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30-05-2023
ABUJA: Bola Tinubu, the former Lagos governor who is credited with helping the city-state increase its revenue base, has been sworn in as Nigeria’s new president.
He took the oath of office from Chief Justice Olukayode Ariwoola in a colorful ceremony attended by local and foreign dignitaries on Monday in Abuja, the capital.
Tinubu, 71, succeeds Muhammadu Buhari, who was ineligible to run again after two four-year terms that began in 2015.
The new president, the fifth since the return of democracy in 1999, will have to tackle a struggling economy and widespread insecurity in Africa’s most populous country.
His supporters say he will replicate his success in diversifying Lagos’s tax revenue and increasing its internally generated revenue to the national stage but critics say he enriched himself during two terms in office as governor and got his cronies in government to assign him an enormous pension after exiting power. In the run-up to the 2023 vote, there were questions about his wealth, his health as he slurred during speeches and his academic credentials.
Tinubu, also a former senator, aided Buhari’s rise to the presidency in 2015, defeating the incumbent president at the time to make history.
Bola Ahmed Tinubu is a Nigerian politician and business magnate who is widely considered to be the wealthiest politician in Nigeria. He is a former governor of Lagos State, and is currently the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Nigeria’s ruling party.
Tinubu was born on March 29, 1952, in Lagos, Nigeria. His father was a prominent member of the Tinubu royal family of Lagos State, and his mother was a trader from Ijebu Ode, Ogun State. Tinubu attended The University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) for his undergraduate degree in Economics, and then proceeded to earn an MBA from Harvard Business School.
After graduating from Harvard, Tinubu returned to Nigeria and joined Mobil Oil as an executive trainee. He later became the general manager of Associated Discos Limited (ADL), one of Nigeria’s largest disco clubs at the time. It was during his time at ADL that Tinubu first entered into politics, working as an adviser to General Muhammadu Buhari during his military regime.
In 1993, Tinubu ran for governor of Lagos State on the platform of the Social Democratic Party (SDP). He won handily, and served as governor for 8 years until he was term-limited out in 2001. As governor, Tinubu helped transform Lagos into one of Africa’s most famous leaders. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
