By Pascal Chimezie
The wife of the President, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, trended last week for two reasons. In Washington DC, she made headlines when the US President, Donald Trump, acknowledged her presence at the National Prayer Breakfast, showering her some praises, and describing her as “very respected woman.”
Trump had announced: “We’re honoured to be joined today by the First Lady of Nigeria, who also happens to serve as a Christian pastor at the largest church in Nigeria. A very respected woman.”
Compliment as this is enough to make anyone feel on top of the world. And the first lady relished it. It is only normal in a high class gathering of that nature to duly recognize special guests. It would have been grave error to ignore the personality of Nigeria’s First Lady in such an august event, no matter what. Other compliments that followed her introduction, however, were merely courtesy, more of a stunt for ego massaging.
Back home, Senator Oluremi Tinubu also trended, but this time around in different mood. She was all regrets for what she saw as “growing culture of hate and hostility” among Nigerians against their leaders. She contrasted it with the way Nigerian leaders, according to her, were “highly honored” abroad, but relentlessly smeared at home.
On her Facebook page, she wrote:
”Most of our leaders are highly respected and honored abroad, yet many Nigerians fail to value what they have because of hatred and the narratives planted in their minds by political paymasters, which have also hardened their hearts. They bully these leaders, speak ill of them, demean them, curse them, and even seize upon their mistakes to drag them across social media, ridiculing and mocking them publicly.”
Perhaps, this is her own subtle way to get back at Nigerians to condemn the recent reactions trailing President Tinubu’s misstep in Turkire during his state visit. Perusing through some comments trailing first lady’s post, her critics really took her to task. The First Lady should have allowed the sleeping dog to lie, to enjoy her Trump’s presidential admiration, rather than stirring up early controversy. Her ceremonial acknowledgment in Washington DC, which flowed from order of protocol, should not be equated to mean that Nigerian leaders are highly sought after and honoured by the world. An Igbo adage says, when an outcast is given a handshake, he asks for a hug – ‘ekwe onye nchiche n’aka, nsusu aguba ya’.
Who are the leaders Mrs Oluremi Tinubu wants Nigerians to ‘dobale’? The leaders who have absolutely no respect for the citizens. The leaders who have weaponized poverty, hunger, illiteracy, joblessness and disease against the masses. Nigerian leaders are bullies, notorious in incendiary rhetorics, and divide-and-rule tactics, setting one group or section of the people against the other along deep fault lines of religion, ethnicity and prebendalism. Obviously, the First Lady was referring to Nigerian leaders, of which she and her husband, the president, are among. A set of people with entitlement mentality (emilokan), a new political philosophy wrapped in the garb of “grab it, snatch it, and run with it.” It is a new definition of impunity. Leaders who believe that end justifies the means, however it is arrived at. Instances are many. Election charades and their outcomes, state of emergency overreach, gazetted laws at variance with parliamentary harmonized bills, sponsors and beneficiaries of politically motivated killings, terrorism, banditry, and abduction, to mention just a few. These are features of Nigerian leaders and what they truly symbolize.
When at his inauguration he declared subsidy is gone, president Tinubu told Nigerians that it was to free huge sums of money Nigeria spent in funding corruption in the oil sector which benefited only the rich at the expense of the poor. Besides, it was to have enough money to fund critical sectors such as health, education, infrastructure, etc. Surprisingly, as trillions kept rolling in from the subsidy removal, government embarked on reckless and mind boggling borrowings, pilling up debts upon debts. Today, almost all ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) are starved of funds to execute their respective ministry’s approved budget. None has received more than 1% of its budget, even as the federal government runs 2024, 2025, and 2026 budgets concurrently, a strange phenomenon. The fate of many projects hang in the balance. Many contractors are owed. Threats of industrial action are issued frequently from various workers’ unions. And the question on the lips of every concerned Nigerian is, “where are the subsidy monies, including the borrowings?”
