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By Okwe Obi, Abuja
Ahead of the general elections, the Director General of the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC), Zahrah Mustapha Audu, has called on Nigerians to scrutinise the biography, and credentials of President Bola Tinubu wherever necessary.
In a statement issued yesterday, Audu cautioned Nigerians against giving in to two “intellectually weak temptations.” The first, she explains, is the belief that supporting President Tinubu requires pretending every controversy surrounding him is fabricated or irrelevant. The second is the assumption that finding something disputed in a politician’s past automatically invalidates their subsequent accomplishments. Neither approach, she argues, is worthy of a healthy democracy.
“President Tinubu’s biography should be scrutinised, his government should be criticised where evidence warrants, and his achievements should be subjected to precisely the same evidentiary standards and commendation,” Audu stated.
She urged critics to look beyond academic credentials and focus on political achievements. She drew parallels between Tinubu and historic figures like Nelson Mandela of South Africa and Jerry Rawlings of Ghana, noting that history rarely requires consequential leaders to possess spotless biographies.
“He helped establish Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing of the African National Congress, received military training abroad, and was convicted of sabotage at the Rivonia Trial before serving 27 years in prison. None of this diminishes Mandela, nor should it be concealed. His greatness becomes clearer when the full story is told—the prisoner became a negotiator, and the revolutionary became a constitutional president,” she stated.
