By Kelechi Deca
“Destruction of the poor is his poverty
Destruction of your soul is vanity
Do you hear”
—- Bujun Banton (Destiny)
Maria Antoinette was the Queen of France, married at 18 to seal a peace treaty between France and Austria, she lived from one palace to another palace totally inurred to the world outside.
At the heat of the French Revolution, her royal carriage was passing through the gates of the palace when hundreds of women lining up the route shouted to her hearing crying out that “Il n’ya pas du pain,” meaning ” there is no bread.”
The Queen was quoted to have replied that “S’il n’y a pas du pain, qu’ils mangent de la brioche” meaning that they should eat cake if there’s no bread.
The Queen who has never known scarcity was thinking from an abundance mindset of choices. She thought the women were battling with issues of choices between bread and cakes.
That response led to a massive explosion as words went round Paris pointing out the level of insensitivity of the French royalty who were despicably disconnected from the realities of the people.
I started writing this in response to the fervent zealotry of “Akara Economics” evangelism which in my view is an acknowledgement by the government countering Mr. Bayo Onanuga’s denial of hardship in Nigeria.
However, the First Lady’s suggestion on the need for Nigerian women to embrace frying akara or selling kuli-kuli as not only poverty emancipation strategy reveals a profound misunderstanding of the structural nature of poverty.
And it is not also a surprise that it is coming from a hallowed pedestal that has never known poverty because most rich people strongly believe they know why the poor is poor and can provide myriads of suggestions on how the poor can overcome poverty.
Tellingly, The rich and positionally well-off seem to view poverty from a distance, mistaking statistics for suffering. They mostly pontificate about bootstraps while never feeling their calluses.
And for those who think they have poor people around them, it is imperative to note that proximity is not understanding. Even former poor people who beat their chests eulogising their experience as grounds to preach and educate the poor, I should equally let them know that survival is not expertise.
That’s why I think that this constant refrain by most people who escaped poverty in presuming that their paths are easily replicable is the height of arrogance. It is to erase another’s barriers, obstacles such as illness, geography, systemic traps.
The assertion that “to start akara business doesn’t take a lot of money” trivialises the devastating economic realities millions of Nigerians face daily.
The Nigerian government and their supporters have refused to recognize that poverty is not a monolith, and no one’s past qualifies them to dictate another’s future.
This tokenistic approach fails to acknowledge that 93% of Nigeria’s workforce is already trapped in informal, “survivalist” employment, the very category these businesses occupy. This is a point Prof. Moses Ochonu highlighted in his post on this issue.
The informal sector, while a safety net, represents economic stagnation, not progress because while the shadow economy supports millions, its persistence creates major obstacles to national development and perpetuates cycles of poverty.
Moreso, demands for Akara and Kulikuli are at a level where it is below supply. How many street corners do you think that if a woman sets up an Akara joint tomorrow, “market go sell well well”, that doesn’t have an Akara seller?
Does Madam First Lady know how many Nigerians that have stopped buying Akara because in their scale of preference, Akara has become a luxury and opportunity cost for noodles?
I have tried to set up about three women in this Lagos on that “fry something” economic pattern. Of those three, only one remained in business for up to a year.
Yes, it helped her to escape over dependency on her husband, but the lessons from why the other two failed taught me a lot to understand why the only one succeeded for up to a year.
The core failure of this thinking of the government and their agents lies in conflating subsistence survival with genuine empowerment. Grants for petty trading do not address challenges other businesses face.
Is Madam First Lady aware of how much unofficial taxes street vendors pay daily whether they sold anything or not?
In a society where approximately 63% of Nigeria’s population which is over 133 million people live in multidimensional poverty which goes beyond income, because it tracks deprivations in four primary areas such as health, education, living standards, and work/security frying Akara is not a poverty alleviation strategy.
To reduce the systemic crisis of poverty to an individual’s failure to fry Akara as a sure route of overcoming poverty which many Nigerian women are not taking is to insult the struggles of millions.
I have been reading a lot from supporters of this Akara advice saying that “at least it is better than nothing,” try to use that line to gaslight others with cheap virtue signalling.
But we need to remind them that when this administration was campaigning for the presidency in 2023, the President didn’t promise Nigerians that after his first tenure they would be asked to embrace “At all, at all, na im worse” strategy as a hope renewal agenda.
The First Lady should be acting as a venture capitalist for a hustle economy. This is not a “Renewed Hope” strategy, it is recycled condescension.
“Destiny, mama look from when you calling. Destiny.
I wanna rule my destiny
yeah, yeah oh help I please Jah Jah.”