TINUBU, ATIKU & PETER OBI

By Jumoke Adeogun, Abeokuta

I agree we should make 2023 campaign issues based on performance and credibility of the three leading Presidential candidates of the People's Democratic Party PDP, All Progressive Congress APC and Labour Party LP, when they are govern their respective states.

I also agree we do not need to compare Lagos with Adamawa or Anambra State and the role of the three presidential contestants in the development of their individual States.

Lagos, for instance, is not competing with any State in Nigeria. Rather, Lagos is competing with all 54 countries in Africa, where this State in Nigeria is currently sitting as 5th largest economy in Africa; having surpassed all West-African national economies including those of Ghana, Senegal, Cote-D'Ivoire, amongst others by far, and still growing consistently to become either third or fourth by the end of this decade. This is courtesy of a development plan created for the State and directly and indirectly being managed by Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

I equally agree we should not compare Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu with Peter Obi or Atiku Abubakar, because there is no basis for comparison between them. Tinubu graduated top of his class, with First-Class Degree in Business Administration & Finance, with majors in Accounting, from the prestigious Chicago State University in USA. So, you can compare him with a man that has an Unclassified Degree in Philosophy and another man with an Ordinary Diploma in Hygiene.*

There is no basis for comparison between Atiku or Peter Obi and Tinubu, who worked in the best financial consultancy multinationals in the whole world, including Deloitte, Arthur Anderson, Haskins & Sells and GTE, where he was involved in auditing & setting up fraud proof accounting templates for more than 200 giant corporations worldwide. Neither Atiku nor Peter Obi has that kind of professional experience of international acclaim.*

Yes, there is no basis for comparison of Atiku or Peter Obi with Tinubu, who worked in the biggest oil company in the world - Mobil, where he carried out a forensic and surgical audit of the finances & accounts of the oil giant, which indicted top executives of the oil giant, including the expatriate Managing Director and led to his sack and consequent appointment of Tinubu as Treasurer of Mobil, to implement sweeping changes in the company's finance & accounts and audit departments. It is noteworthy that the Board of the oil giant made it clear they could not find anyone more qualified or with necessary courage and competence to implement Tinubu's recommendations. So, Asiwaju is not a man to compare with Obi or Atiku, because neither the PDP candidate nor the Labour Party standard-bearer ever had such recognition in their respective places of work.

You can't compare Atiku or Peter Obi with Tinubu, who created a template to turn a State he met with 600 million naira monthly internally generated revenue to one with over 55 billion naira monthly IGR and the 5th largest economy in Africa, with fast improving infrastructure. Neither Atiku nor Peter Obi has such administrative wizardry.

The legacies of Asiwaju administration's reforms in Lagos State's Civil Service, judiciary, local government system and administration, policing and security system in Lagos State, revenue generation, transportation system, infrastructure renewal and revolution, as well as job creation were quite phenomenal and enduring till today. Would Tinubu's traducers or adversaries say they do not know that he created LAMATA, LASEMA, LASTMA, LAWMA, LASAA, LASAMBUS, LASRRA, BRT & LAGBUS, Lagos State Water-ways Authority (LASWA), KAI BRIGADE, Neighbourhood police, Lagos State Motor Vehicle Administration Agency and 37 additional Local Council Development Authorities and many more, where several thousands of people work and earn income with which they take care of their dependants.

Can Atiku or Peter Obi boast of this kind of achievements. How about the envious Bode George, who has made himself Tinubu's worst and unprovoked enemy? Bode George was once a governor of old Ondo State, where his wife, Feyi publicly slapped a permanent-secretary and received instant retaliation and ridicule. The present Ekiti and Ondo States were created from old Ondo State. Now, where are the legacies that Nigerians or the people of Ondo or Ekiti State can associate with Bode George, except his wife's public show of shame, indiscretion and indiscipline? Was it not same Bode George who was also associated with serious financial scandals, as reported and published by the defunct.

