President Bola Ahmed Tinubu while addressing a group of Nigerians in India recalled his academic prowess as an undergraduate at the Chicago State University in the USA describing himself as a brilliant student.
The President, who is currently in India for the G-20 Summit, said this during an interactive session with Nigerian students studying in the South Asian country.
This is contained in a statement by Ajuri Ngelale, Special Adviser to the President, Media and Publicity, on Thursday, September 7, 2023.
At the meeting, attended by a large contingent of Nigerian students, Tinubu encouraged the attendees to imbibe the culture of dedication, honesty, determination, and a change of mindset to reach the top of their respective careers.
“Good education brought me here and I am happy to stand before you here as the President of Nigeria. I started small. I was a security guard. I was a tutor in school. I was a brilliant student. I joined Deloitte and was trained by one of the biggest accounting firms in the world, because of my education.
“When I joined them, I asked them, do you have branches in Nigeria and they said, ‘We have a lot of clients that will take you if you want to go home.’ That’s how I got to Exxon Mobil and was a very successful accountant, auditor-general, and treasurer until I joined politics with a can-do attitude.
“You can also do it; do not be despondent in any way. Nigeria is ready to accommodate all. It does not matter which part of Nigeria you are from,” the statement partly read.
He also called on Nigerians to harness the country’s rich diversity as a uniquely powerful tool for advancing prosperity and national development for the benefit of all citizens.
“We are here to present a new future to you. A future of a country that is so rich, endowed, and highly populated. Very dynamic, unique in its culture, tradition, and ethnicity. That is what will make our prosperity possible, if only we can make use of our diversity for prosperity,” the President said.
On why he ran for the highest office in the country, Tinubu told the gathering that despite the nation’s great human and natural resource wealth, the leadership and public sector management deficit in the country held Nigeria back from manifest destiny.
“We are not poor in knowledge. We are not poor in human resources. We are only poor in management and leadership, and that is why I ran for president, to help all of us mould the soul of our country in the right direction,” he added.
