The APC presidential candidate’s superlative and candid showing with the Nigeria Economic Summit Group on the 13th of January 2023 has naturally endeared him further to millions of voters across the country.
A legion of former doubters including those who had based their opinions on skits put together by usually unserious minds who seek whatever they could twist in every speech, have now seen that they had been misguided.
The momentum will ramp up even as we move closer to election day, delivering what may turn out to be the cleanest landslide victory since Nigeria’s return to democracy in 1999.
What struck me were the candidness of the conversation and the fearlessness of the speech. The economic thinking that attracted me to Bola Ahmed, a long time ago, and thus made it easy for me to pledge my unalloyed support in his quest this time, was there for all to see.
The ideas that he had espoused in his many colloquia, including his write-ups in Premium Times and other media, are truly etched in his mind. He comes to the table, not to be bamboozled around by the usual pretenders to intellectuality, but with his worldview, knowledge, drive, and dream for his nation.
Of recent, I realized that Bola Tinubu, just like the great Nnamdi Azikiwe, having studied extensively in a certain era in the United States, must have returned to Nigeria with a fervour to right the wrongs, and to prove that there was nothing wrong with the black man.
You cannot immerse yourself in the United States without forming a strong opinion, which propels you to want to give direction to your own people – except you forget where you are from and decide to share in the American dream, or you are incapacitated politically.
That Tinubu has been on this quest for decades, going by how long he has spotted his broken chains (which I prefer to call the infinity) traditional cap, is worth noting for the perceptive and attentive. This man is a gift to Nigeria and humanity.
It is evident that in Tinubu we have a fearless, tested, experienced, urbane, businesslike, well-rounded, visionary candidate. He felt very much at home with the business community, who themselves can see by now, that Tinubu is their best bet for further prosperity and for the business community in Nigeria to remain the linchpin of the country’s development, and even play a larger role. But not only that.
The delegates of the organised private sector present at the parley, or watching from the comfort of their offices, would have whipped out their scientific calculators (I remember the HP calculators bankers used to love), and worked out rates of returns on potential investments under the guidance and auspices of a business-oriented and transformative government of Asiwaju Tinubu, who continues to avert their minds to the sheer possibilities of our nation; a great nation waiting to soar, if only we could stay positive, attentive, cooperative, and connect our quest to a higher calling to lay a solid foundation for our children today, and those yet unborn.
Tinubu’s vision is not only about Nigeria. From his trajectory, one can already see that he subscribes to that Chinese adage; ‘If your vision is one year, cultivate flowers; if your vision is 10 years, cultivate trees; but if your vision is eternity, cultivate people’.
Hands down, his understanding of succession planning sets him apart. And his investment in raising leaders from among those he has identified over time, sometimes shames his peers, who seemed to have simply concentrated on themselves and their children alone over the years.
I had warned many of Tinubu’s traducers that his delivery and carriage will only improve, and that he will seem to age backwards, like the fictional Benjamin Button. I hope they are seeing with their eyes now.
The meat – and there are several actually – of Tinubu’s discussion at the NESG parley could be itemised as follows:
- A very candid discussion where reality is discussed, difficulties acknowledged, but without any fear to dream and envision a great Nigeria where the private sector will lead robust growth, powered and enabled by a refocused public sector.
- An admission to the plurality and diversity of opinions necessary for national development. Asiwaju acknowledged upfront that he doesn’t have all the ideas, and some may disagree with some of the ideas he proposes. And that is important for robust engagements and progress.
- In acknowledging diversity and plurality of ideas, Asiwaju emphasised the importance of teamwork between the private and public sectors and his ability to put a committed and patriotic crack team together in the shortest possible time. His track record in Lagos comes in very handy and is unmatched by any other political leader in our time.
- Unlike any other contender for the presidency in 2023, Bola Tinubu committed to a double-digit growth of the economy, in defiance to some of the tepid projections of multilateral agencies. This means that he is ready to drive new thinking and show that we can begin to define our destiny as a people. As we are coming from a position of negative real growth, but we have potential, this is a very laudable ambition because we have so much to do. A double-digit growth in GDP also means a surfeit of employment opportunities and profitability for private sector players.
- Asiwaju also indicated his readiness to bring together the monetary and fiscal wings of the economy such that they synergize under strong and focused leadership. His ideas on trade are skewed towards value addition, to consolidate some of the achievements of the Buhari administration.
- Asiwaju, while speaking with the NESG, prioritised security, without which businesses cannot thrive. He intends to leverage the ‘follow the money’ strategy of the Buhari administration to smoke out kidnappers, bandits, and other criminals who are holding the nation back.
He also intends to consolidate the monetary reforms of this administration as they pertain to electronic transactions in the public service, guaranteed to improve value-for-money in government procurement and projects all over the country.
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