The Obidient Movement has criticised recent remarks by First Lady Senator Oluremi Tinubu encouraging Nigerians to embrace small-scale businesses such as selling akara, roasted corn and kuli-kuli, arguing that university graduates deserve opportunities that match their education and skills.
National Coordinator of the movement, Yunusa Tanko, Featuring in an interview on Arise Television’s ‘Prime Time’ on Wednesday, said although there is dignity in every legitimate means of livelihood, reducing the aspirations of graduates to petty trading reflects the deepening unemployment crisis confronting the country.
Tanko maintained that successive years of academic training should culminate in meaningful employment opportunities and a productive economy capable of absorbing skilled manpower.
“You cannot reduce university graduates to akara and roasted corn sellers. These young Nigerians spent years acquiring knowledge and competencies with the expectation that the nation would provide an enabling environment for them to thrive professionally,” he said.
He stressed that the movement was not demeaning small businesses but insisting that government policies should focus on industrial growth, innovation, entrepreneurship support and large-scale job creation rather than normalising economic survival strategies.
According to him, millions of educated youths are battling unemployment and underemployment despite possessing qualifications that could contribute significantly to national development.
“The issue is not whether selling akara or corn is honourable. Every honest job deserves respect. The real concern is that graduates should not be compelled by economic hardship and policy failures to abandon their dreams and settle for mere survival,” Tanko added.
The comments followed remarks by the First Lady after the second-quarter meeting of the Renewed Hope Initiative with wives of state governors at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, where she explained that beneficiaries of the programme received grants, not loans, to establish small businesses requiring little start-up capital.
“We’re trying to give hope, and to start an 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,” Mrs Tinubu had stated.
Her remarks triggered widespread reactions across social media and political circles, with critics describing them as evidence of a disconnect between the country’s leadership and the harsh economic realities confronting millions of Nigerians.
Others, however, defended the position, arguing that there is dignity in small-scale enterprises and that such ventures have sustained many families over the years.
The Presidency subsequently defended the First Lady’s comments, with Special Adviser to the President on Media and Public Communications, Sunday Dare, insisting that there was nothing demeaning about honest labour and entrepreneurship. Dare recalled that his mother sold akara, bananas and oranges to support the family while he assisted her as a child in Jos, Plateau State.
The debate has since reignited conversations about youth unemployment, the quality of opportunities available to graduates and the broader challenge of translating higher education into sustainable economic advancement in Nigeria.
