How Tinubu became rich before venturing into politics – Dele Alake

Dele Alake, director of strategic communication in the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential campaign council, says Bola Tinubu, the party’s flagbearer, was wealthy before he ventured into politics.

Speaking on Sunday during an interview on Channels Television, Alake said Tinubu made his money from buying stocks in blue chip companies.

Ahead of the 2023 elections, the source of Tinubu’s wealth has again come under scrutiny.

Commenting on the matter, Alake said the former Lagos governor was not a “pauper” before he become a senator in 1992.

“I knew him to have been spending money ever before he got to office. In 1991, he was going into politics, he contested a senatorial election — Lagos west — and he won,” he said.

“Most Nigerians know that contesting elections in Nigeria is not a child’s play. Paupers don’t contest elections. How much more a senatorial election?

“He must be a man of some means. In fact, before then, he had been contributing to political organisations and causes before he took up the gauntlet and went into the senate.

“He polled the highest number of votes nationwide in that senatorial election of that year and became a senator in 1992.

“Fast forward to 1993, we started the June 12, he was in the Yar’Adua’s caucus — the Peoples Font — within SDP at that time. He was also funding. He was not a pauper.”

Alake said those questioning Tinubu’s source of wealth are expressing the “hatred” they have for the former Lagos governor.

“What I know is that right from his days in the corporate world, he has been trading in stocks even in foreign currencies,” he added.

“He has been buying stocks, bonds and all of that. I’m not a finance person. I’m not going to be interested in the nitty-gritty of it all.

“But I know he has been trading in stocks. He was buying stocks of blue chip companies and all of that. He was making money and spending money. He has been doing all of these years before he got to office.

“Why people are querying his source of wealth is because he had been a successful governor of Lagos and a successful politician even after office.

“He is about the only one of the class of 1999 who is at that enviable height, politically. He is bound to attract all of these negative comments.”