- Safiu Kehinde
President Bola Tinubu has emerged as the 2024 This Day Newspaper’s Man of the Year.
The baton of the newspaper’s annual commemoration of the most outstanding personality of the year was passed to Tinubu.
In its frontpage publication, This Day claimed that it’s hard to find anyone to who could challenge Tinubu for the award.
The media outlet referenced to the Nigerian President’s daring economic reform policies and his firm stand on his decisions despite criticisms as criteria for his emergence as the man of the year.
Some of Tinubu’s controversial policies noted in the publication include, subsidy removal, Naira floating, Local Government autonomy, and Tax Reforms amongst others.
“The president, who ran his election campaign on the mantra of emi lo kan (it’s my turn to be president), has waltzed through some of the most troubling phases of his less than two years old presidency.
“From merely providing leadership to introducing very unpopular but promising reforms, Tinubu has proven to be that daring and gritty leader, who is driven more by convictions of his choices than pandering to sheer sentiments or the crowd.
“Although the removal of subsidy from petroleum had been settled by the previous administration of Muhammadu Buhari, and as a matter of legislation by the nineth National Assembly, owning and managing the consequences of that choice had been Tinubu’s hardest job since he took over as president.
“The floating of the naira to enable it find its level against other currencies, particularly against the dollar and by extension, engender the stability of the market, was an equally difficult decision that Tinubu had to make.
“No doubt, the economic situation the country found itself was desperate. There was no need postponing the evil day. Tough choices needed to be made. With courage, nevertheless, Tinubu dared the consequences and took a decision he reckoned was in the nation’s best interest.
“Tinubu knew from the get-go that fighting for the financial autonomy of the local government system was going to set him against the governors. This much he knew being a former governor. But after weighing his options, he knew better than to continue to perpetrate an aberration and he did that which was for the collective good.
“His controversial tax reform bills that are currently before the tenth National Assembly have almost set him up against a section of the country, which, according to some of its leaders, was designed against them, and made to favour a particular region in the federation.
“But at his recent presidential media chat, Tinubu made it clear: There’s no going back on the tax reform bills.
“Yet, conscious of the many challenges the country has since faced, particularly the hardship believed to have been occasioned by some of the economic decisions taken by his administration, the president has continued to introduce measures to cushion the effects and across all sectors.” The publication partly read.
Also referenced were Tinubu’s introduction of the Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) initiative and his role and contributions as the Chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) amongst others.