The 70-year-old has gained the presidency of Africa’s most populous nation with 8.8 million votes, based on remaining election outcomes.
Bola Tinubu, a political “godfather” famed for his strategic deftness and clout, has gained a decent race to succeed Muhammadu Buhari as the subsequent president of Nigeria.
Tinubu by no means hid his ambition to be president of Nigeria because the 70-year-old fulfilled his “lifelong” purpose by successful the presidency of Africa’s most populous nation with 8.8 million votes, based on remaining election outcomes.
Regardless of lingering questions on his well being and previous corruption allegations, the two-time Lagos governor will succeed Buhari, a former military basic he brags of serving to put into energy.
His ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) faces accusations of electoral fraud in polls, that befell over Saturday and Sunday, from its two fundamental opponents. However electoral officers and the APC dismissed these claims.
Typically referred to by the chieftain’s title of “Jagaban”, Tinubu has spent years constructing his Lagos energy base right into a nationwide community of contacts from Lagos market cooperatives and transport unions to political operatives.
However in a shock end result from the polls, rival Labour Occasion candidate Peter Obi gained in Lagos State – Tinubu’s conventional bastion of assist.
“You win some, you lose some,” Tinubu stated of the end result, urging his supporters to stay calm.
Days later, the tenacious chief, who campaigned with the slogan “It’s my flip”, was confirmed because the winner of the presidency.
Lengthy stint in energy
A Muslim born in Nigeria’s Yoruba-speaking southwest, Tinubu educated as an accountant in the USA and labored for a number of US firms, together with as a treasurer at oil big ExxonMobil.
He was a political activist earlier than changing into a senator and later governor of Lagos State, which he ruled from 1999 to 2007.
Tinubu’s supporters level to Lagos’s successes and demand he can replicate them on a nationwide scale. The town-state is by and enormous essentially the most viable financial system in Nigeria. As a standalone nation, it could be amongst Africa’s high 10 economies by gross home product (GDP).
Nevertheless, some critics say the pro-Tinubu narrative erases the welfarist politics of Lateef Jakande, governor between 1979 and 1983, who laid the foundations of at the moment’s Lagos, which has swelled from 4 million individuals three a long time in the past to 21 million at the moment.
Described by his allies as an astute political strategist, he co-founded and financed the Alliance for Democracy, which later grew to become the Motion Congress of Nigeria, after which helped type the APC.
He was instrumental in bringing collectively APC factions, pushing Buhari to victory in 2015 and ending 16 years in energy for the rival Individuals’s Democratic Occasion (PDP).
Buhari’s election, the primary opposition victory within the nation, in addition to his 2019 re-election, was partly attributed to Tinubu’s political affect.
Corruption allegations
Controversies round Tinubu have additionally arisen round his monetary dealings throughout his time in energy.
He's believed to be one among Nigeria’s richest politicians and after leaving workplace he was accused of corruption, cash laundering and working greater than a dozen overseas financial institution accounts. He was by no means charged and denies wrongdoing.
On the marketing campaign path, PDP critics labelled him as “wobbly, wonky and narcotic-devastated”, a reference to well being issues and a 1993 US courtroom submitting that cited a “drug-related seizure of property” from his US checking account.
The supply of his wealth is unknown however he has pursuits in a variety of enterprise ventures, from media and aviation to tax consultancy, inns and actual property holdings.
One critic described him as “a grasping politician” who has devoured up main sources of income from Lagos.
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