Nigeria’s First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, has sparked a national conversation after describing her tenure in the 7th, 8th, and 9th National Assemblies as the period when the Senate was “at its best.”
Speaking recently at the Bola Ahmed Tinubu International Airport in Minna during a distribution ceremony for farm inputs, the First Lady reminisced about her twelve-year legislative career representing Lagos State.
“It is always a pleasure to see my former colleagues. That was when the Senate was really, really good,” she remarked.
The event served as a mini-reunion for several former lawmakers now serving in the Federal Executive Council. Mrs. Tinubu specifically acknowledged Senator Abdullahi Sabi (Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Security), Senator John Enoh (Minister of State for Industry, Trade and Investment) and Alhaji Mohammed Malagi (Minister of Information and National Orientation).
While the First Lady did not explicitly criticize current lawmakers, her comments have been interpreted by political observers as a pointed comparison to the sitting 10th National Assembly.
Dr. Edmund Nwagbo, a sociologist at the Federal University of Technology, Minna, suggested the remarks carry significant weight. “Nigerians should not just see it as praising the past; it is a comparison,” Nwagbo stated. He argued that the current Senate risks being viewed as a “rubber stamp” for the Executive, lacking the rigorous checks and balances seen in previous sessions.
Sharing a similar sentiment, Mrs. Maureen Mammam, Executive Director of the Nigerian Open Society for Good Governance, characterized the First Lady’s comments as a moment of “brutal honesty.”
“We now have politicians who put self-interest first,” Mammam noted, citing rising corruption, insecurity, and a perceived decline in the quality of democratic representation as reasons why the First Lady’s nostalgia resonates with the public.
The 10th National Assembly has yet to issue a formal response to the First Lady’s observations.
