President Bola Ahmed Tinubu disclosed that in his sojourn in America, he did menial jobs like door guard,security man including driving taxi to fund his education.
This was the revealation as contained in a biography written by Mike Awoyinfa, one of Nigeria’s finest journalists.
The book titled ‘Tinubu, my life as gypsy cab driver in the US’
The stories of humble beginning of Tinubu are published on the back page of The Nation newspaper.
Tinubu said in the book that he worked as an unlicensed cab driver in Chicago at the mercy of security agents.
He stated how he incurred the wrath of a naval officer and got underserved slap of the said officer.
He narrated, “We got an unregistered used car commonly called Gypsy, which we ran as a taxi. We operated at the airport where we picked passengers, and not anywhere else, like the hotel because it was forbidden for unlicensed cab drivers to do so.
“We did that for a while to raise some money. Bolaji went to Tennessee, while I headed for Chicago.
“I was supposed to have started schooling in April. I deferred it till September in order to have more money. Immediately I got to Chicago, I went straight to Richard Daley College. It was very interesting.
“I was able to pay for my apartment and tuition fees at Chicago State University. I supplemented that by doing different menial jobs like door guard and security man.”
He spoke further on the encounter with the naval officer:
“As a cab driver, one experience I will never forget was when I over-charged a naval officer who was returning to the country. It was not intentional,”
“Apparently, I didn’t know the direction. There was no GPRS in those days to locate directions. So, he gave me the direction to his house in a Virginia suburb.
“I gave him the price and the man responded with a slap to my face. He said I should know the correct price to charge to the location he mentioned. He slapped me and gave me the money.”