By Adekunle Adekoya
Since last
weekend, the internet was literally rent asunder over remarks made by
the wife of the President, Senator Oluremi Tinubu. In a video which went viral,
the First Lady, in company of other ladies of the realm, was seen advising
people, especially womenfolk, to engage in cottage enterprises like frying akara for sale, roasting corn for sale,
as well as making cakes from groundnut paste. Cakes made from groundnut paste
is what we call kulikuli here.
A seemingly
honest-to-God advice, you would say, abi? But many Nigerians thought otherwise.
Internet content makers invaded Facebook and Tik-Tok, with skits on akara frying, corn roasting, and kulikuli selling. I saw one, against the
backdrop of a London street, where corn was being roasted and kulikuli was on sale, with exhortation
to viewers not to take the First lady’s advice lightly, as they would smile to
the banks if they take up the enterprise.
Of course,
while some of the skits were made with real life characters, a majority of them
that trended heavily were obviously made with AI, or Artificial Intelligence.
Even the president was not spared, as there were skits showing him hawking akara in full agbada on the streets. There was another one, that showed the First
Lady and the President sitting at a roadside, roasting corn, and asking
passers-by to buy. Very funny, no?
But I think it is apt to construct and deconstruct
the First Lady’s advice in terms of the realities faced by ordinary Nigerians
as they struggle daily to make ends meet.
First, not
a few people that I know have prospered by frying akara for sale. Indeed,
frying akara is a common thing in
Yorubaland. It features as part of foods at the funeral of departed fathers and
mothers. It is also made and eaten at the anniversaries of the deaths of
departed parents. Commercially, the most successful, iconic akara seller is the woman at Osu, near
Ilesa, in Osun State. In 1984, on my way to Ijero-Ekiti where I was posted for
NYSC, I remember seeing young girls dressed in turquoise blue frocks selling akara to motorists and their passengers.
I have eaten the Osu akara on many
occasions.
Even today,
other akara sellers, modelling after
the Osu one can be seen along the road at Ikire, on the Ibadan-Ife-Ilesa
expressway. In many towns and cities of western Nigeria, there exist thousands
of Iya Alakara, whose lifelong
occupation has been frying akara for sale. Nothing novel in it. Nothing bad in
selling akara. Or corn.
Even kulikuli, a popular snack introduced
into Yorubaland by Northerners, is a commodity whose preparation has become an
industry. From getting the required quantity of groundnut, de-husking it, and
making a paste out of it after extracting the oil, and packaging it for sale,
it has become a huge enterprise, whose value nationwide can be estimated in
billions of naira. It may shock people to discover that not a few Nigerians
have succeeded in life selling akara,
kulikuli or corn.
To be
candid, almost all the fruits we eat today in Southern Nigeria are sold in
wheelbarrows by migrants from the North. Everywhere, you see them selling
oranges, water melons, mangoes, carrots, and the like. What hits me is that
youths of Southern Nigeria think these undertakings beneath their dignity, and
I think they are wrong, for many of these migrants from the North sustain
themselves and remit money back home for the upkeep of their families a with
proceeds from sales of fruits alone. Some of them have two, three wives, and as
much as eight, nine children.
The downside of the First Lady’s exhortation as it
concerns frying akara for sale
probably came when she suggested that as little as N50,000 can be enough to
start an akara-frying enterprise. I
think that is what probably triggered the backlash and resultant skits.
It is
simply impossible today, with the state of things in Nigeria, to start an akara-frying enterprise with N50,000.
For a starter, the items needed will include a frying pan or small basin, a gas
stove or charcoal burner, at least two litres of oil, at least one paint bucket
of beans, and a visible place, usually a bus stop or some other suitable place
along a road. Can N50,000 cover all these, with the cost of gas, charcoal, cost
of vegetable oil? And we haven’t added incidentals like people who will collect
“rent” for the space to be used! It is this disconnect that triggered the
skits.
That is
where the problem is. There is a huge chasm disconnecting those managing our
affairs from our day-to-day experiences. That disconnection manifested
earlier.
Last week,
Special Adviser to the President on Media & Publicity, Mr Adebayo Onanuga
said during an interview on Arise Television that he couldn’t see the hunger
Nigerians are complaining of. Would people complain if things were right with
them? Will a child cry if not hungry or beaten? If a presidential spokesman
cannot see hunger in the land, how can the First Lady see that N50,000 cannot
start an akara venture?
Now that the Presidential Villa in Abuja is said to
be powered by renewable solar energy, can anybody who lives and works there
still share the pains we endure daily from providers of public electricity? As
I write, there has been an outage in my part of Lagos since Tuesday. No idea
when supply will be restored. How can a governor or president see our pain? He
cannot, because he is too far away from us, and never bothers to check on us to
see how we are doing. In all, a little more empathy for us from those ruling us
will make a difference in how they approach running government for the people.
Abi?
*Adekoya is a commentator on public issues
