Tinubu at 73: Important Milestones in an Extraordinary Life Journey

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March 27, 2025
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By Keem Abdul

As President Bola Ahmed Tinubu pauses in his daily exertions to celebrate and ponder his 73 years here on earth, relevant stakeholders, observers and myself inclusive – even as we wish the President a pleasant birthday celebration – are mulling over his strides in the past two years as President, and even further back to his tenure as Governor of Lagos State.

This list of achievements is far from exhaustive. Suffice it to say, however, that it is a snapshot of one man’s odyssey along the path that Destiny has chosen for him. With the lifting of the ban on political activity in 1991, Tinubu was elected Senator representing the Lagos West senatorial district under the platform of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) during the truncated Third Republic. In the Senate proper, he was handed the role of Chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Finance and Appropriations. That position afforded him the opportunity to play a key role in financial oversight and budgetary processes.

As Governor of Lagos State (from 1999 to 2007) his initiatives, projects and policies helped the state to move up the economic ladder – with the astronomic leap in its internally generated revenue, from ₦600m to ₦8bn, which made Lagos the largest subnational economy in Africa. Tinubu’s establishment of the Lagos State Lotteries Board also helped boost the state revenue profile through regulated gaming.

Cognizant of the fact that government, no matter how well-funded, cannot drive development alone, Tinubu instituted a Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) model that attracted private sector investments – especially in infrastructure. The construction of the Lekki-Epe Expressway, for example, was among the first major PPP road projects in Nigeria.

The Tinubu administration recorded many strides in the area of urban planning and transportation infrastructure. It set up the Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA) and tasked it with a mandate to actualize the goals of the Strategic Transport Master Plan, and to work hand in hand with the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) in a bid to reduce traffic congestion to its barest minimum.

The development of the Lekki Free Trade Zone by the Tinubu administration has so far attracted billions in foreign investments, and so has the modernization of the Lagos-Badagry Expressway, which has also seen a marked improvement in connectivity to the rest of the West African sub-region.

The Tinubu administration also recorded giant strides in the the area of healthcare. Its work on the New Massey Children’s Hospital, along with the rehabilitation of various health institutions across the state, has gone a long way towards a massive upgrade of healthcare infrastructure and access in the state.

Cognizant of the fact that accumulated filth arising from a combination of poor drainage and poor habits was a public health threat to Lagosians, the Tinubu government set the Lagos State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) which has improved sanitation tremendously.

In the area of security and the administration of justice, the Tinubu government established the Rapid Response Squad (RRS), which has enhanced security response in the state. In addition, the then-Governor created the Lagos State Security Trust Fund (LSSTF), to fund police and security operations. The Governor also demonstrated his support for judicial reforms, which have strengthened the Lagos State judiciary with better funding and facilities.

In the area of education and human capital development, the Tinubu founded the Lagos State University College of Medicine (LASUCOM) in a bid to expand medical education. The construction of new model schools across the state, and the establishment of the Lagos State Scholarship Board has enhanced education access, and also supported students from vulnerable backgrounds.

Housing and the preservation of the environment were a major plank of the Tinubu government in Lagos. The launch of the Lagos Home Ownership Mortgage Scheme (Lagos HOMS), enabled many families to own homes of their own at an affordable cost.

The government’s ambitious land reclamation project – initally to combat coastal erosion, led to the construction of the Eko Atlantic City. Talk of killing two birds with one stone. Also, the dredging of various waterways across the state has Improved inland water transportation.

A long-standing advocate for true federalism, Gov. Tinubu fought for state autonomy and resource control. This led him into the crosshairs of the federal government under President Obasanjo, against whom Lagos State went to court to demand the release of withheld local government funds. Lagos State. Supreme Court ruled in Lagos’ favour. In the period between the withholding of federal funds and the court’s verdict, Lagos showed its resilience, and proved that it could survive and thrive, allocation or no allocation.

Following the expiration of his gubernatorial tenure, Asiwaju Tinubu immersed himself in the task of strengthening the All Progressives Congress, following its formation in 2013 as a counterweight to the then-ruling PDP. He brokered the merger of opposition parties, and subsequently led the coalition that defeated the PDP in 2015.

Following that victory, Tinubu continued to play a kingmaker’s role in President Muhammadu Buhari’s second victory in 2019. Tinubu’s ability to mentor future leaders has produced Governors, ministers, and key politicians.

