Ahead of May 29 swearing-in, former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, on Tuesday, paid a visit to the president-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, at the Defence House.
The development comes one week before the swearing-in ceremony of the president-elect.
A source in Tinubu’s camp confirmed Blair’s visit, saying he was in the country to have a ‘crucial diplomatic meeting’ with the two-term governor of Lagos State.
“I don’t have all the details yet. But I believe it has to do with fostering a bilateral relationship between Nigeria and the United Kingdom. I hope you are aware that the US Secretary also called Asiwaju last week,” he said.
In attendance at the meeting were Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila; and Vice President-elect, Kashim Shettima.
It would be recalled that the United States Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, spoke with Tinubu on the phone on Tuesday and emphasised his continued commitment to further strengthening the US-Nigeria relationship with the incoming administration.
During their conversation, Tinubu promised to hit the ground running and unify the country upon his assumption of office on May 29. He also pledged to ensure positive relations with the United States.
The President-elect said that among his immediate priorities would be to deliver institutional reforms and development programmes to deepen our democratic institutions and bring help to poor and vulnerable Nigerians.
He also expressed his determination to strengthen Nigeria’s democracy and faithfully serve the people as their president.
During the talks that lasted about 20 minutes, Tinubu spoke about his eventful sojourn in America in the 1970s, where he graduated with honours as an accountant in 1979.
As of the time of filing this story, no official statement has been released by the media handler of the president-elect on the agenda of the meeting.
Apple’s Bite reports that Blair served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He served as Leader of the Opposition from 1994 to 1997, and had various shadow cabinet posts from 1987 to 1994. Blair was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007. He is the second longest serving prime minister in modern history after Margaret Thatcher, and is the longest serving Labour politician to have held the office.
Blair attended the independent school Fettes College, studied law at St John’s College, Oxford, and later qualified as a barrister. He became involved in the Labour Party and was elected to the House of Commons in 1983 for the Sedgefield constituency in County Durham.
As a backbencher, Blair supported moving the party to the political centre of British politics. He was appointed to Neil Kinnock‘s shadow cabinet in 1988 and was appointed Shadow Home Secretary by John Smith in 1992. Following the Smith’s death in 1994, Blair won the leadership election to succeed him. As leader, Blair began a historic rebranding of the party, which became known as “New Labour“.
Blair became the youngest prime minister of the 20th century after winning the 1997 general election, Labour’s largest general election victory in history.
During his first term, Blair enacted constitutional reforms, and significantly increased public spending on healthcare and education, while also introducing controversial market-based reforms in these areas.
In addition, Blair saw the introduction of a minimum wage, tuition fees for higher education, constitutional reform such as devolution in Scotland and Wales, an extensive expansion of LGBT rights, and significant progress in the Northern Ireland peace process with the passing of the landmark Good Friday Agreement. On foreign policy, Blair oversaw British interventions in Kosovo in 1999 and Sierra Leone in 2000, which were generally perceived as successful.
Blair was re-elected in a second landslide in 2001. Three months into his second term, Blair’s premiership was shaped by the September 11 terrorist attacks, resulting in the start of the war on terror. Blair supported the foreign policy of the George W. Bush administration by ensuring that the British Armed Forces participated in the War in Afghanistan, to overthrow the Taliban, destroy al-Qaeda, and capture Osama bin Laden.
In 2003, Blair supported the invasion of Iraq and had the British Armed Forces participate in the Iraq War, claiming that Saddam Hussein‘s regime possessed weapons of mass destruction (WMDs); no WMDs were ever found in Iraq.
Blair was re-elected for a third term in 2005, in part thanks to the UK’s strong economic performance, but with a substantially reduced majority, in part thanks to the UK’s involvement in the Iraq War.
Blair pushed for more systemic public sector reform during his third term and brokered a settlement to restore powersharing to Northern Ireland. The Afghanistan and Iraq wars continued, and in 2006, Blair announced he would resign within a year.
He resigned the party leadership on 24 June 2007 and as prime minister on 27 June 2007, and was succeeded by Gordon Brown, his chancellor.
After leaving office, Blair gave up his seat and was appointed Special Envoy of the Quartet on the Middle East, a diplomatic post which he held until 2015.
He has been the executive chairman of the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change since 2016, and has made occasional political interventions. He was knighted by Elizabeth II in 2022.
At various points in his premiership, Blair was among both the most popular and most unpopular politicians in UK history.
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Madukwe B. Nwabuisi is an accomplished journalist renown for his fearless reporting style and extensive expertise in the field. He is an investigative journalist, who has established himself as a kamikaze reporter.
