Bola Tinubu

Bola Ahmed Tinubu, born in 1952, is a Nigerian politician and businessman who assumed office as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on 29 May 2023, succeeding Muhammadu Buhari. He is the standard-bearer of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the ruling party he helped found in 2013 through a merger of opposition parties that ended the long dominance of the People's Democratic Party.

Tinubu's political base is Lagos, where he served as Governor of Lagos State from 1999 to 2007 under the Alliance for Democracy. As governor, he is widely credited with overhauling the state's internal revenue system and grooming a generation of southwestern Nigerian politicians, earning him the informal title of "Jagaban" and the reputation of a political godfather. Before electoral politics, he worked as an accountant for firms including Mobil Oil Nigeria and was active in the pro-democracy National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) during the Sani Abacha military era, spending years in exile.

He won the 25 February 2023 presidential election with roughly 37% of the vote in a three-way race against Atiku Abubakar (PDP) and Peter Obi (Labour Party). The result was contested at the Presidential Election Petition Court and the Supreme Court of Nigeria, both of which upheld his victory in 2023.

His administration's early agenda was marked by two sweeping economic decisions announced in his inaugural address: the removal of the petrol subsidy and the unification of Nigeria's multiple exchange rates, allowing the naira to float. Both measures were welcomed by the IMF and World Bank but triggered sharp inflation and cost-of-living protests through 2024. In foreign policy, Tinubu chaired the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) from July 2023, leading the bloc's response to the July 2023 coup in Niger and the subsequent withdrawal of Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso from ECOWAS in 2024.