Former Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has criticized Nigeria’s First Lady, Oluremi Tinubu, over her birthday appeal urging Nigerians to donate toward completing the long-abandoned National Library in Abuja.
Obi described the request as ironic and deeply troubling, especially at a time when, according to him, the federal government easily allocates billions to luxury items such as jets, yachts, mansions, and frequent overseas trips to President Bola Tinubu while failing to fund a critical institution like the National Library.
In a heartfelt birthday message, Obi wished Mrs Tinubu well but expressed dismay at her request for donations in lieu of cakes or newspaper adverts. He recalled his own tenure as Governor of Anambra State, where he encouraged similar redirection of celebratory funds toward education but always as a supplement, never a substitute for government responsibility.
Obi questioned the priorities of a government that finds billions for jets, yachts, and lavish foreign trips, yet cannot complete a national library without public charity. “What kind of country must beg for charity to build the very temple of knowledge?” he asked. “What kind of leaders waste trillions on luxury and vanity, while the National Library our intellectual furnace remains abandoned in the capital?”
He agreed with Mrs Tinubu’s sentiment that education is the most enduring legacy a nation can offer. But he lamented the contradiction of knowing this truth while indulging in extravagance. “If Nigeria will rise,” Obi concluded, “it will not be on the wings of jets or the splendour of mansions, but on the strength of minds formed in classrooms and nourished in libraries. Until then, the lament remains true—we are finished.”
