Also known as the Jagaban of Borgu Chiefdom, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, BAT for short, is a study in resilience and political sagacity. Easily one of Nigeria’s most strategic politicians, he defied many stripes, remained fiercely focused in the race for Nigeria’s number one political spot. The military will not forget him in a hurry, nor will politicians that have underestimated him.
After serving as governor of Lagos State and surviving the onslaught of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) against progressive governors at the time, he stayed out of elective office but not out of politics. He maintained grip over the affairs of Lagos and played a leading role in the coalition that defeated the ruling PDP in 2015.
For nearly eight years, however, he was sidelined and treated like a stranger in the All Progressives Congress in which he was one of the two most significant shareholders. Yet, again, he defied the odds, confounded critics and silenced doubters by cobbling together an electoral machine that produced a winning ticket the like of which was seen in Nigeria three long decades ago.
Tinubu came into national limelight when he emerged as a senator representing Lagos West Senatorial District on the platform of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the ill-fated Third Republic. He was the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. When that experiment failed with the annulment of the June 12, 1993, presidential election, which the late Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola won, and the overthrow of the interim national government led by Ernest Shonekan, his political trajectory took a dramatic turn. He was one of the kingpins of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), an amalgam of fireeating pro-democratic activists.
As the General Sani Abacha military regime began a clampdown on individuals it considered political dissidents, Tinubu went into self-exile from where he and others of his political persuasion fought the then head of state Abacha to a standstill. With the return to democracy in 1999 in Nigeria, he joined the Alliance for Democracy (AD) on which platform he was nominated the governorship candidate for Lagos State. He won very easily and served two terms as the third civilian governor of the state after Alhaji Lateef Jakande and Chief Michael Otedola. He used that opportunity to reset Lagos — he initiated a master plan that has turned it into a mega city. Thus began the rise and rise of the political behemoth who is today the president and commanderin-chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Bola Tinubu’s enduring quality lies in his uncanny capacity to mould and nurture a diverse political spectrum into a formidable opposition party that set the record in the country for defeating an incumbent ruling party. At age 71, Tinubu is, without a doubt, an icon of democracy, a mobiliser of immeasurable capacity, a thoroughbred grassroots politician, a defender of the masses and a skillful communicator. President Tinubu’s resilience and indomitability in Nigeria’s political firmament became so glaring when he survived the political hurricane of 2003 that swept away the rest five governors elected on the platform of the AD in the South-West to remain the last man standing. What cannot be taken away from the president are his vision, intelligence, determination, courage, strong sense of purpose, focus, and the tenacity he displays at every level and station of life that he finds himself. The legacies of the man fondly referred to as the good man of Lagos are glaring in the state till date. For eight years as governor, he transformed the face of Lagos State, earning plaudits in the process. He grew the state’s internally generated revenue (IGR) from N600 million monthly to N7 billion by 2007 when he handed over to his illustrious successor, Raji Babatunde Fashola.
Tinubu, once captured by the Financial Times as a “political Sveng a li” has, over the years, remained a dogged fighter, a welfarist, a team player, a revolutionary and a visionary leader. With these virtues he was able to turn Lagos into a benchmark of how an elected public officer should deliver the dividends of democracy to his people.
From the Action Congress which later metamorphosed into the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), he formed a strategic alliance, in 2013, with other progressives to form the APC. a political platform that became a formidable opposition to the then ruling PDP. The APC under the national leadership of Tinubu fielded former President Muhammadu Buhari and went ahead to wrest power from former President Goodluck Jonathan of the PDP in the 2015 general election.
Leveraging Tinubu’s political outreach, the APC did not just secure a second term in office for Buhari in 2019; it won many governorship elections and maintained a majority in the National Assembly. Thus, when the man acclaimed as the “lion of Bourdillon” and “Jagaban Borgu” audaciously roared “Emi lokan”, a Yoruba phrase that means ‘’It is my turn’’ before the party faithful in Abeokuta, Ogun State, savvy political pundits knew he would be unstoppable, given his political charisma and solid preparation for the number-one job in the country. Having built political bridges across the North and South of the country, Tinubu took the APC convention ground by storm on June 8, 2022, at Eagle Square, Abuja, for his party’s primaries.
The political colossus he is, he defeated other aspirants such as Professor Yemi Osibanjo who was a sitting vice president, Senator Ahmad Lawan who was a sitting Senate president, Rt. Hon. Rotimi Amaechi, among others, in a most transparent and well-organized election. As the presidential candidate of his party, Tinubu, born on the 29th day of March 1952, engaged the Nigerian electorate on issue-based campaign, reeling out his manifesto he christened “Renewed Hope Agenda for Better Nigeria”.
Many Nigerians saw him as a messiah with the Midas touch required to turn the nation’s fortune around. His hard work and strategies paid off: he won the election, beating his main rivals, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the PDP and Mr Peter Obi of the Labour Party. Before his foray into politics, he had worked at different times in Deloitte, and General Telephone and Electronics (GTE) Corporation. Then, he joined Mobil as company executive and rose to the pinnacle of his career as treasurer of the multinational oil company.
A versatile politician, Tinubu had clinched the Politician of the Year Award in 2011, 2018 and 2021. Tinubu had his early education in Nigeria and was known to be an extrovert who followed musical bands across all of western Nigeria. He later departed for the United States in the mid-1970s. He attended pre-university at Richard Darley College and later went to Chicago State University in 1977 to study Business Management and Accounting. He graduated top of his class and was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration with honours on June 22, 1979. Ever since he took over the mantle of leadership in Nigeria, he has taken tough decisions and introduced a wide range of economic reforms in a bid to reposition the country for exponential growth. The president is married to Senator Oluremi Tinubu and has many children.
