Former Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi has criticised First Lady Oluremi Tinubu’s call for birthday well-wishers to donate toward completing the National Library in Abuja, describing it as a damning reflection of Nigeria’s misplaced priorities.
Posting on X on Sunday, Obi said the request, while “noble and selfless” on the surface, exposed the government’s failure to meet its basic obligations.
“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,” Obi 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.”
Obi questioned why a country with access to vast resources must rely on donations to build its own National Library while public funds are routinely spent on what he called luxuries and excesses.
“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 former Anambra governor said the situation underscored Nigeria’s neglect of education, arguing that no serious nation would treat its libraries as “begging bowls.”
“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 added.
Obi stressed that Nigeria’s development hinges on education, not lavish spending by its leaders.
“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 concluded.
