When Mr. Mukhail Adetokunbo Abiru (“Tokunbo Abiru”) accepted his nomination as the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the Lagos East senatorial bye-election, which takes place on October 31, 2020, he reminded everyone of how competent and over-prepared he is to serve his nation at the highest level of governance.
Abiru’s experience in the public and private sectors are stellar and admirable all at once. Politicians hardly arrive at the scene with a resume this deep, intimidating, rich, and awe-inspiring.
To paraphrase the great novelist Chinua Achebe, Abiru has arrived at the political firmament at this time, fully made.
“With great honour and humility, I accept this nomination as the APC candidate for Lagos East Senatorial bye-election,” Abiru said with a confident, broad smile on Monday, September 7, 2020.
It was the kind of confident, broad smile you would expect from someone who is over-prepared for the job…from someone who knows he’s got a lot more to offer his people.
“At this point, let me assure our leaders and members that I will never betray the trust they have reposed in me….Dear leaders, with due respect, I need to point out at this stage that I am a natural progressive.
“I was born into a family of progressives. I have personally supported our great party as a card-carrying member for many years and I have embraced progressive politics, supported progressive causes, and voted for progressive parties all my life,” he said to more applause from the room.
“I am coming to this race fresh from successfully executing the mandate of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to rescue the troubled Skye Bank and midwife the transformed Polaris Bank.
“I pledge to bring the same character, trustworthiness, integrity, commitment, and diligence to bear in this new role,” he added in that crisp, clear baritone drawl that makes you immediately sit up and take notice.
Abiru has clearly been there and done that. He’s cut out for governance and public office. His years in the private sector have prepared him for this moment.
In public and private sector careers spanning well over three decades, Abiru has been an economist, chartered accountant, banker, commissioner for finance, a senior banker and CEO–all without breaking a sweat and still willing to give more.
Born on March 25, 1964, Abiru served as the Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Polaris Bank Limited until his resignation on August 24, 2020, to contest the Lagos East senatorial bye-election on the platform of the APC.
Abiru was an Executive Director at First Bank Nigeria Ltd from 2013 to 2016, and served as the Honourable Commissioner of Finance, Lagos State, from 2011 to 2013 under the leadership of then Lagos Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola.
In July of 2016, the CBN appointed Abiru as Group Managing Director to rescue Skye Bank. Abiru’s successful completion of that task gave birth to today’s Polaris Bank Limited.
Abiru has served on the boards of Airtel Mobile Networks Limited; FBN Capital Limited (now FBN Quest Merchant Bank Limited); FBN Bank Sierra Leone Limited; and Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc (NIBSS).
He holds a B.Sc. Economics from Lagos State University. He is an alumnus of Harvard Business School and Lagos Business School (Executive Education Programmes).
Abiru is also a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (FCA) and an Honorary Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (FCIB).
Abiru has also outlined a clear vision if given the opportunity to serve the people of Epe, Ibeju-Lekki, Ikorodu, Kosofe and Somolu in the senate.
He is keen on attracting further infrastructure and economic development to his constituency, he says, with that confidence and can-do spirit that has earned him many friends in boardrooms and in government circles.
The kind of confidence that comes from getting the job done across all spheres and emerging squeaky clean and unscathed. He will also be a team player while getting the job done, he has promised.
“My total focus will be on the welfare of my constituents in Lagos East Senatorial District and Lagos State in general. I will use the position of the senator and my energy and resources to further their well-being, welfare, prosperity, empowerment and security.
“I will be loyal to our party, our great leaders and the members of the party who have unanimously and overwhelmingly entrusted me with their mandate and humbled me with their confidence and mandate.
“I will join hands with my senior distinguished colleagues in the Senate, Senator Oluremi Tinubu and Senator Olamilekan Adeola ‘aka” Yayi and the Honourable Members of the House of Representatives from the state led by my dear brother, Right Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, to further efforts to secure a Special Status for Lagos State in view of its role as Nigeria’s commercial, financial, industrial, media and entertainment capital,” Abiru says.
The banker who is now into active politics talks about accelerating broadband coverage, consensus building and economic empowerment for his people with a passion so visceral and infectious; and leaves you without a shred of doubt. His eagerness to serve and change lives is palpable.
As Nigeria’s creative, economic and social hub, Lagos has always been blessed with some of the smartest public officers in the land. Adding the tested and trusted Abiru to that list of stellar Lagos representatives in the political sphere will be massive for the nation, for the state and for the good people of Lagos East.
Like one party chieftain told this writer moments before this piece was penned, “getting Abiru to the Senate is one opportunity Lagos cannot afford to miss at this time. He’s the very definition of competent and charismatic.”
When voters from Lagos East constituency troop to polling units to vote for Tokunbo Abiru on October 31, 2020, they will be doing the state and the nation at large a huge service. None of Abiru’s opponents can hold a candle to him, and they know it.
News24Extra
