Nigeria's President-elect Makes Time Magazine's List of 100 Most Influential People of 2023._
By Segun Tomori_ . Take a chance, All life is a chance. The man who goes farthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare" ~~ Dale Carnegie
Like every other human, he chose to be ambitious, yet he understood that the race is a marathon, not a sprint.
For over three decades, he set his eyes on the ball, first winning a Senate seat in 1992, and then with the unforeseen annulment of the June 12, 1993 Presidential elections, providence put him at the heart of the struggle for the revalidation of the elections.
He moved into the trenches in defence of democracy and the people's mandate. He had mouth-watering offers to betray, the temptation to jump ship and side with anti-democratic forces was immense and attractive, but he chose to fight on the side of the people - at the detriment of his personal comfort, threat to his life and family.
Deploying personal resources and rallying resistance against the military, he galvanised the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) which spearheaded the struggle, making him a thorn in the flesh of the then military regime, forcing him into exile alongside his family, after escaping death by the whiskers.
At the advent of democracy in 1999, he was elected Governor of Lagos State and is touted to have assembled the most diverse and star-studded cabinet; conceptualised the most transformative master-plan for development amongst sub-national entities in the country. His reforms in diverse sectors of the state's economy became a reference point, and his ability to groom successive leaders that carried on with that vision has stood him out as an exceptional leader.
Gallantly, like a warrior headed for a trophy, he girded his loins, surviving landmines on his way to become the last man standing of the defunct Alliance of Democracy (AD) - an epithet used to describe him as the lone Governor of the party. He had resisted the onslaught of the imperial Obasanjo Presidency that captured the remaining five states of the South-west.
Like a meticulous planner, he galvanised the opposition from governing one state to six, and then eleven, after mobilizing like-minds to form a successful merger - unprecedented in our nation's history, that led to the birth of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Leading the charge, the APC defeated an incumbent President, ousting a party that had held sway for 16 years, hitherto boasting of staying on for 60 years!
When it became apparent he might be nursing an ambition to survive the incumbent President, every arsenal was deployed to frustrate it. From contrived party crisis to sit-tight caretaker committee to both institutional and establishment bottle-necks.
And when he announced his run for president within the precincts of the Presidential villa in January 2022, quite a few gave him a chance. But his voice reverberated across with the nation with his epic declaration, _"I have the competence, the capacity, and the vision to rule_ ."
Against the run of play, he won his party primaries, surviving devious plots, besting cabals in high places after his " _Emi Lokan_ " outburst, now known as the "Abeokuta Declaration" sent shockwaves that upset the consensus mantra - destabilising its army and giving rise to competitive primaries. He eventually emerged winner, winning a landslide in its stride.
Soon, a wave of a burgeoning third force swept across the landscape, exciting urban and upwardly mobile youth, but against all odds, he stayed the course and ran the most gruelling campaigns ever - shuttling several cities a day, introducing town-halls that addressed specific segments of the nation's economy and demography.
As if that was not enough, a twin thunderbolt - naira confiscation policy and fuel scarcity threw a spanner in the wheel of his campaign - a move allegedly contrived to alienate his candidacy and party from voters. His campaign, struggling to convince voters and alter the perception of less than stellar performance of his party, faced a herculean task.
The horizon preceding the elections didn't give much confidence. Though he could win, it was deemed that nothing was in the bag until it was. For the first time in recent history, the three leading candidates had an appreciable and considerable following.
But like a man with nine lives, he surmounted it all. He became Nigeria’s President-elect on 1st March, 2023, fulfilling his lifelong ambition.
He has just been declared as one of the World's 100 Most Influential People of 2023 by the prestigious US-based Time Magazine.
He is Asiwaju BOLA AHMED TINUBU. He will assume office as Nigeria's President and Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces on May 29.
Segun Tomori
Member, Strategic Communications Directorate
APC Presidential Campaign Council (APC-PCC).
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