Tinubu at 74: Renewed Hope for Nigeria’s Greatness

By Ndubuisi Nwigwe

Today, as Nigerians mark the birthday of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, it is worth pausing to consider not the cartoons of politics, but the architecture of statesmanship. If leadership were measured by the willingness to do what is necessary rather than what is convenient and popular, President Tinubu has shown, in his first tenure, a readiness to take the difficult steps that previous occupants of Aso Rock preferred to defer.

While his predecessors pandered to sentiments and popularity – things that affected their personalities directly rather than the necessary. Yet, American theologian and author, James Freeman Clarke, once said that “A politician thinks of the next election; a statesman thinks of the next generation.”

However, that courage unpopular in the moment but indispensable over time is why many of us believe President Tinubu is Nigeria’s best hope so far on the long road to national greatness.

There is nothing romantic about reform when reform requires short-term pain. Great leaders don’t necessarily take the people where they want to go to. Great leaders lead the people in the direction they OUGHT TO GO. Great leaders are not those who chase applause; they are those who incur it by making the brave, sometimes lonely decisions that set a country on a new, more sustainable course. President Tinubu has demonstrated this political DNA.

Faced with decades of fiscal sclerosis and policy distortions from subsidy -sapping leakages to an overvalued and segmented foreign exchange regime, his administration elected, plainly and firmly, to move Nigeria toward economic realism.

Consider the hard, headline-making moves: the removal of fuel subsidy, the unification and gradual liberalisation of the FX market, decisive changes at the apex bank, and a redesign of currency policies intended to reduce hoarding and leakages. Each choice sparked immediate pain, price shocks, public discontent, and real hardship for ordinary households. Yet each also struck at the structural rot that, for too long, insulated vested interests from responsibility and siphoned scarce public resources away from schools, hospitals and infrastructure.

It is crucial to be honest: no serious reformer expects instant gratitude. The payoff of these policies will not be measured within months. Reforms are generational; their harvest often ripens under successive administrations. But that is the very point of statesmanship.

By doing the hard lifting now, by confronting subsidy culture, stabilising macroeconomic policy, and insisting on institutional discipline, President Tinubu is laying foundations upon which future leaders can build durable prosperity.

Beyond policy items, Tinubu’s appointments show intent. The selection of seasoned technocrats to key economic offices signalled a preference for competence over cronyism. The decision to reconfigure the Central Bank and restore clarity of purpose to monetary policy was politically fraught, but necessary to rebuild market confidence. These moves underline a central truth: nation-building requires both political courage and managerial competence.

Politically, Tinubu stands among Nigeria’s most consummate practitioners of the rough-and-tumble of our democracy. His life in public service has been a long apprenticeship in coalition-building, strategy and the hard negotiations that keep a diverse polity together. That mastery is not an end in itself but an instrument for delivering policy. The same political savviness that built coalitions across regions, faiths and ethnicities is now being deployed to protect reforms that powerful interests would prefer to derail.

Critics will, rightly, hold him to account. No leader is above scrutiny. Policies must be refined, social safety nets must be strengthened, and ordinary Nigerians hurt by price adjustments must be supported with targeted interventions.
A compassionate state ensures that reform does not become cruelty. Yet it is possible, indeed necessary, to demand that compassion be married to discipline. That balance is what a maturing democracy must learn.

History remembers architects, not merely rhetoric. It remembers the leaders, who reshaped broken systems and expected the applause of history, not the applause of the moment. By taking the politically risky steps that many predecessors were unwilling or unable to take, President Tinubu has positioned Nigeria on a firmer trajectory of sustainable prosperity a d economic growth. If there is patience among citizens, if institutions are strengthened and if a culture of accountability deepens, the dividends of these early reforms will be real and lasting.

On this birthday, it is fitting to acknowledge the courage of a leader who has chosen hard work over easy popularity. Let us celebrate the step forward while continuing to ask for improvements where they are needed. Let future administrations inherit not ad hoc fixes, but sound institutions and an economy more attuned to reality. The truth is plain: Tinubu has done much of the heavy lifting perhaps without immediate reward but he has also, in ways that matter, given Nigeria a new lease on the future that the pages of history will be kind to him.

Happy birthday to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. May the nation grant him the continuity to consolidate reforms, and may our collective will be equal to the task of turning policy into prosperity for all.

. Ndubuisi lives and works in Abuja and writes from ndubuisi.nwigwe@gmail.com