Nigerian Businessman Femi Otedola has been trending on X this weekend after a post claiming his memoir opens with him in London went viral on Wednesday, July 23.
The user behind the original post, who goes by One Blood, wrote: “I bought Femi Otedola’s book, How to Become a Billionaire.
The moment I read the first sentence of Chapter 1 and realized he started his life in London, I just closed the book.”
That reaction pulled in others who described the same instinct. One X user said if the book had really opened that way, “I would have sent the book back and collect my money back.” Another user, Dark Orbit, joked that One Blood should have known better than to expect Otedola’s story to begin somewhere ordinary, naming Ojota, a working class transit hub in Lagos, as the setting readers actually wanted. Another commenter, Ayo_solace made a similar point. He wrote:
“If the background and goals of a writer are not similar to yours, I honestly don’t think you should follow their stories. The reality will never be the same.
If you were an extreme Lapo baby, you should follow the stories of someone who came from absolutely nothing and became something in line with what you also want to become.
All these motivational talks from privileged people aren’t for people like us.”
However, the claim is not accurate. Otedola’s memoir, titled Making It Big: Lessons from a Life in Business, actually opens with his birth on Festival Road in Lagos, Nigeria. But the false version of the opening line spread fast, because it matched something many readers already expected from a billionaire’s memoir, and it hit a nerve.
The common thread in these comments is not really about the facts of the story. It is about distance. It is not uncommon for young readers to open a business memoir hoping to see their own starting point shown somewhere in the story. Whether it’s a broke student, a rented room, a public bus, a struggling family business- A billionaire’s book beginning in London (even a false version of it) reads to them as proof the writer is out of touch with their world.
Another X user named Bukkie pushed the point further, arguing the book cannot function as a real rags to riches lesson because Otedola’s father, Michael Otedola, was already a powerful and wealthy man, a former governor of Lagos State, before Femi built anything of his own.
Femi Otedola Net Worth Nears $1.7 billion dollars
While the book jokes spread online, Otedola’s real financial position keeps climbing. His fortune now stands near $1.7 billion, up about $400 million since Forbes released its March 2026 billionaires list. Almost all of that gain comes from one stock.
Femi Otedola chairs First HoldCo, the parent company of First Bank of Nigeria. His shares in the company closed at ₦120.90 on Thursday, July 24, giving his stake a value near $875 million, more than half of his total tracked wealth. The stock has climbed 152 percent since the start of 2026, when it opened at ₦47.90.
First HoldCo posted pre-tax profit of ₦653.54 billion for the first half of the year, up 83.5 percent from the same period in 2025. The results pushed First HoldCo past Zenith Bank and Guaranty Trust Holding Company to become Nigeria’s most valuable banking stock by market value.
Otedola has kept buying shares as the price rises. On Wednesday, July 23, he spent ₦77.58 billion, about $56.2 million, on new shares at a price above the market rate that day. His stake in the bank has grown from 18.12 percent to 21.96 percent since the end of 2025. He funded much of the buying with proceeds from selling his controlling stake in Geregu Power for about $750 million in December 2025.
Femi Otedola has given no sign that he plans to slow down. A separate ₦253.1 billion capital raise approved by shareholders in May is still in progress.
