Engr. Femi Babalola, the CEO of Jogor Event Centre and Jogor Hotel,Ibadan recently clocked 61. Last week, a charismatic businessman shared his thoughts on the nation’s state, politics, and his personal life. He spoke with City People’s Dare Adeniran, along with two other media personalities, about why he believes the economic reforms of President Bola Tinubu’s administration are not effective. He also discussed how he has built a successful business empire and remained prominent in both political and social circles over the years.
Below are excerpts from the interview, which took place at Babalola’s luxury hotel in Ibadan, the capital of Oyo State, featuring one hundred and one rooms.
Belated happy 61st birthday to you, sir. How would you describe your mood, especially with the current situation of things in the country?
I’m not happy. I thank you for wishing me a happy birthday. Even though you didn’t bring gifts like the 3 wise men. But on a serious note, I’m not happy because as far as am concerned solution we eventually used or we are exploring is not the only available option. There are better options that could have lessened or even eliminated the suffering of the people, and would have provided a better solution.
I mean when this government came in I wanted to believe that their two concerns were round-tripping, and disparity in exchange rates. And what causes disparity in exchange rates? People access forex and they go and sell at a premium. It’s so easy. We know the number of banks we have in the country. We know the owners of the banks. Call them and warn them. So anybody that distorts moving forward you revoke their licences. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo did it. He did it even to his friend, Otunba Subomi Balogun of the blessed memories. The guy who owned UBA then was also affected. It brought a kind of sanity to the forex exchange market.
So, why was that a problem? Why must we follow what the World Bank wants us to do? What is our major source of inflow? We have diaspora remittance, we have forex coming from sales of petroleum products, and exportation of goods and services from the citizens of the country.
Let’s look at the 3 critical points one after the other. For the petroleum products, we have been saying all these since Buhari was there that production of crude oil had gone down drastically. Even in the areas where they are trying to rev up production theft is not allowing the oil companies to enjoy the outputs of their labour. Because as they are producing the boys are stealing the crude. They are puncturing pipes every day. Are you telling me that it’s beyond government efforts to stop that?
So because some people are stealing oil, which is the duty of security agencies, the whole country must suffer for that? It doesn’t make sense. It’s like looking for an easy way out. Are we saying that we can’t man the pipelines in the country effectively? What is the length of pipelines we have in the country? Where are they located? Were they not laid by human beings? Are we saying we can’t man them effectively to prevent incessant bursting of the pipes and stealing of crude?
The other area is the issue of remittances. We knew that whatever Emefiele must have done he had this policy then he tried to encourage people to remit money into the country by the people in the diaspora. And it was working. They were given naira for a particular dollar brought in. But somehow somebody just stopped it. So because we need the forex to fight and defend our naira.
The country as it is now is not production-friendly. Some people are saying it’s to encourage export. All these people talking ask them if they have ever run any industry in their lives. Let them come and ask us who are running Industries. Do they think it’s that easy? There was a day I bought a 20 tons of shea butter from Oyo North, and my truck was seized by the police. It was seized simply because one of the headlights was bad. The headlight could have been bad 2 kilometres before that spot. It could have been bad 500 metres before the spot. It could have been a week earlier. But did that justify confiscating a truck bringing raw materials to a factory to produce for export?
Another one is the issue of security. If we can solve the issue of security in this country, there will be more production. People would go to the farm. I’m a farmer so I know what am talking about. A lot of farmers had left the farms. Am even referring to the Southwest not the North, where there are incessant killings of farmers. It’s not as pronounced as the North here but despite that farmers in the Southwest have left the farms because we don’t have security.
So government needed to rev up security, giving people assurance that they could go on and produce. That would have helped us. Then we went to the issue of subsidy removal. The first question is, is the subsidy good for the economy? I would say it depends on the way you look at it.
Something has to be subsidized. There are multiple effects of subsidy. Are you subsidizing education? Are you subsidizing health? Are you subsidizing electricity? The government has to subsidize something, otherwise, there will be social insecurity in the country. There could be problems at the end of the day, the problem will go back to the government.
Again, whenever the issue of subsidy comes up, we have always been talking about smuggling to the neighbouring country. So because of the smuggling Nigerians should suffer? What is the work of Customs? If the Customs is not doing their job Nigerians must be punished for that? It’s not the duty of Nigerians to suffer for Customs laxity.
I mean we all see the effects. If this interview were to take place in 2023 July, August or September we would be talking about anticipatory effects. Now we have seen it. So nobody can come to me and say is it working? Economics has gone beyond that.
The guy from the World Bank saying rubbish that it’s good for the country. Why didn’t America go through that route during the 2007 recession? Why did the American government say that they couldn’t sit down and allow their companies to fold up, and start giving them money? If that recession had happened in Africa the World Bank people would have told us that we should allow the economic forces to take it cause. They wouldn’t have allowed the government to support any company. America said to forget about the economy, we are talking about people’s lives. So which economy are we talking about that somebody said we should practice for 20 years?
If you were to be President Tinubu what would you have done to address the issue of corruption, considering the fact that it’s a systemic problem? Would you step on toes?
