By Musa Bakare.
In every generation, there arises a man who redefines leadership, a man whose courage in the face of resistance becomes the cornerstone of national renewal. In Nigeria’s current political history, that man is Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, President and Commander in Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
To understand the huge difference between Asiwaju Tinubu and the others eyeing the 2027 Presidential election, one must go beyond the noise of politics and examine the substance of governance, vision, courage, institution building, and results.
For many Nigerian politicians, leadership ends with elections. Their imagination rarely goes beyond the next ballot. Asiwaju Tinubu, on the other hand, thinks in decades, not in election seasons.
From his days as Governor of Lagos State (1999–2007), he envisioned a Lagos that would outlive the politics of the moment. He built frameworks for independent revenue generation, modern urban governance, and long-term planning.
When other states waited endlessly for federal allocations, Asiwaju Tinubu’s Lagos laid the foundation for what would later become a $100-billion economy, the fifth largest in Africa. He created the Lagos Internal Revenue Service (LIRS), professionalized the civil service, embraced public-private partnerships, and expanded infrastructure without reckless borrowing.
While others built slogans, Tinubu built systems. And systems outlive personalities.
Every president before him knew Nigeria’s fuel subsidy was a monumental fraud draining trillions of naira yearly. Yet they dodged the truth for fear of backlash. President Tinubu confronted it head-on from Day One.
By removing the subsidy, he freed over ₦7 trillion annually for productive investment, ending decades of deceit in which government pretended to help the poor while enriching cartels.
He went further to unify the exchange rate. For years, Nigeria operated multiple rates, one for the elite, another for the masses. It was a playground for arbitrage and corruption. Tinubu ended it.
His message was clear: Nigeria will no longer subsidize fraud.
When previous leaders postponed the inevitable, President Tinubu embraced reform. That is what separates a statesman from a politician.
A true leader is judged not only by his achievements but by the quality of minds he raises. President Tinubu’s political history is filled with protégés who have become national assets.
While others built cults of personality, Asiwaju Tinubu built a school of leadership.
He never feared the rise of those he mentored because he understands that leadership multiplies when shared. Compare that to others who surround themselves with mediocrity just to remain the brightest in the room, the contrast is glaring.
President Tinubu creates successors, not dependents.
Nigeria has seen leaders who ruled by impulse, without economic logic or structural depth. President Tinubu is different, a technocratic politician who blends political dexterity with economic literacy.
His policies are anchored on data, evidence, and strategy. He understands that no country develops on consumption; only on production. That is why his administration’s industrial revival agenda, from Ajaokuta Steel to the National Industrial Policy Council chaired by the President himself, focuses on making Nigeria a production hub.
While previous governments distributed palliatives, Tinubu is changing the national conversation from what to share to what to produce.
From roads to rails, President Tinubu’s government is building the arteries of economic expansion, the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway, the Sokoto-Badagry Superhighway, and the revival of rail links across North and South.
Past governments spoke of diversification while clinging to oil. President Tinubu is building the infrastructure that makes diversification possible.
President Tinubu inherited a nation in fiscal crisis, empty reserves, rising debt, vanishing investor confidence. Within months, he restored fiscal realism: empowering the Central Bank to focus on its mandate, unifying exchange systems, and reinforcing the single treasury framework.
The results are visible. Foreign direct investment commitments worth billions of dollars in gas, solid minerals, and manufacturing are flowing in, early fruits of reform.
Where past leaders chose populism over prudence, Tinubu is rebuilding the economy on truth, not illusion.
In a country where opposition thrives on chaos and misinformation, President Tinubu’s response remains calm and confident. He lets his work speak. He knows that noise fades, but legacy endures.
Security is central to his administration. He is reorganizing the security architecture, deepening inter agency coordination, and investing in technology driven surveillance and intelligence.
In agriculture, the Renewed Hope Food Security Initiative targets local production and rural prosperity, fertilizer blending plants, grain storage facilities, and youth agro programmes are being revived nationwide.
Unlike past regimes that treated food security as slogans, President Tinubu’s plan integrates agriculture into industrialization from farm to factory.
The huge difference between Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the rest of them eyeing 2027 is not in style but in substance, courage, and conviction. Every reform he is implementing, subsidy removal, exchange rate unification, steel revival, infrastructure renewal, fiscal discipline is a building block for the Nigeria of tomorrow.
In a land weary of promises, Asiwaju Tinubu stands as the difference, a leader who dares, reforms, and endures so that future generations may inherit a stronger, self reliant, and prosperous Nigeria.
– Musa Asiru Bakare, Member, All Progressives Congress (APC) and Political Analyst, writes from Lokoja, Kogi State.
