Akara: Mrs Tinubu Was Talking To People She Gave ₦50,000, Not You (By Naptu2)

Mrs Tinubu was referring to the people that she gave grants of ₦50,000 each, not to you

Shehu Sani, Desmond Elliot, Muhammadu Buhari, Yemi Osinbajo and Oluremi Tinubu, Peter Obi.

I do not seek fame because being famous would mean that you have to deal with the opinions of many stupid people.

I know somebody who belongs to a charitable organisation. Many years ago I came across her while she was writing a letter to one of their partners. There were several interesting things in her letter and she took the time to explain them to me.

In the letter she referred to the people that she was helping as, “My master”. She explained that this was what they did in her organisation so that they would put the beneficiaries first. It would prevent them from looking down on the beneficiaries and it would force them to respect the beneficiaries.

There was another thing she said that I was already familiar with. That thing is the subject of this post.

She said that they don’t act like they have all the answers and they don’t act like they know all. Instead they ask the beneficiaries what they need and that determines the assistance that they give them.

Surprisingly this is something that many Nigerians cannot understand.

Forgotten example

This was on my mind when something happened years ago. Unfortunately I can no longer remember who it was and exactly what he donated, but this story might trigger someone’s memory and the person might remind me of the details.

There was a serious uproar on Nigerian internet. What happened? A man had donated somethings to a community and the whole of Nigeria was condemning him.

I can’t remember exactly what it was, but it was something like wheelbarrows (let’s assume that it was wheelbarrows).

Nigerians were livid. “How can you donate wheelbarrows to people? What do you want them to use it for? Would you give wheelbarrows to your children? You want to turn them to labourers? We are in the ICT age and he could have donated things that would take people out of poverty, yet he is donating wheelbarrows to keep them in poverty”.

There were all kinds of very loud, angry and st up id reactions. The photos went viral and the reactions were so loud that they got to the donor and so he made an explanation.

I can’t remember for certain, but I think I created the thread about the donor’s explanation.

The donor explained that he had been donating things to communities for decades and that he has learnt a lot from the practice. One of the things that he learnt was that he shouldn’t just go and give the community whatever he wanted to give. He does not live with them and his experience is not their experience. They know what they need better than he does.

So he goes and asks them what they need, they tell him and he provides it. This obviously does not stop him from providing what he initially had in mind.

So in the case of this community he donated what he had in mind (I think he donated computers and other things) and he donated what members of the community asked for. Basically, it was members of the community that asked for wheelbarrows. The man posted photos of all the things that he donated and je accused the media of being mischievous because they only posted what would support their agenda.

Bill Gates

Bill Gates said something similar. He said that je was excited when he began doing charity work in Africa and what he had in mind was that he was going to donate computers and software, etc. But then he hit reality.

Of what use are the computers to a child that has not eaten? What use is the software to a child that is dying of malaria? How would the child use the computers if he has not seen the inside of a classroom?

That’s why his foundation began focusing on healthcare, education, food security and similar issues.

Bayo Onanuga

Bayo Onanuga did not say that there was no hunger in Nigeria. What he said was that he had not seen that level of hunger in Nigeria.

I told you that he is not a good judge. Bayo Onanuga has owned his own media house (The News, PM News, etc) since the 1990s and he currently works in the Aso Rock Villa. He is a member of the elite. Therefore it’s no surprise that he has not seen that level of hunger, but the fact that he has not seen it does not mean that it does not exist.

Muhammadu Buhari and Yemi Osinbajo

The Buhari Administration began the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP) in order to boost small businesses in Nigeria.

There were many programmes under the GEEP and these included the TraderMoni, MarketMoni and FarmerMoni.

These programmes were not designed by magic. The Bank of Industry conducted a lot of research into the impact of these programmes while designing them. This reseaarch obviously included discussions with potential beneficiaries.

The tradermoni provided the least amount of money. It was designed for petty traders, for example, those that sold things on the roadsides, in corner shops or kiosks.

Beneficiaries were given ₦10,000 interest-free and collateral-free loans. They were required to invest the money into their business. This was level 1. When they repaid the loan (and provided proof that they invested it in their business) they would move to the next level which qualifies them to get a higher loan. The levels were:

Level 1: ₦10,000
Level 2: ₦15,000
Level 3: ₦20,000
Level 4: ₦50,000
Level 5: ₦100,000

Some Nigerians went crazy!

They asked what could ₦10,000 do? Some said that they spent more than that in a night’s outing. They asked if government officials would give their children ₦10,000. Some talked about cost of renting a house or a shop, others talked about school fees and cost of a car, etc. You can see that all these people were mad.

The ₦10,000 was not given to finance the life of the beneficiaries. It was given so that the beneficiaries would invest it into their businesses.

Just like Bayo Onanuga, the critics were elites for whom ₦10,000 was nothing. The beneficiaries were not going to spend that money at a club or restaurant. They were going to invest it into their petty businesses. It was meant to enable them increase their stock and make more profit.

Journalists, social media users and others discussed with beneficiaries and all the beneficiaries praised the programme.

Some funny characters claimed that it was vote buying. That’s pure nonsense. Otherwise we can also say that everything that government does is vote buying. Almost all programmes of government are designed to make the lives of citizens better so that the citizens will vote for them in the next election. Therefore, going by the claims of the funny characters, everything that government does is vote buying.

