First Lady Senator Oluremi Tinubu has dismissed suggestions that her 65th-birthday fundraising drive for the completion of Nigeria’s long-delayed National Library project is politically motivated.
Through her Senior Special Assistant on Media, Busola Kukoyi, Mrs. Tinubu told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that her appeal for donations stems from a lifelong belief in the power of libraries to transform lives. She revealed that ₦20.7 billion has already been raised toward the project.
“As a teacher, I know the impact a library can have,” she said. “What is wrong in doing well or trying to build our country? If I could assist Liberia’s post-war rebuilding by donating the Oluremi Tinubu Elementary and Junior Secondary School in Montserrado County, what is wrong in drawing attention to areas of need in our own nation?”
The First Lady noted that charitable fundraising has long been part of her public service. “For my 45th birthday, I raised ₦50 million to complete the National Sickle Cell Foundation Centre. During my 50th, I raised ₦200 million for the New Era Foundation and other charities,” she recalled.
Mrs. Tinubu stressed that the National Library is a “national treasure” that will serve future generations. The fundraising account, managed by the Federal Ministry of Education and the National Library, will remain open until December 2025. Signatories to the account are the Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, and the Chief Librarian, Prof. Chinwe Anunobi.
“My role is simply to help drive the funding to get the library completed,” she said, quoting Lebanese writer and philosopher Kahlil Gibran: “Are you a politician asking what your country can do for you, or a zealous one asking what you can do for your country? If you are the second, then you are an oasis in a desert.”
The National Library project, first approved in 1981, has suffered decades of delays and escalating costs from ₦8.2 billion at inception to an estimated ₦23 billion by 2023. Mrs. Tinubu urged Nigerians to “rise up and play our parts in the building process,” adding, “A grain of sand and a drop of water makes a mighty ocean.”
