It was a stunning political comeback that saw Lula narrowly beat incumbent Jair Bolsonaro, a Trump acolyte, in the presidential elections in Brazil.

Lula’s humble address to his countrymen on Sunday galvanised the nation while Bolsonaro – despite congratulations sent to Lula for his victory from world leaders including US President Joe Biden, and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak – had up to this morning (November 1) yet to concede.

Our Today brings you some worthy info on the man who is again the President of Brazil.

1. Affectionately recognised as ‘Lula’, his name is Luiz Inbacio Lula da Silva.
2. He was born to farmers on October 27, 1945 in Caetes which is in the northeast of Brazil. He is 77.
3. He began his career as a metalworker and worked at Villares Metals S. A. In 1978 he was elected President of the Steel Workers Union and in 1980 founded the Workers’ Party.
4. He did not finish his schooling neither did he attend university
5. A machinery accident at work when he was just 17, saw him losing his little finger on his left hand.
6. He has been married three times. His first wife Lourdes, died of hepatitis in 1971 and his second wife died in 2017 after having a stroke. He married sociologist, Rosangela da Silva earlier this year.
7. He was first elected President in 2003 and then re-elected in 2006.
8. He is regarded as one of the most progressive political leaders in the Americas and leans more toward democratic socialism with an emphasis on social programmes
9. His notable achievements while in office was instituting social programmes that saw, reduced unemployment, alleviated poverty, addressed inequality, turned the tide of illiteracy. He presided over commodities boom that bolstered the economy during the early years of his presidency.
10. He was an advocate of biofuels particularly ethanol. He championed a cane industry and not specifically a sugar industry. “We have a huge territory, not only in Brazil, but in the South American countries and Africa which can easily produce oil seed for biodiesel, sugar cane for ethanol and food at the same time.”
11. He came to Jamaica on a state visit in 2007 on the invitation first of former Prime Ministers PJ Patterson and then Portia Simpson Miller.
12. On leaving office in 2011, he said: “If I failed it would be the workers’ class that would be failing; it would be this country’s poor who would be proving they did not have what it takes to rule.”
13. In 2017 he was convicted of charges of money laundering and corruption and sentenced to nine and a half years in prison. This was part of Operation Car Wash and he was also embroiled in the state energy company Petrobras scandal.
14. In April 2018, he spent 580 days in prison often visited by Rosangela who stood by him. In November 2019, the Supreme Federal Court ruled his incarceration was unlawful and he was released.
15. He is a supporter of the green economy and protecting the ecology of Brazil. He is vehemently opposed to the deforestation of the Amazon. On winning a third term, he announced: “We are going to fight for zero deforestation in the Amazon.”
16. Two famous quotes from Lula: (1) “If at the end of my mandate, all Brazilians have the possibility to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner, I will have fulfilled the mission of my life.” (2) “We’ve advanced in the construction of a true free-trade area across South America. What is needed now is less rhetoric and more action.”
17. On being elected for the third time as Brazil’s President this past Sunday, Lula said: “Brazil is my cause and fighting misery is the cause I will live for until the end of my life. Starting January 1, 2023, I will govern for 215 million Brazilians and not only for those who voted for me. There are not two Brasis. We are a single country, a single people and a great nation.”