TRIBUTE TO AN ICON: Moshood Tijani Celebrates 80 Years Old  

Otunba Moshood Olatunde Tijani, the Managing Director of Tijaco and Co Limited, is 80 years old today Thursday 26th May 2022. It has been an action packed 80 years of meritorious service to Nigeria and humanity and for which the celebrant is very happy and grateful to Almighty Allah.

 

Fondly called Tijaco or give, he is a friend of the rich and the not so rich. A troubleshooter who strives for perfection at all times.

 

Otunba Tijani who is popularly referred to as Govy has a chequerred public-political career beginning in the early 60s when he secured an employment with the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) as a Tally Clerk where he made his mark and mastered the job of port and terminal operation. He proceeded to join the Customs Preventive Services (now Nigeria Customs Service) as a Preventive Officer.

 

Tijaco left an enviable footprint in the Customs having served in different parts of the country.

 

“As a civil servant, either in NPA or Customs, I shouldered big responsibilities and came up successful and respected by my colleagues and superiors. I never shied away from daunting assignments or responsibilities to deliver complex mega projects and be accountable for their success.

 

“This has shaped my decision-making skills and to which I ascribe my overall success as a man, a businessman and a public figure,” explained the octogenarian while revealing the character and philosophy that has governed his company Tijaco and Co Limited, a freight forwarding and shipping company, to success over the years.

 

In 1986, Chief Tijani and a few friends started a political movement with a mission to finding a pathway to a greater and a more developed Lagos State and Apapa Local Government in particular. Today, through this movement and the Moshood Tijani Foundation, a lot of successful young men and women in politics and business have made their marks and become very successful. “I feel so grateful to Almighty Allah that every successful person in this Golden Local Government Apapa passed through my foundation, I, the unbreakable Otunba Moshood Olatunde Tijani.”

 

Otunba Tijani observed that the future of Nigeria is very bright as Nigerian youths are more technically savvy than their parents, noting that as the world approaches the age of artificial intelligence, the parents have more to do in encouraging their wards to be technologically/IT inclined. “The younger generation needs to be more intentional in their parenting approach, they need to look back at the mistakes we as their parents made and try to avoid same.

 

“They are more technologically savvy than we are but they should not get carried away by the new era but focus on teaching culture, morals, values and raise emotionally intelligent children. A family with children raised with such values will make great leaders in the nation and the world at large,” offered Tijaco.

 

On the protracted crisis that has bogged down the Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Otunba Tijani said that power is transient and the people in power must be mindful of this.

 

“My honest advice is that no one has the monopoly of the association as it belongs to every stakeholder which offers a window of dream about a brighter tomorrow. Every elected officer in a position of authority should be strong enough to relinquish power after his or her two terms in office.”

 

Otunba Moshood Olatunde Tijani has played a pivotal role in ANLCA in the last twenty five years. As he marks his eighty years, we wish the tested freight forwarder, philanthropist and humanist good health, many more years ahead and Almighty Allah’s mercy.