Former Anambra State governor and 2023 Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has reacted sharply to First Lady Oluremi Tinubu’s recent birthday request that well-wishers channel gifts and newspaper adverts into the completion of the National Library in Abuja.
In a post on X titled “We Are Finished”, Peter Obi expressed dismay that such a vital national project would depend on donations tied to a birthday celebration.
“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,” Peter 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. On the surface, it is noble and selfless. But beneath it lies an indictment of our nation.”
Peter Obi recalled his own experience as governor of Anambra, noting that while he had encouraged people to direct funds away from adverts into meaningful causes like classrooms and school computers, such gestures were meant to “complement” government duty, not replace it.
“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.”
“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.”
