28/06/2026
The problem is not what the President’s wife said; the problem is who said it. As the wife of the president of a country, your job is to make people believe that their dreams, as long as they are legal, however big or small, are valid, and to assure them, through words and actions, that the administration is doing everything possible to provide an enabling environment where they can actualize those dreams. That is your job as the mother of the nation.
Context or not, note that whenever a president or their significant other speaks, especially on aspiration and ambition, whatever advice they give to one group trickles down to all other groups. That’s how loud and significant the voice of that position is. Through your statement, you are inadvertently advising young people to minimize their dreams, to desire little in a world that promises so much. That’s unfair. That’s privilege unchecked. That is not your job. Akara business is honest, but an average mother frying akara hopes that her sweats would be enough to keep her children away from the same line of trade. She fries akara or sells corn and kuli-kuli with the hopes that one day, her daughter or son would become a doctor, a teacher, an engineer, or a successful entrepreneur. It is done out of survival. It is not an aspiration.
No disrespect to our mummy, but Nigerians are not stupid. There are millions of petty traders and small-scale entrepreneurs in the country already. You didn’t tell them to start before they started small. An average Nigerian knows when to start small. An average Nigerian is dogged. An average Nigerian has abandoned their dreams in the pursuit of day-to-day survival. Don’t ask them to give up everything. Don’t. That’s unfair.
We want to be treated like we have the right to dream our own dreams, and we want to know that whatever dream we choose, whether big or small, as long as it is legitimate, will be supported by the government. That’s all.
No disrespect whatsoever. I believe that Nigeria can get better, but while we wait, please don’t throw us under the bus.
Folajimi FILMS Olawale Folajimi Idowu POP MEDIA
