Casmir Igbokwe writes about reported moves to deregister some political parties and the need to stabilise the nation’s polity.
In Nigeria, politics of deception has become the norm rather than the exception. Last week, wife of the President, Mrs. Remi Tinubu, encouraged Nigerians to consider small-scale business like selling akara (bean cake), roasted corn, and kuli-kuli (crunchy peanut snack) to survive. According to her, they require little capital to start. The First Lady spoke after the Renewed Hope Initiative’s second-quarter meeting with wives of state governors, held at the State House, Abuja.
She said, “We are 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.” With an air of triumph, she said she had donated N2 billion to combat tuberculosis, N1 billion to tackle breast cancer and N500,000 to mitigate food malnutrition.
It is not certain where she got these billions of naira she donated. What is clear is that akara, roasted corn, or kuli-kuli, has become a metaphor for Nigeria’s politics of deception.
As incumbent governor of Edo State in 2016, Adams Oshiomhole publicly patronized and ate roadside roasted corn on the streets of Benin City alongside his then chosen successor, Godwin Obaseki. It was during the 2016 governorship campaign in the state. The idea was to market Obaseki to market women and the grassroots and to show, rather cunningly, that he was connected with the masses. He did the same thing in 2020 while campaigning for the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the Edo State governorship election.
