The Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Pastor Umo Eno, has said he made N10 million monthly income selling bean cake, popularly known as akara, and bread when he was a businessman.
The governor made this known at the September edition of the state’s monthly summit on Tuesday.
A snippet video of the governor’s address at the event is currently trending on social media.
Eno said, “We still have that shop there. I started selling akara and bread. We’re doing akara burger. We’d open the bread and put akara for you.
“People going to work in ExxonMobil would buy it in the morning, take coffee. we started coffee shop…
“Every month, that akara and bread business used to give me nothing less than N10 million.”
The governor’s disclosure comes barely three months after Nigeria’s First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu suggested that poor Nigerians and youths start small-scale, low-capital businesses like selling akara using government grants rather than loans.
Meanwhile, a social critic, Emmanuel Udombon, challenged the governor’s claim, arguing that the remark deserves public scrutiny, not blind acceptance.
In a Facebook post on Wednesday, the critic said, “The problem is not that Umo Eno once sold akara. There is nothing disgraceful about selling akara. After all, Remi Tinubu asked us to go sell Akara. The problem is the extraordinary amount he says the business was making, particularly when the business was being operated from a particular location rather than the whole of Akwa Ibom State. He wasn’t the sole producer and distributor of Akara and bread in Akwa Ibom State.”
Udombon broke down the maths behind the claim, saying, “If the governor was making ₦10 million in net profit every month, he needed to make roughly ₦333,333 in profit every day.
“Now assume, generously, that every piece of akara sold gave him ₦100 pure profit. He would have needed to sell about 3,334 pieces of akara every single day.
“At ₦50 profit per akara, that rises to about 6,667 pieces every day. And remember, we are already pretending that the entire selling price is profit. We have not deducted the cost of beans, oil, pepper, onions, firewood or fuel, labour and other basic expenses associated with producing the akara.”
He added that bread sales would require similar volumes and questioned the era referenced by the governor.
“This was also not the Nigeria of today’s ₦1,000 or ₦2,000 loaves of bread. The prices the governor is describing belong to a period when the naira had considerably more purchasing power and ordinary bread and akara were sold for tens of naira,” Udombon.
Linking the claim to earlier remarks by the governor, the critic cited a March claim that Akwa Ibom had stopped receiving 13% derivation from September 2025, which it said contradicted FAAC records showing ₦119.82 billion received between September and December 2025.
He also referenced a news report which stated that Akwa Ibom received at least ₦2.934 trillion in 38 months under Eno.
“This is why I find the governor’s latest akara story deeply insulting to the intelligence of Akwa Ibom people. We are not questioning his right to tell his personal story. We are questioning the numbers.
“If Umo Eno genuinely made ₦10 million a month from selling akara and bread at the location he described, then he should tell us exactly how the business achieved it.
“If the figure was turnover rather than profit, he should say so. If it covered several businesses, he should clarify that too.
“But he cannot expect people to hear ₦10 million every month from akara and simply accept it because the statement was made at a prayer meeting.
Akwa Ibom people are not that gullible,” Udombon said.
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