issue isn’t just laziness but a growing culture where many young men chase shortcuts, comfort, and flash, while women shoulder the grind of survival.
crediblenewsng.com
