Tinubu:  Nigeria’s undisputable 2023 Man of the year, by Kola Amzat

Traditionally, when curtains are about to be drawn on a financial year, the news hunters and other concerned stakeholders bombard pages of Newspapers and Magazines with their ‘chosen’ man of the Year.

Indeed, it’s germane and very appropriate to do so. Even, heaven recognizes and acknowledges the individual exploits of these Biblical greats: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, Solomon, Daniel, Moses, Esther, Deborah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, John the Baptist etc. How much more we, ordinary mortals!

If one man, in the midst of 230-250 million people received heavenly grace & favor in the course of year to stand out in his chosen field which could be politics, sports, academic, engineering, humanity, etc, the best we can do is to celebrate and accord such individual with recognition and accolades.

This is the case of the illustrious and iconic Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, President of Federal Republic of Nigeria. Of course, who amongst Nigerians could rival his exploits within the last 14 months? He bestrides the political landscape like a colossus! Even, his political foes and the die-hard opposition members would not controvert his emergence as Man of the Year.

In the past 14-15 months, Tinubu name has remained very dominant in all households across the nation.

Indeed, the journey to his emergence began towards the end of the immediate past year when he battled against all odds and challenges on his path, including that of members of political class, and more importantly, the then cabal in Aso Villa to emerge as the Presidential candidate of APC, the ruling party.

Consequent to this development, we, his die-hard followers and faithful thought the battle was over, until it dawned us during the presidential campaigns that the real battle had just began.

For emphasis, the Year 2023 presidential campaigns remained the most tempestuous, rancorous, acrimonious, dirty and riotous in the annals of presidential elections in Nigeria, as everything was done to unhorse this man of destiny.

The members of opposition, particularly the PDP and Labour Party deployed all resources within their disposal in their bids to halt and truncate Tinubu presidential ambition.

They inundated Nigerians with their ‘perceived opinions’ of Tinubu’s lack of emotional, mental, psychological and physical state to preside over the affairs of Nigeria.

They deployed their mercenaries to continually follow him to all campaign grounds across the nation, with a view to focusing and unearthing his inadequacies at the campaign events for the Nigerian people to see.

They continually manipulated & orchestrated their recording gadgets to video-recording Tinubu hands in always ‘shaking mode’. They harped on his ‘perceived’ incoherence at campaign grounds.

At the height of their mischief and propaganda, they somewhere recorded Asiwaju Tinubu’s apparels drenched with water at the campaign podium.  It’s as horrible as that!

They made unsuccessful and valiant attempts to convince Nigerians that the president is a misfit for the office. They engaged in war of personal vendetta, strife, envy and jealousy for the period the campaign endured.  

When all their ploys and plots collapsed, they turned to the disgraced immediate past CBN governor to formulate and implement Naira Redesign Policy, a draconian currency policy directly targeted at Tinubu to halt the flow of necessary funds to his presidential campaign team, with a view to crumbling the entire project.  

Even though Godwin Emefiele was a colossal failure in the important assignment of managing Nigeria Apex Bank, but, in a bid to truncate Tinubu presidential bids, he was very outstanding in executing and implementing the Naira Redesign Policy, so much that the policy badly affected all households, business enterprises and even, the government establishments’ across the nation.

This writer wouldn’t bother Nigerians with the statistics of hundreds of death recorded and thousands of collapsed businesses during the implementation of the ill-fated policy. Emefiele would ever pay for this wickedness and indiscretion against Nigeria people!

Against all odds, Asiwaju Tinubu emerged winner during the presidential polls, claiming victory in 31 states with unassailable 8.79 million votes cast by Nigerians and overwhelmed his closest rival, PDP candidate Atiku Abubakar, who only won in 21 states as against 25 states stipulated by the Nigerian Constitution and also with 6.98 vote casts.  

Following his triumph at the presidential poll, Tinubu got inaugurated on May 29, 2023 despite the mischief and distractions orchestrated by opposition members particularly, Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi that the country should opt for Interim Government, when already citizenry had given their mandate to Tinubu to lead them for the next 4 years. 

After his inauguration as the President of the Federal Republic, Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi hit Presidential Tribunal demanding that Tinubu victory should be upturned. After months of legal battles, the tribunal upheld the president’s victory at polls.

They weren’t done. They proceeded to the Court of Appeal. After months of submissions at the appellate court by some of the best legal brains in the country, notably Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN) and his team, the Appeal Court in about 12 hours judgment, reaffirmed the judgment of the presidential tribunal that returned Bola Tinubu as the duly elected president.

The battle ultimately shifted to Supreme Court. But, in between the Apex Court verdict, Alhaji Abubakar engaged in some dirty deals that would ever cast doubts and aspersions to his status as statesman, as well as someone who had once occupied the office of vice-president of Nigeria.

The former vice president went as far as demanding for Tinubu’s transcript from the authority of Chicago University, a document he intended to present to the Apex Court in addition with all others already submitted.

After several attempts to obtain the document and when he was becoming a nuisance to Chicago University Authority, they resolved to accede to his request by availing him of the document. But, the transcript couldn’t help his case, as it’s the same document that the college issued to the recipient (Tinubu) when he graduated.  So, his efforts was inconsequential.      

