Tinubu’s father-son moment with Seyi and the Villa paint job

At first, President Bola Tinubu sat at the State House Conference Centre with the air of a man silently asking himself, “What am I doing here?” Then the drama troupe began its performance, and his body language changed into that of an invested onlooker.

Some backstory.

Like last week, the Villa hosted a flood of events, from technical workshops to political gatherings. First-time visitors to the seat of power pose every which way for as many photographs as they can take.

Although old Villa hands may not count the Conference Centre as a core part of the Villa, the visitors don’t care. They are simply happy to be here, and sometimes they vent that excitement on the President.

So it was on Monday evening. Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima found themselves engulfed in raw youthful energy at a forum tagged “Together till 2027: An Evening with Original City Boy.”

It was organised by the City Boy Movement and the Relax-Tinubu-Is-Fixing-Nigeria movement. The theme left no doubt about the intention of the gathering. However, the evening was less about the event than about its organiser: the President’s son, Seyi.

Days earlier, at the inauguration of his campaign council, Tinubu had praised Seyi for not jumping political classes and for marking his 41st birthday with a colloquium. “That is the way to go,” the father said, “to start to listen to elders.”

The inaugural Colloquium, Shaping the Future Together, was held on October 12 at the Eko Convention Centre, Lagos. It hosted star speakers including Akinwumi Adesina, Tony Elumelu, Abdul Samad Rabiu, Khalil Halilu of NASENI, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu and ace actress and producer Funke Akindele.

Last Monday, however, the President went further to give Seyi a this-is-my-beloved-son-in-whom-I-am-well-pleased moment on live television. He said, “He is running after his father. Your young colleagues would have seen that you are investing your time effectively. We are with you. Thank you. You did it humbly. You did not ask for a title or an office.

“You went to the young people, your age mates, your group. You listened to them and organised them. I am proud of all of you. But I will tell you what every father tells a son: you have only started. Do more, not less. Serve harder. Set an example that your own children, my grandchildren, will be proud to follow.”

As his father spoke, Seyi stood, removing his cap every so often in affirmation and obeisance. For those few minutes, I was almost not a political reporter anymore. I took in the beauty of the moment, watching as the boy in the 41-year-old leapt for joy at his father’s approval.

It reminded me of the welcome feast of Nomasir, son of Arkad, in “The Five Laws of Gold,” a chapter of George S. Clason’s 1926 book, The Richest Man in Babylon. Arkad, the richest man in Babylon, would not simply hand his son a fortune when he came of age.

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He wanted proof that his son could manage wealth. So he gave Nomasir a bag of gold and a clay tablet engraved with the five laws of gold, then sent him out into the world for 10 years, asking him to return and show what he had made of both.

However, things went badly for Nomasir. In Nineveh, Nomasir lost part of his gold to swindlers on a rigged horse race. He also lost much of the rest in a partnership with a smooth-talking young man in a business he did not understand.

Now broke and humbled, he folded his sleeves, began ordinary work, and finally turned to the tablet he had ignored. From then on, he lived by its laws, which read: “Save at least a tenth of what you earn, Put that money to profitable work, Invest only with the advice of people experienced in handling gold, Avoid businesses you don’t understand and Don’t chase impossible returns or listen to tricksters.”

Slowly, he rebuilt his fortune, and when the ten years were up, Arkad held a feast to welcome him home. Nomasir told his story openly, including his losses, then presented to his father the numerous bags of gold he had acquired, more than his father had given him.

He said he valued the tablet of wisdom more than the gold because the wisdom allowed him to rebuild. Arkad was deeply pleased that his son had learned the lesson the test was meant to teach, and he could now be trusted with the family’s legacy. The story went on to show how much a father’s affirmation meant to a son.

Speaking of affirmations, while the President was showing off his son to screaming youths, other people’s sons were scaling scaffolds to repaint the Villa. I hope their fathers are proud of them too. But they may not get the chance to say it on live television.

Anyone who visited the Villa last week would have seen men at work, painting the façade of the covered corridor leading to the President’s office. They were peeling, re-plastering and recoating the arches of the administrative wing in white oil paint.

Some offices were also being cleaned and fumigated. On Wednesday, it was observed that the President did not come to his office as workers were scaling the upper arches near the Presidential Banquet Hall.

An official mentioned that it was routine maintenance. Routine, perhaps, but not cheap. From budget documents for 2024, 2025 and 2026, at least N53.58bn was earmarked for maintenance of the State House Headquarters.

The 2026 Appropriation Act alone earmarked N4.23bn for annual routine maintenance, N3.84bn for annual maintenance, and N8.35bn for Julius Berger and other maintenance liabilities dating back to 2022, including FCT water charges, AEDC bills and waste disposal.

In 2025, those line items amounted to N23.46bn, while a separate N35.36bn went to rehabilitating and repairing office buildings. To be fair, the routine maintenance allocation has fallen by 54 per cent since 2024, from N9.2bn to N4.23bn.

The last makeover of this scale came in May 2023, ahead of Tinubu’s inauguration. A senior official at the time explained that the walls needed repainting due to stains from monkeys and bat droppings.