The Presidency on Sunday said President Bola Tinubu is prepared for the nation’s highest office and does not belong in the category of accidental leaders.
“He (Tinubu) is not an accidental leader; he is doing his best to ensure that we have a turnaround in this country,” Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Mr. Bayo Onanuga, stated in a phone interview with Vanguard Sunday night.
Onanuga was responding to comments by the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Matthew Kukah, who said many of Nigeria’s leaders, including President Tinubu, were accidental leaders, who assumed power without adequate preparation in a rapidly evolving world.
“Does he look like one at all?” Onanuga queried. “The man (Tinubu) is not an accidental leader; he was prepared for this office. He even said that he prepared for it and that he is doing his best to ensure that this country is lifted higher than he met it; he is doing his best.
“Because he prepared himself for the office, he is doing a lot of reform, touching every area and trying to make sure that this country is being turn-around.”
The presidential spokesman argued that Tinubu had shown a reformer’s attitude and, saying “reforms are not done in quick fixes; it takes time for you to turn things around, and he is doing it.”
“He is doing reforms, and he is the first to acknowledge that people will be affected, and he is doing everything possible to ensure that those who are affected are also helped so that they will not be left behind.
“He is reforming a lot of things in Nigeria, you are talking about taxation, you are talking about the oil sector, so many reforms the man is carrying out,” Onanuga insisted.
Kukah had categorised Tinubu among Nigeria’s accidental leaders on Sunday while delivering a keynote address at the inauguration of Start-Rite School’s new building and the 4th Amaka Ndoma-Egba Memorial Lecture in Abuja.
The event commemorated the late school founder, Amaka Ndoma-Egba, wife of former Senate Leader Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba, who tragically passed away in an auto accident in 2020.
