I was mocked for selling food, now they rush to buy — Vendor

Ahmad Saidu, 32, was mocked for doing a ‘woman’s job’ when he opened a little restaurant by the corner of his home in Tudun Wada community of Kaduna metropolis.

A diploma graduate of Accounting and Auditing from the Sokoto State Polytechnic, Ahmad said he started as a newspaper distributor to make ends meet, then later switched to food vending within his community.

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He, however, faced a lot of negativity from those he believed to be his prospective customers as they began to mock him, calling him  Dan Daudu (gender crosser) insinuating that the business of food vending was that of women not men.

Ahmad said he was not discouraged as he stood firm and resolute with his plans starting from converting the frontage of his apartment into a mini restaurant.

Two years down the line, he told Daily Trust that his little restaurant now draws a crowd, all impatient to get a plate of his food as soon as he is open for business.

“I had experienced working in restaurants in the past and decided to try my luck by opening one,” he said, adding that he has overcome the mockery and low sales he faced at the beginning of his business.

“I was not making any profit because I was not well-known until the fourth month into the business.

“The little food I used to cook would remain unsold, then, some people started to call me Dan Daudu, saying I was doing a woman’s job just because I cooked and sold food,” he stated.

He said he noticed their position began to change as more people began to rely on his food daily.

“Now my place is usually crowded and noisy in the afternoon. Some even call my restaurant ‘Mai kashe aure’ (home wrecker) because married men come to eat here when they quarrel with their wives.”

Now basking in his success, he has employed six of his sisters to do the cooking while he supervises the process.

He said he is now making a profit of N40, 000 daily, cooking a bag of rice, spaghetti and other varieties, and hopes to move to a bigger place to enable him to add local dishes to the menu.

“In my community, when a person does a job not attributed to his gender, they are called names.

“Such stereotypes must be jettisoned for youths to make a living.

“We all know that there is no job in the country so any business, as long as it is legal should be accepted,” he said.

Ibrahim Lukman, a customer of Ahmad, praised his resilience in situating the restaurant within the community despite the challenges he faced.

He added that a lot of people enjoy eating his food and sometimes call to book ahead.