Sunday Babalola: Tinubu, Governors Should Alleviate Hardship of Nigerians

Engineer Sunday Adebayo Babalola was governorship aspirant in Kwara State during the 2023 elections. He is a retired Director of the now-defunct Department of Petroleum Resources, (DPR) and a former acting Managing Director of Belemaoil Nigeria Limited. In this interview with THISDAY, Babalola shares his opinion on the challenges confronting Nigeria, his state (Kwara) and proposes solutions

Inflation is galloping, with many Nigerians struggling for survival. There is hunger the land. What should the federal government under President Bola Ahmed and the state governors do to alleviate this suffering?

It is the constitutional responsibility of the government to ensure the welfare and security of the citizens. They are sitting in their offices and should have more facts than I have. So, the facts they have should be able to help them take the right position. But from my vintage position, as a citizen of Nigeria, and with what I have seen around, I think, they should implement policies and programmes that will alleviate the hardship many people are going through. Honestly, things are tough in this country right now. Efforts should be geared towards boosting the economy and improving productivity, employment generation and creating a good environment for businesses to thrive.

The government in addressing the economic challenges of the people should not start by giving people fish. That is not the solution. They should teach people how to fish. Palliative here and there, N5 billion promised to state governments, N2 billion released, bags of rice and the rest. Are they really effective strategies? How long will they eat the bags of rice? Are we going to continue giving them bags of rice? How will bags of rice solve the transportation problem? How do they solve payment of school fees?

The government should sit down and design very pragmatic programmes based on the facts before them. They have the Central Bank of Nigeria, and the Federal Ministry of Finance where I think there are professionals who can give good advice. They have the Ministry of National Planning. They have a lot of educated people including professors who could give sound advice. This was where the late Dr. Obafemi Awolowo was better than all of them because he used the people and asked them what do we do? This is what is on the ground, how do we do it? They had to sit down and do it.

I do not think giving palliatives and distributing money is the answer. I think they can create an environment where people can do business and where businesses can grow and create employment.

Successive governments claimed to have implemented programmes that should have alleviated poverty and transformed the national economy. So what happened?…

Since 1999 when this fourth republic started, many of the governments have failed the people, in my state, Kwara particularly. The money they expended is massive. They spent the money on things that did not benefit the citizens. There is no infrastructure, no good business environment, no good educational policies, in fact, in nothing. The government has failed. If the government had not failed the people, we would not be doing what we are doing again today.

What about infrastructure in your state? Hasn’t the government performed?

There is no infrastructure. The government has failed us in every way in my state since 1999.

But what Kwarans doing about it?

Everybody runs to the people in government in order for to get crumbs that would come to their table from the politicians instead of fighting the system. All they are doing is fighting for their belly, and fighting for what they can get in order for them to survive.

So, what should people do?

They should not vote on sentiments or party lines again. They should vote for competence. They should vote for those that can perform. They should not vote because they gave them money. They should look at what the candidates are telling them. When those politicians make promises that they would do this road and do that, ask them a simple question of how they will get the funds for the projects. Ask them intelligent questions, evaluate him or her and see whether they can deliver before you vote for him or her. As long as we keep voting on religious, ethnic or tribal lines, we will not get results. Citizens should also come out and challenge them if they are not working. You promised to do this, you are not doing it or so much money has come into the coffers of the government, what did you do with it? Citizens should know how much has come into the government’s coffers. They should not just fold their hands.

One of the things that kill us in Africa, especially in Nigeria, is the belief in destiny. We so much believe that it is their destiny to be there and we are not ready to challenge them even when they are doing wrong. Citizens should ask questions. They should challenge people in government. Citizens should fight for their rights. They read budgets every year, and nobody goes on to say this is what they read. Let us do a comparison of what they read and what they have achieved. If they have not achieved, why have they not achieved it? An analysis of whatever budget they read should be made first. Is this a good budget? Is this what we need?

In a situation where people feel that their votes do not count, the election is just a mere formality and they have a lack of confidence in the electoral system and the electoral body. What happens?

The lack of confidence in the electoral system is actually the fault of the people. Because their votes should count. They should stay with their votes and make sure they are counted and recorded accurately. The laws are there: You stay there, make sure you are counted and take your figure, and write it down. This is my figure and this is what they counted. The Electoral Act or guidelines did not say once you vote, go home. Electorate should stay with their votes, and make sure they are counted. When INEC officials compile the votes, the votes should be checked very well to ensure that the recorded figures tally with the actual votes. You do not need to go to another person’s side. If we all do that, things will be better. Why did the Option A4 work? It was because everybody stood there and was counted. It was not a secret ballot. But that was not what made it to work. You could still have counted people and reported something else. People stayed there for the result to be announced and they took the results home. There were no phones then. But Things worked and people jubilated. The people they are using to defraud the electoral system are also citizens of Nigeria. Why are they doing that? Because of what they will eat.

Worldwide, the things that people will eat always take precedence over the things that are right because they first consider their belly.

There are allegations that thugs and even security agencies were used to flush people out, including some party agents of the oppositions, What then should people do in a situation like this?

I am sure if there is resistance, it will not go their way. People who are carrying guns are human beings too. It will be a negotiation. Somebody should get the leadership and talk to them not to do that. That this is our country, if you get the wrong person, everybody will suffer it. In many places, security officials want to do the right thing. And if they have resistance from the people, for some that may want to err, they will say well, ‘we cannot shoot them.’ I am convinced that security officials are not just robots, obeying orders. They want to do the right thing. It is what a friend of mine called the principles of dilution. When you leave it for them because everybody is bad, then they continue to do whatever they want because they are bad. If you say every politician is bad, then they continue to do whatever they want because they are bad, but when you inject in them one good person, that good person may not be getting the desired result but he will be making some marks. Then another good person joins because he saw another good person. Before you know it, they will have a block that can speak and that can challenge and that can insist.

