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On a balance of scales and given all considerations, it is hard to find anyone, who could fairly challenge President Bola Tinubu, to the THISDAY Man of the Year commemoration.
Determined and unfazed in the face of mounting challenges and attendant hardships, the president marches on with his audacious reforms to change Nigeria.
In his first and only media interview, he told the nation “you can’t be doing the same thing and expect different outcomes.”
With that, he served the nation notice of his resolve to stick to his reforms.
The President, who ran his election campaign on the mantra of emi lo kan (it’s my turn to be president), has waltzed through some of the most troubling phases of his less than two years old presidency.
From merely providing leadership to introducing very unpopular but promising reforms, Tinubu has proven to be that daring and gritty leader, who is driven more by convictions of his choices than pandering to sheer sentiments or the crowd.
Although the removal of subsidy from petroleum had been settled by the previous administration of Muhammadu Buhari, and as a matter of legislation by the nineth National Assembly, owning and managing the consequences of that choice had been Tinubu’s hardest job since he took over as president.
The floating of the naira to enable it find its level against other currencies, particularly against the dollar and by extension, engender the stability of the market, was an equally difficult decision that Tinubu had to make.
No doubt, the economic situation the country found itself was desperate. There was no need postponing the evil day. Tough choices needed to be made. With courage, nevertheless, Tinubu dared the consequences and took a decision he reckoned was in the nation’s best interest.
Tinubu knew from the get-go that fighting for the financial autonomy of the local government system was going to set him against the governors. This much he knew being a former governor. But after weighing his options, he knew better than to continue to perpetrate an aberration and he did that which was for the collective good.
His controversial tax reform bills that are currently before the tenth National Assembly have almost set him up against a section of the country, which, according to some of its leaders, was designed against them, and made to favour a particular region in the federation.
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But at his recent presidential media chat, Tinubu made it clear: There’s no going back on the tax reform bills.
Yet, conscious of the many challenges the country has since faced, particularly the hardship believed to have been occasioned by some of the economic decisions taken by his administration, the president has continued to introduce measures to cushion the effects and across all sectors.
There was the introduction of the CNG buses as buffer for subsidy removal. He has given state governments more money than any administration in Nigeria’s contemporary history, and is constantly assisting the states with palliatives to help ameliorate the situation.
It was also the year external reserves swelled back up beyond $40 billion and trade surplus resurfaced and moribund refineries sputtered back to life. Methodical, yet forceful in his approach; deliberate and single-minded in his style, even his most implacable foes concede that Tinubu is a different kind of leader.
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The President’s place and roles in global politics and governance, especially in Africa and the subregion in particular, are evident. His role as the ECOWAS chairman has been a difficult one given the unconstitutional change of governments in some of the neighbouring states, including Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso, which has created a degree of instability in the regional body polity.
Notwithstanding the notice of exit served on the three nations of Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso, Tinubu, who recently promised the German President, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, that the regional body would embrace wisdom in addressing the matter, has begun to consider a way of bringing them back into the fold. Talk about thinking leadership!
There might have been a few slips here and there while testing the waters on assumption of office and trying to get a hang of the state of play, a determined Tinubu has kept his eyes on the goal and was not moved by the uninformed clattering around him.
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Whether lampooned as T-Pain or lionised as T-Gain, Tinubu could not be accused of lacking courage to take tough decisions or the will to stay the course.
Without a doubt, his approach to reform and governance could benefit from more rigour, consultation and inclusion, and his interventions could be better paced and executed. But it is difficult to argue that Tinubu did not earn his stripes as the most consequential Nigerian of 2024.
Overall, the President of Nigeria, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has by every note, caution, indication and inaction, earned the THISDAY Man of the Year, because of his doggedness, resilience and his ability to take tough decisions, even against the grain.
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