A couple weeks of later, the Supreme Court upheld the judgments of the Presidential Tribunal and Appellate Court, finally returned Asiwaju Bola Tinubu as duly elected President of Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Since his inauguration, the president has swung into action, constituting his cabinet that comprises very experienced Nigerians of great accomplishments in all the human endeavors. The Ministers and Special Advisers have also been assigned portfolios, and deliverables, as well as timelines as encapsulated in Key Performance Index (KPIs).

Meanwhile, the President has also shown deep interest in the composition of leadership of the national assembly by ensuring that those who occupy the strategic offices in the legislative arm of the government are not those who will constitute cogs in the wheels of policy formulation and implementation.

It’s also instructive to confirm that, the president has been very strategic in constituting the Boards of MDAs at the federal level.  

The president has caused sweeping change at the Apex Bank, appointing Yemi Cardozo as new CBN governor, and also announcing the appointment of four Deputy Governors of the Bank.

New NNPC Plc Board has been constituted with another 4 years tenure for the incumbent, Mele Kyari, as well as announcing the appointment of elder statesman, Pius Akinyeluri as the Chairman, with other members of Board also announced.

It’s also important to confirm that the president has recalled all Nigerian Ambassadors across the globe, with a view to making new appointments perhaps in the New Year.

New FIRS Executive Chairman, in person of Zacch Adedeji has emerged, with Nigerians waiting with the bated breath for the new Board members to be constituted.                  

The president has taken decisive, pragmatic and strategic steps to reposition the nation oil sector. During his inauguration, he announced the removal of oil-subsidy, one policy that has been technically difficult for the nation’s successive administrations to implement. It’s confirmed that with the subsidy removal, Nigeria is capable of saving at least 1 trillion every month from this policy initiative.

Even though, the removal of subsidy has caused untold hardship and pains for Nigerians and their businesses, the government insisted that’s the only path to tread if Nigeria infrastructures, education, medical, agricultures etc are to experience development and growth.      

It’s important to emphasize that not a single dime of oil subsidy found its way into 2024 Appropriation Bill of about ₦27.8 Trillion.

The president through CBN has ordered the regime of unified exchange rate, thus ensuring unification of exchange rate through the collapse of parallel market and official rates.

 More importantly, this president has mandated a new regime of harmony and collaboration between the fiscal and monetary policies, a strategic initiative expected to reposition, reignite and drive the economy to prosperity.

One striking feature of Tinubu presidency since his inauguration are his numerous foreign trips to attend business summits. To date, he has registered his presence in about 6 of those summits.

He’s been to Nairobi Kenya to attend African Union meeting. He attended G20 Summit in New Dehli at the invitation of the India Prime Minister. He was at Paris Summit with Nigerian entourage at the instance of President Emman Macron.

He was at UNGA in New York at the invitation of President Biden. Of course, he attended Riyadh business summit at the instance of the Saudi Arabia authority. He recently returned home from UAE, where he led Nigeria delegation to feature at Dubai business meeting.  

At this juncture, it’s important to emphasize that it’s not the trips that matter, but the benefits accruing to the country through them. And, there is no iota of doubt that results of those trips would soon be forthcoming, even in manifold.

Tinubu got elected as ECOWAS Chairman during the regional body summit in Guinea Bissau, thus placing Nigeria firmly in control of leadership of West African sub region.

In Paris Summit, Tinubu, alongside other global leaders signed New Global Financial Pact that placed vulnerable countries, aftermath the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on priority list for support and investment from the globe. Is Nigeria not a vulnerable country? Would these benefits have been possible if the president didn’t register his presence at the summit? 

It must also be emphasized that, it was during the AU Summit in Nairobi that the president brokered a deal of about $3 billion emergency crude repayment loan with President of African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) for Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) for the purpose of supporting the naira and stabilizing the country foreign exchange market

Asiwaju Tinubu seized the opportunity of India trip to formally invite the major players in India business landscape, as well as other global investors who graced the summit, to Nigeria for the purpose of investment. He also emphasized Nigeria government’s preparedness to create enabling business environment for their investments to thrive and flourish.

At UNGA, Nigerian delegation participated in high-level events such as a High-level dialogue on Financing for Development and a high-level meeting on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response.

In addition, the President and his entourage attended the Climate Ambition Summit, convened by the Secretary-General; the Ministerial meeting of the Summit of the Future; High-level meeting of the Universal Health Coverage.

Prominent in the fallouts from Riyad summit is the pledge of Saudi Arabia authority to invest in revamping Nigeria refineries through Saudi state-owned oil company, Saudi Aramco within 2-3 years, as well as reforming Central Bank of Nigeria by making available a substantial deposit of foreign exchange to boost Nigeria’s forex market.

Nigeria and Saudi Arabia also resolved to strengthen security cooperation to mitigate terrorism, illegal migration and other crises within West African sub-region and Sahel region.

President Bola Tinubu berthed in Aso Villa emotionally, psychologically and mentally prepared for the topmost office in the land.

Year 2023 absolutely belongs to Nigeria’s president. It’s practically difficult to identify any Nigeria who outdo, outrace and out-manoeuvre him during this historic year.

That’s why this writer resolved to pitch his tent with President Bola Tinubu as an indisputable Nigerian Man of the Year. 

Congratulations to the developmental, resourceful, very mobile and very strategic president.       

Kola AMZAT (FCA, FCIB),

Lagos Based Financial Consultant,

09077509348.