SEYI TINUBU, KEEP BEING YOURSELF AND DOING YOUR GOOD.

By

JESUTEGA ONOKPASA.

The recent attacks on Mr Seyi Tinubu on social media are completely out of place and totally uncalled for.

The young man had merely exercised his freedom of speech, exemplified his concern for the masses, and demonstrated his patriotism to his country by calling for patience on the part of his fellow citizens at a time at which many of our fellow countrymen and women are facing challenges owing to surge in food prices occasioned by a plethora of factors including sabotage, usury and profiteering across the food supply chain.

That is his right as a citizen of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and you do not lose your citizenship, constitutional or other category of legal rights simply because you are the family member of the President of your country.

To be fair to Seyi Tinubu, he has distinguished himself as a grassroots oriented fellow despite hailing from a privileged background.

Indeed, unlike many similarly fortunate individuals who often end up slipping out of touch with reality, being insulated from what their fellow compatriots might be passing through, Seyi has consistently striven to feel the pulse of the common people and intervene to bring succour to them to the best of his ability, while obviously taking back word to his father from the experiences of his interactions with them.

As far as I am aware, this is the first time we have children of a President who, instead of secluding themselves from those their father is governing and preferring to relate and fraternize only with those of their own socioeconomic status, prefer rather to come down from their high places and interact with their fellow citizens with genuine concern for their welfare while displaying palpable humility in the process.

The Tinubus have consistently exhibited this admirable disposition alongside deploying the generosity and philanthropy of their obviously good upbringing in service to their fellow Nigerians.

I know and have met many people who told me how Seyi Tinubu had reached out to them in times of need and touched their lives positively, and, I’m not talking about those instances that made it to the media space – these are just everyday people whose plight was brought to his attention.

We are presently going through tough times in this country but the bitter truth is that it has been a long time coming, quite apart from the fact that at my age, I cannot remember when my fellow Nigerians did not face one serious national challenge or the other.

It is not as if there has ever been a time at which Nigeria was some New Jerusalem of a paradise and my appeal to all of us in this country is that this too will pass and we will move on to better days and better times soon.

President Bola Tinubu is working round the clock to reset the distortions, correct the anomalies, uproot the inconsistencies and pull down the strongholds of corruption, sleaze, graft, rent-seeking, waste, entitlement and underdevelopment that have accumulated over decades in this country.

They have finally caught up with us, something we ought to have known all along would eventually happen to our country.

We are all in this together and will get out of it together, working together and walking hand in hand, rather than insulting one another, whipping up ethnic, religious or regional sentiments, spreading division, or sabotaging our own country.

I am personally quite proud of Seyi Tinubu and of his siblings, for that matter, and consider it a most unfair affront that he should be so attacked in the most unwarranted manner trolls have been doing on social media.

Indeed, I am proud of President Tinubu for bringing up his children well.

I enjoin Seyi Tinubu to keep being himself, even as I urge him not to be crestfallen or howsoever disenchanted by the social media trolls, but to continue doing his good and being the upstanding citizen of this country he is.

Onokpasa, a lawyer, writes from Abuja.