Peter Obi has excoriated President Bola Tinubu and other leaders for prioritising frivolous spending over education.

Mr Obi said this in a statement on Sunday while congratulating First Lady Oluremi Tinubu on the occasion of her 65th birthday.

The politician, however, berated Mrs Tinubu for seeking funds from Nigerians as a birthday gift to complete the National Library, saying it demonstrates a misplaced priority in the country.

Mr Obi said, “I join millions of Nigerians in wishing Her Excellency, Mrs Oluremi Tinubu, a happy birthday. May God Almighty, who has been with her all these years, grant her many more healthy, fruitful, and happy 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.”

The former Anambra governor noted that while he urged that money meant for advertisements be channeled into meaningful causes, such as purchasing computers for schools and constructing classroom blocks, these gestures do not absolve the government of its responsibilities.

Mr Obi censured the president and other Nigerian leaders for wasting billions on frivolous items such as jets, yachts, and unused mansions, describing the government’s continued neglect of education as tragic.

The politician said, “What kind of leaders waste trillions on luxury and vanity, while the National Library, our intellectual furnace, remains abandoned in the capital? Serious nations treat libraries as sacred, but here we reduce them to afterthoughts, begging bowls, or birthday tokens.”

Mr Obi stressed the need for the government to pay serious attention to education, saying the country is finished without people nourished in classrooms and libraries.

“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,” the former Anambra governor said.