As President himself, following his victory in the 2023 presidential election, Tinubu signaled a new era of action. On his inaugural day, he pronounced the end of the fuel subsidy regime – in a bid to save trillions of naira for national development. He followed this up with the foreign exchange (FX) market unification policy, which helped streamline multiple exchange rates.The setting up of the Tax Reform Committee is part of the government’s plan to improve revenue collection.

In furtherance of the nation’s bid to pivot away from an oil-based economy, and to minimize the use of fossil fuels, the Tinubu administration came up with the CNG (ie the Compessed Natural Gas) vehicle conversion initiative, which offers a cheaper alternative to petrol.

In his push to end the ravages of terrorist groups and other forms of criminality, the Tinubu government significantly increased the nilitary’s funding, which has enhanced counterterrorism operations. Also, the creation of Forest Guards to tackle banditry and kidnapping is gradually bearing fruit. In his bid to realize his long-standing advocacy for multi-level policing, the President is leading efforts to amend the country’s constitution for that purpose.

There is no gainsaying the fact that massive investment in infrastructure and power generation would result in a quantum leap for Nigeria. In cognisance of this, the Tinubu administration is embarking on a number of infrastructure projects to realize this quantum leap – notably the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway Project, a 700km mega-infrastructure. Thanks to the federal government’s power sector reforms, Nigerians are seeing a marked improvement in the number of hours they get electricity daily.

As in Lagos, so also at the federal level. The Tinubu government has demonstrated its intention to build a robust social investment profile. Among the signature projects of this administration is the Renewed Hope Cities & Estates, which entails the construction of mass housing projects nationwide. Following extensive negotiations with the labour unions, the President approved a new minimum wage for public sector workers in response to inflation pressures. The bid for a private-led economy has led the Tinubu government to increase its support for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), notably by enabling their access to single-digit loans. Speaking of loans, the government’s Consumer Credit Scheme (whose objective is to enhance the purchasing power of average Nigerians) and the Student Loan Scheme, which has enabled access to interest-free loans for students in Nigerian universities, are a signal that the mantra, ‘Renewed Hope’ is more than just a mantra.

In a world where entities – whether corporate, governmental, intergovernmental or non-governmental – have become more and more interdependent, Nigeria – under President Tinubu – aims to push its interests to the forefront of global discourse. In the course of seeking cross-border partnerships and investments in the Nigerian economy, the President has undertaken tours abroad, in the course of which he has secured investment (or strong pledges thereof) from governments and corporate organisations in India, the United Arab Emirates, Germany, etc. Nigeria’s push for full membership of the Group of 20 (G20) is also ongoing. In the government’s recogntion that the Nigerian diaspora is one of the largest in the world – with the wherewithal to make a positive difference in the country’s economic fortunes and global profile, the government set up the Diaspora Bond Revival, which is engaging Nigerians abroad for development.

Thanks to his strides, both as Lagos State Governor, and as President of Nigeria, Tinubu is the proud recipient of numerous awards and other recognitions – among them the THISDAY Award for the Best Governor in Nigeria in 2006; the Champion of Democracy Award (by the National Democratic Institute); and Forbes magazine’s Top 100 Most Influential Africans (in 2013, and again in 2019 and 2023).

All these achievements in one lifetime are a sure proof of a life of purpose, determination and hardwork. As he celebrates his 73rd birthday, let us rise up and salute the Father of Modern Lagos, who, as previously mentioned, transformed Lagos into Africa’s 5th largest economy.. Let us salute an economic strategist whose policies shaped Lagos and are shaping Nigeria’s economy. Let us salute a political bridge-builder – who united the opposition to defeat the PDP in 2015. Let us salute a youth empowerment advocate, who has always supported young leaders in governance. Let us salute the taxation pioneer, whose creation, the Lagos State Internal Revenue Service (LIRS) has become a model for other states. Let us salute the women inclusion champion, who appointed female commissioners and advisers. Let us salute a sports development supporter, who backed Lagos sports initiatives. Let us salute the arts and culture promoter, who revived the Lagos carnival, and also supported Nollywood (the Nigerian film industry). Let us salute a disability rights advocate, who created policies for inclusive governance.

Happy birthday, Mr. President. As you mark this milestone, we pray that God grants you mercy, grace and divine enablement as you continue to work for the Nigerian people.

