DG Defends Tinubu’s Achievement, Urges Nigerians To Scrutinise Administration

The director-general of the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council, Princess Zahrah Mustapha Audu, has urged Nigerians to scrutinise President Bola Tinubu’s administration.

The DG said the President is taking bold and selfless decisions with Nigeria’s long-term future in mind.
Audu, who is also the national publicity secretary of the City Boy Movement, said Tinubu’s political career and presidency should be assessed against established facts and measurable outcomes rather than allegations or disputed aspects of his biography.

She spoke when she compared Tinubu’s political trajectory with those of former South African President Nelson Mandela and former Ghanaian President Jerry John Rawlings.

The PEBEC boss said legitimate questions about a political leader’s background should be distinguished from established facts, arguing that controversies should neither be concealed nor exaggerated beyond the available evidence.

“His certificates may be questioned. His biography may be contested. But his political accomplishments cannot simply be written out of history,” she said.

Audu said controversies surrounding Tinubu’s educational background required a clear distinction between allegations, disputed facts and established evidence.

She noted that evidence presented during litigation in the United States in 2023 confirmed that Tinubu attended Chicago State University and graduated in 1979, while disputes centred on the provenance and authenticity of a particular diploma copy submitted to Nigerian electoral authorities.

She maintained that public officials must remain open to scrutiny but urged critics to ensure that their conclusions remained within the boundaries of verifiable evidence.

The PEBEC DG also highlighted Tinubu’s political journey, including his tenure in the Senate during the aborted Third Republic, involvement in the pro-democracy struggle, election as Lagos State governor in 1999 and re-election in 2003.

She further cited his role in opposition politics, political structure-building and the formation of the All Progressives Congress, which eventually provided the platform through which he contested and won the presidency.

“Power was not simply placed in his hands one morning. His career was constructed over decades of alliances, defeats, negotiations, institution-building, political calculation and electoral contests,” Audu said.

She argued that formal educational credentials alone could not adequately explain political competence, saying leadership should also be judged by decisions taken, institutions built, political coalitions created and measurable outcomes.

However, Audu said Tinubu’s presidency deserved an even higher level of scrutiny because of the far-reaching economic reforms introduced by his administration.

She acknowledged that the removal of fuel subsidy and changes to the foreign exchange regime had subjected Nigerians to severe economic pressures, including inflation, food insecurity and rising living costs.

At the same time, she said international institutions had acknowledged the structural importance of some of the reforms, citing assessments by the International Monetary Fund on Nigeria’s macroeconomic reforms.

According to her, Nigerians can simultaneously acknowledge the economic significance of the reforms and their painful social consequences.

She also argued that political achievements could coexist with legitimate criticism, cautioning against what she described as both “hagiography” and “reductionism” in assessing the President.

Audu said supporters of Tinubu should not dismiss every controversy surrounding him, just as critics should not assume that disputed aspects of his biography automatically erased his political achievements.

“History is not acquittal, history is accumulation,” she said.

The PEBEC DG urged Nigerians to continue scrutinising Tinubu’s biography and administration, insisting that his presidency should ultimately be judged on evidence of its policies, achievements and failures.

She nevertheless described Tinubu, in her assessment, as “Nigeria’s greatest president to date,” while calling on Nigerians to apply the same standard of evidence in evaluating his record as they would to other political leaders