In my many features on Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s (BAT) candidacy in the coming Nigerian presidential election, I have been pointing out the many edges he holds against all other candidates ranged against him. I continue to point out what makes Asiwaju stand out among the rest, which makes him more deserving of the votes of Nigerians than the others at display in this coming election. I aim to continue convincing those who are yet to buy into the phenomenal Asiwaju brand and those who have chosen other candidates that we have in Asiwaju, the best, the fittest, the most equipped, the most competent, and most motivated leader to fast-track the development of Nigeria. Assuredly, this aligns with electoral best practices, and this is what defines an exemplary electoral campaign.
BAT is clearly a man with a unique vision and exemplary mission. My position and way of thinking are consistent with his personality and emphasize many of his distinguishing characteristics. The possibility that an emphatic frontiersperson has a vision and rouses others to assist them with understanding their concept uniquely. BAT exemplified all these qualities far above his peers in this race to become the next president of Nigeria in 2023. People who are extraordinary leaders have dreams, share them with others, and encourage them to make their own.
In my essays, I tried to show Tinubu as a clear leader in a crowded field of presidential contestants. I have shown his records in both the private and public sectors, which, so far, remain unmatchable and unrivalled by whatever the records of his co-contestants. I have shown his leadership skills which are writ-large in the politics of this dispensation. I have pointed out the bounteous and spectacular results that have trailed his years in governance, which, I insist with apparent confidence, his rivals don’t have. I have reified his vision, courage, and innovation, which no other candidate at display in the ensuing election has. I have coursed through our recent history to show his unchallengeable and astute standing in leadership mentoring, which none of his rivals can boast of. I have shown his incredible talent-hunting capability, which is a record-breaking feat in leadership in Nigeria. I have shown his redoubtable human capital development capacity, which is second to none in Nigerian leadership history. I have pointed out his hugely successful leadership development modal that has seen Lagos transit from one successful leadership to the other since 1999. I have shown his above-average understanding of the demands and tools of governance, which saw him hew a historical template that has seen Lagos record a historic turn-around when other states are withering. And many more!
I must confess, however, that in this excursion, I have drawn handsomely from the gargantuan track records of Asiwaju. Lagos stands as an impregnable testimony of his capacity. His epoch-making years as a top-flight intercontinental corporate player merely add to the flattering records he left in Lagos, which morphed the state from an abandoned, dejected, decaying urban ghetto in 1999, when he took over, to one of the hotspots of rapid global economic growth today!
Importantly, my task in these essays is to point the way to my compatriots that we have a winning candidate in Asiwaju. I aim to show why Asiwaju remains our best candidate if we actually desire rapid development and growth. Leadership selection, which purpose elections serve, is all about choosing the best options that guarantee a maximum return in terms of governance deliverables to the electorates, so the electorates must be guided to choose right if they expect full returns from the leadership they choose. Lagosians are tremendously benefitting today from the choice they made in 1999. I wish other candidates could boldly flaunt such testimonials in the states they ruled.
So, I am stating, for the umpteenth time, that Asiwaju is the best candidate for the Nigerian presidency in 2023. I am stating that his record, which every Nigerian know is unmatchable. I restate that he is Nigeria’s best option for maximum national growth and development. I won’t mince words in saying this. I don’t stammer or stutter in presenting Asiwaju as having an unassailable edge over other candidates in the coming election. I say it with every confidence at my disposal; the type of confidence Asiwaju himself exudes in presenting himself for the job! It is confidence that comes with knowledge of the fact that you are the best! It isn’t arrogance, as his seriously impaired opponents, who have nothing to show or boast of, allege. I flaunt Asiwaju because I know he can do the job. I flaunt Asiwaju because I know he knows he can do the job. I flaunt Asiwaju because I know even his opponents know that he can do the job. I flaunt Asiwaju because I know that Nigerians know he can do the job. I flaunt Asiwaju because his superlative records prove he can do the job.
I won’t flaunt Asiwaju if he had failed in his previous office and is now hawking outlandish promises to hoodwink Nigerians as most of his rivals are doing. I wouldn’t flaunt Asiwaju if he left Lagos the decrepit mess he found it, as his rivals made the states they governed.
