Former Anambra State Governor and 2023 Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has criticised First Lady Senator Oluremi Tinubu over her birthday appeal for donations to complete the National Library in Abuja.
The First Lady had urged well-wishers to channel funds meant for birthday gifts or newspaper adverts into the project. But Obi described the request as shocking, tragic, and an indictment of governance in Nigeria.
In a post on X titled “We Are Finished”, Obi wished Mrs Tinubu more years but faulted the idea of tying the completion of a national asset to birthday contributions.
“We are finished! I join millions of Nigerians in wishing Her Excellency, Mrs Oluremi Tinubu, a happy birthday. May God Almighty, who has been with her all these years, grant her many more healthy, fruitful, and happy years,” he wrote.
“However, I was struck by irony reading her request: that instead of cakes or newspaper adverts, well-wishers should donate toward completing the National Library in Abuja. On the surface, it is noble and selfless. But beneath it lies an indictment of our nation.”
Obi recalled making similar appeals as governor of Anambra, but he stressed that such gestures were never to replace government’s duty.
“That is why it is shocking that, in our present circumstances, while billions are easily found for jets, yachts, unused mansions, endless trips abroad, and other frivolities, the nation must rely on birthday donations to complete its own National Library,” he said.
The LP leader described it as unacceptable for Nigeria to reduce its “temple of knowledge” to an afterthought.
“What kind of country must beg for charity to build the very temple of knowledge? What kind of leaders waste trillions on luxury and vanity, while the National Library – our intellectual furnace – remains abandoned in the capital? Serious nations treat libraries as sacred; but here we reduce them to afterthoughts, begging bowls, or birthday tokens,” he wrote.
Obi noted that while Mrs Tinubu was correct that education is the most enduring legacy, her request contradicted that truth.
“Mrs Tinubu was right: education is the most enduring legacy a nation can give its people. Yet to know this truth and still prioritise vanity is both shocking and tragic.
“If Nigeria will rise, 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,” he declared.
