When Lee Kuan Yew assumed leadership of Singapore in 1959, the nation was on the brink. Corruption was rampant, infrastructure dilapidated, education elitist, and healthcare grossly inadequate. The city-state had no natural resources. Squalid slums, racial tension, high unemployment, and a fragile entrepôt economy painted a bleak future.Yet Yew was resolute. He enforced a zero-tolerance policy on corruption, modernized infrastructure, reformed education around meritocracy, and built a healthcare system admired worldwide. He faced fierce opposition—from entrenched elites, labor unions, and segments of the press. Some called him draconian and dictatorial for his swift, unilateral reforms. Others mocked his vision. Even some close allies were investigated for graft. But he stayed the course. Today, Singapore is a global financial powerhouse—clean, efficient, and among the least corrupt nations on earth.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is walking a similar path. His reforms—fuel subsidy removal, currency floatation, student loan schemes, infrastructure expansion, and oil sector overhaul—are bold, painful, and necessary. Critics abound. Some call him insensitive, others question his motives—even as they know he inherited a broken economy. Yet, like Yew, Tinubu is confronting decades of decay with strategic clarity and political will.This playbook of resistance is not new. Franklin D. Roosevelt was vilified for the New Deal. Deng Xiaoping faced internal purges before opening China’s economy. Both are now hailed as architects of national renewal.What does this teach us? That true leadership is not applause-driven. It is vision-led, courage-fueled, and history-validated. The media may amplify dissent—as it did in Yew’s early years—but time separates noise from legacy. Critics may ask, even as roads are being fixed nationwide, “Why build new ones when old ones still need repair?” Or, “Why borrow if the economy is improving?” They forget: he’s not borrowing to pay salaries, but to bridge the deficits he inherited—in infrastructure, education, and national capacity.Let us not forget: the fiercest storms often precede the clearest skies. Tinubu knows that enduring opposition is often the companion of necessary transformation.
By Olabode Opeseitan
