This West African country speaks over 500 languages, as well as slang. The Nigerian slangs are usually so funny that you will wish you were a Nigerian so you could understand them.
Another thing about Nigerian slang is that it sometimes means something completely different in other countries. Here are five of them.
In many places “How far?” means you’re asking about the distance from a place. In Nigeria, it means something else. When someone says, “How far?” they could be asking you, how are you, or about a discussion you guys had earlier, or it could even be used to say hello.
The dictionary meaning of trenches is a long, narrow ditch or a long, narrow, deep depression in an ocean bed. In Nigeria? Trenches mean something totally different.
When someone says they are in the trenches, it means they are living a poor life, one filled with poverty. Trenches are also associated with your life in the past when you didn’t have good clothes and it could also refer to rural locations.
In the English language, the phrase “I’m coming” means you’re actually moving toward the person you’re talking to. In Nigeria, it is something different. If someone says, I’m coming, they may be moving away from you and mean that they will be returning shortly.
A chairman is someone who presides at a meeting or heads a committee, or board, at least that’s what the Collins dictionary says. In Nigeria, that is not what it means.
When a person says that’s my chairman, the meaning could range from someone who you always ask for favors, to someone whom you hold in high regard to even someone you’re romantically involved with.
Breakfast is supposed to be the first meal of the day. More recently, it is used in Nigeria to refer to getting a heartbreak.
So when person A ends a relationship with person B and person B is left heartbroken, it is said that person A has served person B breakfast. Now breakfast in this situation could be hot or cold depending on the level of pain experienced by the receiver.
