By Prof. Ojo Emmanuel Ademola
In a few days, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu would be sworn in and inaugurated as the 16th President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. He would be succeeding President Muhammadu Buhari who would be bowing out as president after completing two meritorious terms in that exalted office.
By his swearing-in, Asiwaju’s eventful political trajectory would have reached a deserved climax that tops over three decades of hyper-active political participation that has become legendary for its productivity and astuteness.
It is worth noting that in entering politics, Asiwaju took a break from an equally exciting corporate world where he rose to become the Treasurer of Mobil, a famed multinational oil company. From the boardroom, he went into politics and took a shot at the Senate. He won on his first attempt and went into the senate where he played a frontal role till the callous annulment of the June 12, 1993 election won by late Chief MKO Abiola led him to join the struggle against both the annulment and continued military rule in Nigeria.
Though battered and bludgeoned from the aftermaths of that gritty struggle, Asiwaju was to be elected Governor of Lagos State, where he completed two meritorious terms that saw a radical positive altering of the fortunes of Lagos and the entrenchment of policies that sees Lagos a thriving hub of progress and development today.
Since the completion of his tenure as Lagos Governor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu plunged fully into the process of radically growing the political development of the country. He set his eyes on building a formidable opposition, equipped with the capacity to dethrone the then-ruling party. This nervy excursion saw him start from the AD, then formed AC, later ACN and finally rallying major opposition parties to form the All Progressives Congress (APC) that eventually upstaged the ruling PDP from power in 2015.
The highlight of Asiwaju’s meritocratic political trajectory was that he was able to build a party that defeated a ruling party in 2015 from a party that controlled just one state in 2003. Asiwaju meticulously went through the crucible of surviving in an opposition party and went through the discipline of leading a national party to victory against a ruling party in 2015 thus setting an exceptional national record!
In all his years of painstaking political engineering, Asiwaju built, mentored and brought into political stardom such a huge number of his followers, disciples and acolytes that he is regarded as Nigeria’s foremost builder of humans. Seen as an unmatchable talent hunter, Asiwaju’s greatest strength lies in his ability to identify and harness requisite talents to tackle issues and problems and produce results. This was what he leveraged as Lagos Governor to gift Nigeria perhaps her most successful governance template ever and this trait still resonates in the conduct of his private and official businesses as well as in the conduct of his political affairs.
Asiwaju is a revered barrier breaker. His long and winding political history is replete with enormous barriers, obstacles and bulwarks set up by his political foes. But he is reputable for the ways he tackles and deals with these obstacles. He had always emerged victorious in his many battles with his political foes and rivals and these have acquainted him with the ruggedness to vanquish challenges and emerge triumphant over any battle.
Endowed with a generous, liberal and tolerant large heart, Asiwaju has proved, over time, to be equipped with the liberal faculty to handle diverse human idiosyncrasies and nuances to get results. Essentially, this stems from the assertion that Life is anything that provides an opportunity to redefine itself. For instance, Asiwaju sees every stage of his political life as an opportunity to use the tool of innovation and creativity to redefine various political subsystems around him. With the adoption of the Robotic system in our human world, for instance, one can see life as a leadership space wakening the mind of all that politically reminds great minds that life could redefine itself by staying with the all-inclusive leadership. Such an innovative way trend to accentuate that creativity is all about taking all tough challenges and playing nice to turn those challenges into abundant opportunities.
With these versatile capacities, Tinubu has recorded immeasurable successes in a long-winding political career that peaked with his election as President of Nigeria on February 25, 2023. His emergence itself was a triumph of a nationalist agenda he ran over the religious and tribal platforms his opponents ran on. With his victory at the presidential election, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu became the first and only Nigerian to win the Senatorial, Governorship and Presidential election at the first attempt. He will be the first Nigerian President to have been both an elected senator and an elected Governor! All this and others speak of a man that is widely regarded as Nigeria’s foremost political strategist of all time!
More than any other previous president, Asiwaju will turn out the most prepared, the most detailed and the most meticulous president Nigeria will ever have. He is a famed workaholic, a dogged and indefatigable fighter that never relents in the face of challenges. This spirit has carried him so far in his long political history, his years in government and his years as a boardroom technocrat.
Millions of Nigerians repose implicit confidence in Asiwaju’s capacity to excel in the governance of Nigeria, as he excelled in the governance of Lagos. I know, like millions of Nigerians, that Asiwaju towers far and above his rivals, in areas of competence and capacity and most Nigerians believe he will be a tremendous success as Nigeria’s President.
With his swearing-in, in the next few days, Nigerians should expect the best in our governance history.
While I congratulate Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu on the epochal milestone of his inauguration as Nigeria’s President, I pray his reign will usher overflowing prosperity, peace and stability to Nigeria!
Prof. Ojo Emmanuel Ademola
