By Lucy Ogalue
Princess Zahrah Audu, Director-General, Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC), says President Bola Tinubu’s political achievements cannot be written out of Nigeria’s history.
Audu said this in a statement on Saturday, assessing Tinubu’s political career and controversies surrounding his biography.
“His certificates may be questioned. His biography may be contested. But his political accomplishments cannot simply be written out of history,” she said.
Audu said Nigerians had the right to scrutinise Tinubu’s biography but should distinguish between allegations, disputed facts and established facts.
She cited the controversy over Tinubu’s education, saying Chicago State University confirmed during 2023 litigation that he attended the institution and graduated in 1979.
According to her, the controversy concerned the provenance and authenticity of a particular diploma copy submitted to Nigerian electoral authorities.
Audu said political achievements should neither be used to dismiss legitimate questions nor disputed issues be exaggerated beyond available evidence.
She said political leadership also produced evidence through decisions, institutions, coalitions, reforms, electoral victories and measurable outcomes.
Audu said that Tinubu’s political career spanned the Senate, Lagos governorship, opposition politics, party organisation and ultimately the presidency.
“Whatever one’s political opinion of that journey, it is difficult to describe it as accidental,” she said.
She said Tinubu’s political trajectory reflected decades of alliances, negotiations, institution-building, political calculation and electoral contests.
Audu said even if critics’ harshest assumptions about Tinubu’s educational credentials were accepted, they would not erase his political career and achievements.
She, however, acknowledged concerns over inflation, food insecurity and the cost of living following reforms including fuel-subsidy removal and changes to the foreign-exchange regime.
She said the International Monetary Fund had recognised improvements in macroeconomic stability while also highlighting continuing challenges, including poverty and food insecurity.
Audu compared Tinubu’s political journey with those of Nelson Mandela and Jerry Rawlings, but cautioned that their historical circumstances were fundamentally different.
She said the comparison was based on the broader principle that political legacies should be assessed from the entirety of leaders’ careers.
“History is not acquittal, history is accumulation,” Audu said.
She said the administration should equally be criticised where evidence warranted, while its achievements should receive evidence-based assessment and recognition. (NAN)
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