Meanwhile, another fairytale-like story of a whopping N210 trillion was declared ‘missing’ and unaccounted for in the coffers of Nigeria’s national oil company, NNPCL. It was revealed in the company’s audited financial statement between 2017 and 2023. Between 2023 and 2024, sum of N13.2tn was allegedly spent on turnaround maintenance of the country’s three refineries without any of the refineries producing a single liter of product till date. And everybody carries on business as usual, as though nothing happened. The current campaign is to sell off all the refineries. It is important to remind ourselves that as we speak, President Tinubu doubles as the substantive oil minister.
In 2016, former British Prime Minister David Cameron, in the presence of the late Queen Elizabeth II, described Nigeria as a country “fantastically corrupt.” It was an indictment on Nigerian leaders. That image and perception still sticks to this day, no thanks to Nigerian leaders who are irredeemably lost to corruption. The Transparency International, in its Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) 2025, just released, ranked Nigeria 36th world most corrupt country. Today, Nigeria is rated world’s poverty capital, with over 140 million Nigerians living in multidimensional poverty. Today, Nigeria ranks 4th strongest economy in Africa, down from first position it occupied ten years ago. Today, 64% of Nigerians are without jobs. Mismanagement, corruption, high inflation and destructive economic policies have combined to dehumanize the citizens.
What was the primary purpose the first lady traveled all the way to Washington for National Prayer? Are there no more balm in Gilead that sons of Israel would travel to places in search of a cure? America’s National Prayer Breakfast is a yearly gathering of political, business and religious leaders. It is not a forum for denying the obvious. Or a place to deny Christian persecution and genocide in Nigeria. Government may continue to deny its alleged complicity. But time will tell.
The First Lady complained about seed of hate and hostility in the minds of Nigerians. But has she helped matters with her certain utterances? In 2019, Mrs. Oluremi Tinubu was caught on camera in her outburst saying, “I don’t trust Igbos.” She was complaining that the Igbo in Lagos did not vote for President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressive Congress (APC), then seeking reelection against Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). She accused one Igbo electorate of not voting for APC. The man told her that he voted for Buhari. Senator Oluremi Tinubu replied, “How will I know? You Igbo, we don’t trust you anymore.” If Senator Mrs. Oluremi Tinubu was Caesar’s wife, she is certainly not above board.
The US President graciously complimented her as “pastor at the largest church in Nigeria.” But how decisive and outspoken has she been in stemming the tide of evil threatening to engulf the country in recent times? Has she spoken out against ethnic baiting and persecution going on in Lagos state? What action is she taking to stop a repeat of what happened in 2023 election in Lagos, where the Igbo were prevented from exercising their constitutionally guaranteed civic rights of voting candidates of their choice? Those who dared to step out to vote were brutally manhandled, maimed, or killed.
Going by the repeated warnings and threats being issued by the president’s media aide, Bayo Onanuga, there is nothing so far, to show that 2027 election will not witness more violence unleashed on Ndigbo in Lagos, indeed across the country. No one has been able to rebuke or tame all agents provocateurs of Lagos against repeat-action. It was in Lagos that a prominent traditional ruler threatened entire Igbo nation with lagoon if they did not vote for the candidate of his choice. It was also in this country that a sitting president described a critical section of the country as “dot in a circle.” How do leaders who make such unguarded utterances deserve citizens’ respect and honour? All these issues are clear signs of failed leadership. It makes the people very apprehensive of the future, and doubt the sincerity of the leaders to their often claim about fidelity to oneness and unity of the country. The “new Nigeria” everyone expects under President Tinubu’s government should not be George Orwellian ‘Animal Farm’, where “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.”
If Nigerian leaders are highly honoured abroad, it is probably because the whole world has been anxiously expecting Nigeria to rise and actualize its humongous potentials. It is not because the leaders have performed any spectacular miracle to transform Nigeria from the perception of a pariah and “now disgraced country” into a modern nation state. After all, Singapore, Malaysia, India, etc, are countries Nigeria was far ahead of some decades ago. Today, they have overtaken us. And Nigeria is caught in a web of a failed state! This is an unfortunate conundrum that should be of great concern to Nigerian leaders.
Comrade Pascal Chimezie (chimeziepascal@gmail.com)
