“My Dear Wife, First Lady, Iya Alakara”: Tinubu Teases Wife, Oluremi

President Bola Tinubu has made a playful remark about his wife, Oluremi Tinubu, describing her as Iya Alakara, a reference to the recent controversy that trailed the first lady following her recent remarks on empowerment for some women in the country.

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The president made the remark while speaking at the maiden press corps dinner at the presidential villa in Abuja on Thursday, July 2.

Recall that the first lady recently made headlines when she spoke on the importance of small-scale food businesses such as selling akara and roasted corn, noting that they require little capital to start. Akara is a popular Nigerian snack made from deep-frying ground beans.

Speaking in Abuja, Tinubu explained that her office has been providing grants, not loans, to support such ventures under the Renewed Hope Agenda.

She said:

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“We’re 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. We didn’t give them a loan; we gave it to them as a grant.”

However, her remarks attracted backlash from critics, who claimed there should be bigger empowerment for the people as the country faces serious economic challenges.

Referring to the backlash, President Tinubu playfully joked about the misinterpretation at the presidential villa while speaking at the press corps dinner, and his remark has started generating reactions from Nigerians. Below are some of their comments:

Babs Soft maintained that the government understand the challenges Nigerians are facing:

"And you will want me to believe that this government does not know what's going on and the type of mess the streets are in with their renewed hardship? They knew what's up."

Ológbojò-CFRN noted that it showed that President Tinubu is aware of what's going on on social media:

"It shows my president acquitted himself with what is going on in the nation and on social media.... Kudos to you, Mr President."

Àdíò maintained that he has been expecting the remark from the president, expressing confidence that Tinubu is acquainted with trends:

"President Tinubu will always show you he’s following the trend. I’ve been expecting this though."

Looking4sam expressed the belief that the first family talked about the matter at home and laughed about it:

"I bet they all talked about it at home and they laughed about it. We are so cooked, ha!"

You can watch the video on X here: