Uzodimma Backs Tinubu’s Reforms, Compares President To Lee Kuan Yew
Imo State Governor and Chairman of the Progressive Governors’ Forum (PGF), Senator Hope Uzodimma, has strongly defended President Bola Tinubu’s economic reforms, drawing a direct parallel between the Nigerian leader and Singapore’s founding Prime Minister, Lee Kuan Yew.
The governor described Tinubu as a transformative figure willing to make tough decisions for long-term national prosperity.
Speaking at a state dinner in Owerri on Friday, marking the conclusion of a three-day Renewed Hope Ambassadors and Presidential Communications Team national media tour of federal and state projects, Uzodimma declared: “In President Bola Tinubu, we have another Lee Kuan Yew.”
He praised the president’s reforms as bold and necessary, positioning them as the foundation for a “new order” in Nigeria.
Lee Kuan Yew (1923–2015) is widely celebrated for transforming Singapore from a resource-poor British colony with high illiteracy and unemployment in the 1950s–60s into one of the world’s most prosperous nations.
His approach emphasized meritocracy, anti-corruption measures, infrastructure development, education reform, and pragmatic, sometimes authoritarian, governance that prioritized long-term results over short-term popularity.
Uzodimma invoked this legacy to frame Tinubu’s policies notably the removal of fuel subsidies shortly after his May 29, 2023 inauguration, the unification of exchange rates, and broader fiscal reforms as similarly decisive.
He argued that Tinubu assumed office fully prepared, understanding the structural challenges: unsustainable subsidies, multiple exchange rates, revenue leakages, and economic stagnation.
“The old order is gone and there is now a new order,” Uzodimma stated. He likened pre-reform Nigeria to the biblical Israelites in bondage in Egypt, suggesting that painful but necessary decisions were required to achieve liberation and progress.
While acknowledging short-term hardships for citizens, he pointed to rising Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) disbursements to states as evidence of early gains, enabling investments in infrastructure, healthcare, education, and technology.
In Imo State specifically, Uzodimma credited the Renewed Hope Agenda with unlocking development. He highlighted increased internally generated revenue (IGR), debt reduction, road construction, power projects, skills initiatives, and digitized land administration.
Projects inspected during the media tour included the Imo Digital City, a 2,000-bed Infectious Disease Centre, a Heart Transplant Centre, the University of Innovation, Science and Technology, and the expanded Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu International Convention Centre.
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