By By Matthew Alugbin
The First Lady has spoken. In her recent press statement, which has generated a lot of controversy, she said: “We’re trying to give hope, and to start akara business doesn’t take a lot of money…”
There is the birth of a new economic theory. For years, economists bored us with “monetary policy,” “fiscal reform,” and “FX unification.” Those were too much grammar. The office of the First Lady has now given us something simpler that is more concrete. The office has discovered a formula older than IMF policies. We will leave academics and scholars to find a name for it. In the meantime, all we understand are the core principles. The country is already hot, and to fix the heat, we need to fry something.
Inflation rate is at 34%; youth unemployment is at 38%; public debt has surpassed ₦120 trillion; the national grid still generates an average of 5,500 megawatts; gas is at about 1400 per kg; and fuel is at about #1300 naira per litre. Yet all that is needed is the low startup cost to generate high profit margin. It is genius. It requires no refinery, port or road. All that is needed is a pot, some oil, and the ability to shout “Akara is ready!”
To be careful of this discussion, no one is mocking Akara. I agree that proceeds from akara have paid WAEC fees, sent many to universities, put roof on houses and tyres on cars. Many are doctors and professors today because of akara and its proceeds. Many Nigerians will fight anyone who disrespects the bean cake. So, the problem is not in the akara. The problem is the caption attached to it. The caption says: “Akara is your answer.”
When a man’s rent has moved from 200k to 500k in two years, when his transport fare now eats half his salary, when a bag of flour is about 75,000, and you hand them beans and say “go and fry,” you have not empowered them. You have insulted them. You have measured Nigeria and found it to be the size of a frying pan. This is a country with trillion-naira budget and billion dollars in loans, handing over grants for frying akara.
That is why the backlash came fast. Nigerians do not hate labour. What they detest is condescension. It sounds like a government that does not understand what the people are going through. It is deeply unsettling that a nation of over 200 million, blessed with abundant oil resources they cannot even refine, has been so reduced to be told that the ‘big news’ is a government grant for selling roasted akara, corn and kuli-kuli. Jokingly, we have normalised the abnormal: palliative has become the economic policy.
So should we stop frying? No! There is dignity in labour. But the people should not be deceived into thinking that frying is the same as fixing the economy. A country that has no stable electricity, no maximally functioning ports, no security on farmland for farmers, and no credit for real businesses cannot fry its way to prosperity. It can only fry its way to exhaustion. You cannot solve a macroeconomic crisis with a micro-fryer. To those frying akara, may your oil be plentiful. May your customers be many. May your children’s school fees be paid. You are the real economy.
We appreciate akara, corn, kulikuli and the grants. But Nigerians are not asking for a tray to hawk our way to survival. Nigerians are asking deeper questions about the future we were promised: Where is the light? Where are the jobs? Where is the security of life and property? Where is the country you promised us?
