Tinubu Speaks About Unpleasant Moments Of His Life

Tinubu has revealed how he travelled out of Nigeria -He also speaks about unpleasant moments of his life while he was working as a cab driver and a security guard

Tinubu assisted by his wife and the Osinbajos to cut his cake at the event Tinubu assisted by his wife and the Osinbajos to cut his cake at the event Bola Tinubu, one of the most respected politicians in Nigeria, has revealed some secret details of his personal life. The national leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in a special publication by TheNEWS magazine, detailed how he worked as a cab driver and a security guard. President Muhammadu Buhari alongside with other APC chieftains attended the 8th annual Bola Tinubu Colloquium in Abuja, who was celebrating his 64th birthday on March 29, 2016. Many Nigerians believe that former Lagos state was born right at the middle of a money-printing machine, but that is not true.Tinubu talks about his political career, legacy However, Tinubu had to work hard to become a great politician. He was once a cab driver and even a security guard. The politician narrated how he travelled out of the country: “I was lucky. Even though I was ambitious about travelling out of the country, particularly as my friends like Folabi Salami and Tokunbo Maxwell had just travelled to Germany, I would say that I was just lucky.
Others, like Nurudeen Olowopopo, of blessed memory, and Sola Popoola headed for the United States and it remained Tunde Badejo, Bolaji Agaba and myself. So, the three of us were determined that we must get out of Nigeria, too. “I went to Ikenne, with my late sister, for a big ceremony. We had gone to pick bottles of Coca-Cola from the cold room and wanted to quickly return to the St. Saviour’s Church, where my sister was. There was a sudden rain of bullets and had we not been rushing to the church to ensure that we didn’t miss what was going on there, I would have died. The young man that was standing with me was hit. He slumped and died.

President Buhari being received by Chief Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the International Conference Centre Abuja.

 “Based on the sad incident and how I had narrowly missed death, my family said to me: ‘This boy, you have always said that you wanted to travel out of the country, it is time to do so.’ So, my mother gathered some money, sold her trinkets to make up for the remaining part of my allowances and joined it with proceeds from the sale of the Volkswagen Beetle given to me by my uncle, the late Ganiyu Tinubu, who used to work at Simpson Street, Ebutte-Metta. He had a Beetle car he bought from a Canadian and had it converted into a convertible, which I used to drive. Nobody taught me how to drive. He asked that I sell it and add the proceeds to the money I needed for my trip. That was what I did.” “Bolaji Agaba and I left the same day for the United States, while Badejo left some months later. We got our visas through my family connections. Bolaji’s own had almost expired before we left. On our arrival in the US, we thought we would stay in New York. But Nurudeen Olowopopo said no and we put some money together for Bolaji’s ticket and we headed for Washington D.C. I stayed with the late Sola Popoola at Washington before we started finding our way. We were running out of funds then.

READ ALSO: Photos: Tinubu receives President Buhari in Lagos “

He helped us secure a one-room apartment in Alexandria, Virgina. We got an unregistered used car (they left the licence open) commonly called Gypsy, which we ran as a taxi. We operated at the airport, where we picked passengers, and not anywhere else, like the hotel because it was forbidden for unlicensed cab drivers to do so. We did that for a while to raise some money. We did, and Bolaji went to Tennessee, while I headed for Chicago.” He also spoke about the unpleasant moments that he had then: “One experience I will not forget was when I over-charged a naval officer, who was returning to the country. It was not intentional. Apparently, I didn’t know the direction; there was no GPRS in those days to locate directions. So, he gave me the direction to his house in a Virginia suburb. I gave him the price and the man responded with a slap to my face. He said I should know the correct fare to charge to the location he mentioned. He slapped me and gave me the money.

  Wife of the vice president, Dolapo Osinbajo, Tinubu and APC national chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun L-R: Wife of the vice president, Dolapo Osinbajo, Tinubu and APC national chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun “Another experience was when I took a guy whom I didn’t know was drunk. When I drove to his house, he pointed a gun at me instead of paying the fare. He took my leather jacket and said: ‘Get into your car and get lost.’ He did not pay. “Another interesting one was when I was taking the third accounting class and equally working as a security guard at a construction site. They were very serious with their kind of security. You just had to do that job. There were about six points with six clocks at the site, which the security man must wind every hour and with a dog in hand. So, there was never a chance of trying to catch a nap.