Frying Akara, Feeding the Nation: The Truth Behind the First Lady’s Grassroots Agenda

Frying Akara, Feeding the Nation: The Truth Behind the First Lady’s Grassroots Agenda

                By Akin Akinyemi

Some time ago, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, the First Lady of the Federal Republic, made what ordinarily should have passed as a grounded, deeply empathetic observation. She spoke of the humble art of frying akara and the roasting of corn not as symbols of stagnation, but as the very bedrock of grassroots economic survival. 

For her, these modest ventures represented the exact entry point for the empowerment grants being distributed across the nation under the auspices of her "Renewed Hope Initiative", a vital cornerstone of the President’s broader national agenda.

Yet, in an era where nuance is routinely sacrificed on the altar of clickbait, a manufactured controversy erupted. 

Mischief-makers swiftly weaponized her words, spinning a narrative that the First Lady was being insensitive to the searing economic hardships of the day. They claimed she was trivializing the grueling struggles of citizens facing a skyrocketing cost of living by suggesting that the road to salvation lay in a basin of frying oil or a wire mesh of roasting corn.

But let us rescue the truth from the clutches of deliberate distortion. The actual context of her remarks was an unvarnished, transparent update to correspondents regarding the strides of the Renewed Hope Initiative. She was drawing a sharp line between loans that burden the poor and grants that liberate them, emphatically stressing that the beauty of micro-ventures like frying akara lies precisely in their low barrier to entry. They do not require a mountain of capital to get off the ground; they require only opportunity and a willing pair of hands.

Rather than receiving acclaim as a dignified recognition of the African woman’s legendary resilience—whose elasticity and iron will remain undaunted by systemic deprivation—her innocent remarks were turned on their head. It was a classic display of social media theatre, but more importantly, it underpinned a much deeper, more tragic pathology: the failure of a vocal section of our society to fully comprehend the sheer, mind-boggling magnitude of the informal sector’s contribution to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

The True Engine Room: By The Numbers

Just so you know, the informal economy is not a marginal sideshow; it is the absolute powerhouse driving the Nigerian state. It does not merely support a significant portion of our population; it anchors the majority of the nation’s economic output. Let the data silence the doubters:

• The GDP Lion’s Share: Hard data from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Economics, and foremost local economic intelligence reports reveal that the informal sector commands a staggering 57% to 58% of Nigeria’s total GDP. This translates to an economic behemoth valued at well over $200 billion, pulsating completely outside formal regulatory frameworks.

• The Employment Shockwave: This sector accounts for 80% to 90% of total employment nationwide. In fact, the International Labour Organization (ILO) places Nigeria’s informal employment rate at an astonishing 92.8%. It functions as the ultimate social safety net, absorbing millions of job seekers who would otherwise be left stranded by a formal sector incapable of meeting the demand.

And herein lies the exact point Madam Tinubu was illuminating.

 Agriculture remains the single largest employer of labor in this country, and within that matrix, food processing and informal retail are king. What the President’s wife was articulating was a profound mathematical truth: the massive demographic of our population making a living off trades like akara and roasted corn must be the primary beneficiaries when life-changing grants are distributed. True to her character as a leader who refuses to bow to cheap blackmail, she stood her ground, fiercely defending her remarks and reiterating that small businesses are the most viable, time-tested path to economic independence.

Mapping the Informal Landscape

To truly appreciate this sector, one must understand that it is not a monolith. It is a diverse, vibrant ecosystem spanning several critical frontiers:

• Retail & General Trade (44%): By far the largest slice of the pie. This comprises the ubiquitous market traders, tireless street vendors, and open-air micro-merchants who power the daily, hyper-local velocity of consumer commerce.

• The Service Ecosystem: A sprawling, highly adaptable network of roadside mechanics, master tailors, fashion and beauty salons, and the indispensable operators of local transport—from the rugged commercial bus drivers to the swift delivery riders dodging traffic.

• Subsistence Agriculture: The bedrock that feeds the nation. Smallholder farming sustains the local supply chains that provide the raw ingredients for Akara, Moinmoin, Ofuloju, and the array of sumptuous meals skillfully prepared to nourish millions of Nigerians daily.

Fascinatingly, this revolution is young. Over 58% of informal business owners in Nigeria are under the age of 34. These are energetic youths driven into entrepreneurship by necessity, transforming raw survival instincts into economic productivity.

Yet, rather than joining hands to devise credible, systemic means to upscale this incredible pool of talent and resilience for social transformation, detractors prefer to throw tantrums from the sidelines. They ignore the brilliant adaptability staring them in the face. Consider the rapid technological leap: despite a historic, deeply entrenched preference for hard cash to maintain immediate liquidity, the informal sector is modernizing at breakneck speed. Digital fintech solutions and card payment terminal adoptions have exploded across Nigerian open markets over the last three years, carving out a digital footprint for businesses that were previously completely invisible to the financial system.

A Legacy of Courage and the Ogun State Horizon

Because this sector generates more than half of the nation's economic value, progressive policymakers are heavily focused on how to strategically integrate it into the formal fold through robust credit access and infrastructural support, rather than stifling it with heavy-handed, predatory regulations. This strategic clarity explains the First Lady’s unyielding consistency.

History reminds us that such elite disparagement of grassroots empowerment is not new. When the iconic Maryam Babangida launched the pioneering “Better Life for Rural Women” project, it was viciously attacked by critics who sought to pour cold water on a policy that possessed immense transformative potential.

But a self-assured, fiercely confident Oluremi Tinubu appears boisterous and entirely unstoppable in her determination to confront her critics head-on. Her visit to Lokoja underscored this defiant energy, where she candidly called upon Nigeria’s fabulously wealthy young entertainers to step up, seize the baton, and make a tangible impact on the lives of those dignified individuals who still live by the timeless Yoruba adage: “Awo lowo fi ń wá oúnjẹ fúnra rẹ̀”—the palm of an individual will not deceive him. What your bare hands find to do, accompanied by dignity and grit, can completely rewrite your destiny.

As she visits Ogun State, Mrs. Oluremi Tinubu will be coming along with this fierce, unyielding energy. Thousands more will benefit from her generous benevolence and unquenchable philanthropy. Let the critics shout; the engine room of the nation will keep running, fueled by an unstoppable grassroots revolution and a First Lady relentlessly driving it forward.

Akin Akinyemi is a social commentator and policy analyst based in Abeokuta.