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OLUREMI TINUBU IS ON TO A GOOD CAUSE
Peter Obi’s attack on the First Lady is unfortunate, argues ADE EBIMOMI
A few days ago, the First Lady, Senator (Mrs) Oluremi Tinubu, on the occasion of her 65th birthday, rather than luxuriate in obscene personal celebrations, and in her trademark humility, pleaded with well-wishers to donate money towards the completion of the almost-abandoned National Library instead of wasting same on gifts and advertorials – as a section of Nigerians are wont to do. In her words, “Education is the most enduring legacy a nation can give its people”.
Most deservingly, Her Excellency has received applause from across the country for her selfless and noble intent. Concerned about how the non-completion of the National Library could affect the fragile psyche and educational ambitions of millions of Nigerian youths, she stepped forward and sacrificed her personal gains for a national and worthy cause.
The National Library cause wouldn’t be Her Excellency’s first rodeo; she has an impressive track record of selfless and compassionate philanthropic activities already.
One is therefore shocked to read the tweet on X of no less than Mr Peter Obi, attacking the First Lady’s worthy intent. This writer believes PO’s attack is unnecessary, ill-intentioned and unfortunate. He didn’t have to distort and misrepresent the First Lady’s words to suit his narrative, as the tweet struggled to find a plank of logic and reason to stand.
Mr Peter Obi claims in his tweet: “On the surface, it (Senator Tinubu’s gesture) is noble and selfless. But beneath it lies an indictment of our nation…such gestures were never meant to replace government’s duty but to compliment it”.
Truth is, Mr Peter Obi allowed his political leaning to colour his response to Mrs Tinubu’s plea. Her intent is pure, selfless, noble and transparent enough for everyone of goodwill to see. Writing that the gesture is “an indictment of our nation”, PO defies every law of logic. Her Excellency did not declare that her gesture was meant to replace government’s duty, or that the nation must rely on her birthday donations to complete national projects.
PO went further to ask: “What kind of country must beg for charity to build a temple of knowledge?” So, he, rather inexplicably, equates Mrs Remi Tinubu to a “country”, and “begging for charity to build a temple of knowledge”. Mrs Tinubu did not solicit money to build; she pleaded for money to complete a library. One suspects that the only reason PO would go this route of deliberate distortion is to further his attempt to build a plank of acceptability for his, quite honestly, unnecessary tweet.
Senator Oluremii Tinubu may be the wife of the President, she is still a private citizen nonetheless. She is neither an elected nor a politically-appointed member of this administration, and she’s not the administration’s mouthpiece. To therefore equate her plea to the government supposed intent is clearly disingenuous.
Using the occasion of a private citizen’s birthday request for donations towards the completion of the National Library to attack her is a little petty and a bit below the sort of national engagements someone of Mr Obi’s stature should be using his time to engage in. That the person in question happens to be the wife of the sitting president, a man Obi is trying to displace, gives his comment a definitive but unfortunate political colouration.
Such statements may appeal to his supporters but they do nothing to sell him to independent and undecided Nigerians. Perhaps he isn’t politically savvy enough to realize that undecided voters yearn to glimpse his governance roadmap should he somehow become the president. Empty rhetoric and social media diatribes will no longer cut it.
Mr Obi needs to know that soliciting private donations for the completion national projects isn’t something new, negative or unwholesome.
The Library of Congress, the New York Public Library, and the National Library of China were all built and continued to be sustained by public and private monies and large endowments.
In 2023, Chief Afe Babalola donated £10million to King’s College, London for the establishment of Afe Babalola African Center for Transnational Education, stating us: “The vision for the Center is based on the power of education to empower and enable Africa’s talented young people to make meaningful contributions to their communities and the world…the donation is intended to provide access to higher education for students whose educational journeys have been disrupted by conflict or displacement.”
Andrew Carnegie, the renowned philanthropist who died in 1919, through Andrew Carnegie Foundation, spent over $56million in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to build 2,509 public libraries across the English-speaking world.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is known for its global library initiatives, providing grants aimed at improving library resources and accessibility worldwide. It has given a significant portion of the billionaires’ $79billion philanthropic spending on library grants and initiatives.
Oxford University received a private donation of £150million from Stephen Schwarzman in 2019 to fund a humanities center and AI ethics institute.
Peter Obi even confessed in his tweet that while still Anambra State’s governor, he had solicited private money for the state’s library project.
So what’s he harping about? It is petty and clearly beneath his status, this attempt at turning a selfless and noble gesture by the First Lady into something to squeeze political gain out of, and beggars belief that such a decent and cerebral political leader couldn’t see the gross illogism and plain hypocrisy in his attack.
It’s time Obi rose above this inane nothingness; time he left behind the ordinariness of topics like this. He is preparing to become Nigeria’s President at some point in the future, not contesting to become social media’s most influential personality.
If he’s to get undecided Nigerians behind him – without whom his chances of becoming the President dim significantly – Peter Obi would need to urgently vacate this cheap and pedestrian landscape and move further afield to where burning national issues need his attention.
To end his tweet by ominously claiming, “we are finished”, surely doesn’t befit a man of his stature or that of a man who arguably spends his sleeping and waking moments dreaming of leading this country someday.
Peter Obi needs to resist the urge to respond to or attack every private citizen’s comment, lest he drags himself to the market place where he would be meat for all kinds of flies.
Some of us have this thinking that he’s contesting for the highest office in the land, not a local government councilor slot.
Ebimomi is
Founder/DG, The Asiwaju Center, Abuja,