Keem Abdul, publisher and writer, hails from Lagos. He can be reached via +2348038795377 or Akeemabdul2023@gmail.com

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Sokoto Gov Seeks Collective Effort to Combat Banditry

Sokoto State Governor, Ahmed Aliyu, has called for a collective effort to combat banditry in the state, emphasising the need for all segments of society to work together to address this challenge.

The governor made the call during a Sallah homage to the Sultan, Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, at his palace.

He highlighted the progress made by his administration in the fight against insecurity, attributing the successes to the fervent prayers of the people, as well as the renewed commitment of the state government and security agencies.

Aliyu noted that the Sokoto State Community Guard Corps, established by his government, has been instrumental to assisting conventional security forces in securing the state, and commended traditional institutions for their role in curbing banditry and called for sustained efforts.

The governor reiterated his administration’s unwavering support for Islamic propagation in the state, as part of the governor’s efforts to strengthen security and promote peace in Sokoto State.

Aliyu further praised the Sultan for his contributions to Da’awah (Islamic propagation), and called for continued support and advice from the revered traditional ruler.

Responding, Sultan Abubakar commended Aliyu for his various intervention programmes, particularly his support for orphans, the needy, the physically challenged, and Islamic scholars in the state.

He government’s ongoing infrastructure development and urged the governor to sustain the initiatives for the benefit of the people.

Sokoto State Governor, Ahmed Aliyu, has called for a collective effort to combat banditry in the state, emphasising the need for all segments of society to work together to address

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April 1, 2025
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Why Nigerian Governments Pay Lip Service to Civil Service Reforms

By Tunji Olaopa

In all functional democracies across the world, from the OECD countries to the continent of Africa, the successes and failures of democratic governance are directly proportional to the readiness of the governments to pursue institutional and governance reforms. These reforms prioritize the public service first as the inevitable complement of democracy (to paraphrase Joseph Schumpeter), and second, as the mechanism for implementing good public policy. Democratic governance, in other words, depends on how optimal and efficient the public service is as the powerhouse of government’s policy commitment to its citizens. This is the reason why the difference between a prosperous democracy and a failing one is the commitment to institutional reforms.
However, complementing democracy is a task that would not come automatically. The political and bureaucratic leadership must make a conscious effort to make reform an enabling framework that achieve the capability readiness of the public service. It is only within this context that we can start talking of a democratic order that is founded on the responsiveness of the public service to the aspirations of the citizenry. The struggle to initiate reform designs and blueprints, and follow through with their implementation does not often come easy as the trajectories of reforms in Africa often reveal.
But we only need to look at comparative efforts across the world to see why the capability readiness of the public service is key especially in a developing country like Nigeria. The experience of Japan after the disastrous bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the Second World War is a significant example of how a country could leverage policy and institutional reform to get back on its feet. The establishment and efficiency of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) and its operational philosophy mirrors the significance of the governance policies that brought the Asian Tigers into reckoning. Apart from a strict governance regulation, including protectionism, that influenced the market in specific regulatory manner; as well as the deployment of sociocultural principle, like the Keiretsu principle that organized the private sector into a cooperative economic structure, the public service was also organized around the idea of technocratic and meritocratic “embedded autonomy” which implies that the bureaucracy was insulated from political exigencies and eternal pressures. Now, the governance resolve of post-war Japan and the Asian Tigers has become a governance and reform lesson no country can ignore.
The inauguration of any democratic government is always interesting. Electioneering campaigns regal the citizens with promises of good policies. This comes from the recognition that governance and institutional reforms form the bedrock of development planning that articulate government programs, especially for effective and efficient service delivery to the people. Once electioneering is done with, the move from election victory to governance articulation is meant to concretize clear development performance and outcomes that bear significant impact on the lives of the generality of people. What is rather interesting, from a Nigerian perspective, at least, is the heightened attention that public service institutional reforms received in the early years of a government’s administration which all too gradually get sidelined in a way that undermine the progressive transformation of the public service into a formidable complement of democratic governance.
Inevitably, government is then constrained into an arbitrary engagement with governance and administrative matters and problems that leads to setting up ad hoc committees and task force structures which elevate the already burdensome cost of governance problem. This is further aggravated by the penchant for administrative discontinuity that insists, quite illogically, that a government must reinvent the reform wheel rather than deepening and consolidating the reform agenda of the previous administration, or at best incorporating some of its elements into a new framework. The reformer in me worries about the danger that reform complacence or the trade-off of solid reform measures for short-term political gains poses for Nigeria’s transformation trajectory.
The administrative history of institutional reforms in Nigeria is laced with cogent examples of what I am saying. Let us start with the Gowon administration and the Udoji Commission report of 1974. It was the keen awareness of the significance of the public service in the context of enhanced, expanded and deepened role of the state, and what it could contribute to the development planning and management in Nigeria needed as a post-independent country, that led the constitution of the Commission to recommend a way to get the public service capability ready for the objective of national development. And yet, the administration turned deaf ears to the fundamental implications that the recommendations of the creative managerial disruption of the system the Udoji Commission proposed. Those recommendations were meant to take the Weberian “I-am-directed” public service beyond its post-golden age era into the future that demands some critical reforms to withstand modern administrative and national exigencies of a newly independent country. At a critical moment when political will was required to take the recommendation beyond the pages of the report, the government faltered.
The government’s political will was not lacking in the need to implement the Dotun Phillips report of 1988, initiated by the Buhari administration and carried through by the Babangida administration. The study group was given the objective of a professionalized civil service circumscribed by a managerial philosophy into the institutional context of presidentialism. However, there was an underlying conception-reality gap that disrupted the significance of the report and its recommendation, and this was further aggravated by the inflexibility of the administration’s endorsement of Decree 43 as a legal instrument for the implementation of the recommendations. When some aspects like the politicization of the office of the permanent secretary who ceased being accounting officer and whose tenure was coterminous with that of Ministers therefore failed in the face of reality, and in a governance context of command and control, the system chose to throw away the baby with the bathwater rather than getting back to the drawing board and initiating amendment to the legal instrument as part of a learning journey.
Unfortunately, the succeeding reform commission—the Ayida Panel—got the marching order to simply reverse the trajectory that was already leading away from the traditional model for doing government business to a managerial reform blueprint. This was a foolhardy attempt at rescuing the form of the golden era of public administration of the 1960s and 1970s without the full benefits of the new managerial revolution that demands professionalism and performance management. By the time we arrived at the Obasanjo administration, and the commencement of the democratic experiment in 1999, Nigeria has sufficiently learnt some administrative and reform lessons that led to the inauguration of the National Strategy for Public Service Reform (NSPSR), the most comprehensive reform blueprint ever in Nigeria’s reform history. The approval and opportunity for the civil servants to reform the system led to the establishment of the Bureau of Public Service Reform as the lead agency and engine room for continuous learning, change management and the incremental institutional improvement of the public service. Implementing the NSPSR raised lots of fundamental issues, like whether or not the civil service can reform itself; whether or not to policy choices should be made based on selectivity or comprehensiveness, and the issue of getting the basics and details of institutional reform right so as to be able to manage the sequencing of the reform around building new systems and models on the restructured Weberian bureaucracy.