The people stealing are not the people that put you in power. The people stealing are stealing for themselves. Anybody that has helped you to that position would have an understanding. The bottom line is that they want to be part of the government. They want to protect their economic life. If their economic life is jeopardizing the overall benefit of the country then you have to cut it off and make alternatives for them. A company can’t be producing 20,000 barrels of oil and at the end of the day, they won’t be able to export 10,000. The remaining 10,000 had been stolen along the line and you fold your hands.
I think we tend to forget at times that we are not more in 1980 when Nigeria was the only country in Africa producing oil. Now that virtually all the countries in Africa are now producing. The situation has become highly competitive. So we just have to sit tight and know what we are doing. The simple solution to Nigeria’s problems is just about putting the right people in positions of authority.
Do you think stepping on toes has helped the country? Considering the activities of EFCC over the years. Don’t you think there is an underlining problem that the government is not looking at?
I don’t feel so. Nobody is talking about EFCC and other agencies that they shouldn’t do their jobs. So far they are legally established. Yes, I have always believed that Nigeria has a systemic problem. So we have to address the system, and that time is now. We have to sit down and talk to ourselves and say that enough is enough, this country has to move forward. Because if we are not careful we’ll lose this country. That is just the problem. We have to evaluate so many things. Is it the Constitution? Is it the civil service rules? Is it how budgets are presented or executed? We just have to be sincere with ourselves. Are we practising the system that suits us? And I would say no.
It seems to be easier for politicians to criticize from outside then change once they get to power.
You journalists are the problem. I have said this several times. Yes, I believe the electorates have their own faults too. But I believe that journalists are not helping to sieve the politicians very well. You need to help the people know those on the table. Out of 5 bad candidates, one would be best out of them. The journalists are not doing that. If you want to employ a driver I’m sure the first question you will ask him is, where did you drive last? Where is your driver’s license? Why did you leave your last employer? What are your qualifications? How many people have asked such questions from politicians? Don’t we have people who have not done anything tangible for the society as governors? Don’t we have people who don’t even have local knowledge of anything representing a community? Don’t we have people who have never lived in a community representing the same community? What did the journalists do? Did they carry out survey to let people know that this man, out of these 4 people, has never lived in this constituency before? Have you come out to say this man contesting has never worked before or has the prerequisite knowledge? Don’t let all this information come out at the tribunal. Is it not embarrassing that it’s at the tribunal that they will say this man did not go to school. The certificate he or she presented is this or that and they had passed through the system.
What about the effects of money politics?
You don’t blame people when you play your own part. For the past 12 years, I want to believe journalists have not been playing their role very well. I’m sure you are following America’s election and others. You will see journalists profiling candidates. Some poor people still have a conscience. Even if they are going to take money, they will still vote right. Somebody just came from America and went to the House of Reps in Nigeria, spending only six months. I have never seen that anywhere in the world. Somebody would just come, he has never lived in Oyo State, he has never done anything in the state and before you know it he’s in the Senate.
There is money politics but let the electorates know some of these things. Do critical profiling of candidates and then leave the rest for the electorates to decide.
Governor Makinde is your friend, how has he fared in the last 5 years?
He’s okay. The people like him.
Do you like him?
He’s my friend. I mean somebody can’t be my friend and I wouldn’t like him
Are you impressed with his performance as governor?
Yes. I think the question is, is the state better than he met it 5 years ago? I would say yes. In terms of all that is visible to human beings. I have spoken to civil servants, and they are impressed. They said they have been collecting their salaries consistently. I have spoken to pensioners, they are okay with his performance. I have spoken to teachers, and they are impressed. And I can see infrastructural works going on everywhere. As far as am concerned, I believe we are better off in terms of infrastructure and in terms of physical development.
But you were not impressed with his performance a year ago as stated in you 60th birthday interview. What has changed?
I said in the interview that I didn’t want to assess his administration that the time wasn’t right.
But you mentioned in the interview the bad roads and what you would have done differently?
It’s exactly the same thing I said. If you give the four of us here an opportunity we may achieve the same answer but we may have different ways of doing it. That was why I said, are people better off? If I have a relation that told me that in the past administration, his salary was epileptic and the same civil servant told me now that he has been collecting his salaries consistently. That he has collected his allowances and all that. So what do you want me to say? Do you want me to tell lies? The question now is, if it was you would those have been your own priorities? Would you have gone about it this way? I might say that I would have done some things differently.
How do you feel that your aspiration to elective office hasn’t come to fruition at 61?
I have only attempted elective office once. That was in 2015 when I contested the governorship primary of my party, PDP. I felt pained that the system wasn’t fair to me. The system was bungled at that time. We really didn’t go through the primary the way it should be. It was bungled from Abuja. So I left it because I needed to face my business. I just allowed bygones to be bygones.
What are your plans now that you are 61, politically?
Service is about giving to society, and it could come in a thousand and one ways. One of it is to hold elective office. The other one is to be an elder statesman and give advice from time to time. Another one is to sponsor candidates. So as long as you see your dreams coming through in your lifetime you get fulfilled. It’s not everybody or every member of a political party that is destined to hold elective office.
