The Seyi Tinubu’s jellof rice, loaves of bread

Seyi Tinubu is the self-styled ‘First Son’ of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. As the most notable Son of the president, Seyi Tinubu is perhaps the most publicly celebrated Son of any elected president in the political history of Nigeria.

Seyi Tinubu is close enough to be compared with Mohammed Sani Abacha, the ebullient and handsome son of the late military leader of Nigeria in the late eighties.

Mohammed Sani Abacha wasn’t so much in the public face as Seyi Tinubu has become but Mohammed was influential and powerful during the reign of his military General’s dad in the sense that he could practically make you a billionaire by a simple introduction of your line of business to his father who loved his family so well.

On the other hand, Seyi has done a lot that Mohammed Sani Abacha couldn’t do coupled with the reality of the emerhence of the social media with the advantage of instantaneously delivering messages and photos to millions of homes in seconds.

Seyi is publicly protected by several battalions of soldiers and a retinue of heavily armed operatives from the Nigeria Police Force and the secret police.

Sani Abacha’s children especially Mohammed, did not make any public show of such a high profile network of security people protecting him at high costs to the public like Seyi is doing at the moment which even drew the ire of a Statesman who is very close to his Dad: Professor Wole Soyinka.

Soyinka said he saw the large numbers of armed security guards assigned to protect Seyi Tinubu and he concluded that those armed goons can even successfully stage a military coup in a tiny nation like Benin.

Most critically, Seyi has become the ‘Father Christmas’ of the Tinubu administration going by the publicly staged distribution of cooked jellof rice, foodstuffs and loaves of bread. Seyi Tinubu’s rice and bread come in handy during the annual Ramadan fasting season just as he has been reported in the mainstream and online media publicly sharing these foodstuffs especially in the North of Nigeria which happens to be the epicentre of Islam whereby most Muslim faithfuls observe the fasting periods religiously.

The public show of these work of charity that Seyi has imposed on himself, has become the talking point in several national conversations especially given that more and more Nigerians have fallen into the poverty traps since Tinubu came to power in the year 2023 and unleashed dozens of what he considered as economic reforms but these austerity imposing measures are viewed as toxic and anti-people.

Besides, the federal ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction is moribund. That ministry has become the public eye of corruption even right from the eight years that the immediate past administration of the late General Muhammadu Buhari and as I write, I doubt if most newspaper editors can identify who the senior or junior ministers of the ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction are because of the mere fact that that place has been grounded by incompetence and gross inefficiencies.

Most respected editors of mainstream newspapers would have to look up to artificial intelligence on Google to be able to know exactly the minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction. Take for instance, the minister of the Federal capital Territory Mr. Nyesom Wike, whether for bad or for good, is easily recollected even without searching the Internet for a clue.

So, Seyi Tinubu’s jellof rice and his loaves of bread have become very powerful instruments of political campaigns.

However, Seyi needs to know that for him to get involved in sharing bread and jellof rice that was so cheaply affordable prior to the emergence of Muhammadu Buhari in 2015 or even during that infamous, criminally minded and corrupt Buhari’s administration, means that Poverty has become uncontrollable and his activities of distributing these prepared or raw foodstuffs and baked AGEGE BREAD, is a direct admission that his father’s administration is failing in the critical job of providing the enabling environment for entrepreneurs to thrive whether big, small or medium scale.

If majority of those youths who were involved in small businesses and those women now queuing up to pick up loaves of AGEGEA BREAD or foodstuffs from a copy affiliated to Seyi Tinubu when in actual fact these were business women plying their trade during the previous administration but have now been reduced to beggars and beneficiaries of Seyi Tinubu’s jellof rice and bread, there is big trouble in the country.

The sights and sounds of agile Nigerians struggling to pick up the crumbs from the first son of president Tinubu reminds all of us that Nigeria is failing because begging is not a productive or creative enterprise.

The truth is that nations that are advancing technologically or economically, do not allow their youths and women to be reduced to beggars but ensure that these categories of citizens are gainfully and productively engaged in commercial and economic activities. There is a very common saying that teaching poor people how to fish is much more sustainable than donating fishes to them.

An intriguing dimension that the last year’s foodstuffs distribution episode introduced by the sin of the president, was the criticism it elicited. A former governor of one of the states in the North, dismissed Seyi Tinubu’s jellof rice, loaves of bread distribution as insulting. As an aside I must say that the former governor of the northern state that sounded critical about Seyi’s distribution of foodstuffs to northerners, should cover his face in shame because for eight years that he was governor, he failed to economically improve the living situation of his people even as children are failing to go to school in that state. So, as i was saying, Seyi’s gesture of distributing foodstuffs to northerners was criticised by some northerners.

Last year, the media reported that a video showing food packages featuring the images of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his son, Seyi Tinubu, caused a storm of backlash across northern Nigeria.

The food, which was distributed during the Ramadan fasting period, includes a variety of street food staples, including Danwake—a popular dish made from dough, bean flour, and potash.

The video, which has been circulated widely on social media last year, shows the food packaged in plastic bags adorned with pictures of President Tinubu and Seyi.

The video’s narrator expresses anger, calling the gesture “an insult” and questioning the sincerity of the distribution.

Only yesterday or so, The Nation newspaper owned by Seyi Tinubu’s Dad, reported the story about the distribution of foodstuffs by a group set up by Seyi.

The Lagos State chapter of the City Boy Movement in partnership with the Ojomu Taiwo Foundation has distributed food packages to over 1000 residents of Somolu in Lagos State.

The distribution of the food package held yesterday at the new Somolu Local Government Secretariat at Ogunfowokan Street, Somolu, Lagos.

The food distribution drive was convened by Ojomu Taiwo and the chief host was Seyi Tinubu, who was represented by Alhaja Zinat Idris.

The organization of the food distribution was driven by the need to provide succour to residents of Lagos State. Multiple beneficiaries expressed gratitude to the Convener for the intervention.

The event had in attendance various dignitaries like Senator Anthony Adefuye, a member of the Governor’s Advisory Council, Hon. AbdulHamed Salawu Dullar, the Executive Chairman of Somolu Local Government represented by Tela Tajudeen; Hon. Ademorin Kuye
Rep Member, Somolu Federal Constituency represented by his Senior Legislative Aide, Mayowa Oriade; Hon. Samuel Olufemi Apata, Member, Lagos state House of Assembly, Somolu II represented by the DG Solution, Hon. Abayomi Okeowo.

Others are Hon. Olowo Rotimi, 4th term honorable member of Lagos state house of assembly (Somolu constituency 1) represented by Hon Demola Oliyide; Moremi Ojudu
SSA to the President on community engagement (South west); Abiodun Yinusa, SSA to the President on Agric, and Oyewole Muyideen Omotayo, Special Adviser to the Minister of Industry, Trade and investment of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Seyi Tinubu thinks he is doing the charitable distribution of foodstuffs to poor Nigerians because he has a good heart. However, most people dismissed the distribution as a political antic which is designed to hoodwink people to believe that because he is good therefore his father’s administration is good. The hard fact is that for the son of the president to go about sharing jellof rice of loaves of bread is a vote of no confidence on the performance of the national economy under the watch of his father president Tinubu. Seyi doesn’t need a magician to explain this plain and home truth because if the National economy of the country is doing well now, all those who queue up to collect foodstuffs or jellof rice from Seyi Tinubu, would habe been busy attending to their clients ir customers in their places of work.

*EMMANUEL NNADOZIE ONWUBIKO is the founder of HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA).