Who is Bola Ahmed Tinubu Nigeria’s new president-elect 

Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), on Wednesday, March 1, 2023, announced Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressive Congress (APC) party as the winner of Saturday’s, February 25, 2023, presidential election.

Tinubu, 70, polled a total of 8,794,726 votes (37 per cent), ahead of his opponents, Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi who got 29 per cent and 25 per cent of the votes cast respectively. He is an accountant, who graduated from the Chicago State University, London.

Known as the political “godfather” of the southwest, Tinubu served as the Governor of Lagos State from 1999 to 2007 and Senator for Lagos West during the brief Third Republic. He is well recognized for the reforms he brought to Lagos state under his tenure as governor. 

Before entering politics as a Lagos West senatorial candidate in 1992 under the banner of the Social Democratic Party, he was employed by Mobil Oil Nigeria as an accountant. Once forced into exile by military ruler Sani Abacha, Tinubu returned to Nigeria after Abacha’s death in 1998 which triggered and ushered in Nigeria’s democracy in 1999.

Tinubu, Nigeria’s new president-elect, is one of the richest politicians in the country, although there are questions about his wealth. Answering questions about the source of his wealth, in December 2022, He told the BBC that he inherited some real estate which he then invested, regardless of the fact that in the past he also said he became an “instant millionaire” while working as an auditor at Deloitte and Touche. He said he had saved $1.8m (£1.5m) from his wages and other allowances, nearly the same amount found in accounts linked to him. 

He is a practising Muslim, currently married to Oluremi Tinubu, the former senator of the Lagos Central senatorial district. In October 2017, he lost his son, Jide Tinubu, in London.