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Born in Ado Ekiti on the 27th of March, 1961, Babafemi Ojudu showed great scholarly promise from his youth which led to him winning a scholarship jointly sponsored by activist lawyer Gani Fawehinmi and Jùjú musician King Sunny Adé for indigent students of Ekiti state. He studied English at the University of Ife, Ile- Ife and after graduating in 1984, he went on to the University of Lagos where in 1986, he obtained his master’s degree in political science. His love for Journalism; a profession that would eventually bring him international recognition was kindled while at the university where he joined the Association of Campus Journalists and started reporting for COBRA, a campus journal. He and two friends later founded a journal called The Parrot, which he edited until he graduated in 1984. On the completion of his National Youth Service, Ojudu worked as a reporter with The Guardian Newspaper. In 1987 Ojudu started writing for African Concord magazine, initially as a Staff Writer and moving up to become an Assistant Editor. In 1992 he resigned in protest at a request by M.K.O. Abiola, the publisher, to apologise to President Ibrahim Babangida over an article critical of the military regime. In 1993 Ojudu and other former workers from African Concord established The News magazine, with Ojudu as its first Managing Editor
Ojudu was arrested, tortured and detained several times during the Sani Abacha regime. On one occasion, he was arrested and detained for three days at the notorious Shagisha Prison in the outskirts of Lagos on 11 August 1996 because of an article in The News about Oil Minister Dan Etete which alleged that Etete was giving government contracts on behalf of the Nigerian State Oil Company to his family and friends.
Later in 1996 Ojudu went to the USA for six months as a fellow at the School of Communications, Howard University, Washington, D.C. On his return in June 1997 he was appointed Group Managing Editor of Independent Communications Network Ltd, publishers of The News, P.M. News and Tempo. In addition to his Managing Editor work, both before and after the return to democracy Ojudu has been a member or chairman of several organizations and committees involved in media and human rights. In total, Ojudu spent 26 years in media practice. Having conquered the media space, he ventured into politics when he formally declared that he would run for the Senate in August 2010. In the April 2011 election for the Ekiti Central Senatorial seat, Ojudu polled 67,747 votes running on the ACN platform to defeat Labour Party (LP) candidate and former Ekiti State Governor Ayo Fayose who received 29,773 votes and Kayode Alufa of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) who polled 29,488 votes. He later went on to represent Ekiti Central Senatorial under the platform of The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) at the 7th National Assembly. In January 2016, he was appointed as a Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Political Matters; Babafemi Ojudu in this interview with The New Diplomat Senior Associate Editor OLAMILEKAN OKEOWO spoke on various burning issues in the country. EXCERPTS.
How prepared are you for the forthcoming gubernatorial election in Ekiti State?
Your question assumes that I would be contesting. Anybody that comes out to say he would be contesting now would actually be breaking the law. The regulator and organizer of elections in Nigeria has not come out to say that elections would be taking place at any point in time. So, nobody can say categorically that he or she is contesting for the position of governor. Anybody who does that would be going against the law. I think we need to wait and get to the time that The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, will announce and call on those interested to go out and seek the votes and the candidacy of their parties.
What do you think makes your party the toast of the electorate in Edo and Ondo?
I think Nigerians are beginning to appreciate the fact that the All progressives Congress, APC, is a honest and sincere party and we are committed to change. It is just that things are hard and tough. Most people are also beginning to realize that the situation can be likened to the pain before the birth of a new child. The situation can be painful but something good comes out of it. Most people are beginning to see that those in this administration are not looting the treasury, they are not living extravagant lives and they can’t say that they are not sincere. It is just that things are hard and we all recognize the fact that things are hard and we also understand why things are hard and we are working towards solving the problems. It is just that they are not problems that can be solved instantaneously; we all know that it takes time for these problems to be solved and they are giving us the benefit of the doubt.
What short-term measures is the government putting in place to ameliorate the hardship in the country while the long-term plans materialize?
It is about creativity, and I will give you a simple example. There was a measure of high concentration of rice in Kebbi State last year and there was a collaboration with Lagos State which had rice mills. They came together and brought out what we know as “Lake Rice” and that in a way helped quite a lot of people as it forced down the price of rice in Lagos State and people were able to get rice to cook for their families during the yuletide season. Those are creative ways of dealing with problems. Ordinarily in the past, we would have said no to the ban on the importation of rice and throw open our borders and import rice. We are projecting that by the year 2020, we will not have to import a grain of rice into the country again. Little by little, we are solving the problems, we won’t be spending about $2.2billion annually on the importation of rice anymore. We are solving the problem of the importation of wheat, we are encouraging the cultivation of wheat in different parts of the country. We are also working seriously towards solving the problem of the importation of tomato paste, which is now produced locally. In different ways like that, we are trying to be creative. But it takes some time. In between banning these products and local production, there are bound to be some scarcity and increase in the prices of those commodities, but I can assure you that it will be for a short while.
