The National Publicity Secretary of the City Boy Movement, Princess Zahrah Mustapha Audu, has argued that President Bola Tinubu’s political career should be assessed in the broader context of historical leadership, rather than solely through controversies surrounding his biography.

Audu, in an article titled “President Bola Ahmed Tinubu Should Be Likened to Nelson Mandela of South Africa and Jerry Rawlings of Ghana,” said political leaders were often remembered by the consequences of their decisions and the institutions they built or transformed, even when aspects of their personal histories remained contested.

She cited former South African President Nelson Mandela and Ghana’s former leader Jerry John Rawlings as examples of African leaders whose political legacies encompassed controversial chapters as well as significant transformations.

According to her, Mandela’s history included his role in establishing Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing of the African National Congress, his conviction for sabotage at the Rivonia Trial and 27 years in prison before he emerged as a key figure in negotiations that ended apartheid and became South Africa’s first democratically elected president.

Audu who is the Director-General of the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) also pointed to Rawlings, whose political career moved from military intervention and revolutionary government to elected constitutional leadership, arguing that political identities and historical legacies could evolve over time.

She said the same principle should inform discussions about Tinubu, particularly the controversies surrounding his educational background and other aspects of his biography.
“His certificates may be questioned. His biography may be contested. But his political accomplishments cannot simply be written out of history,” she said.
On the controversy over Tinubu’s university education, Audu said.

Nigerians were entitled to scrutinise the credentials of public officials but should distinguish between allegations, disputed facts and established facts.

She noted that records from litigation in the United States in 2023 showed that Chicago State University confirmed that Tinubu attended the institution and graduated in 1979, while the dispute included questions concerning the provenance and authenticity of a particular diploma submitted to Nigerian electoral authorities.

Audu argued that whatever conclusions Nigerians reached about the controversy, it should not be used to erase Tinubu’s decades-long political career, which she described as evidence of political organisation, coalition-building and strategic capacity.

She recalled Tinubu’s political journey from the Senate during the aborted Third Republic and pro-democracy opposition politics to his election as Lagos State governor in 1999, re-election in 2003, subsequent role in opposition politics and participation in the formation of the All Progressives Congress before his emergence as President.

She said the trajectory demonstrated that his political influence had been built over decades rather than being the product of a single appointment or political favour.

“Power was not simply placed in his hands one morning,” she said, arguing that his career had been shaped by alliances, defeats, negotiations, institution-building, political calculations and electoral contests.

However, Audu acknowledged that Tinubu’s presidency should be subjected to a higher standard of scrutiny than his political rise, particularly because of the economic reforms undertaken since 2023.

She cited the removal of fuel subsidies and changes to the foreign-exchange regime as major decisions that had significant consequences for Nigerians, including increased living costs, while arguing that the reforms had also produced measurable macroeconomic changes.

The International Monetary Fund, in its June 2026 Article IV assessment, said reforms since 2023 had strengthened Nigeria’s macroeconomic stability and resilience, citing the ending of fuel subsidies and deficit monetisation, tighter monetary policy and exchange-rate liberalisation. At the same time, the IMF said conditions remained difficult for many Nigerians, with poverty and food insecurity continuing to pose major challenges.

The IMF reported that poverty had reached 63 per cent based on the national poverty line and estimated that 27 million Nigerians experienced food insecurity in the autumn of 2025. It also called for stronger social protection and continued reforms to ensure that economic stabilisation translated into inclusive growth.

Audu therefore argued that Tinubu’s record should neither be presented as flawless nor dismissed because of controversies surrounding his biography.
She cautioned against what she described as two extremes:

“hagiography,” which she said required supporters to ignore legitimate questions, and “reductionism,” which she said treated disputed or uncomfortable aspects of a politician’s biography as sufficient grounds for dismissing every subsequent accomplishment.

According to her, the comparison with Mandela and Rawlings was not intended to suggest that Tinubu and the two former African leaders had identical political histories or moral circumstances.

“President Tinubu is not Mandela, he is not Rawlings,” she said, stressing that their struggles, political systems, choices and historical circumstances were fundamentally different.

Rather, she argued that the comparison illustrated a broader principle about how history assesses consequential political figures.

“History rarely evaluates consequential political figures from a single chapter of their lives,” she said.

Audu maintained that Tinubu’s biography should continue to be scrutinised, just as his government should be criticised where evidence warranted criticism, but insisted that his political achievements should also be assessed on the basis of evidence.

She concluded that Nigeria’s assessment of Tinubu should encompass his political career, Lagos record, opposition-building, party organisation, electoral history and presidential policy record alongside the controversies surrounding his biography.

“History is not acquittal, history is accumulation,” she said.