To call President Bola Ahmed Tinubu an enigma is an understatement; he is a phenomenon. Tinubu is easily one of the most sagacious political leaders in Nigeria’s history.

Everybody wants to be president, but how many people get to achieve that lofty objective? Bola Ahmed Tinubu is the only political leader who put two presidents in Aso Villa: Muhammadu Buhari and Tinubu himself. He co-engineered the emergence of the All Progressives Congress, APC, which successfully (for the first time in our history) snatched power from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, behemoth, which used to boast of itself as “the largest party in Africa”.

Tinubu’s road to the Villa was strewn with many dangerous obstacles. He defied all that were said and written about him and overcame Buhari’s initial hostility to his presidential ambition. On March 1, 2023, the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, pronounced him as the winner of the February 25, 2023 presidential election, a verdict the judiciary later validated.

Unlike most other presidents who were sponsored by other political forces and godfathers, Tinubu personally plotted his way to the coveted seat systematically and strategically. He has the uncanny ability to position himself in the right place, even when others are following the broad way that eventually led to their perdition.

He chose to support NADECO’s struggle rather than follow his group to Abacha’s Constitutional Conference to bury June 12. When he returned from exile, he outwitted his “home-based” opponents and clinched the Alliance for Democracy, AD, ticket for Governor of Lagos.

When the rest of the AD Governors complied with the Afenifere directive to support President Olusegun Obasanjo’s presidential ambition in 2003, he dropped out of the party, founded his own Action Congress, AC, and consolidated his hold on Lagos State. From there, his journey to Abuja began.

Tinubu also sacrificially wooed Buhari for the merger that resulted in the APC, supported him to take the first shot, pulled the ropes that brought down the PDP and endured an icy relationship with Buhari for eight years. Meanwhile, he positioned himself in a manner that thwarted efforts to sideline him from taking his turn after Buhari.

Tinubu wisely celebrated his 72nd birthday on Friday, March 29, 2024 in low key to reflect the current state of the nation, especially the hunger, hardship and insecurity. Nigerians expect him to also display the same political dexterity that took him from obscurity to the Senate, governorate and the Presidency, in solving Nigeria’s problems.

He took the task upon himself, so he must deliver. He must prove his critics wrong. He must work hard and return smiles to the faces of Nigerians. Tinubu should cast himself in history not just as a five-star politician but also a five-star achiever.