How Tinubu made his money – Dele Alake

Dele Alake, director of strategic communication in the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential campaign council, has said his principal became wealthy trading in stocks of blue chip companies.

Tinubu, who is the standard-bearer of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), faces accusation of amassing wealth believed to be public funds. He however denies it.

Speaking on Channels Television interview, Alake said Tinubu was not a pauper before joining partisan politics 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.” 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.”

Tinubu had worked with American oil giant Mobil before quitting to join politics.