“We’re trying to give hope, and to start Akara business doesn’t take a lot of money. To start roasting corn, or somebody even said kuli kuli doesn’t take much. We didn’t give them a loan; we gave it to them as a grant. So we’ve encouraged Nigerians as best as we could. What is within our hands, I have given, and I keep giving”.

While First Lady, Remi Tinubu has been vocal about her stance to empower more Nigerian women, her empowerment strategies fall short and expose a quiet classism running underneath them. A few weeks ago, the same Remi Tinubu distributed brand new cars to APC women leaders as part of the Renewed Hope campaign ahead of her husband’s re-election in 2027. Those women, women in the calibre of the first lady, got new vehicles registered in their own names. One can’t help but question the sincerity of Remi Tinubu’s empowerment schemes when the tier of women you belong to determine whether you get a car or grants for kulikuli or akara.

Look at the math for a second. A brand new car in Nigeria today does not come cheap. We are talking millions of naira, registered, delivered, no repayment required for those APC women leaders. Now put that beside ₦50,000, handed to a market woman and framed as a life-changing empowerment package. That is not two versions of the same generosity. That is two different classes of Nigerian women, valued at two completely different prices by the same First Lady. The APC women leaders got mobility, status and an asset that appreciates their standing in the party while the said empowerment women received just enough money to buy beans and oil for one more week to fry akara.

It is shocking to see Remi call on Davido, Asake, and Burna Boy to help the poor. According to her, “Good cars are good; a Maybach is good. Rolls-Royce is good, but you can still help. The burden on the government is huge.” The same Remi Tinubu who was seen sharing cars for APC women leaders is now asking top individuals in the entertainment industry to help the poor. It’s high time we distinguished between charity and responsibility. The government is responsible for its citizens, not rich individuals paving the way for themselves. If Davido and others decide to start a charity foundation, we’d agree that such an act comes from love, not from responsibility placed on them.

Notably, on July 12, during the launch of the National Community Food Bank in Lokoja, Kogi State, Remi recounted how she empowered an unemployed graduate to expand his akara business. Let us note that frying akara should be a choice, not the only option available. In this graduate’s case, it’s probably more the only option he has left. In a working country, a graduate who spent four years in university shouldn’t be found frying akara for a living. If anything, it should be a side hustle, not the main plan. Unfortunately, the Nigerian government hasn’t provided real employment opportunities, and that’s why so many graduates are stuck doing menial jobs just to survive.

In a country battling unemployment, insecurity and hunger, Remi’s grants may be welcomed, but are they sustainable? Kulikuli and akara have always been around. Nigerians have consumed these snacks for generations, and our mothers have always been in the business of selling them. Frankly, this is not a new industry Remi is unlocking, it’s one that has existed with or without her. Realistically, Nigerian women do not need more grants to keep doing what they’ve always done. What they need is a better economy where frying akara is a choice, not the only option left standing for the masses.

Handing out grants while the wider economy keeps deteriorating is not empowerment, it’s a delay tactic. It keeps a woman busy enough to survive the week without addressing why she needed the grant in the first place. Real and proper empowerment doesn’t lead to a repeated cycle of hunger. Remi’s empowerment is where you give a little, get a headline, and let the real problems such as inflation, insecurity, and joblessness carry on untouched until the next round of empowerment is due. If the First Lady wants to be taken seriously on women’s empowerment, the test isn’t how many market women she can hand ₦50,000, it’s whether she can be as generous with scrutiny of the economic policies and suggest significant solutions to problems.

So what does actual empowerment look like? It’s not a one time grant. Actual empowerment is the access to money that doesn’t run out after one grant. In Nigeria, actual empowerment is the access to electricity that doesn’t go off in the middle of producing kulikuli and akara. Additionally, empowerment is access to a market bigger than the woman’s own street, and access to skills that help her kulikuli business grow after year one. No first world country got there by handing out grants. South Korea didn’t build its economy by empowering food vendors with grants. They invested in steel, shipping and electronics, and pushed their industries to compete and export. Singapore didn’t become a financial hub by empowering hawkers. They built ports, invested heavily in education, and made the country easy for investors to do business in. Even America, in its early years, built railroads, protected its own industries, and funded universities to train the workforce those industries needed. These were not gestures for a headline. These were decades of real commitment to building an economy that could carry ordinary people’s small businesses to something bigger.

So can kulikuli and akara build Nigeria’s economy? Not like this. A woman frying akara in Surulere does not need a one-time ₦50,000 grant. She needs light that doesn’t force her to buy fuel for a generator. She needs good roads that help get her akara supplies safely to her doorsteps. Moreover, she needs a Naira that isn’t losing value every other month so that the prices of beans and oil don’t double overnight. That is the difference between empowerment and charity. Charity solves today’s problem. Empowerment builds the system that makes tomorrow easier than today. If Nigeria really wants her akara and kulikuli sellers to become the next Dangote or Indomie, then the government needs to invest in the boring infrastructure that turns a frying pan into a factory, not by giving grants that keep a woman exactly where she started.

In another headline, the Nigerian government moved forward with borrowing a $5 billion loan from First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB) even after the IMF had already warned that such loan can reduce debt transparency. Nigeria has since collected $1.5 billion of it and this tells us what the government’s priorities are. Let’s look at the math once again, because it keeps getting worse the more you sit with it. A government that can access $5 billion from a foreign bank tells us that money is not the problem. The problem is misplaced priorities, who they decide is worth investing in. We decide on brand new cars for APC women leaders who have access to those already. Unfortunately for the woman frying akara on the roadside, ₦50,000 and continued hardship are all we can offer. Nigeria is not a country that lacks resources. It is just a country that has simply decided where its resources are allowed to go.

This is not to say akara, kulikuli, or roasted corn are unworthy trades. They are honest work and the women doing them have been holding this economy up since before “empowerment” became a buzzword in government headlines. But you cannot borrow billions and then turn to your poorest citizens with survival money and call it a policy. Real empowerment is not a grant handed out while economic hardship continues. It’s a government that borrows transparently, spends honestly, and builds the roads, power, and stable currency that improves the lives of the women selling akara on the roadside. Anything else is just a repeated cycle of hardship and suffering.

Finally, the Nigerian government needs to understand that empowerment actually requires systems, not grants. Nigerians want steady power supply, good facilities, security and opportunities that keep growing a business past its first year. Countries that got this right invested in structures. A government that can find $5 billion for a foreign bank deal cannot turn around and call ₦50,000 a solution for its poorest women. Akara and kulikuli were never the problem. The actual problem is the lack of will to build something bigger for the women selling akara and kulikuli on the streets.

Author
Angwaomaodoko, the founder of Ejuchegahi Angwa Foundation, and a scholar at Kean University, writes via [email protected]