President-elect Bola Tinubu has announced his readiness to assume power on May 29 this year.

Welcomed by a jubilant crowd of supporters on Monday in Abuja, Mr Tinubu, who had been away for more than a month. Mr Tinubu said he returned strong and ready to work.

“I am ready for the task ahead. I have rested; I am refreshed, and I am ready for the task ahead. Forget about what the rumour mill may have told you. I’m strong; very strong,” Mr Tinubu said in a statement by his media aide Tunde Rahman on Monday.

The president-elect left Nigeria on March 21 for a vacation which many believed was a cover to receive intensive medical treatment for an undisclosed ailment he is battling. Mr Tinubu has always denied being sick and unfit to be president.

On his plans for the country, he said he had been consulting and planning to put together a strong team so he could hit the ground running once he assumed office on May 29.

Mr Tinubu returned to Nigeria aboard his private jet, accompanied by his wife, Oluremi and son, Seyi.

A mammoth crowd of enthusiastic associates and supporters received Mr Tinubu at the Presidential Wing of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.

Vice-President-elect Kashim Shettima, House of Representatives speaker Femi Gbajabiamila and Governor Simon Lalong were among the dignitaries who welcomed Mr Tinubu at the airport. Others were Governor Abubakar Sani-Bello, ex-Governor Ali Modu Sheriff, and former EFCC chairman Nuhu Ribadu.

Also at the airport were the deputy national chairman (North) of APC, Abubakar Kyari and his counterpart in the South, Emma Enekwu, APC national woman leader, Betta Edu, Bayo Onanuga, spokesman for the defunct APC Presidential Campaign Council (PCC), Barau Jibril, Adeola Yayi, Opeyemi Bamidele, Dayo Adeyeye, Sabi Abdullahi, Adelere Oriolowo, and secretary of the dissolved PCC, James Faleke.

(NAN)