Former Anambra State Governor and 2023 Labour Party presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi, has strongly criticized the recent birthday request made by Nigeria’s First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, over the country’s abandoned National Library project.
Mrs. Tinubu, who recently marked her birthday, requested that instead of buying her gifts or placing adverts in newspapers, well-wishers should donate funds towards the completion of the long-delayed National Library in Abuja.
While many Nigerians saw the gesture as a generous and thoughtful way of supporting education, Mr. Obi took a different view. In a strongly worded post on social media platform X (formerly Twitter), he said the request exposed a deeper failure in governance and priorities at the highest levels of leadership.
In a message titled “We Are Finished,” Obi expressed concern that Nigeria, with all its wealth and resources, is now relying on birthday donations to complete a national monument meant to serve as the country’s intellectual backbone.
“I join millions of Nigerians in wishing Her Excellency, Mrs. Oluremi Tinubu, a happy birthday,” Obi wrote. “May God Almighty grant her many more healthy and fruitful years.”
“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.”
Obi said that while it is not unusual for public figures to encourage donations to noble causes, this should never replace the responsibility of government, especially when it comes to critical infrastructure like education.
“As Governor of Anambra State, I also encouraged friends to donate to schools instead of placing adverts for my birthday. But that was to complement government effort—not to replace it. We still provided classrooms, books, and basic facilities,” Obi said.
He questioned how the Nigerian government could justify spending billions of naira on luxury while relying on charity to build a library.
“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,” he said.
Obi described the situation as “both shocking and tragic,” asking why a country with so many resources would reduce education to an afterthought.
“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?”
He added that serious nations treat libraries as sacred and invest in them as a foundation for national development. “But here we reduce them to begging bowls or birthday tokens,” he said.
Obi praised the First Lady’s understanding of the value of education, quoting her statement that “education is the most enduring legacy a nation can give its people.” However, he challenged the government to live up to that belief by making serious investments in schools, libraries, and other educational infrastructure.
“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,” Obi said.
The National Library project in Abuja has been under construction for over 17 years, with multiple reports of abandonment, poor funding, and rising costs. Despite several government promises over the years to complete the project, it remains unfinished, becoming a symbol of Nigeria’s neglect of education and public infrastructure.
“The lament remains true,” Obi concluded. “We are finished.”
