Tinubu Nicknames Wife ‘Iya Alakara’ At State House Dinner
President Bola Tinubu drew laughter at the State House on Thursday when he introduced his wife, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, as “Iya Alakara,” a light hearted nod to the controversy that has trailed the First Lady since she urged Nigerians to take up small food ventures such as frying bean cakes.
The remark came during the maiden State House Media Corps Presidential Dinner in Abuja on Thursday, July 2, 2026. Acknowledging guests before his address, the President said, “Good evening, gentlemen of the press, ladies and gentlemen, my dear wife, the First Lady, Iya Alakara,” a Yoruba expression loosely meaning mother of the akara seller. A recording of the event was published by Aso Rock TV.
The nickname referenced comments Mrs Tinubu made in late June while addressing State House correspondents after a second quarter meeting of the Renewed Hope Initiative with wives of state governors. She had encouraged women to consider ventures like selling akara, roasting corn and making kuli kuli, describing them as businesses that require modest capital. The President, defending the message, stressed that beneficiaries received grants rather than loans. “We’re trying to give hope, and to start akara business doesn’t take a lot of money,” he said.
Her original remarks split opinion. Critics on social media described the advice as detached from the country’s economic realities, with some drawing comparisons to the “let them eat cake” phrase long attributed to France’s Marie Antoinette. Supporters countered that no honest trade should attract shame. His Special Adviser on Media and Public Communications, Sunday Dare, defended the First Lady on the Mic On Podcast, recalling that his own mother sold akara, bananas and oranges to fund his education. Former Zenith Labour Party governorship candidate in Ondo State, Abass Mimiko, argued that opposition figures had deliberately twisted the statement.
The First Lady herself moved to calm the row. Speaking in Jigawa State during the inauguration of the Abubakar Maje Haruna Hall at the Emir of Hadejia’s palace, she said the empowerment scheme extended well beyond akara sellers. “It’s not only akara, we also have tomato sellers. We have boole, and those also selling pepper, selling vegetables for us in the market,” she said, disclosing that the Federal Government had donated N100 million to the Jigawa State Government to empower 2,000 petty traders.
The exchange plays out against a stubborn cost of living squeeze. Figures from the National Bureau of Statistics put headline inflation at 15.93 per cent in May 2026, the third consecutive monthly rise, though far below the 26.06 per cent recorded in May 2025. Food inflation stood at 16.96 per cent year on year, driven by higher prices of onions, maize, tomatoes, pepper and yam. The Famine Early Warning Systems Network had earlier projected that between 16 million and 16.99 million Nigerians could require urgent humanitarian assistance during the year, a backdrop that has sharpened public sensitivity to messaging on hardship.
At the same dinner, the President struck a more serious note on the press, urging journalists to choose “substance over sensation” and “credibility over clickbait,” while warning against misinformation, disinformation and deepfakes. He described himself as “an apostle of a free press” and framed government and the media as “adversaries only in the democratic sense.”