Nigeria’s First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, has asked the National Assembly to make direct financial provisions for the Office of the First Lady.
She said her office currently receives no budgetary support from the federal government, which limits her ability to carry out meaningful social initiatives across the country.
She made the call on Monday during the second quarterly meeting of the Renewed Hope Initiative (RHI), held at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
Mrs Tinubu said she often depends on donations from private individuals to fund her activities. These resources, she added, are shared with First Ladies across the 36 states to support humanitarian programmes.
“Most of the resources I used to work are just given to me by well-meaning Nigerians,” she said. “It is whatever they give to me that I have to distribute to the First Ladies of various states. It’s difficult. So the government doesn’t run my office. I do a lot of collaboration, which you will see.”
The First Lady insisted her office should not be reduced to a symbolic or ceremonial role. She proposed that it be allowed to manage at least one meaningful project each year, similar to the zonal intervention programmes run by lawmakers.
According to her, such efforts should not be routed through the Ministry of Women Affairs.
“I’m not going to go through the ministry of women affairs, because they used to put money there in the day, but like they do in the states, I’m going to the Senate,” she said. “Even if it is ₦500 million or ₦1 billion, then we are going to use it for this, and then we can be accountable. It should be with the First Lady who wants to do work. She shouldn’t be restricted.”
Tinubu Launches New Projects and Reflects on Social Responsibility
The First Lady said she desired to return to society after her time in office with a legacy of service and impact. She said public office must come with responsibility and real work that improves people’s lives.
“The point for me is this — after this place, I’m going to go back into society. I want to see what I can do to make society better,” she said.
The First Lady described the motivation behind her efforts as deeply rooted in the roles of support and care. She said she and the wives of state governors are determined to help their husbands succeed and provide strength to vulnerable groups.
“We are wives. Whatever name we call ourselves, either a domestic engineer or whatever, we want to see our husbands succeed,” she said. “Because you see, they are the trees and that tree has to stand strong… we can do more if the resources are there.”
Mrs Tinubu also criticised the disconnect between Nigeria’s economic reality and its culture of extravagant celebrations. “If you see the way we have parties in Nigeria, you wonder, is this a poor nation? We have parties for a whole week… we have to be mindful.”
As part of the meeting, she unveiled two major initiatives. The first is the RHI Green Nigeria Challenge, a tree-planting campaign designed to combat desertification in northern Nigeria.
The second is the NITDA-RHI Women’s ICT Training Programme for 2025. The programme will train 240 women, with 40 participants drawn from each of the six geopolitical zones. Each trainee will receive a digital starter kit and a grant of ₦80,000, which may increase to ₦100,000 depending on funding.
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