There are people that joined a political party just because they want to write policies for the party. You can’t hear their names. They just want to formulate policies. There are people that the only thing they want to do is to implement the policies. I believe that you can still contribute to the development of society at any age if you are serious.
It depends on what you want. But for someone like me, I wonder what any post can give me. It’s not what I need. It’s not what I want to eat again. It’s just what I want to give to the system. It’s about the coming generation. So my next plan is as the process unfolds I will make up my mind on what I want to do. But as it is am not on Siddon look. I’m a little bit above Siddon look. I’m watching.
Are you still in PDP?
Yes.
If the opportunity presents itself for you to be governor would you go for it?
It’s going to depend on the parameters around it.
What if the governor says tomorrow that he wants you to succeed him?
We’ll sit down and look at it vis a vis the party.
What is happening to your party in the state now?
We are coming back together. We made some mistakes in the past, and we have all realized that and we are correcting it. That is why there is a little silence within the party. This time last week I was with the governor. We are having serious talks and the outcome will be out very soon.
Could you let us into some of the things you discussed with the governor?
We discussed the party. We just showed concern on how to make sure the party gets back to where we felt it should be. Because am a foundation member of the party in the state.
Some names came up recently as the likely successor of Governor Seyi Makinde in 2027. Have you seen the list and what is your position?
The names were produced by journalists that are not working. They just write what they saw in the paper. They said Dotun Sanusi is contesting, and this and that are contesting. I mean that is kind of funny.
What are the things you look out for in your ideal person to succeed Governor Makinde in 2027?
My ideal person who will succeed him is somebody who has a local knowledge of the state. Somebody that must have lived in the state for at least 20 years. Somebody who understands the state and what the people want. Somebody who has seen the mistakes and good sides of past governments. Somebody who understands what the state needs to move forward. Oyo State is blessed. We are just scratching it on the surface. Somebody needs to build on what all the past governments have been doing.
In your recent encounters with the governor, could you feel or read his body language as regards his successor in 2027?
No. I have not checked his body language.
You were not carried along at the beginning of this administration but now it seems your intervention is needed. How do you feel about that?
That I wasn’t carried along is not a proper statement. There were some misunderstandings and misconceptions which we have all realized and we have put them behind us.
I mean such things are bound to happen. It could be fatal and disastrous if it was not realized. But the party realized that we had made mistakes at some point, and we have ruled the line. We have decided to put all that behind us to move forward.
Was there any moment you ever regretted being a politician?
No. I have never been guided by material things or gains from politics. That is why they always say my style of politics is ‘alakowe’. I have always had it at the back of my mind that for me, politics is service.
I have been involved in politics right from my university days. I mean my very first day at the university I was President of my association. By second or third year I was Secretary of Sultan Bello Hall. So politics has been my own life. It’s something I enjoy doing but at the same time, I never wanted to lose focus on my profession. I had wanted to see politics as service, not as a do-or-die affair.
Maybe you have not achieved your political goals because you don’t see politics the way others see it?
Let them see it that way. I don’t have any regrets. Everybody has what is guiding him. In 1975 during the great retrenchment of Murtala, Obasanjo regime. My father was a Permanent Secretary like so many others. And I remember the story he told me. We as young men didn’t like it. He was entitled to staff quarters. How many of them were Permanent Secretary in 1975? There were just 12 in the whole of the Western Region, Western Region up to Warri and Delta. He refused to stay in the quarters. We wanted him to stay in the quarters because we had friends that stayed there. The lesson didn’t get at me until that great retrenchment. Two of my father’s friends who were also Permanent Secretary had to stay in our house. This was because they were given 48 hours to move out of the quarters when they sacked them. So my father had built his own house at that time.
The lesson he taught me was that build yourself and leave every other thing. Because it will be all about you when the game is down. I’m sure in your private moment you must be discussing it among yourselves that politicians, when did he leave the position that he has become broke? It will be so because they put all their energy into politics. I don’t want to do that. I want to see politics as something I enjoy doing that won’t affect my profession.
What have you identified as your strengths and weaknesses in all facets of your life?
Nobody knows anybody’s weaknesses until when we start looking at results years later. So when somebody who held the political position now sees himself in ten years and looks back to say why did I even take that position? I don’t have any regret the way am managing my affairs as a politician, a businessman and as an engineer.
For more than 20 years now the name Jogor has remained relevant in politics, business and social circles. What is your staying power?
It has been God. It’s just the grace of God. It surpasses human understanding, and it gives you peace of mind.
You still have your finger deep in many things at even 61, you are a farmer, a hotelier and all. And you seems not ready to slow down?
No. I’m not slowing down. I’m not going to slow down.
Although it has been a gradual project, the completion of your mega hotel came at a time of economic downturn in the country. How did you achieve that?
That is the strategy. God just worked everything out. When God blesses you there is nothing anybody can do. Yes, It took a long period because that was the strategy I needed to use. The same strategy I have always applied in all my life endeavours. God’s time is the best.
Did you ever picture yourself in this kind of situation some 30 years ago?
No. I just pictured a life of struggle that I won’t rely on anybody. I will just rely on my plans because human being will definitely fail you.
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