Bola Ahmed Tinubu after he declared his intention for presidential election 2023, become a darling to some people who were ready to purchase his symbolic cap being offered for sale on the microblogging platform, Twitter.
Tinubu’s brand Cap.
Tinubu, the new elected president has been known for something unique, His Cap, and eyeshade.
Uniqueness is what makes a brand. And without a brand they will be no choices. Brand is a concept that helps people identify a particular company, product, or individual.
Brands are also very important in businesses to strive. And an extra ordinary input to a product is what makes a brand global, that’s putting 1% to 100% to equals Extra-Ordinary, says Brand Expert, Stanley Ohenhen, at a recent African Quality Achievements Awards held in Civic Center Lagos, Nigeria.
When interviewed by Guardian in 2019, Tinubu, said the embroidered meaning of the symbol on his cap is a broken shackle depicting freedom ” Philosophically, it is my belief and faith I’m education, freedom fighting on my cap is a broken shackle. It is freedom. The shackle is broken and you cannot put us in bondage anymore. You have broken the shackle of poverty, ignorance, disease”
You develop the capacity to improve the quality of the lives of the people. It has been my philosophy and it will remain my philosophy. My office’s symbol is freedom house. Freedom is everything to me, the freedom of man. You can find me on the street fighting against injustice.”
Tinubu was sworn in as the 16th president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on Monday, May 29, 2023.
The inauguration took place at expansive space called the Eagle Square in Nigeria’s capital city Abuja, Monday May 29, 2023. It was Beautifully decorated with the green-white-green colours of the nation.
President Muhammadu Buhari handed over to his party man who won the February 25 presidential poll.
There were heavy security at the venue for the auspicious and remarkable event where Tinubu, 71, was sworn in as Nigeria’s next leader after Buhari’s eight-year administration.
Scores of operatives of the joint security team comprising the Department of State Services, the Nigeria Police Force, the Nigerian Army and other paramilitary agencies were seen at the venue on Sunday evening. Fully armed, law enforcement agents were seen with different breeds of sniffer dogs in preparation for the main moment.
Scores of patrol vans were also been strategically positioned in and around Eagle Square with aerial and ground surveillance being discreetly carried out by security agencies.
The Inspector General of Police, Usman Baba, who inspected the readiness of his men at the venue said “We are prepared 100%” and will improve on preparation for crowd control.
Tinubu, the President-Elect and candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the keenly contested February poll was inaugurated alongside the Vice-President-Elect, Kashim Shettima.
The Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Olukayode Ariwoola administered the oath of office on Tinubu and Shettima in the presence of Buhari and his outgoing deputy, Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo.
“I, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, do solemnly swear that I will not allow my personal interests to influence my official conduct or decisions… So help me, God.”, Tinubu takes oath.
Days earlier, Buhari showed Tinubu around the Aso Villa, Nigeria’s presidential residence while Osinbajo took Shettima on a tour of the Vice President wing of the Villa also known as the Aso Rock.
Also, Tinubu had on Thursday received transition documents from Buhari ahead of the May 29 inauguration just as Buhari conferred the national honours of Grand Commander of the Federal Republic (GCFR) and Grand Commander of the Order of Niger (GCON) on Tinubu and Shettima respectively.
At the poll, Tinubu came out tops in 12 of Nigeria’s 36 states and secured significant numbers in several other states to claim the highest number of votes — 8,794,726, almost two million votes more than his closest rival — former Vice President Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Abubakar, 76, who has now run for president six times, got 6,984,520 votes, while the candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, who, in less than a year, galvanised young voters in a manner some have described as unprecedented finished the race with 6,101,533.
Both Atiku and Obi are in court challenging the victory of Tinubu and his declaration as the winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
Tinubu, who based his campaign on an 80-page manifesto which highlights an eight-point agenda, promised to be fair to all Nigerians.
“I promise Nigerians that the unity of this country is not negotiable. That is what Mike and I are promoting jointly. I promise I will be fair to all,” he said in Rivers State on May 4, 2023.
Tinubu’s entrance to Politics, The Africa Report.
Bola Tinubu, 71, in a rare interview with The News magazine back in 2012, Tinubu spoke about how he made his way to the US with some friends in the 1970s and began doing menial jobs.
Tinubu said that, he was once slapped by a naval officer who didn’t agree with his fare. “Another experience was when I took a guy whom I didn’t know was drunk. When I drove to his house, he pointed a gun at me instead of paying the fare. He took my leather jacket and said: ‘Get into your car and get lost.’ He did not pay,” Tinubu added.
From Taximan to Politics
He made his way to Chicago State University, where he graduated with honours in accounting in 1979, then worked for several US accounting firms. On returning to Nigeria in the 1983, he got a job at Mobil Oil Nigeria as an auditor.
In 1993, Tinubu came under investigation for alleged heroin trafficking going back to his time in the US. He settles with US authorities and forfeited $460,000 to the government.
This did not seem to harm his political career in Nigeria, which had begun a year earlier, in 1992. Joining the Social Democratic Party, he was elected to the Senate in the short-lived Nigerian Third Republic, before General Sani Abacha’s military coup of November 1993.
A confidential US diplomatic cable spilled by WikiLeaks, dated 21 February 2023, states that Tinubu confirmed it was his now rival Atiku Abubakar who convinced him to enter politics.
He joined a group within the SDP known as PRIMROSE (People Resolved Irrevocable to Maximise the Resources of the State for Excellence), which included several political heavyweights in Lagos.
After Tinubu won the Senate race, the next task was to get Shehu Yar’Adua to emerge as the presidential candidate of the SDP, but Yar’Adua was disqualified by the military, paving the way for MKO Abiola, who would go on to win the party’s ticket and run in the annulled June 12, 1993 elections.
Tinubu joined the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) protest movement. He and several others were detained by the military junta but we’re released. “I disguised (myself) with a huge turban and babanriga and escaped into Benin Republic on a motorbike,” he recalls.
After the death of Abacha in 1998, Tinubu returned to Nigeria and won the governorship of Lagos State, which he governed for eight years. During this time, he reengineered the state finances through better tax enforcement, increasing the state’s revenue ten-fold.
But, in the process of changing the state’s finance, he was accused of cornering contracts for himself and friends. Towards the end of his tenure, Tinubu made it clear that his chief of staff, Babatunde Fashola, would be his successor.
This angered many in the party and led to mass defections.
Fashola went on to win the poll as Tinubu cemented his place as the godfather of Lagos politics.
By 2011, he had stretched his influence to five other states contiguous with Lagos, sponsoring candidates to win governorship elections. With political dexterity, he negociated with President Muhammadu Buhari and others to form the All People’s Congress in 2013.
Th new party went on to win the presidential election two years later.
“He tried first time and failed. He tried second time and failed. He tried third time and failed. He even cried on television that he will never run for president again. I went toeet him and told him this is not a crying matter. We will support you and you will be president,” Tinubu said of Buhari in May.
Today, Bola Ahmed Tinubu is standing tall as the President of Nigeria with his brand cap and eyeshade. He is a brand president after Awolowo.
