Bola Ahmed Tinubu
Chief Bola Ahmed Adekunle Tinubu GCFR (born 29 March 1952) is a Nigerian politician who is the 16th and current president of Nigeria.[1] He was the governor of Lagos State from 1999 to 2007, and senator for Lagos West in the Third Republic.
Tinubu spent his early life in southwestern Nigeria and later moved to the United States where he studied accounting at Chicago State University. He returned to Nigeria in the early 1990s and was employed by Mobil Nigeria as an accountant, before entering politics as a Lagos West senatorial candidate in 1992 under the banner of the Social Democratic Party.
After the military head of state Sani Abacha dissolved the Senate in 1993, Tinubu became an activist campaigning for the return of democracy as a part of the National Democratic Coalition movement. In the first post-transition Lagos State gubernatorial election, Tinubu won by a wide margin as a member of the Alliance for Democracy. Four years later, he won re-election to a second term. After leaving office in 2007, he played a key role in the formation of the All Progressives Congress in 2013. In 2023, he was elected president of Nigeria.
Background
Tinubu was born in Lagos into the merchant family of Abibatu Mogaji, the Ìyál’ọ́jà of Lagos. He is generally accepted in reliable sources to have been born in 1952; this year of birth is sometimes disputed by political opponents, who argue that he is much older. Some reliable sources note that his age has not been verified.
Education
Tinubu attended St. John’s Primary School, Aroloya, Lagos before proceeding to Children Home School in Ibadan. He completed undergraduate studies in the United States, first at Richard J. Daley College in Chicago and then at Chicago State University. He graduated in 1979 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting.
Professional career
Tinubu worked as an accountant for the American companies Arthur Andersen, Deloitte and GTE Services Corporation. After returning to Nigeria in 1983, he joined Mobil Oil Nigeria, and later became a company executive.
