Nigeria’s First Lady, Oluremi Tinubu, has strongly defended her controversial remarks about empowering women through petty trading, insisting that grassroots businesses deserve government support.
Speaking on Saturday at the launch of a national community food bank scheme in Lokoja, Kogi State, Mrs. Tinubu addressed the widespread criticism she faced last month.
In June, she had suggested that government grants could be used to help women start small-scale businesses, such as frying akara (bean cakes), roasting corn, and processing kuli-kuli (peanut cakes).
The remarks drew a backlash from some public groups, including the Yoruba union Ìgbìnmọ́ Májékóbájé Ilé-Yorùbá, who accused her of trivialising the economic struggles of Nigerian women. The comments even led her husband, President Bola Tinubu, to playfully nickname her “Iya Alakara” (the bean cake seller) during a recent press dinner.
However, the First Lady stood firmly by the initiative on Saturday, adding pepper, vegetable, and okra sellers to her list of targeted beneficiaries.
“The burden on the government is huge,” Mrs. Tinubu said, defending the scope of her Renewed Hope Initiative. “There are pepper sellers, vegetable sellers, okra sellers… akara sellers. Akara is delicious, I can tell you that.”
To justify her focus on the informal sector, she shared the story of an unemployed graduate in Abuja who had resorted to selling bean cakes.
“We approached him—I didn’t put my name to it—and we equipped him more,” she claimed. “He now has 12 workers working under him, and he’s doing very, very well.”
During her address, the First Lady also turned her attention to Nigeria’s wealthy entertainment industry, challenging its biggest global stars to set up charitable foundations to assist the poor.
“They make the Burna Boys of this world, the Asakes, all of them, Davido—we want to see you with one foundation or the other, helping the poor with your money,” she said, citing the international music icon Akon as an example of philanthropy.
“Good cars are good, a Maybach is good, a Rolls-Royce is good, but still, you can help,” she added.
Despite the political row, Mrs. Tinubu signaled that the grassroots funding will continue. Under the scheme, she recently distributed ₦50,000 (£20; $26) grants to 2,000 petty traders during a official visit to Jigawa State.
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