By Kenny Ola
The recent statement pronounced by the Nigerian First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, portrays more than survival in the face of inflation. It depicts more than empowerment amid the state of uncertainty. It quietly reveals the economic situation in Nigeria, the desperation of countless Nigerians struggling with this reality, the dignity of honest labour and the power of communication in political and social contexts. A suggestion of akara business for women at grass-roots level has sparked a storm of protest around the country, igniting public commentaries and fuelling the rage of Nigerians battling with economic difficulties.
A short clip intended to bring succour to Nigerians faced with harsh economic realities has generated national controversies between the government and the governed. A piece of advice on livelihood suddenly becomes a spark that triggers the raging thirst of Nigerians for instant revolution. Every news headline that bears the country’s economic state is not merely welcome with constructive criticisms, but with severe castigation. This is not just the current situation in Nigeria; it is the new personality every Nigerian wears when confronted with economic discourse.
Prior to the emergence of white-collar jobs, Nigeria was a country that derived its immense economy from its rich cultural heritage, traditional businesses and indigenous trades. It was a country that strongly believed that work is honest when it is done with hands. And poverty is presumed to be born not just of the mediocrity of the mind, but of the hands. That is the level of prominence placed on the nobility of work done with hands, rather than heads alone. What this depicts is not just diligence; it is culture of a people whose entire growth owes so much to hard labour. This act of diligence is vividly captured in the Yoruba saying that: “diligence is an antidote to indigence”, a saying that reveals a humble beginning shaped by industriousness and preserved by consistency.
Nigerian scholarship is moulded by entrepreneurship because foremost Nigerian graduates were sponsored to schools through honest trades and small-scale businesses. Professors are privileged to be schooled through the sweat that comes with manual labour, judges become enviable individuals by virtue of the money earned through tireless hawking and physicians become an object of honour through eyes swollen from constant exposure to smoke from wood fires. Nigerian scholarship is grounded on the dexterity of the hands, the diligence of the mind and the reward of hard labour. This is not to encourage menial jobs; it is to clarify the fact that today’s greatness is birthed from yesterday’s hard labour. And the dignity of labour is not measured by how largely it starts, but by how humbly it endures.
The acculturation of Nigerians has made countless Nigerians dismiss the very beginning that moulds them. The foundation of the country is not moulded by physicians, software engineers or accountants. The very foundation of the country is built by farmers, by traders and by fishermen who believe that one’s breakthrough lies in one’s hands and whose labour births individuals who now despise the hands that feed them. This leads us to society that breeds young people who take immense pride in content creation than job creation. The one who does content creation is assured better posterity but the one who humbly begins a modest trade is looked down on. When young people begin to think that economic progress is tied almost exclusively to visibility rather than value, the modesty on which a humble beginning is built begins to collapse.
Unemployment pervades every corner of the country, not just because there is nothing to lay hands on, but because education has been misconstrued to mean entrepreneurship solely belongs to the uneducated ones and white-collar jobs remain the only source of livelihood for the learned ones. We now live in the age where young people believe that if it doesn’t make headlines, it is not worth doing. Education that is expected to modernise the traditional and indigenous means of income and turn manual dexterity to automatic productivity has been misused to set unhealthy hierarchies of occupations. Frustration now becomes the only drive that compels us to our indigenous and traditional trades. History has recorded success stories of individuals whose lives experience a sudden turnaround after engaging in a business many might consider beneath their standards. Scholarship unexpectedly becomes a quiet route to escape entrepreneurship, a source of income that has enriched the economies of many countries and liberated their citizens from the unforgiving hands of unemployment. Entrepreneurship becomes enviable when supported by scholarship, not when both are in competition.
However, the public outcries should not be perceived as mere noise. They should not be seen as ordinary hearsay meant to disrupt national peace. They should be understood as the despair of a nation riddled with the depths of uncertainty. When citizens lose hope in governance, every move taken by the government becomes suspicious and every statement is misinterpreted to be a strategy employed to worsen the wounds. Preaching entrepreneurship without strong financial and institutional support will seem like a trap in the view of a people struggling to put food in their mouths. Government must understand that a nation’s economy doesn’t grow when every citizen turns to entrepreneurship. The desperation of Nigerian graduates must be met with enough employment opportunities. Government should make provision for a balance between entrepreneurship and scholarship. A citizen pushed into entrepreneurship out of frustration cannot sustain it. Likewise, a nation’s economy does not expand when every citizen becomes a banker, a surgeon or a software engineer.
Highlighting institutional backing does not lessen personal reflections. Graduates must rethink education beyond acquiring white-collar jobs. Education should solve problems, not deepen them. Young people must understand that visibility is not value and prosperity lives where patience and perseverance meet. Consequently, entrepreneurship does not solely belong to the uneducated ones; it is as well open to the learned ones to practise. And the result is innovation when scholarship is combined with entrepreneurship to create value, sustain originality and provide employment opportunities.
The akara business may not be the thrust of the discourse. The kulikuli empowerment may not be the gist of the message. The meat of the matter may be survival. It may be freedom from the shackles of hunger, inflation and unemployment.