The naira performing weakly against the dollar has been a major issue but there was a recent slight improvement, what do you think was responsible for this and how can it be even better?
It is about creativity, it is about the change in monetary policy. Since the Vice President took up the role of Acting President, he has been so concerned about arresting the crash in the value of naira, talking to experts and calling different meetings, all geared towards coming up with solutions on how to save the naira. That is what has brought about the changes that we are seeing. He has not given up; he is still doing a lot to see that the naira strengthens against other currencies in the world.
Do you have confidence in the ability of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, governor and the Minister of Finance to take the country out of recession?
With adequate supervision, commitment, patriotism, honesty and dedication to their duty, I think they should be able to take the country out of the recession.
The recent trips by the Acting President to the Niger-Delta seems to be bearing fruits, what do you make of this?
Again, it is about policy choices. When you have a problem, there are different suggestions from different quarters on how the problems can be solved and you then choose what you believe to be the right choice. What you have seen happening in the Niger-Delta is that the people made a choice between war and dialogue and it is heart-warming that we have tilted towards dialogue.
In the absence of the President Muhammadu Buhari, Acting President Yemi Osinbajo, seems to have made quite some headway. There is a school of thought that believes that the country is better off with him in charge, do you agree with them?
No, no, no. You see, that is the problem that Nigerians are making. It is not about the Acting President doing something differently from what the President would have done. They have a road-map, they have a manifesto and they have their ideas on how things should be done. What we are seeing now is what the President too would have done. For example, the idea of going to the Niger-Delta is not the Acting President’s idea. The President actually mandated him to go and dialogue with all the critical stakeholders in the region, which has brought about the changes we are seeing. It is not a case of the Acting President doing things differently from the President; whatever it is you are seeing today is the outcome of the collaborative efforts of both the President and the Acting President.
Won’t you say that it is too coincidental?
Cuts in….. There is nothing coincidental about it. It is about the maturity of the policies. He (President Muhammadu Buhari) started all the programmes, but they hadn’t matured. That it is now maturing at about the time the President is away does not mean that they are maturing because the Vice President is acting. I do not agree with you on that.
I am a special adviser to the President and I know the processes some of these things take. I know what has been started, where it has gotten to and now that we are seeing the maturity. If by next year, we attain food self-sufficiency, will we now say that the Acting President has done any magic? It is simply because the policy on the production of rice has started maturing and yielding fruits.
Still on the issue of the Acting President taking decisive actions. It took his intervention to have the name of the then Acting Chief Justice Walter Onnoghen, forwarded to the Senate to defuse the tension it was generating
Again, that is a fallacy. Before the President left on vacation, a decision had been taken on it. It was just the process of implementation that was a bit delayed and not because the President was opposed to it, it was just that it was at a point that the President was away on vacation that the name was eventually forwarded to the Senate.
So much corruption is going on at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, what can be done to check this?
Again, it is about setting standards and letting public officials to know what is unacceptable. It is about punishing whosoever commits such malfeasance. Again, it is about the kind of policies put in place to curb such malfeasance. Take for example the whistle-blower policy. The moment you are conscious of the fact that your driver, house-maid or your relation can tell on you — because in the process of money laundering, you need people to help you— the possibility of someone squealing on you will curb you from doing that kind of thing. So, it is about good thinking, good policies and good implementation. So, would-be money launderers and those who want to rob the country blind will have to think twice.
The continued absence of the President from the country is becoming worrisome, as the Special adviser to the President on Political Matters, what is being done on this?
I don’t think there is any problem on this issue. It only becomes a problem when there is a vacuum in power and you are opaque in what you are doing. There is a lot of transparency in what is happening. The man wrote to the National Assembly that he is taking a vacation for ten days and that in the process of taking his vacation, he is going to use the opportunity to see his doctors and he duly transmitted power to his vice. After the expiration of the 10 days, he again transmitted another letter to the National Assembly that he had undergone some tests and was expecting the results of the tests and as such requested more days, that, for me, is very transparent. It is quite different from the situation of the former President, Umaru Yar’Adua, who left the country without transmitting power to his vice and Nigerians did not know where he was. But in this case, we all know that President Muhammadu Buhari is in England and he is being attended to by his doctors and for God’s sake what do you expect of a man who is above 70 years of age? That kind of man can fall sick, he can develop ailments that may require time to treat. The thing is that the man is honest and respects the constitution of the country enough and believes in the capability of his vice to act on his behalf.
