When The First Lady Invites The Press To Lunch

On Tuesday, thing antithetic happened wrong the statesmanlike villa. For the archetypal clip successful memory, a Nigerian First Lady hosted the State House property corps to lunch. No, not a perfunctory “media chat” wherever handlers hover nervously and aides chopped questions short. An existent sit-down meal, wherever Remi Tinubu witty, often disarming successful her candor — spent hours swapping stories with the radical whose regular grind is to observe powerfulness up close.

For reporters who’ve trailed presidents for decades, this was a first. And that information unsocial tells america something. Our First Ladies person ever wielded brushed power, immoderate much subtly than others, but seldom person they invited the statesmanlike property corps into their idiosyncratic orbit. The Villa is simply a fortress, built connected ceremonial and distance. To unfastened its doors, adjacent for lunch, carries much value than the menu.
I’ve covered 2 presidents myself and tin corroborate what others said that afternoon: this had ne'er happened before. In a strategy wherever symbolism often matters much than substance, the optics were striking.

Remi Tinubu is not your standard-issue First Lady. She has a Senate record. She has a estimation for bluntness that occasionally unsettles adjacent her husband’s allies. She does not wrapper herself successful euphemism.

Those who cognize her from Lagos authorities picture idiosyncratic who volition chopped you disconnected mid-sentence if she thinks you’re wasting her time. And astatine 65, she has the benignant of assurance that comes with property and a agelong spell successful the trenches.

That property was connected show astatine lunch. Anecdotes, banter, adjacent mild jabs — each portion of the performance. But beneath the convivial ambiance was a wide message: this First Lady wants to beryllium seen and heard connected her ain terms, not simply arsenic an appendage of her husband’s presidency. She strengthened the Renewed Hope Agenda, giving a dependable to the wives of governors and putting women successful nationalist bureau to amended service the country.

Contrast this with past occupants of the role. Stella Obasanjo wielded power mostly down closed doors. Turai Yar’Adua built a formidable web but avoided unfastened enactment with the press. Patience Jonathan loved the limelight, but mostly done rallies and flamboyant nationalist appearances, not cozy sessions with Villa reporters. Aisha Buhari, to her credit, often broke ranks to knock her husband’s government, but she, too, ne'er sought intimacy with the property corps arsenic a collective.

Remi Tinubu’s determination to big them signals thing different: a calculated willingness to signifier narratives directly, bypassing filters.

Of course, the luncheon didn’t hap successful a vacuum. It was staged successful the afterglow of her 65th birthday, which she had earlier asked Nigerians to people not with congratulatory adverts but with donations to implicit the long-abandoned National Library project. A noble idea, connected paper. Who wouldn’t privation to spot a rotting monument to bureaucratic incompetence yet finished?
Yet the announcement instantly drew suspicion. In a state wherever each motion from the Villa is work arsenic governmental maneuvering, galore assumed the fundraiser was a disguised run warfare thorax for 2027. Remi Tinubu anticipated that and addressed it head-on, insisting the relationship was transparent, with the Education Minister and Chief Librarian arsenic signatories. She adjacent reeled disconnected her past philanthropic grounds — ₦50 cardinal for sickle-cell enactment astatine 45, ₦200 cardinal for her New Era Foundation astatine 50.

Still, optics chopped some ways. When she disclosed that donations had already crossed ₦20 billion, including contributions from governors, information chiefs, and concern moguls, eyebrows went up. Nigerians person learned the hard mode that elite fundraising often doubles arsenic a loyalty test. Will Dangote oregon Elumelu ever accidental nary to a First Lady’s cause? Exactly.

That is wherefore her luncheon with the property mattered beyond the birthday. By breaking breadstuff with reporters, Remi Tinubu was reinforcing the thought that her fundraiser is civic, not governmental — a nationalist library, not a run kitty.

Why does this matter? Because successful Nigeria, the narration betwixt powerfulness and the property has ever been strained. Reporters covering the Villa are often treated arsenic nuisances — tolerated but not trusted, sometimes rewarded with perks, often starved of existent access. Presidents thin to talk done cautiously managed statements, portion First Ladies hover successful a grey portion of influence, seldom straight accountable.

So erstwhile the First Lady sits down to luncheon with reporters, it signals a loosening of that rigid script. She is saying: I americium accessible. I volition reply your questions. I volition adjacent marque jokes astatine my ain expense. Whether this becomes a sustained signifier oregon remains a one-off motion is anyone’s guess, but the symbolism is undeniable.

For the property corps itse...