By: SHAFIHI Abdulrasheed, ANIPR
Tomorrow, Barr. Oluwaseyi Tinubu turns forty. This is not a tribute born from duty or the empty rituals of political flattery. It is a statement of fact, a recognition of what we have witnessed, what cowards pretend not to see, and an account of an amazing ambassador.
There are sons who run when storms gather. There are sons who distance themselves when the mob arrives with stones. There are sons who calculate their inheritance and hedge their loyalty accordingly. Seyi Tinubu is not that son. When Nigeria needed his father most, when the traducers sharpened their knives and the professional mourners of progress wailed their familiar songs of gloom, this young man stood, he stood tall and was counted accordingly.
Seyi stood not behind his father, but beside him. Not as ornament, but as pillar. That alone separates him from the crowd of convenient patriots who worship at the altar of personal survival.
Now, let me speak plainly about what disturbs his critics. They are not troubled by his proximity to power. Nigeria is drowning in the children of power who contribute nothing but entitlement. What disturbs them is that Seyi works. He mobilizes. He believes. He invests his time, resources, and name into youth empowerment—not as performance, but as mission. A fine example is the City Boy Movement. It exists because this man understood that rhetoric without structure is noise, and that young Nigerians needed more than promises. They needed a vehicle. He built one.
Talk of humility! Seyi Tinubu moves with the quiet confidence of someone who does not need validation from spectators. He does not parade his philanthropy. He does not rent photographers to document his “service.” He simply does the work. This simplicity this refusal to perform virtue is what frightens those who have built entire careers on performance. They cannot understand a man who acts without seeking applause.
Now to the noise-makers and their exhausted sermon: “He should not be close to government.” What stunning hypocrisy. Where were these voices when other sons of privilege converted state resources into private playgrounds? Where was this moral outrage when mediocrity was rewarded simply because it bore the right surname? They are silent then. But let a competent young man stand by his father’s vision, let him mobilize thousands toward constructive engagement, and suddenly they discover ethics. The truth they will not admit is this: they fear his effectiveness. They would prefer he be distant, ineffective, safely irrelevant like them.
His foresight reveals itself in what he chooses to build. While others his age chase trends and fleeting relevance, Seyi invests in structure. He understands that movements outlast moments, that institutions outlast individuals. At forty, he is not sprinting toward personal glory. He is laying foundations that will stand when the noise of today becomes the footnote of tomorrow. That kind of vision is rare at any age. At forty, it is revolutionary.
The Renewed Hope agenda will be judged by history, not by the vendors of permanent pessimism. But one thing is already clear: it has a defender in Seyi Tinubu not a defender who shouts down critics, but one who answers skepticism with results. He does not argue with cynics. He organizes the believers. He does not debate the naysayers. He empowers the doers. That is leadership.
So tomorrow, as he turns forty, we celebrate not potential but evidence. We celebrate not promise but performance. We celebrate a son who stood when it mattered, who works when others merely talk, who builds when others merely criticize. Forty is not the beginning for Seyi Tinubu. It is simply the next chapter of a story already written in action, not words.
To those who still insist he should step back, remain invisible, play small, our discomfort is noted and irrelevant. Nigeria does not need more sons of privilege who apologize for their proximity to power by doing nothing with it. Nigeria needs sons who stand, who work, who deliver. Seyi Tinubu is that son.
Happy 40th birthday, Barr. Seyi Tinubu. May your next forty years continue to frustrate those who prefer their youth idle, their leaders distant, and their patriots silent.
You chose differently. And Nigeria is better for it.
SHAFIHI Abdulrasheed, ANIPR is the Kwara State Secretary of City Boy Movement. He writes from Abuja and can be reached via sharvee2@gmail.com
