Tinubu: the Making of Nigeria’s 16th President
By Idris Umar Feta
Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a political “godfather” famed for his strategic deftness and clout, has won a tight race to succeed Muhammadu Buhari as the next president of Nigeria, come May 29, 2023.
The 70-year-old fulfilled his “lifelong” ambition by winning the presidency of Africa’s most populous nation with over 8.7 million votes, according to final election results from the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
Tinubu the president-elect on the platform of the All Progressive Congress, APC, was born 29 March 1952. He is an accountant by profession, a politician who served as the Governor of Lagos state from 1999 to 2007, and a Senator representing Lagos West during the third republic.
Tinubu spent his early life in the southwestern part of the country. He attended St. John’s primary school, Aroloya Lagos, Children’s home School Ibadan and later moved to United States, where he studied Accounting at Chicago State University.
He returned to Nigeria in the early 1980s, and was employed by Mobil Nigeria as an accountant, before entering politics as a Lagos West senatorial candidate in 1992, under the banner of the Social Democratic Party.
Tinubu’s political journey began in 1992, when he joined the Social Democratic Party, where he was a member of the Peoples Front faction led by Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, and made up of other politicians such as Umaru Yar’Adua, Atiku Abubakar, Baba Gana Kingibe, Rabiu Kwankwaso, Abdullahi Aliyu Sumaila, Magaji Abdullahi, Dapo Sarumi and Yomi Edu.
He was elected to the Senate, representing the Lagos West constituency in the short-lived Nigerian Third Republic.
After General Sani Abacha dissolved the Senate in 1993, Tinubu became an activist, campaigning for the return of democracy as a part of the National Democratic Coalition Movement. Following the seizure of power as military head of state by General Sani Abacha, he went into exile in 1994 and returned to the country in 1998 after the death of the military ruler, which ushered in the transition to the Fourth Nigerian Republic.
In January 1999, he stood for the position of Governor of Lagos State on the AD ticket and was elected governor. After he assumed office in May 1999, Tinubu provided multiple housing units in Lagos for the poor. During the eight-year period of being in office, he made large investments in education in the state. He also initiated new road construction, required to meet the needs of the fast-growing population of the state. On a simpler note, Tinubu’s two terms were marked by attempts at modernizing the city of Lagos and his feuds with the PDP-controlled federal government.
In April 2003, Tinubu won re-election into office alongside a new deputy governor, Femi Pedro. Except for him, all other states in the South West fell to the People’s Democratic Party in those elections. He was involved in a struggle with the Olusegun Obasanjo-controlled federal government over whether Lagos State had the right to create new Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) to meet the needs of its large population.
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The controversy led to the federal government seizing funds meant for local councils in the state. During the latter part of his term in office, he was engaged in continuous clashes with PDP powers such as Adeseye Ogunlewe, a former Lagos State senator who had become Minister of Works, and Bode George, the Southwest Chairman of the PDP.
In 2009, following the landslide victory of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the April 2007 elections, Tinubu became involved in negotiations to bring together the fragmented opposition parties into a “mega-party” capable of challenging the then ruling PDP.
After vacating office in 2007, he became instrumental to the formation of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in 2013. Long and controversial, Tinubu’s career has been plagued by accusations of corruption and questions about the veracity of his personal history.
Apart from politics, Tinubu became a founding member of the pro-democracy National Democratic Coalition, a group which mobilized support for the restoration of democracy and recognition of Moshood Abiola, as winner of the 12 June election.
In February 2013, Tinubu was among several politicians who created a “mega opposition” party with the merger of Nigeria’s three biggest opposition parties – the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), a faction of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and the new PDP (nPDP), a faction of the then ruling People’s Democratic Party into the All Progressives Congress (APC).
In 2014, Tinubu supported former military Head-of-State, General Muhammadu Buhari, leader of the CPC faction of the APC – who commanded widespread following in Northern Nigeria, and had previously contested in the 2003, 2007, and 2011 presidential elections as the CPC presidential candidate.
In 2015, Buhari rode the APC to victory, ending the sixteen year rule of the PDP, and marking the first time in the history of Nigeria that an incumbent president lost to an opposition candidate.
Tinubu has gone on to play an important role in the Buhari administration, supporting government policies and holding onto the internal party reins, in lieu of his long-held rumored presidential aspiration.
Also In 2019, he supported Buhari’s re-election campaign, defeating the PDP candidate, Atiku Abubakar.
On 10 January 2022, Tinubu announced his intention to run for the President of Nigeria to President Buhari. This was the formal form of announcement from him and that is where the ‘Emi Lokan’ slogan came into play.
Tinubu won the presidential primary of the ruling All Progressive Congress on 8 June 2022 scoring 1,271, to defeat Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, Rotimi Amaechi and host of others.
His peak of triumph was the early hours of Wednesday morning March 1, 2023, when the Chairman of INEC, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, announced him as the winner of the just concluded 25th February election at the International Conference Centre in Abuja. He was declared president-elect after he polled 8,794,726 votes to defeat his opponents.
Tinubu won the election ahead of the Peoples Democratic Party’s candidate, Atiku Abubakar; the Labour Party’s candidate, Peter Obi; and the New Nigeria Peoples Party’s candidate, Rabiu Kwankwaso.
He will be assuming office as Nigeria’s leader on May 29, 2023.