In a 2005 study of the administrative trajectories of twenty-nine African countries, Ladipo Adamolekun introduced a useful typology for reckoning with the administrative progress of African states. He characterized the 29 African states into four different categories: the advanced, committed, hesitant and beginning reformers. Nigeria fell into the ‘hesitant’ reforming African state. Unlike the committed and advanced reforming states, the hesitant reformers, like Nigeria, manifest the symptoms of not always seeing through reform designs, innovation and ideas, just like we saw with the Udoji reform. To be hesitant is to be enthusiastic about reform ideas, commit to seeing them through, but stopping short of implementing the key reform innovation in ways that impact the efficient service delivery capability of the public service.
The perfect example that articulates Nigeria’s reform hesitancy is the failure of successive Nigerian governments to deal with the cost of governance issues that has been limiting Nigeria’s institutional coordination and functional capacity. Nigeria operates one of the most expensive governance systems in the world. This derives from the multiplication of structural and institutional processes and dynamics that not only burden budgetary allocations through the large chunk of money spent on recurrent expenditure, but also undermine functional efficiency due to wastage and redundancies. This phenomenon was consequent on the breakdown of the internal establishment control mechanism built around the control tool of organization and method (O&M) and the treasury control of establishment that regulates the capital and recurrent ratio of the budget. The core elements of this controls were the manpower forecasting and planning system of identifying, planning and acting upon human resource requirements and problems related to the conceptualization of the role of the state in the running of the national economy, as well as the trend analysis of service’s growth in size and expansion of the scope of responsibilities.
The Oronsaye Report—or, the Presidential Committee on the Rationalization and Restructuring of Federal Government Parastatals, Commissions, and Agencies—was meant to first articulate a rationalization framework that reduces all parallel, ad hoc and redundant structures; and second, achieve governance accountability that will instigate more efficiency in the conduct of government business. The overall objective was to get the MDAs to achieve more with less. The Committee was guided by five fundamental principles: (a) the economic challenges and the need for Government to make more efficient use of its resources to achieve its development objectives and goals; (b) the fact that Nigeria had undertaken reforms in the past; (c) it was imperative to reform to meet the challenges of a better socio-political and economic society; (d) there was no need to create another body to perform the functions of an already existing statutory entity. The fact that an institution was inefficient and ineffective should not warrant the creation of a new one; and (e) the reform would ensure efficient and effective management of Government structures and functionaries to guarantee better service delivery and good governance.
And yet, given the fundamental significance of the Report of the Committee, no government from the Jonathan administration to date has been unlock the binding constraints nor muster the audacity to fully implement the recommendations of the Committee. Several reasons can be adduced for this. The first is that the long-term demands of reforms are counteracted by the short-term tenures of many administrations. Second, since there is no making an omelet without breaking eggs, reform implementation requires offending vested interests that would be affected by the hard-political decision these reforms require. Third, reforms possess deep and expensive psychological implication due to the trauma that would attend, for instance, the rationalization and consequent rightsizing of the MDAs will demand in terms of specific downsizing and severance compensations.
However, since institutional reforms are inevitable, it becomes imperative that the Tinubu government has to facilitate specific systemic and structural changes in order to get the basic rights. These include the following: (i) elimination of the dysfunctional non-value adding processes including silos operations which create red tapes and operational bottlenecks; (ii) the efficient activation of the performance bond that MDAs signed with the President as the means of instituting the performance management system; (iii) strengthening of MDAs’ programme and project management capabilities; (iv) the recalibration of research and policy analysis functions of MDAs through the re-professionalization of their Department of Planning, Research and Statistics (DPRS); (v) the identification of core skills requirements of the MDAs that touch on the implementation of the Renewed Hope Agenda, and their sourcing and deployment through retraining, fresh recruitment, contract appointment, staff exchange, sabbatical, donor technical assistance, etc.; (vi) strengthening the merit system through more rigorous entry-level assessment and induction system to mitigate the extent to which the service inherits low-quality education and deficits from the tertiary institutions; (vii) reprofiling of public service institutional capacity to better optimize the potentials of PPPs to boost service delivery; and (viii) the imperative of launching a national waste reduction strategy that involves (a) the unbundling of the expenditure structure of government; (b) productivity audit of the MDAs, (c) getting MDAs to articulate their productivity and waste reduction plans based on agreed national benchmark, (d) launching of the productivity metrics and tools for holding MDAs accountable to national productivity targets, and (e) launching of the new national assets and facility management and national maintenance system.
However, and preparatory to institutionalizing the above, it is logical and expedient that the Tinubu administration establish the Program Management Office (PMO) in the short term to act as the MDAs’ institutional life support model. This becomes functional, for instance, in generating project management ideas which can then be mainstreamed to activate performance-managed operations in the MDAs. This will serve to reinforce the MDAs with required skills and competency upgrade needed to deliver high performance that urgently backstops the Renewed Hope Agenda. This involves, among other things, a backend review of the capability readiness of the MDAs (or at least carefully selected ones based on criteria that are aligned with the eight national policy objectives and priorities of the federal government). There is also, following on this, the need to activate the performance management system components of the Federal Civil Service Implementation Strategy. This demand that the federal government institutionally insist, through the support of key players provided by a consortium of experts and firms, that the MDA deliver on the performance bonds signed with the government.
The Tinubu administration has what it takes, in terms of extant reform blueprints and designs, professional expertise and technocratic know-how, and the political will to break the jinx that has bedeviled other administrations in terms of passing on reform ideas that could have turned the tide of efficient service delivery to Nigerians. All that is required is taking the first step, say, by going full throttle with the implementation of the Oronsaye Report, and dealing a final blow to the cost ofd governance problem in Nigeria’s governance framework.

*Olaopa, a Professor of Public Administration, is Chairman, Federal Civil Service Commission

By Tunji Olaopa In all functional democracies across the world, from the OECD countries to the continent of Africa, the successes and failures of democratic governance are directly proportional to

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