Tinubu named among Time’s 100 most influential people of 2023

Bola Tinubu, the president-elect, has been named in Time Magazine’s list of 100 most influential people for 2023.

Time Magazine’s annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world accords recognition to people “for changing the world, regardless of the consequences of their actions”.

“Influence is hard to measure, and what we look for is people whose ideas, whose example, whose talent, whose discoveries transform the world we live in. Influence is less about the hard power of force than the soft power of ideas and example,” Richard Stengal, former editor of Times, was quoted to have said.

The list, released on Thursday, placed the individuals in five categories: Titans, pioneers, artists, leaders, and icons.

Tinubu, the winner of Nigeria’s presidential election, is named alongside Joe Biden, president of the US; Anthony Albanese, prime minister of Australia and a few others in the “leader” category.

The report described him as a “longtime political power broker” who seems “aware of his inheritance” in form of a “litany of crises in a fractured nation, including deep-rooted corruption, religious insurgencies, and shortages of cash, fuel, and power in a crumbling economy”.

The president-elect is expected to be sworn in on May 29.

Meanwhile, Okonjo-Iweala, the first woman and first African to lead the WTO, was included in the same list alongside Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, US vice-president; Xi Jinping, president of China, and Narendra Modi, prime minister of India, in the 2021 edition.