Oluremi, the wife of President Bola Tinubu, has been making huge donations to different causes in Nigeria. Understandably, this has raised the curiosity and suspicion of many Nigerians.
A national daily reported in 2024 that Mrs Tinubu’s donations reached N2.5 billion in 17 months. Her latest gesture was an additional N1 billion she pledged to support the efforts to end tuberculosis in the country.
She made the donation through her pet project, the Renewed Hope Initiative (RHI), at the 2025 World TB Day Community Outreach in Abuja.
She gave N500 million to flood victims in Maiduguri, Borno State, in 2024. She bestowed another N500 million on victims of vicious attacks in some communities in Plateau State.
In October 2024, Mrs Tinubu pledged a N1 billion donation to the horticultural landscaping of her alma mater, Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife.
Under the RHI Economic Empowerment Programme, she intends to disburse some grants to 37,000 female petty traders in the country. The grants are part of a larger N1.8 billion initiative under the RHI.
On March 25, Mrs Tinubu handed out 10,000 professional kits (including crocs and scrubs) to midwives in the South-South. She earlier made similar donations in the North-Central and North-West.
The President’s wife has donated $100,000 towards building a hospital in Sierra Leone.
Her RHI is described as an NGO, funded largely by private donors and corporate partners like BUA Group and some others. Well-meaning Nigerians are said to be on its governing board. State coordinators happen to be the wives of state governors.
Curiously, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security had earmarked N2.51 billion to mainstream four of the RHI’s agriculture-related programmes.
In November 2024, the Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Security, Aliyu Abdullahi, said the ministry had allocated about N68 million to each state to support four key agriculture-focused initiatives under the RHI.
The President’s wife is exploiting her position to attract patronage from government and corporate bodies to her NGO.
In Nigeria, there are offices of the First Ladies in Abuja and the states. Most of these offices spend public funds under the guise of running pet projects. This is unconstitutional.
This might not be tolerated in decent countries.
In 2019, a Jerusalem magistrate’s court sentenced Sara Netanyahu, wife of the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to pay a fine of over $15,000 after she agreed to a plea bargain. Her major offence was that she spent $50,000 on lavish meals at luxury restaurants even when there was a full-time chef employed at the official residence.
Here, anything goes. In 2024, the President’s son, Seyi Tinubu, donated relief materials worth N500 million to victims of the flood disaster in Maiduguri, Borno State. In February, he donated another palliative worth N100 million to six tertiary institutions affected by the incident.
During Ramadan, he shared cooked food packed in plastics, adorned with his picture and that of his father in some northern states.
Similarly, members of the House of Representatives recently donated N705 million to Tinubu, ostensibly for the use of vulnerable Nigerians suffering economic hardship. The lawmakers had resolved in July 2024 to slash 50 per cent of their monthly salaries for six months to meet the hunger needs of ordinary Nigerians.
It is time Nigerians began to interrogate this culture of tokenism disguised as humanitarian gestures by politicians and their allies.
The anti-graft agencies should investigate the source of funding of some of these donations and the tax remittances of the donors.
Taking care of the needy is good, but it should be transparent.
Governments at all levels should not abdicate their responsibilities to the unconstitutional office of the wives of the President and the governors.
