MY BINOCULARS: WHAT HAS REMI TINUBU GOT TO DO WITH AKARA, KULIKULI, BOLI, DODO AND EKPA
There are three types of community enterprises that can never fail in Nigeria if residents know how to utilize them for life sustenance. These are food vending, washing of clothes and hair cutting services. These have stood the tests of time over the years because of its relevance in the daily lives of residents in the country. Services rendered around these local enterprises have generated a lot of resources cumulatively in the non real sector making it a shining avenue for tax hunters to begin to look around to generate revenue. Nobody delves into food business like “Akara” production in Nigeria and regrets regardless of his or her source of fuel to cook the food stuffs in question.
It is with this background that I don’t see anything offensive in the suggestion of the first lady of Nigeria, Senator Remi Tinubu, urging young idle people to take Akara production, which is a very common foodstuff, to the next level. Akara frying has always been hidden in the non real sector of the economy but it can be taken to the next level for even export if food scientists can research further on how to expand its lifespan without too much preservatives.
For as long as there is life in the body of a young person, he or she can never become a liability to his family if he takes to food business early in life. And when I talk of Nigerian food I am talking about varieties which includes heavy African cuisine like “foofoo” or light snacks such as “Akara” which can be found in any corner of West Africa and even Nigeria. Akara is made from African beans which makes it the cream of all snacks in the region because of its high protein contents.
In my opinion akara has always been a life saving snack delicacy which started from South West Nigeria and has now spread to all the crannies of the country. It is both a physical and a spiritual food in most parts of the country such that modern genzee’s have turned it into several flavors inserting all manner of spices into the processed beans to bring about exciting results. Some people wrongly contextualize it as a cake but I don’t think it qualifies to be a cake other than the light snack it has been since the beginning of time. Akara is fried and not baked like cakes. It is also an African delicacy as such we don’t need to give it a foreign label. It will always remain our light snack fried in frying pans sometimes in the open in the suburbs. Mark you Akara business is a very honorable business like any other snack enjoyed by both the genzee’s and the rest of us. It has existed long before Remi Tinubu was born and will outlive her if Jesus doesn’t return before the end of contemporary times.
I have watched the online space sadly as a lot of confused genzees make uninformed derogatory comments about Akara business as if it is beneath them. They make it look as if Akara production cannot be taken to the next level by transforming it from a petty trading enterprise to a small scale business. And when it becomes a small scale business, it can be used to feed hundreds of people in form of breakfast in a food bank. Madam Tinubu obviously knows what she is doing as a home management strategist by asking unemployed young people to dable into it. This is because Akara business will become a major support in her national community food bank program meant to feed the poorest of the poor. This is a program meant to combat child malnutrition and food insecurity in Nigeria. Akara also called kosai in some parts of the north of Nigeria targets vulnerable households, children under six years and pregnant women to at least have a semi balanced diet in the country every morning. With Akara of five hundred naira and corn “pap”, hundreds of families
that go hungry in the morning utilizing the 011 system will now have breakfast of less than 1000 naira daily per child. So why look down on such a wonderful delicacy when it can bring money into the hands of many young girls who believe in using what they have to get what they want in the name of “runs” or organized office prostitution for the highest bidder.
But out of experience in living in this world, I know that there is nothing wrong with that kind of enterprise because a lot of people were raised in their homes by food vendors and they are proud to say it anywhere they go that it was due to the Akara, aadun or dundun snack their mum sold that made them to acquire Western education today. Hundreds are standing on their two legs today because they took Akara or even Boli and cooked beans to the next level. Their mum’s still bear the title iya lakara and they are proud of it as Remi was when her husband gave her the title in a public function recently. There is nothing demeaning in her suggestions that even the jobless can take to cooking. Cooking is a noble enterprise and people involved in it are proud of their achievements.
Afterwards Hilda Baci who has a world record in cooking did not make it big in just a day. She started at a very low level and proceeded to the level she found herself now. People now consult her to cook for them as a consultant.
Young people can always make it big by starting Akara business in a small way. And this to me is why the recent suggestion that the poorest of the poor should resolve to mini income generating ventures like Akara production is never an absurd suggestion. Only sick minds will find something wrong in this by my opinion.
Bodunrin Kayode
