Few things to Know about Tinubu the Lion of Bourdillion

2023 is still 559 days yet a lot of attention has been on the incoming presidential election as if whoever is elected to be the president will the prophesied messiah that will save the entire nation from destruction.

However, The incoming election has shared the spotlight with the APC National Leader Chief Bola Ahmed Tinubu popularly known as Jagaban, who is most likely the Flagbearer for the All Progressive Congress come 2023.

Who is Tinubu

Bola Ahmed Adekunle Tinubu is a Nigerian politician and a national leader of the All Progressives Congress. He was also a Lagos State Governor from 1999 to 2007

Tinubu was born on 29 March 1952 in Osun State, He attended St. John’s Primary School, Aroloya, Lagos, and Children’s Home School in Ibadan. Tinubu then went to the United States in 1975, where he studied first at Richard J. Daley College in Chicago, Illinois, and then at Chicago State University. He graduated in 1979 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting.

His political career 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

He was however elected to the Senate, representing the Lagos West constituency in the short-lived Nigerian Third Republic.

He became a founding member of the pro-democracy  National Democratic Coalition, a group that mobilized support for the restoration of democracy in Nigeria after the 1993 June 12 election was annulled by Babangida and Abacha took over as the military head of state.

Tinubu became the Governor of Lagos State after he won the 1999 gubernatorial election through the party Alliance for Democracy.

According to records During the eight-year period of Tinubu’s Tenure in Office, he made large investments in education in the state and also reduced the number of schools in the state by returning many schools to the already settled former owners. He also initiated new road construction, required to meet the needs of the fast-growing population of the state

As other states in the South West fell to the People’s Democratic Party in the 1999 and 2003 elections, Tinubu was involved in a power struggle against Olusegun Obasanjo The President of the federation as at that period over whether Lagos State had the right to create new Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) to meet the needs of its large population. The controversy led to the federal government seizing funds meant for local councils in the state.

Bola Ahmed Tinubu has been accused of corruption and misappropriation of public funds numerous times and is currently under the investigation of the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC).

In April 2007,  the Federal Government brought Tinubu before the Code of Conduct Bureau for trial over the alleged illegal operation of 16 separate foreign accounts.

The Lion of Bourdillion is a 2015 documentary film that accused Tinubu of leveraging his political capital in Lagos state to influence regional and national affairs. The documentary also highlighted Tinubu’s political and financial grip on the city-state.

Tinubu however filed a N150 billion libel suit against the producers,  Africa Independent Television, a Nigerian Television that aired the documentary to its viewers.

In the political world, Tinubu is well respected due to the role he played in stopping the People’s Democratic Party 16 year rule and also his role in the Buhari administration, supporting government policies and holding onto the internal party reins, in lieu of his long-held rumored presidential aspiration. In 2019, he supported Buhari’s re-election campaign defeating the PDP candidate Atiku Abubakar.