From Chicago University To Governing Lagos — Tinubu Unveiled

Media office of the Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu has released a documentary “unveiling” him.

Gatekeepers News reports that the documentary focuses on Tinubu’s life from his time as a student at the Chicago State University (CSU) to his becoming governor of Lagos.

The 30-minute documentary which aired on TVC on Sunday evening, tagged ‘Tinubu Unveiled’, was titled ‘Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu: The Pathfinder of New Lagos’.

The narrator said, “Lagos needed a thinker, a visionary, and a moderniser at the helm of affairs. Bola Ahmed Tinubu came along. From a poor background, he struggled to read and travelled to the United States in search of the golden fleece.

“As proof of his brilliance from early in life, he made the honours list of Richard Daley College. He subsequently transferred to the Chicago State University, Illinois, graduating with honours in 1979 and earning a Bachelor’s degree in business administration, accounting, and management.”

Co-founder of Tastee Fried Chicken (TFC), Kunle Adedayo in the documentary, said he was a year ahead of Tinubu at the CSU, adding that the former governor was an “exceptional accounting student”.

Adedayo added, “He was a tutor and an academic mentor to his classmates and other students. Bola is a genius and it was not surprising that he eventually graduated with honours and distinction with the prestigious cum laude. That was inevitable.”

On his part, Former Director at Mobil, Pius Akinyelure spoke on Tinubu’s performance at the oil company.

Akinyelure said, “Bola Tinubu came to us late 1983 in Mobil Oil Nigeria PLC to attend an interview for the position of an auditor in our audit department. He did excellently well and we had no choice than to offer him the job. He came in and his performances were excellent. He thinks ahead of his time.”

The former Mobil director said the APC presidential candidate was expected to become Finance Director of the company at the time the latter expressed his interest in politics.

Akinyelure added, “He was adamant and said he had to go. We then said to him ‘for the excellent job you have done here, if you had to go and you lose, please come back to your job’. He left. The remaining is history which you all know today.”

The documentary also features Tinubu’s achievements as a senator after winning the 1992 election on the platform of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), as well as his role with MKO Abiola during the presidential election in 1993.

He was described as “one of the fiercest opponents of the annulment” of the 1993 election, with the narrator adding that “he had to flee the country for his dear life”, after he was charged with treason by the military government over his role in opposing the annulment of the presidential poll.

His wife and children are said to have been “smuggled out to exile”, while Hafsat, Abiola’s daughter, was shown in a video kneeling to “greet Tinubu” for remembering her parents for the “price they paid”.

The documentary features Tinubu’s achievements as governor for eight years, including in security, waste collection, health, education, and the economy.

The narrator added, “No elected governor in this dispensation since 1999 in Nigeria equals the vision, vigour, and vitality that Bola Tinubu brought to governance.”

The video also has Tinubu’s comment on the January 2002 bomb explosion in Lagos, as well as video recordings featuring President Muhammadu Buhari who described him as a “political strategist” and “true humanitarian” — and Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, who referred to the former governor as a man that has spent “30 years of his life in creative and catalytic public service.”

On his part, the APC Presidential Candidate said his efforts as Lagos governor were in line with creating a path of sustainable development for the state.

Tinubu stated, “What I set out to achieve for myself, I am achieving it. I’m achieving success, I’m an architect, a builder, and a developer bunched into one. The architecture of the vision in public sector governance, I know it very well.”