The Director General of Relax, Tinubu Is Fixing Nigeria, RTIFN, Ahmed Bala, has defended the recent remarks by the First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, urging Nigerians to embrace dignity in labour, insisting that her comments have been misunderstood and unnecessarily politicised.
Mrs Tinubu made the remarks while speaking with correspondents following the second-quarter meeting of the Renewed Hope Initiative with wives of state governors at the State House in Abuja on Wednesday.
Speaking on the activities of the Renewed Hope Initiative, the First Lady said the programme had been providing grants, rather than loans, to vulnerable Nigerians to help them start businesses and improve their livelihoods.
“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.
“So we’ve encouraged Nigerians as best as we could. What is within our hands, I have given, and I keep giving,” she said.
However, her comments on small-scale businesses triggered swift criticism, with many social media users accusing her of downplaying the severity of the country’s economic challenges.
Reacting to the public debate surrounding the First Lady’s suggestion that unemployed Nigerians could consider ventures such as frying akara or roasting corn to earn a living, Bala said the message was a call for productivity, entrepreneurship and self-reliance rather than an insult to the unemployed.
According to him, the First Lady was simply
