The All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) candidate in the August 2025 Ibadan North Federal Constituency bye-election, Chief (Mrs.) Olajumoke Olabisi Odususi, has criticised the wife of the President, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, over her reported advice urging Nigerian youths to venture into businesses such as akara and kulikuli sales.
Odususi described the remark as “unpresidential” and insensitive to the enormous sacrifices parents make to educate their children.
Speaking in Ibadan, she argued that the country’s young people deserve policies that promote skills acquisition, innovation and productive employment rather than suggestions she said diminish their educational qualifications.
“The statement is not presidential and demeans the years of investment parents have made in the education of their children,” she said.
According to her, the nation’s economic challenges require deliberate programmes that equip young people with technical and entrepreneurial skills capable of driving industrial and agricultural development.
“The youth need to be empowered with technical skills. Those who studied agriculture should be encouraged and supported to engage in mechanised farming, while graduates of engineering should be empowered to establish fabrication and manufacturing enterprises,” she said.
Odususi maintained that sustainable youth empowerment should focus on creating opportunities that align with the educational backgrounds and professional competencies of young Nigerians.
“It is unheard of for the wife of the President to ask the youth to be selling akara or kulikuli when her own children are not doing so. Such a statement should be retraced,” she added.
She urged governments at all levels to prioritise investments in vocational education, technology, industrialisation and access to finance for young entrepreneurs, noting that such interventions would better address unemployment and stimulate economic growth.
The APGA chieftain stressed that Nigeria’s youthful population remains one of its greatest assets and should be supported with policies that encourage innovation, productivity and self-reliance rather than rhetoric that could discourage educated youths.