I wouldn’t flaunt Asiwaju if he returned the miserable results his opponents recorded in their respective offices when they were in power. If Asiwaju had failed in his office as Lagos governor and is today telling us the monumental eldorado he would create as Nigerian president, I wouldn’t have touched him with a ten-foot pole. I wouldn’t, for any reason, stake my reputation and integrity to recommend him to Nigerian electorates.
But when I look at Lagos today, when I look at the massive and phenomenal turnaround in every sector of governance in Lagos, I feel proud flaunting Asiwaju as what Nigeria needs to achieve massive and rapid economic transformation. When I look at the enormous infrastructural growth going on in Lagos, I feel immensely proud to recommend Asiwaju as just the President Nigeria needs in 2023 to not only continue the massive infrastructural investment of the Buhari government but to harness it for the economic benefits of Nigerians. When I look at the remarkable improvement in environment, education, the justice system, the health sector, security, the transport sector, and other sectors which have made Lagos a global economic hub today, I feel overwhelmed with pride flaunting Asiwaju Bola Tinubu as the best choice Nigerians need to make in 2023. When I reminisce about Lagos’s orderly, sequential, deliberate growth since 1999, I feel proud flaunting Asiwaju’s candidacy for the Nigerian presidency in 2023. When I think over how Lagos has conquered the huge challenge of financing its growth and development through Asiwaju’s deft financial engineering, I feel confident flaunting Asiwaju as precisely what Nigeria needs to tackle its economic problems.
Recently, CNN reported on 15 megaprojects that are reshaping Africa. Four of those projects, which the global media brand believes hold a critical key to Africa’s march to development, are in Nigeria. They are; the Dangote Refinery, the Lekki Deep Sea Port, the Eko Atlantic City, and the Lagos-Kano Standard Gauge Railway. These four megaprojects are rooted in Lagos. Two of them, the Lekki Deep Sea Port and the Eko Atlantic City, were conceived by Asiwaju when he was governor of Lagos. Dangote Refinery is a private business initiative, but it still is situated in Lagos, where Tinubu, as governor, initiated and pursued policies that have made the state a prime investment hub in Africa today. The Lagos-Kano Standard Gauge Railway is a project pursued by the Buhari federal government, with Lagos as its hub, to maximise Nigeria’s developmental potential. These four megaprojects are either Tinubu’s initiatives or structured to tap or benefit from his feats as Lagos governor. Who won’t be proud to flaunt such an excellent choice for Nigerian leadership when we can safely guess what he would do in Nigeria as President?
So, Asiwaju soars far ahead of the others now jostling to be president. He has such a massive edge over them. He trumps them on ideas, roadmap, vision, courage, and governance tools. The result he got in governing Lagos is overwhelming evidence that he will perform excellently as President. So for these and many more reasons, I flaunt him and recommend him to Nigerians as our best bet for the 2023 presidency. I flaunt him as my choice for the Nigerian presidency, and in doing this, I feel very proud of his achievements.
We have witnessed the dirty antics of the opposition to demarket and shoot down Asiwaju’s candidacy. A poignant case is the present unethical, malevolent and desperate conduct of Nduka Obaigbena and his media houses, This Day and Arise Television, in cahoots with their employees like Reuben Abati to throw decorum to the dogs and adopt brazen and clearly jaundiced methods to bring down Asiwaju. Curiously, Obaigbens and Abati are known PDP members and faithful. At the same time, their media groups work to the benefit of PDP and its closest cohorts, so, naturally, they will employ every foul means to shoot down Asiwaju. But in all their desperate measures, they have never impugned Asiwaju’s competence and his incredible records. While they have been hauling inconsequential dirt, they have never contested the fact that Asiwaju is an incomparable achiever whom none of the other candidates can compete with. They have never denied the fact that he is the only candidate vying for his track record and competence. But like AIT did in 2015, they are splashing mud about to satisfy their inordinate partisan interests. It is obvious they will self-destruct as their efforts are so weak to stop Asiwaju, as AIT’s similar efforts failed woefully to stop Buhari in 2015.
So let Nigerians do the needful by vesting such a proven leader with the arduous task of leading the country’s quest for maximum growth. Let us all vote for Asiwaju if we collectively desire a country where we will all fulfill our destiny for progress because he is the best we can boast of and has roundly proved to be so.
Prof. Ojo Emmanuel Ademola