So, if we have a few good elected people in the legislature, it will start changing things. They will start questioning the people in the executive arm and gradually, it may not be immediate. The problem of the country today is the people. It is not all about the politicians. What we have in the country today, are many professional politicians. They have no other jobs. Once they are not in politics, they are a failure totally.

 Why are you still investing in the scholarships through Bayo and Bunmi Babalola Foundation, BBBF?

I thought about it. What am I doing this for? But when you look at it, the government at all levels have failed us. If the state government, sincerely, has been able to fulfil its obligations to its citizens, there will be no need for this. We would have channeled our resources and energies to something else. But we have to do this because there are a lot of indigent, good and brilliant students and pupils that have problems paying even for menial things such WAEC fees, NECO fees, and their final exams. So, my wife and I thought that we should help such students. There are brilliant students and pupils in lower schools too that probably will withdraw because government is not doing its part. We hear billions of naira that are rolling in but we do not see anything in the direction of education, or in the direction of infrastructure or creating a very good and enduring business environment. When you listen to the mass media, all you see are praises for the government, whereas there are things that should clearly be done by the government that are not being done even though we hear and read billions that are being expended.

It is very sad. How much does it take to do these things? Or to get all students and pupils going to school and give them conducive study environment? Unfortunately, nationwide, we have a very serious issue there. The politicians are not helping. They are just spending the money and travelling all over the world.

The followership is not helping too. When you look at it, they do not complain. They all succumb to the politicians and praise them just for the crumbs to fall from the politicians’ tables to them.

We started the scholarship in a small way just for our town, (Omu-Aran) alone. We then expanded it to the Local Government, (Irepodun) and we have now extended it to the Federal Constituency and now we are covering about 70-75% of the senatorial district. And we have been increasing it, we started with N2 million when money was money. We increased it to N10 million last year and for this year to N15 million. What that will cover depends on how much they will be giving to the senior, junior secondary school and the tertiary institutions. Things are very expensive now. The N15m is to be used directly for the scholarship. This excludes the expenditure and logistics for the organisations.

When Babalola Foundation was doing health outreach in Kwara, the state government started its own. Government should not be doing health outreach. It should make healthcare services available to everybody. The health outreach we are doing is because healthcare services are not accessible to people. The scholarship we are doing is because many people can’t afford to pay school fees, which is small to many people who are rich. But to the beneficiaries, it is big money. This is the reason we are doing the scholarship. I wish the government would do its part and we would not need or have a need to do this scholarship so that we can channel our resources to other pro-people or masses welfare concerns.

What about the general governance in Kwara State?

If education is poor or poorly done, you can imagine that it will have a ripple effect on every other thing. If you do not know how to do one thing, you do not know how to do many things. Governance is not good in Kwara. It is a big surprise that they are the ones now Chairman of Nigerian Governors Forum and Chairman of Speakers. I just laugh! It is very funny to me. Those people should not be raising their heads anywhere in the comity of human beings. Governance in the state is very poor. There is no reason even for us to debate it. Nothing good is happening!

So, what should Kwarans do?

They should vote for people who will provide good governance and deliver dividends of democracy to them or they live with it. It is unfortunate that individuals who are concerned about the hardship in the land and are denying themselves some necessities or comforts are being overburdened. Every day, they wake up or some people who are able to get their number one way or the other, it is always, ‘Give me money, loan me money, I want to start a business, give me money for my house rent, or for my children school fees,’ etc. It is just very sad. Just because somebody is trying to help the community or society, people now put every kind of pressure on them as if they are stealing money or getting money from anywhere or on the street.

They do not even how they struggle to make the money. For some of those concerned philanthropists, for every 100 text messages they get in a day, more than 70 are for financial solicitations. Many people have been turned to beggars and that is a sign that society is not working. The government is not working or delivering good governance and dividends of democracy. If the government was working, people would not be begging. Many of those people are not doing it intentionally. Who wants to be a beggar? I know there are people who will want to add their own to the one they will get from begging. But the larger African society would rather not beg. But many people are begging now because of the poverty in the society and decay in governance. However, people in government are enjoying it.

Disputes of elections go to the judiciary for adjudication but some of the judgements in recent times are adjudged to be controversial and against the wishes of the majority of people. How do you respond to this situation?

Justice is the fulcrum of a good and sane society. The need for the judiciary to be above board can never be over-emphasised. A society with a corrupt judiciary is heading for doom because when aggrieved citizens do not feel they will get justice from the judiciary, they may resort to jungle justice and anarchy will take over the society. Nobody prays for such. So, the judiciary should deliver justice.

Our judiciary must be independent, impartial god fearing and fearless. They must not allow corrupt politicians to tint them or pressure them to submission. I know people react differently to some judgements. I am not a lawyer but I think it is also important that a petitioner is challenging the result of an election, the person should get incontrovertible facts. Judges do not judge on conjecture or based on assumptions. They want to judge on the facts of the law and facts on the ground. If you do not have those two things, they will take any decision they want. That is not to say there are no corrupt judges. That will be there because we are human beings, you have the good, the bad and the ugly. But you have just to get your facts right. It is not an emotional fact. The people who are contesting the results of the election should get their facts straight, make it incontrovertible, and have sound reason and logic. Quite a good portion of the law is logic.