By Ademuyiwa Balikis
Former Anambra State Governor and Labour Party’s 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has criticised First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, over her birthday request that well wishers donate toward completing the National Library in Abuja, saying such a vital national project should never be reduced to a birthday cause.
While acknowledging Mrs Tinubu’s call as noble and selfless, Obi argued that it was also an indictment of Nigeria’s leaders, who easily find billions for jets, yachts, mansions, and foreign trips, yet leave the nation’s intellectual hub abandoned.
Obi recalled how, during his time as governor, he urged supporters to channel funds meant for birthday adverts into classroom blocks and school computers. He, however, stressed that such gestures were only to complement government effort, not replace its responsibility.
“It is shocking that 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,” Obi said.
He added that serious nations treat libraries as sacred centres of knowledge, not afterthoughts or charity projects.
Praising the first lady’s recognition of education as the most enduring legacy a nation can leave its people, Obi said it was tragic that government priorities still favoured luxury over learning.
“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.
