“Gbogbo wa la máa jẹ breakfast.”
Everyone will eat breakfast. The timing will only be different.
Long before the phrase became a familiar punchline for heartbreak and before Burna Boy turned it into a globally recognised lyric, it was delivered in the characteristically deep, philosophical tone of late veteran Yoruba actor Taiwo Hassan, popularly known as Ogogo.
The expression came from Owo Blow, the 1996 three-part Yoruba Nollywood classic directed by Tade Ogidan, in which Ogogo delivered the memorable line: “Gbogbo wa la máa jẹ breakfast. Àsìkò tí oníkálukù máa jẹ ti ẹ̀, ọ̀tọ̀.” The expression, broadly understood as meaning that everyone will experience heartbreak, but at different times, later took on a life of its own beyond the film.
By 2020 and 2021, the phrase had found a new audience on Nigerian social media, where snippets of Ogogo’s old performance were repurposed in memes and conversations about relationships, disappointment and the unpredictability of life. Evidence from 2021 shows the expression was already widely understood and used colloquially before it appeared in Burna Boy’s music.
Then came 2022.
Burna Boy’s “Last Last”, released in May that year, gave the phrase a new level of visibility with the now-famous line, “Last last, na everybody go chop breakfast.” The song transformed a decades-old Yoruba movie expression into a global pop-culture reference.
Four years later, the lyric remains part of everyday Nigerian slang.
But perhaps the most poignant moment in the story of “breakfast” has come only recently, breaking the hearts of Nigerians and movie lovers.
Ogogo died on August 23, 2026, at the age of 66, after a battle with stage-four cancer. His death has prompted tributes across Nigeria’s entertainment industry and renewed attention to the legacy of the actor whose words helped give Nigerians a humorous vocabulary for one of life’s oldest pains.
Yet behind the jokes about who has been “served breakfast” are people dealing with loneliness, sadness, rejection and, sometimes, a painful struggle to find themselves again.
For Chioma, 29, the end of her long-distance relationship was more than the loss of a partner. The breakup left her feeling rejected and emotionally overwhelmed.
“I felt rejected, but I wasn’t angry. There was a mix of different emotions, and I felt like I was almost losing myself. Breathing became difficult for me,” she said.
The emotional toll soon began to affect other areas of her life. She lost interest in things she previously enjoyed, cried almost every night and struggled to concentrate at work. She also found herself constantly checking her phone, hoping her former partner had changed his mind.
But keeping tabs on him eventually made the situation worse. She monitored his status and found herself questioning her decisions based on what he posted.
“I realised I was gradually losing myself because I started stalking his status. Every post he shared would always leave me questioning myself. This way, I wouldn’t be able to get the healing that I needed, so I deleted his number,” she said.
Chioma’s experience reveals the side of “breakfast” that is often hidden beneath the humour of the expression: the emotional turmoil that can follow the end of a relationship and the difficult process of rebuilding one’s sense of self.
Romantic relationships end for different reasons. After a breakup, both parties may have their own interpretation of what went wrong and what the other person should have done differently.
For Ade, the breakup did not come with a dramatic fight or a shocking discovery. Instead, it came through a conversation he never expected to have.
After almost two years together, his girlfriend told him she no longer felt the same way about him.
“I pretended I was okay,” Ade said.
The separation soon began to disrupt other aspects of his life.
“I would see her online and post normally while I was struggling to get through the day,” he said.
But while Ade was dealing with the loss privately, he also felt the pressure to maintain the appearance of emotional strength.
“I’m a guy, and there’s always this expectation that men shouldn’t be too emotional. I didn’t really know how to explain that I was genuinely hurting,” he said.
His experience highlights an often-overlooked dimension of heartbreak. While emotional pain following relationship breakups may be discussed more openly when it involves women, men can also experience profound loss while feeling pressured to suppress or minimise their emotions.
The Pain Behind the Joke
Clinical Psychologist and Trauma Coach, Adewusi Ayonitemi Ameerah, said heartbreak can be deeply painful because people are not simply losing a romantic partner. They may also be losing emotional security, companionship, familiar routines, shared plans and a future they had imagined together.
“When relationships fail, the mind needs time to adjust to the evolving reality,” she said.
According to her, the strong attachment that develops in romantic relationships means separation can trigger a grief response, resulting in sadness, anxiety, anger, rumination and feelings of rejection or abandonment.
Rejection can also affect self-esteem, causing people to question themselves and dwell on what they believe they did wrong. The emotional stress may also affect sleep, appetite, concentration and energy.
But in a culture where heartbreak is increasingly packaged as a joke, humour can serve two very different purposes.
“Humour can be a coping mechanism. Sometimes being able to laugh about a painful experience helps people feel less alone and also makes it easier to talk about what they are experiencing,” Ameerah said.
However, she warned that humour can also conceal distress.
Someone may joke about being “served breakfast” while privately struggling with sadness, loneliness or declining self-esteem. Humour becomes helpful when it exists alongside emotional expression and social support, but it becomes concerning when it prevents a person from acknowledging the pain or seeking help when necessary.
Learning to Heal
There is no universal deadline for recovering from a breakup, Ameerah said. The process can depend on the length and significance of the relationship, how it ended, previous experiences with heartbreak and the person’s support system.
Professional support may become necessary when distress persists and begins to interfere with everyday life, including sleep, appetite, concentration or personal hygiene.
But healing does not necessarily mean forgetting the person or pretending the relationship never happened.
“Healing is not necessarily about forgetting the person; it is about reaching a point where the relationship is part of your history rather than the centre of your identity,” she said.
Recovery, she explained, is about rebuilding a sense of self that is independent, authentic and grounded in one’s own values.
“You may eventually realise that you did not lose yourself; you discovered parts of yourself that now needs to be reclaimed,” she said.
Ogogo’s famous expression suggested that heartbreak, like breakfast, would eventually come to everyone. Decades later, Nigerians have turned the words into memes, music, jokes and a shorthand for romantic disappointment.
But Chioma’s experience shows that being “served breakfast” can mean sleepless nights, tears and the painful feeling of losing oneself. Ade’s story shows that sometimes the person hurting most may be the one insisting he is fine.
For all its humour, “breakfast” is still heartbreak by another name.
And behind the laughter is the much less amusing work of learning to let go, reclaim one’s identity and find a way to live beyond the loss.
