Dare Babalola
A former presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has reacted to the request made by the wife of the President, Senator Oluremi Tinubu on the occasion of her birthday celebration.
The First Lady had earlier requested that people who wish to celebrate her birthday with gifts or newspaper adverts should channel such gestures to the completion of the National Library in Abuja.
However, Obi, in a post on X condemned the request stating that gestures like that should not replace the duty of the government but complement it.
While congratulating Tinubu on the occasion of her birthday, Obi said, “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.”
He admitted making a similar request as the governor of Anambra State but maintained that “Such gestures were never meant to replace the government’s duty but to complement it. The state still bore the responsibility of providing those essentials. 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.
“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 noted that Mrs Tinubu was right about education being the most enduring legacy a nation can give its people but added, “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.”
