Seyi, the president’s son as de facto government official

Among the federal government delegation to Qatar for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s two days visit on March 1 and 2, 2024, Seyi Tinubu made the list. And in Qatar, Seyi was not just there for site seeing. He was in the crux of the business as evidenced in a video widely shared on social media showing President Tinubu introducing the Nigerian delegation to Qatari leader, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. Seyi was the first person on the row to be introduced.

 

As in Qatar, Seyi was also in Dubai last November as part of federal government delegation to Conference of the Parties (COP) on climate change.

 

On the domestic front, Seyi is said to be a power broker who has access to all the senior government officials working for his father. And with such access, he started joining the weekly Federal Executive Council meeting. But on November 1, 2023, his father, President Tinubu, banned him from joining the meeting.

 

Tinubu had said: “Last week I noticed the undue access of people sneaking in and out of this council, including my son, Seyi, sitting behind the cubicle there. That is not acceptable.”

 

 

Show of power

 

Seyi does not like being at the background of power. He loves the front row.

 

He moves with elite security guards as seen on August 12, 2023, when he joined other young people to celebrate the International Youth Day at the Jabi Lake Recreational Park in Abuja. Part of his security detail were drawn from the Special Boat Service (SBS), the special forces unit of the Nigerian Navy which are rarely deployed except in high risk environment.

 

 

Seyi also loves the luxury of power. On October 9, 2023, he flew the presidential jet just to watch a polo game in Kano.

 

Who is Seyi?

 

Seyi is the first son of President Tinubu and Bunmi Oshonaike, his biological mother. First Lady Remi Tinubu is not his mother.

 

 

Apart from being the first son of the president, Seyi is also a businessman. He is the CEO of Loatsad Promomedia, a digital outdoor advertising company based in Lagos.

 

The company controls the billboard at the Lekki toll gate. Recall that the light of that billboard was switched off on the night of October 20, 2020, which was the night of the shooting of #EndSARS protesters. That put Seyi in the news. But the company later explained that because of the curfew declared on that day, all their staff had to leave, hence the reason there was no light on the billboard.

 

 

Seyi  has a Bachelor’s degree in Business Management from the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario, Canada. It was after he completed his education that he returned to Nigeria and founded Loatsad Promomedia in 2012.

 

Seyi Tinubu is married to Layal Holm, a Lebanese-Nigerian lady. Her father is Lebanese while the mother is Igbo.

 

Layal and Seyi have two children together.