Mr Peter Obi

I constantly tell you that all politicians are the same. Obidients often act like Peter Obi is a messiah that will come and turn Nigeria into heaven on earth. They act as if Peter Obi is doing us a favour by contesting presidential elections (have you ever heard such nonsense in your life).

I have often shown (with evidence) that all the major contenders for the presidency will do the same things. They all said the same things about petrol subsidy, dollar subsidy, etc before the elections.

So here is another example.

Obidients condemned the TraderMoni, MarketMoni and FarmerMoni programmes. They asked what will ₦10,000 do in the life of someone. They claimed that it was vote buying.

Mr Peter Obi shamed Obidients by providing the answers to these questions. In the video below he talked about what happened when he gave some traders at the village market ₦10,000.

Was this vote buying?

The transforming power of micro-credit.

Excellent validation for what #TraderMoni and #MarketMoni have been working to achieve (at scale!) since inception. @growthplat_me pic.twitter.com/kL9X6TKZeM

— Tolu Ogunlesi (@toluogunlesi) January 19, 2022

Desmond Elliot

A lie travels very far and fast, while the truth is too slow.

Desmond Elliot has been a victim of this on many occasions. I bet that even today, many years later, many people have never even heard the truth.

There were two times that it was claimed that Desmond Elliot donated things to his constituents and the whole of Nigeria descended on him.

Firstly photos of a toilet went viral and it was said that Desmond Elliot had donated this public toilet.

Critics asked whether a public toilet was the problem of his constituents, some complained that the toilet was too small, etc. Everybody condemned Desmond Elliot and nobody was interested in hearing the truth.

The truth is that it wasn’t Desmond Elliot that donated the toilet.

The toilet was part of a pilot project by the Austrian government and facilitated by Ladi Lawanson, the former Lagos State Commissioner for Transportation. It was a biofuel toilet that was designed to convert human waste to fuel.

All Desmond Elliot did was to advocate that some of the toilets should be sited in his constituency. The toilets were always going to be built somewhere in Lagos, so he convinced the owners of the project to site 3 of the toilets in his constituency and they invited him to inaugurate them.

The toilets were built by the Austrian Government.

Similarly, the next year, there was an uproar about a bridge. Some people claimed that Desmond Elliot donated a bridge to his constituency and that it was a substandard bridge.

Desmond Elliot did some projects in his constituency, but his constituents told him that they also need a bridge. They told him to give them the money and they would build the bridge, so he gave them ₦800,000.

Later he saw posts and pictures on social media that he had built a substandard bridge for the community (the youths that built the bridge put up a sign that said that he donated the bridge).

Oluremi Tinubu

The role of first lady was previously not a major role in Nigeria. Mrs Flora Azikiwe acted as hostess to visiting dignitaries.

Mrs Victoria Gowon was a style leader and often appeared in public with her husband and on her own. Women often copied her fashion styles.

Mrs Ajoke Muhammed was more reserved and she only began her activities (gardens) after she left the office of first lady.

The first lady role was not really performed during the Obasanjo, Shagari and Buhari eras.

It was Mrs Maryam Babangida that made the role a major charity role.

Mrs Babangida had her Better Life For Rural Women (later called Better Life For Rural Dwellers) through which she tried to improve the lives of people living in rural areas.

She had her annual First Lady’s Children’s Concert, where the child xylophonist Udo Maryam was discovered.

I have told you about the donation circuit. Mrs Babangida had similar programmes where wealthy people donated a lot of money that she used to fund her programmes.

In fact, I’ve still got a video of one of those events, but I’m too lazy to go and look for it.

All first ladies since Mrs Babangida have had similar charity programmes.

Mrs Oluremi Tinubu has had her New Era Foundation since she was first lady of Lagos State. She also runs a spelling bee competition and other such activities.

Recently a fake story, that Mrs Tinubu was telling Nigerians that they should go into akara frying and corn roasting, has gone viral. What really happened?

Mrs Tinubu had a meeting with wives of state governors and they reviewed their charity programmes. She addressed the media outside her office after the meeting. She was telling the media what they discussed and that’s where the clip came from.

What she actually said

She said that they had given money (grants of ₦50,000 and above each) to women and that these were grants not loans. She said that the money was enough to help the women start businesses, they could fry akara or roast corn, at least these are very easy to start.

She said that they had also given

₦2 billion for tuberculosis,
₦1 billion for breast cancer,
and ₦500 million to tackle food malnutrition.
They had provided scholarships
And they had provided ICT training

“We’re trying to give hope. To start akara business doesn’t take much; to start roasting corn doesn’t take much. We didn’t give them a loan; we gave it to them as a grant. We have encouraged Nigerians as best as we could. What is within our hands, I have given, and I keep… pic.twitter.com/hdgTeAss8M

— TheCable (@thecableng) June 25, 2026

That’s what really happened.

Shehu Sani

During Ramadan and Eid Senator Shehu Sani distributed 12 camels, several cows, and foodstuffs worth ₦15 million to his constituents. These went viral and led to criticisms with some people calling him the “Camel Senator”.

He received even more criticism when he distributed 100,000 world band radios to his constituents. A former Nairaland moderator (who is now popular on Twitter) asked whether anyone still listens to radios. He is obviously unaware that radios are a major source of political awareness in northern Nigeria.