President Bola Tinubu painted his life\u2019s trajectory in Paris, France on Friday.<\/p>\n
According to him, he feels fulfilled having moved from being a night guard, security man, doorman in America to Nigeria\u2019s Presidency.<\/p>\n
He said having gone through the whole gamut of life\u2019s stages, he is excited that he has achieved his aim \u2013 to lead the country into prosperity and greatness and also change it.<\/p>\n
Speaking at a meeting of Nigerian community in Paris, France, Tinubu said, \u201cI have been in America, in the UK, I have been a night guard, security, a door man in America. But I have achieved my aim.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
Tinubu is in France for a two-day financing climate pact summit.<\/p>\n
On the suspension and questioning of the Central Bank of Nigeria\u2019s Governor, Godwin Emefiele, by the DSS, the President said the country\u2019s financial system had been in bad shape before he took the reins on May 29, 2023.<\/p>\n
Tinubu said: \u201cThen the financial system was rotten. Few people making business with our money.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then you yourself, you stopped sending money home (Nigerians in Diaspora) to our poor parents. Several windows that are gone now, are gone.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe man is in the hands of authorities, something is being done about that, they will sort themselves out.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have security challenges in the country. Maybe that is how they are fuelling insecurity; we have to look at everything. We won\u2019t change the financial system, it will work for you.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
On his emergence as President following his victory in the February 25 polls, Tinubu said:\u201cI thank you. Whether you voted for me, or you didn\u2019t vote for me, campaigned for me, or you didn\u2019t campaign for me, I am your president.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy the grace of God, I have to work on your behalf and make Nigeria a turning point for prosperity. So your president is here. I dance for it and I have to continue to be prepared for it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe challenges are enormous but do we have hope? Yes, with perseverance, determination and persistency we can achieve whatever we desire.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
Commenting on his preparedness for the job as president, Tinubu also told his audience: \u201cIt is clear to me, I know the road and I have been through what many of you have been through outside the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo all of you our hope is reward. To all of you, the courage is here. And the promise of a better future is a must for us. I am here on a dual carriageway. What to do and or do I respond to the new question of environmental challenges?<\/p>\n
\u201cHow do I present my case for Nigeria whose dependency of fossil fuel is being challenged?<\/p>\n
\u201cI have transportation challenges, electricity challenges, infrastructural challenges just to name a few. And I have a giant elephant (fuel subsidy) in the house. I let it out without bringing the house down. We are focused.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cNigeria belongs to all of us. Our diversity is an asset if we know how to use it for our prosperity. Born of the same father, in the same house except living in different rooms. We must promote unity, stability and economic justice for every one of us.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaking just a few smugglers rich. Some countries were `bleaching\u2019 us. Courage was missing. Sometimes I became an advocate of it. Remove this thing but God gave me the opportunity when I danced around, strategise with my team, and we won the Presidency.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
Recounting his mood when he was declared winner by the country\u2019s electoral umpire (INEC), President Tinubu recalled that he was overjoyed and almost had feverish excitement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe day I was declared winner I fell almost sick with joy. The few friends visited me rejoicing, so I asked the question you asked me to bring this trophy, this victory what do you do with it?<\/p>\n
\u201cI brought it. I won. We must achieve with it. We must change Nigeria with it.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
On his inauguration speech, Tinubu said when he and his team were brainstorming on the address, they failed to include the issue of petrol subsidy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen Wale Edun and co, we started debating, putting my speech together without the question of subsidy. I got to the podium, I was possessed with courage and I said subsidy is gone.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey thought it was a joke of the century until I called NNPC. We are tired of feeding smugglers, making few people rich and subsidising the next door neighbour.<\/p>\n
\u201cI met with the President of Benin Republic, everybody is equal now, we are friends. We are conjoined twins joined by the hips, how we will separate each other is with this fuel subsidy. Let us see whether we will survive or not but we are going to survive you,\u2019\u2019 the president assured.<\/p>\n
On the initial reaction and plan by some people including the organised labour to protest, Tinubu also said: \u201cAre you part of the jeun jeun? Do you want money increase in palliative, transportation? What are you protesting about? Are you sharing part of the subsidy?<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you protest I will join you and protest against it. And they stopped. No protest. Palliatives we will get but we have to save the money in order to embark on palliatives.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
Tinubu also recalled how himself and his team led by Mr Wale Edun, the then Commissioner for Finance and Budget in his administration as Lagos State Governor (1999-2007) raised the inherited monthly internally generated revenue of only N600 million to about N50 billion.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is over N50 billion every month now and Lagos is on auto pilot and anybody intelligent enough can navigate it.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President Bola Tinubu painted his life\u2019s trajectory in Paris, France on Friday. According to him, he feels fulfilled having moved from being a night guard, security man, doorman in America to Nigeria\u2019s Presidency. He said having gone through the whole gamut of life\u2019s stages, he is excited that he has achieved his aim \u2013 to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2406,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2479"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2479\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2480,"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2479\/revisions\/2480"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}