Born on March 29, 1952 in the city of Lagos, Tinubu attended
St. John’s Primary School, Aroloya, Lagos and Children’s Home School in Ibadan.
He 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. While
at Chicago, he contested for the President of the Accounting Society in his
final year and won. He graduated in 1979 with a Bachelor of Science degree in
Accounting.
His Nigerian political career began in 1992, when he was
elected to the Nigerian Senate representing the Lagos West constituency in the
short-lived Nigerian Third Republic, via the now defunct Social Democratic
Party (SDP), of which he was one of the founding members. After the results of
the June 12, 1993 presidential elections were annulled, Tinubu became a
founding member of the pro-democracy group- National Democratic Coalition
(NADECO), which mobilised support for the restoration of democracy and
recognition of the June 12 results. After several assaults, harassments and detentions,
he was forced to flee the country in 1994 and only returned in 1998 after the
death of military dictator Sani Abacha, which ushered in a transition to
civilian rule.
The president assures the national leader that his patriotism
and commitment to democracy and good governance, and his generous spirit will
always be remembered and appreciated by generations of Nigerians. “He prays
that the Almighty God will grant the Asiwaju long life, good health, wisdom and
prosperity as he steadfastly supports efforts to promote the development of
Nigeria.”
Today, despite all efforts to rubbish Tinubu’s monumental
political legacy, he continues to soar, persisting in being a paradoxical
puzzle to his detractors and a centrepiece of brilliance, to those who know where
he is coming from. Tinubu is simply a political wizard!
Sources: Thisdalive , Tinubu’s colloquium
