A former Zenith Labour Party governorship candidate in Ondo State, Abass Mimiko, has defended First Lady Senator Oluremi Tinubu’s recent comments encouraging Nigerians to consider small businesses such as selling akara, groundnuts and kulikuli, arguing the backlash has been manufactured by political opponents of President Bola Tinubu rather than genuine public offence.
Speaking to members of the Correspondents’ Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists in Akure, Mimiko, younger brother of former Ondo State Governor Olusegun Mimiko, said elite critics and opposition figures had deliberately blown the remarks out of proportion to discredit the administration, calling the controversy unnecessary and politically driven. He noted that the First Lady holds no elected public office and has instead used her Renewed Hope Initiative to complement her husband’s agenda, arguing she has done a decent, even excellent, job in that role, and suggested informal media outlets were simply chasing engagement by making heavy weather out of the comments. He urged Nigerians to appreciate rather than criticise the First Lady, drawing a distinction between her constitutional position and that of an elected official.
