..His inspiring path to grace and acclaim
There is no man in Lagos East quite like Tokunbo Abiru. He is the man to watch. He is a shrewd, brilliant banker cum economist, who has never fallen off a moral cliff – despite the lure of the sweet per cents.
Contemporary politics requires a man of his reckoning. Political is far too precious and fundamental to be left to the wiles and exploits of villainous characters hence Abiru believes that the doctrine of altruism and love must be preached as counteraction to the doctrine of hate and greed that has overtime become the norm in political circuits. Virtues, according to him, should be in the popular estimate, the rule guiding human conduct in business, social and political circuits rather than the exception.
“A man is nothing without his virtues”, he argues. Thus he endeavours to do good. But his deeds are done not as an apology or extenuation of his fortune and citizenship of the world. While many a rich man propagate virtues as penances for the inactions of the world’s privileged divide, Abiru imbibes and perpetuates the culture of goodness not out of a frantic zeal to apologize or expiate perceived inhumanities of his rich, privileged divide, he does good because it is an intrinsic part of his manliness.
At a time when it is generally believed that one has to be a lowbrow, an incorrigible liar and a bit of a murderer, to be a politician, Abiru ventures into politics to improve lives yet unwilling to see people sacrificed and slaughtered for the sake of his ambition. Pundits argue that if gifted with power, he would never connive with criminal elements among the political class, to protect the powerful while short-changing the populace and leaving them behind.
He is the true embodiment of the idea that people may forget what you said, people may forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. Abiru always makes sure people feel their best when he is around.
A banker par excellence, Abiru made a shocking disclosure to the world at the twilight of his banking career. As he prepared to retire from the banking industry, he announced his decision to join party politics.
No one saw that coming but it was hardly the strangest experience or proclamation, the idea of going into public service was not entirely new to the Abirus. According to the graduate of Economics, his family has always been concerned about the welfare of the people.
People talk about how he improved the fortunes of 8, 000 people in his Ikorodu community at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, although it was a family contribution. Abiru led his wife, children, and a lot of kindred spirits outside his immediate family to contribute to a charity established to provide palliatives to vulnerable communities in the heat of the pandemic.
Since his emergence as the preferred candidate to represent the Lagos East senatorial district in the at the upcoming by-election, Lagosians are in jubilation mood.
Asides being a member of the foremost Oriwu club in Ikorodu, his father established the first club in the community known as The Exclusives, his wife is a manufacturer who deals in furniture and produces it at a factory on Ibeshe road.
With an impressive banking career experience, and now a shot at the Senate, many are wont to assume that Abiru’s life has always been very rosy but he argued otherwise, stressing that he had paid his dues in his slow, steady ascension to grace and entrepreneurial acclaim.
He has spent close to three decades in the banking sector, starting as one of the second batch of employees that started the new generation bank, Guaranty Trust Bank, in 1991. He acquired his first banking experience during his 10-year tenure in the bank.
He later moved to National Bank, where he spent three months before proceeding to spend six months at the First Atlantic Bank. Both banks are now defunct.
Abiru joined First Bank of Nigeria in 2002, and, there, he rose to become the deputy general manager. In 2011, he ventured into politics. Under the Babatunde Raji Fashola administration in Lagos State, Abiru served as the commissioner for finance. But it was just a two-year stint as he resigned from the post to take on a coveted leadership of First Bank in 2013. He was offered the executive director role which he occupied until he left the bank in 2016.
His next mission was to rebuild the collapsing status of Skye Bank now known as Polaris Bank Limited. He was appointed by the Central Bank of Nigeria for that mission. Under his leadership as the group managing director, Abiru steered the bank into relevance and increased its profitability.
Not a few people have commended his diligence, sterling service and rise through the ranks of the new generation banks till he joined the oldest bank in the country.
So far, he has led by example promoting honesty, clear values and compassion – traits of a true leader.
Abiru’s family values can be traced to his late father, Mudashiru who was a respected lawyer, jurist, and was a senator in the Second Republic.
