The backlash against the First Lady, Senator Olurenmi Tinubu over her harmless advice on what we call ‘petty trading’ businesses in Nigeria should be another opportunity for fruitful national discourse rather than petty sentiments and futile banters.
Firstly, both the words of counsel and the financial support that the First Lady offered aren’t new. Many churches, religious leaders and kind hearted Nigerians do same, get accolades and likes. Preachers tell people to get jobs, even if it’s frying akara or any other petty trading while waiting for the ideal jobs. We applaud or nod in affirmation.
Why, then, is the First lady getting excoriated for saying and doing same thing we celebrated others for? The truth is that many of us aren’t interested in truth or falsehood but in who is saying it. Eventually, the issues in Nigeria are hardly about policies and decisions but who makes them. With this kind of mindset, National rebirth will be unnecessarily laborious if it escapes miscarriage or still birth.
Yet, the hullabaloo and criticisms raised over this issue is a strong message to her Excellency the first Lady, and this is why I’m writing this to her:
‘Ma, You have not done anything wrong by supporting akara, moi moi, kulikuli sellers and other petty traders. It is a noble thing and may God bless you for it. However, I advise you change your tactics. Use two stones to kill a bird. Your husband, Mr President, is looking like he is carving a niche for himself as the reform president. He is pushing Nigeria towards fiscal federalism and we support it.
Please use your influence as First Lady to complement what he is doing.
There are three tiers of government in Nigeria; Federal, State and Local governments. Local government autonomy is being frustrated by governors even though it has been constitutionally guaranteed. Please, when next you are going to share money to petty traders, go to the Local governments, hand over the money to them, ask them to share it to the people within their wards and open a register where all recipients will collect, sign and put their phone numbers.
Please don’t give to state governors or their wives, those ones should be too busy with spending FAC allocations on bigger state projects to have time to share money to commoners. If you do this, you are not only strengthening the restructuring of Nigeria that your husband should make his administration’s priority, you are also building a mechanism of accountability. Later on you call the phone numbers of the recipients of the money as submitted by LG chair persons to confirm if the poor people received what you were told they got.
While sharing such money to petty traders is good, building a better economy where people can work and be able to pay their bills by what they earn is the most important task for your husband as president with your help. So, in addition to these adhoc welfare packages, you can organize town hall meetings for women and enlighten them on why Nigeria needs restructuring, what more your husband’s presidency can do to achieve it and how they can help from the grassroots. If you even make Local government autonomy the mission of your FirstLadyship, you would have written your name in gold for posterity. We need a paradigm shift from first ladies of akara and Moimoi to first ladies of national orientation agents. It can start with you ma, it should start with you.
Remain blessed.”
