Seyi Tinubu, the son of President Bola Tinubu, has spoken out in defense of his father, asserting that his father is the only president in Nigeria’s history not seeking personal enrichment.
Addressing a group of youths in Yola, Adamawa State, during his Ramadan fast-breaking tour, Sey stressed the unyielding nature of his father’s leadership, despite the numerous attacks on their family.
“It was never politics, but they keep coming for me, they keep coming for my family, they keep coming for your father, they keep coming for Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the greatest president in the history of Nigeria. He is the only president that has kept your people at home, the only president that considers youths, the only president that created a platform for young people to fly. The only president that created an economy that has benefitted everybody, the only president that is not trying to enrich his own pocket,” he said.
His comments come in the wake of former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s accusations of corruption against the current administration. In his book Nigeria: Past and Future, written to mark his 88th birthday, Obasanjo criticised the Lagos-Calabar Super highway project, describing it as a scheme to embezzle public funds.
Obasanjo also condemned the government’s N21 billion expenditure on a new official residence for Vice President Kashim Shettima, pointing out that many Nigerian leaders exploit their positions for personal gain, leaving the nation in poverty.
He said, “How do you explain the situation of a chief executive, a governor, whose business was owing the banks billions of naira and millions of dollars before becoming a governor and within two years of becoming governor, without his company doing any business, he paid all that his businesses owed the banks. You are left to guess where the money came from. Having got away with that in the first term, he consigned to himself almost half of the state resources in the second term. He was a typical example of the goings-on at that level almost universally in the country with only a few exceptions.”
Obasanjo further criticized the misuse of state resources, stating, “State resources are captured and appropriated to themselves with a pittance to staff and associates to close the mouths of those that could blow the whistle or raise alarm against them while in office and when they are out of office.”
He concluded with a harsh critique of some administration decisions, describing the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Road project and the Vice President’s new residence as “criminally ridiculous,” and claiming that such actions reflected misplaced priorities and corruption at the highest levels.
“What small minds!” Obasanjo quipped.
