The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is expected to conduct off-season elections in Kogi, Bayelsa, and Imo states on November 11. What is your advice to the electoral body concerning the forthcoming elections as many Nigerians believe that it performed poorly in the last general election?
The commission should as much as possible be very transparent in the forthcoming gubernatorial elections in Bayelsa, Imo, and Kogi states. Transparency is very important. Many Nigerians were not excited over some of the last elections. They believed INEC performed below their expectations contrary to assurances from the electoral body. This is another opportunity for INEC to prove once more that it can conduct credible, free, fair and transparent elections. If that happens, the enthusiasm of many Nigerians about elections and the electoral process will be revived. But if the electoral body fails Nigerians in these elections, their faith in the electoral body and Nigeria’s electoral process will dim greatly. So, INEC should try as much as possible to be transparent. Like my boss used to say when we were working in the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR); if you are frying groundnuts for a blind man, you should be whistling so that they blind man will know that you are not eating out of the groundnuts. That is transparency. INEC should just be transparent as much as possible. People will normally complain about losing elections. They believe that you do not just leave power and just say ‘I have lost, let me sit down.’ It takes a man with great contentment Like Dr Goodluck Jonthan, to do that. Election is almost like a battle but it should not be a battle that should take the lives of the people. It should be a battle, where we fight civilly. The game of power is not a small game. No matter what you do, people will not be satisfied.
What should Nigerians do to ensure credible elections and that their votes count?
It is to stay with their votes when they are being counted and to have their own figure. That will even help their preferred candidate because they can say: ‘In this place, this is the result.’ We now have telephones, so you can send the result around and show what you got in that place. But there is no law that is stopping people from doing that and those people who are collating can collate. But when voters do not stay there, they vote and they go away, they can give any result out. INEC should make sure that their machines are working. People should not try to hack the results of the election. We should be transparent. Maybe we should go back to the Option A4.
You have invested millions of naira in a scholarship scheme, you and your wife instituted under, Bayo and Bunmi Babalola Foundation (BBBF). Do you feel fulfilled by the investments?
My wife and I feel fulfilled helping people. We are happy to help people. We feel that we should give back to the world, we feel that we have been opportune and we thought that we should give back from what God has blessed us with. When I say we have been opportune, I know what I am talking about. At Kwara School of Technology, we were given books. In the university, they washed our bedsheets, cleaned our toilets, and gave us soap and toilet rolls. But today, it is very difficult. You might argue that the population has increased, but it should not go this badly that the country cannot pay small money for education. Developed countries are taking care of their citizens. My wife and I discovered that quite a number of people may not afford to pay their school bills and may withdraw. We decided to help as much as we can. But I tell you, what we are doing is actually scratching. Government should rise up and do what should be done and it can be done! Having said that much, we are very fulfilled in this and other things that Bayo and Bunmi Babalola Foundation has been doing which include giving people boreholes, repairing schools, buying generators for some schools, and roofing schools. We have done quite a lot as God granted us grace and within the limits of our resources. We feel fulfilled and we pray that God will grant us the privilege and opportunity to do more.
What are some of the achievements of your beneficiaries?
I have seen some of them graduate. I met some and they greeted me and they said, ‘You do not know me. I enjoyed your scholarship. I am now a graduate and I am not doing National Youth Service.’ There are quite a number who send people to me when they do not know how to reach me. They told their emissaries”: ‘Please if you see him, tell him that I appreciate him.’ I have seen quite a number that when we arrived in Kwara, they looked for a way to see us in order to just thank you. I can tell you that it is fulfilling and we are not playing with that. We do not take that lightly. We thank God for the privilege and the opportunity of what we are doing.
What motivated you to institute BBBF?
I contested in the PDP primaries in 2011 for the governorship of the state. I thought that if I was not a governor, I could still do something. But how much do I have? What can you scratch? So, I started thinking of doing a few things. We had done some before we now said that we should register it as a foundation and it is now a registered foundation really. We have been expanding. We expanded it to the local government, to the federal constituency, and it almost covers the whole of Kwara South Senatorial District. It is our own way of saying that even if you are not in government, you should be doing something to help the people.
Does this show that your aspiration to be governor is not just for the position and the glory but to render service to the people?
There is no glory there unless you are rendering these services. You may have all the people deferring to you, shouting your praises, going around after you leave, and they will forget about you. It is the legacy that you left behind that they will remember. Unfortunately, politicians do not think like that. That is why they are lost when they are not in a political position. So, they have to be governor, and go back to the Senate and be in the Senate for years contributing nothing to the nation.
Still talking about education; how do you feel about the state of education in Kwara and what is your advice?
It is totally abhorrent. There is no policy or plan. They are like people groping in darkness and not knowing what to do. It is a reactive government to education. They react to the situation. There is no direction. And it is not for this government alone. In many of the past governments in the state, there was no direction and there was no concerted policy of education, and no vision and mission they had. The teachers are sincerely suffering. I know somebody who used to sell goods and the teachers will buy on credit because they have not been paid. Right now, they are being paid but many of them have not gotten promotions for years. A lot of them are not concentrating on the work they are doing because they have to service. So, they add other jobs to it. They are not giving the children the ultimate. For a long time, in our community the Science, Mathematics, and English teachers were being paid monthly salaries by Bishop David Oyedepo of the Living Faith Mission (aka Winner’s Chapel because the government did not employ Science, Mathematics and English Language teachers, to those schools. So, the community had to employ them and Bishop had to take it up. That cannot be a good education system. It is still like that to date. And it is like that all over the state.
What is the way forward?
They are in government. They should sit down, and evaluate the situation because they have all the data. Let them use the data and let us see the result.
What about the entire nation; are you satisfied with the standard of education?
I am concentrating on Kwara State because that is my state. I live in Lagos. I know that Babatunde Fashola tried. It was better when he was there and I am aware that many people withdrew their pupils and wards from private schools to public schools because it was getting better. I do not know the state of education in Lagos now because I am not putting my eyes on it. But I can assure you that nationwide, it is the same thing. The literacy level in the country is a demonstrable fact that education nationwide is very poor. The number of out-of-school pupils/students in the country is a statistic that demonstrates the fact that there is a very poor level of education planning, a very poor level of education financing and funding, and a very poor level of commitment to ensuring that education is doing well. The private universities are better and most of them are doing better now. Look at the JAMB results. The private schools are leading in good results. But their fees are very exorbitant and many parents/guardians cannot pay them. That is the problem. The schools are not for everybody. So, they are for the children of the privileged few. Government should wake up and try to do the right thing. They should give education a priority because education is power. When you give your people a good education, the country makes progress. But I think that over the years, the government has been putting education at a disadvantage position because it pays them to do it because when people are not educated, they cannot react to bad governance.
Many people have disagreed with some of the judgements from the election petition tribunals in recent times. 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-emphasized. 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 that 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. If you do not prove your case right, a judge will be free to take any decision he wants whether he is working under the influence or not. If he works under the influence, if there are incontrovertible facts, the thing will change. He will find it difficult. The appellant’s argument should be sound and not with emotions. The people who are contesting the results of the election should get their facts straight and make them incontrovertible and have sound reason and logic. Quite a good portion of the law is logic. Are there things you should challenge?
The court is not father Christmas. The court will talk based on what is presented to them and what they see in it. However, we need a fearless, impartial, and just judiciary.