Moreover, no one has come out to say that he is incapacitated and can no longer function. Any of us can fall sick and could take quite some time for us to sort ourselves out. So, for me, I don’t see a big issue in it
Don’t you think the President should address Nigerians to lay their minds to rest rather than calling some selected few?
He has done that by transmitting a letter to the Senate saying he requires a certain amount of time for the purpose of taking care of himself.
But there are feelings in some quarters that those moves are being manipulated by some people close to the President?
If the party leaders have gone to the United Kingdom to see him, and the media is awash with pictures of the President in good mood with several people. What other evidence do we need? Look, anybody can fall sick at any time. Nobody is immune against sickness, but the photographs that we have seen show signs of positivity.
Then why are some people close to him trying to block access to him?
When a man is on holiday, and is also using that period to take care of himself and people begin to troop in to see him, it doesn’t make sense in any way.
Then, shouldn’t he just take some minutes to address Nigerians and lay everything to rest once and for all?
If that is an advice, we are going to take it and look into it and discuss it.
Almost three years into the tenure of President Buhari, would you say he has performed well and what are his chances of ever winning an election in Nigeria again?
I think he has performed creditably well, in the areas of fighting corruption, in the areas of fighting insecurity, in the areas of giving hope to Nigerians — I think he has performed well. If we were to have remained under former President Goodluck Jonathan’s regime, by now, I am not too sure if Boko Haram wouldn’t have taken over the Villa in Aso Rock. I am not sure we wouldn’t have been eating one another raw on the streets because the incomes have dwindled due to the fall in oil price, all the extravagant spending would not have been possible, the little left would have been shared by those vultures who were in government then. So, for me, his ability at securing Nigeria, ensuring that the little we have is spent in providing services to the people and giving hope to Nigerians. All the social intervention programmes by this administration are some of the evidence that this government has performed well. It has never happened in the history of this country that a government will employ about a 200, 000 people at once. Artisans, market men and women are taking loans from the Bank of Industry (BoI).
Government is trying to redirect and diversify the economy away from its dependence on oil and into other sectors of the economy. These are measures that are very commendable, though they might bring hardships in the beginning, they have great potentials in the end.
Your party, the APC, is playing host to some people who have been fingered as corrupt, don’t you think going to bed with this set of people might jeopardise the ideals of the party?
The constitution guarantees the right of every Nigerian to belong to any group or association of their choice. No political party has the right to say ‘so so and so person we don’t want you in our midst,’ that would be unconstitutional.
However, what should give Nigerians peace of mind is the fact that the APC is a party that is committed to and constructed on some pillars of basic principles, rules and ethics. If any of those who have joined us from other political parties cannot adhere to those principles, then they won’t be successful. So, those who are coming from the PDP and joining us know that they are coming to an environment that is different from where they are coming from. So, they have to abide with our goals and principles that endeared us to Nigerians. So, it is not about the individual, it is about the culture that has been built in the party, the laid down rules and principles that have been formulated by the party. If they are not able to comply then they would be failures.
Do you see the APC winning the Presidential election in Nigeria again?
Why not? Because by 2019 when elections would be coming up again in the country, all the policies put in place by this administration would have matured and the positive effect would have been felt all over Nigeria. Imagine a situation where rice production in the North and other parts of the country has made the price of a bag of rice crash to about N6, 000, many more Nigerians are employed and are earning good incomes, we have attained food sufficiency to the stage that we have extra to export as well, we are able to maximally fulfill our oil output and there is peace across Nigeria and everybody who has stolen our money is made to answer for his/her malfeasance, Nigerians would look at us and say ‘this is a different government from what we are used to. You know what? Let us vote for them again.’
If we are able to construct the Second Niger Bridge, construct all the roads in the eastern part of the country and make all the people in the South-South feel great to be part of the country again and make them benefit from the resources that are locked up in their soil and every part of Nigeria is happy, why won’t Nigerians vote for the APC again? It is about carrying out the mandate that was given to you by the people and that is what we are working on. If we are able to make progress in the Niger-Delta through dialogue; if we are able to make substantial progress in the North; the Lagos-Ibadan expressway is being constructed; we are talking about a standard gauge rail line between Lagos and Calabar another one from Calabar to Kano; if all of those are put in place, then Nigerians would have no choice than to say ‘we are giving you a mandate of another four years’.
