The feisty debate over First Lady Oluremi Tinubu’s comment on akara, roasted corn, and kulikuli, while discussing the Federal Government’s economic programme, is still stirring up a strong aroma, much like the smell of any of these popular local snacks. The thing won’t just go away, especially after her husband, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, jokingly stirred the pot at a public event by calling her Iya Alakara, meaning the akara seller. At an event at the State House on June 23 to flag off the Renewed Hope Initiative (RHI) Economic Empowerment Programme for Women Petty Traders, with business recapitalisation grants of N50,000 each to 37,000, 1,000 from each of the 36 states and Abuja, the First Lady had suggested the beneficiaries could re-invest the grants in selling akara, roasted corn, or kulikuli.
Eating cake
The suggestion has sparked a firestorm, mainly between those who say the First Lady was insensitive and out of touch, and those who disagree. It reminds me of the Austrian-born duchess, Marie Antoinette, the last French Queen before the French Revolution and her curious association with Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s book, Confessions. Of all the interesting things Rousseau wrote in the book about his own personal life – the ups and downs and the struggles in a society going through very difficult times – one of the most talked-about expressions from Confessions linked to the French Queen is “Let them eat cake.” Antoinette had not been born at the time, so it was improbable that she said that. Yet, a mix of fact and legend from Rousseau’s book suggests that on the eve of the French Revolution, amidst hunger protests over the scarcity of bread and other staple foods, Antoinette’s chaperons told her that Paris was boiling. The legend suggests that she sashayed to the window, looked out from the pomp of the palace, and was genuinely puzzled that hunger for bread could lead to protests. “Let them eat cake,” she purportedly said, a statement that has, over generations, come to represent the epitome of elite disconnectedness.
