First Lady Senator Oluremi Tinubu arrived in Ekiti State for a working visit to commission an ICT Centre at Ekiti State University with a convoy of between 60 and 70 vehicles stretching behind her. Observers noted the convoy’s size was partly due to state officials, APC women leaders, and the entourages of wives of state governors joining the motorcade.
The video spread quickly. At the same time, in Oyo State, over 46 children, teachers, and a school principal remain in captivity. They have been there since May 22, and a teacher was beheaded on camera. The children have not been seen or heard from in over two weeks.
The timing could not have been worse. 
The Luxury Cars for APC Women Leaders
Another story broke alongside the convoy controversy. According to multiple reports, the First Lady has been distributing luxury vehicles to APC women leaders ahead of President Tinubu’s 2027 re-election campaign.
The timing has not gone unnoticed, as children are missing, insecurity is rising across the country, armed bandits move freely, schools are closing, parents are living in fear, and the First Lady’s political machine is distributing cars.
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What People Are Saying
Social media reacted the way you would expect: with anger, frustration, and comparisons to past first ladies.
One commenter wrote: “Patience Jonathan was the most compassionate first lady Nigeria has ever had. She even went by herself to Chibok school in Borno to relate with them.”
The Chibok comparison stings specifically because it invokes a moment when a First Lady chose proximity to pain over distance from it. Whatever one’s politics on the Jonathan administration, the image of Patience Jonathan travelling to Chibok to sit with grieving mothers is lodged in public memory, and it is the image Nigerians are now holding up beside a distribution of cars.
Another was more direct: “She cherishes the election over human lives.”
Some defended the First Lady, arguing that her convoy size is standard for a woman of her position. Others pointed out that state governors and their wives also bear responsibility for swelling the motorcade. But the defence did little to quiet the outrage. The images were too stark, and the contrast too painful.
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The Bottom Line
Nigeria is bleeding. Schoolchildren are sleeping on forest floors, and the government has not rescued them. The First Lady instead drove through Ekiti with 70 cars and also handed out luxury vehicles to political allies which Nigerians are calling “misplaced priorities,” but can we blame them?
No one is saying the First Lady should stop working, and no one is saying she should not commission ICT centres. But Nigerians are exhausted by the disconnect. The same government that cannot find 46 missing children can somehow find the means to distribute cars to allies.
Something is wrong, and Nigerians are not silent about it anymore.
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