Erigga just can’t seem to stay out of the timeline’s crosshairs lately. Fresh off a very public feud with Davido, the rapper dropped another provocative one-liner and this time, the comments section wasted no time putting him in his place.
Erigga, born Erhiga Agarivbie, posted a blunt piece of social commentary on X: “The poorest people buy the newest phones because it’s the only status symbol they can actually finance.” It’s the kind of statement dressed up as street-smart wisdom a quick, quotable jab meant to sound like hard-earned insight about status, poverty, and consumer behavior.
The response was immediate, and it wasn’t kind. X user Odunayo (@streetwise00) fired back with exactly the kind of skepticism that seemed to speak for a lot of the replies: “Oga na lie u don come with your Cana parable,” followed by a string of laughing emojis a pointed way of accusing Erigga of dressing up a shaky generalization as profound, parable-style wisdom.
Part of what made this particular tweet land badly is timing. Erigga has been at the center of online controversy for weeks now, following a very public and very messy exchange with Afrobeats superstar Davido. It started on September 1, when Erigga posted a general shoutout to “all the musicians who don’t come from family money and had to grind for every single dollar they earn.” Though he never named anyone, Davido born into one of Nigeria’s wealthiest families took it personally, firing back in Pidgin and calling Erigga’s message “useless motivation” before labelling him an “imbecile.” Erigga clapped right back, branding Davido the “Ambassador of Rich Kids.”
That entire saga split social media, but notably, a large portion of the backlash actually landed on Davido many users pointed out that Erigga’s original post never mentioned him by name, accusing Davido of insecurity for making it personal. So walking into this new “poorest people buy the newest phones” tweet, Erigga arguably had more goodwill on his side than usual.
Except this time, the tweet doesn’t have the same built-in sympathy. Rather than a general shoutout to hard work, it’s a sweeping, somewhat condescending generalization about poor people’s spending habits the kind of statement that reads as judgment dressed up as insight, without any acknowledgment of the actual economic pressures (limited access to essential services without a smartphone, social and professional necessity, planned obsolescence, financing schemes) that often drive phone-buying decisions across every income bracket, not just lower-income ones.
