Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu was born on 29th March nineteen fifty two in Lagos Nigeria to the illustrious Tinubu Family. He attended St. John’s Primary School, Aroloya, Lagos, and Children’s Home School in ihbadan. He then proceeded to Richard Daley College, Chicago Illinois, where he earned a place in the honors list of the College. He subsequently gained admission into Chicago State University, Illinois where he graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Accounting and Management. At Chicago State, he won the Outstanding Student’s Award, The University Scholar’s Award and the Certificate of Merit in Accounting and Finance. Tinubu worked for the American companies: Arthur Andersen, Deloitte, Haskins, & Sells, and GTE Services Corporation. In nineteen eighty three, Tinubu returned to Nigeria and joined Mobil Oil Nigeria, and later became an executive of the company. His political career began in nineteen ninety two, when he joined the Social Democratic Party where he was a member of the Peoples Front faction. He was later elected to the Senate, representing the Lagos West constituency in the short-lived Nigerian Third Republic. After the results of the 12 June nineteen ninety three presidential elections were annulled, 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. Following the seizure of power as military head of state of General Sani Abacha, he went into exile in nineteen ninety four and returned to the country in nineteen ninety eight after the death of the military dictator, which ushered in the transition to the Fourth Nigerian Republic.In the run-up to the nineteen ninety nine elections, Bola Tinubu was a protégé of Alliance for Democracy leaders Abraham Adesanya and Ayo Adebanjo. He went on to win the party’s primaries for the Lagos State governorship elections.
After he assumed office in May 1999, Tinubu provided multiple housing units in Lagos for the poor. During the eight-year period of his being in office, he made large investments in education in the state and also returned many schools to their former owners…………………..He also initiated new road construction, required to meet the needs of the fast-growing population of the state.Tinubu, alongside a new deputy governor, Femi Pedro, won re-election into office as governor in April 2003. 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. In February 2013, Tinubu was among several politicians who created a “mega opposition” party with the merger of Nigeria’s biggest opposition parties, including:
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. They together form what is today known as the All Progressives Congress (APC). In 2014, Tinubu supported former military head of state General Muhammadu Buhari to run as presidential candidate of APC. Although Tinubu initially wanted to become Buhari’s vice presidential candidate, he however later conceded for Yemi Osibanjo, his ally and former commissioner of justice when he served as the governor of Lagos State of Nigeria.Later in the year 2015, Buhari and Tinubu 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 Buhari’s administration, supporting government policies and working hard to keep APC united and formidable.
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