Is it not known that it was the ingenuity of Tinubu's administration that brought about the phenomenal wonder we now see on the Atlantic Ocean in Lagos, which is known as Eko Atlantic City? Or, is it not known to Bode George and people like him who are chasing Asiwaju's shadow that it was Tinubu's administration that created the master-plan for the development of Lagos Free Zone in Lekki, where the world's biggest refinery (Dangote Petro-Chemical Refinery), a giant gas plant and fertilizer company, manufacturing organisations, an automobile assembly plant and other industrial establishments are being built and Nigeria's deep sea-port and biggest airport are to be, when completed?*

Lastly, Tinubu has explained how he was paid and legitimately made millions of dollars as official income, as a wonder-kid and accounting and auditing wizard working for world-renowned consultancy firms and oil companies in United States of America, Saudi-Arabia and United Kingdom before returning to Nigeria to work with Mobil. None of Deloitte, Arthur Andersen, GTE, Haskins & Sell or Mobil has debunked Bola Tinubu's claims about his official earnings and privileged positions he held while working with them in the 80s, despite his interview and claims that have gone viral.

 He was barely thirty years  old, when he had made about three million dollars, officially, in the early eighties. Working for Deloitte in the beginning of the eighties, he said he was paid an $850,000 bonus (almost one million dollars) at the end of certain official travels to Saudi-Arabia for auditing of some oil companies, in addition to untouched salaries paid into his bank account and which had accumulated to over $1.8 million (One-point-eight million dollars). When you add the bonus to the untouched salaries, he earned a total of about $2.7 million (Two-point-seven million dollars) legitimately or officially  from Deloitte, at barely 30 years old! That was before he moved on to better paying jobs and ended at Exxon Mobil in London, UK and, later, Nigeria. 

So, why would he not be very rich; considering that he had millions of dollars to invest, about forty years ago, and knowing his exceptional abilities.

Now, Bode George and his co-travellers have heard very well about this. They must have read about it. They might even have interrogated these claims and discovered realities that are contrary to their unfounded and unkind allegations that Tinubu made his money or wealth after he became governor of Lagos State. But has Deloitte or any of the internationally renowned accounting and audit firms or oil companies he has worked for denied his claims?

 Haven't they been defending him that he had no blemish in his records with them?

 Has Chicago State University and Mobil not been defending him ceaselessly about his age and education credentials? 

These are reputable multi-national organisations, not Nigerian companies.

If Bola Tinubu were not highly educated, would he have been able to work in such highly reputable world-class organisations?

 Would he have been able to make the incredible achievements credited to him by those organisations? 

Did he not demonstrate it in his administration of Lagos State?

 Has he also not exhibited it in politics, party formation, leadership and electoral achievements?

 Would anybody with honesty compare either Atiku or Peter Obi with Tinubu on any of these bases? 

Except for insincerity, dishonesty, envy and mischief, nobody in his or her right senses would consider Atiku or Peter Obi as a match for Tinubu. Asiwaju is far more experienced than the two of them put together.

None of the two can match him in international work experience.

 None of Atiku and Peter Obi has legislative experience. 

None of Atiku and Peter Obi has been able to lead the formation of a political party and nurture it to success like Asiwaju has done with AC, ACN and APC.

Tinubu has been a very consistent politician, who cannot be compared to Atiku and Peter Obi, who are desperate and politically unstable and constantly changing their party addresses.

ATIKU: From PDP to ACN to PDP to APC to PDP

PETER OBI: From PDP to APGA to PDP to Labour Party.

 None of Atiku and Peter Obi has demonstrated generosity and compassion for the downtrodden as much as Tinubu.

None of the PDP and Labour Party candidates or any other presidential contestant has raised leaders or prosperous individuals as much as Tinubu.

*In conclusion, Tinubu is a phenomenon, whose abilities are not comprehensible to his opponents and adversaries like Bode George and co. 

He is not in any way comparable to Atiku or Peter Obi in political sagacity, international connections, administrative acumen and organisational skills, creativity, private sector influence, generousity and human compassion, as well as management of human and material resources.