Lamidi Apapa, the leader of the Labour Party's split organization, has made clear what he will do if Asiwaju Bola Tinubu asks him to participate in peace discussions.
This was said by Apapa during a Thursday interview with Arise Television.
"Before I honor him, I will consult the party executive, so if they ask me to go ahead, I will do," he declared. If the executive gives the go-ahead, then that becomes our stance.
"I won't be taking that post. If they state, "Go see him," or "We're going to see him," it becomes the party's position rather than Alhaji Bashiru Lamidi Apapa's viewpoint.
Recall that Julius Abure, the party's suspended national chairman, and Apapa's faction have been at odds over the direction of the party.
As Apapa was taken into protective custody by security personnel attached to the Court of Appeal in Abuja, the location of the Presidential Election Petition Court, some factions of Peter Obi, the party's presidential candidate, engaged in conflict in court.
Some young people surrounded Apapa as they watched court proceedings in the petition Obi filed to contest the results of the February 25 presidential election.
Apapa made a statement as she left the courtroom shortly after the Justice Haruna Tsammani-led five-member panel continued the pre-hearing session and postponed the petition until Friday.
Tinubu started his political career in 1992 when he was elected to the Nigerian Senate to represent the Lagos West constituency. He later became the Governor of Lagos State in 1999 and served in that position for two terms until 2007. During his time as governor, Tinubu implemented several policies and initiatives aimed at promoting economic development, improving infrastructure, and strengthening governance in Lagos State.
Tinubu is also the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) political party, which is currently the ruling party in Nigeria. He played a key role in the formation of the APC, which was created in 2013 as a merger of several opposition parties to challenge the then-ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP).
Tinubu has been a major player in Nigeria's political landscape for over two decades and is known for his strategic political maneuvering and his ability to mobilize support across different regions and ethnic groups in the country. He is also a successful businessman and is the founder of several companies in Nigeria, including the Oriental Hotel in Lagos.
Despite his achievements and influence, Tinubu has also faced criticism and allegations of corruption over the years. Nevertheless, he remains a significant figure in Nigerian politics and is widely regarded as one of the most important political leaders in the country.
Childhood and education
Although Tinubu's birth year of 1952 in Nigeria is largely acknowledged by trustworthy authorities, his political opponents occasionally contest this information, claiming that he is actually considerably older. Reliable sources point out that his age hasn't been independently verified. He finished his undergraduate work in the US at Chicago's Richard J. Daley College and Chicago State University. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from the university in 1979.
Early career
Tinubu worked 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
Early political career
Tinubu's political career began in 1991,when he joined the Social Democratic Party. In 1992, he was elected to the Senate, representing the Lagos West constituency in the short-lived Nigerian Third Republic.
After the results of the 12 June 1993 presidential elections were annulled, Tinubu became a founding member of the pro-democracy National Democratic Coalition, a group which mobilized support for the restoration of democracy and recognition of Moshood Abiola as winner of the 12 June election. Following the seizure of power as military head of state of General Sani Abacha, he went into exile in 1994 and returned to the country in 1998 after the death of the military dictator, which ushered in the transition to the Fourth Nigerian Republic. In the run-up to the 1999 elections, Bola Tinubu was a protégé of Alliance for Democracy (AD) leaders Abraham Adesanya and Ayo Adebanjo. He went on to win the AD primaries for the Lagos State governorship elections in defeating Funsho Williams and Wahab Dosunmu, a former Minister of Works and Housing.In January 1999, he stood for the position of Governor of Lagos State on the AD ticket and was elected governor.In the years leading up to the 1999 elections, Abraham Adesanya and Ayo Adebanjo, who led the Alliance for Democracy (AD), were mentors to Bola Tinubu.
He later defeated Funsho Williams and Wahab Dosunmu, a former minister of works and housing, to win the AD primary for the Lagos State governorship elections.He ran on the AD ticket for Lagos State governor in January 1999 and won.
Governor of Lagos State
During his 8 years in government, Tinibu initiated new road construction, required to meet the needs of the fast-growing population of the state.
Tinubu, alongside a new deputy governor, Femi Pedro, won re-election into office as governor in April 2003. All other states in the South West fell to the People's Democratic Party in those elections. He was involved in a struggle with the Olusegun Obasanjo-controlled federal government over whether Lagos State had the right to create new Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) to meet the needs of its large population. The controversy led to the federal government seizing funds meant for local councils in the state.[citation needed] During the latter part of his term in office, he was engaged in continuous clashes with PDP powers such as Adeseye Ogunlewe, a former Lagos State senator who had become minister of works, and Bode George, the southwest chairman of the PDP ongoing conflicts with PDP leaders like Bode George, the southwest PDP chairman, and Adeseye Ogunlewe, a former senator from Lagos State who had been minister of works
Post-governorship
In 2006, Tinubu attempted to persuade the then-vice president of Nigeria Atiku Abubakar to become the head of his party, the Action Congress (AC). Abubakar who was a member of the People's Democratic Party (PDP), had recently fallen out with President Olusegun Obasanjo over Abubakar's ambition to succeed Obasanjo as president. Tinubu offered Abubakar the chance to switch parties and join the AC, offering him the his party's presidential candidacy, with the condition that he, Tinubu, would be Atiku Abubakar's running mate. Atiku declined the proposition and, having switched to the AC, chose a running mate from the South East, Senator Ben Obi. Although Atiku ran for office on Tinubu's platform in the election, the PDP still won, in a landslide.
Following the People's Democratic Party's (PDP) overwhelming victory in the elections of April 2007, Tinubu became involved in talks to unite the dispersed opposition groups into a "mega-party" capable of opposing the PDP, which was in power at the time.[20] The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), a faction of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), and the new PDP (nPDP), a faction of the then-ruling People's Democratic Party[21], merged into the All Progressives Congress (APC) in February 2013, creating a "mega opposition" party. Tinubu was one of several politicians who were involved in the merger.
In 2014, Tinubu backed General Muhammadu Buhari, the leader of the CPC faction of the APC and a former military head of state who had previously run for president in the CPC in 2003, 2007, and 2011. Buhari had a strong following in Northern Nigeria. Tinubu initially desired to run as Buhari's running mate but ultimately relinquished the nomination to his ally and former justice commissioner Yemi Osibanjo. Buhari led the APC to victory in 2015, ending the PDP's 16-year hegemony and becoming the first incumbent president of Nigeria to lose to an opposition candidate.
In place of his long-held reported presidential ambition, Tinubu went on to play a significant role in the Buhari administration by supporting government programs and maintaining control of the internal party structure. He endorsed Buhari's reelection campaign in 2019, helping him overcome Atiku Abubakar of the PDP. The expulsion of Adams Oshiomole, a Tinubu ally and party chairman, in the wake of a party crisis in 2020 is thought to have been done in order to undermine Tinubu's chances of winning the presidency in 2023.
presidential election of 2023
Tinubu officially declared his campaign for president on January 10, 2022.
On June 8, 2022, Tinubu won the party convention vote for the governing APC with 1,271 votes, defeating Rotimi Amaechi and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, who received 235 and 316 votes, respectively.
Tinubu was proclaimed the victor of the 2023 presidential election by INEC on March 1st. After defeating his rivals with 8,794,726 votes, he was named president-elect. Atiku Abubakar of the opposition People's Democratic Party (PDP) finished in second place with 6,984,520 votes. Peter Obi of the Labour Party received 6,101,533 votes, placing third.
Drug trafficking accusations
As a result of a court lawsuit claiming that the US government had "probable cause" to believe Tinubu's American bank accounts contained the proceeds of heroin smuggling, the US government froze his assets in 1993. Later that year, he reached a settlement with the authorities and forfeited around $460,000. Court records and subsequent coverage of the case revealed he collaborated with two Chicago heroin dealers