Owolabi Babalola is a governorship aspirant in Oyo state in the forthcoming 2015 general elections. In this interview with SAMUEL OGIDAN, Babalola said that All Progressives Congress (APC) administration in Oyo is ill-prepared and has no consistent policy or its implementation for the good of the people. The former Commissioner of Health under the administration of Adebayo Alao-Akala also said that once people’s voices and votes count, then those challenges faced in the country will start to dissipate.
Can I know you?
My name is Owolabi Babalola. My primaries are in Medicine and Surgery and my secondary is in what you call the humanities. I have been a very active participant in our political process right from 1979 when we started with limited followers of various party platforms.
Since the current dispensation of course, I have had the opportunity of serving the people all the time within the PDP. At the level of the state, I was part of the cabinet twice in Oyo state under the immediate past administration ran by our great party, the PDP.
Why do you want to be the Governor of Oyo State?
My experience at the level of the state and at the grass root level, has persuaded our people convincingly to start to bring forth questions about true representation, evolutions of quality option, the methodology of achieving that and of course utmost, starting to voice for the voiceless, the unheard and the socially excluded in our society.
By this, I am talking about the artisans, the villagers from Opiogun and the women and children that Labour Day and night to earn a living. Be they in Ibadan slums or in Ogbomosho or Igbarakpa, these are the people prompting us now to take up the challenge of leadership in the state.
I want to say that my political experience has been planning election under the platform of the PDP for two successful administrations. I have also vied as a National Secretary of the PDP in the last Jerry Gana mini-convention of our party. I am sure as time goes by and more questions come in, it will give an opportunity to illuminate those areas that you may have concerns about.
What is your relationship with those at the grass roots?
It is important to know that no worthy true representation can emerge except there is a connection and I mean a very good connection with the people. Having served at the cabinet in Oyo state, not only have I related so well with our people, I mean in particular, the poor, I had the opportunity of being at a critical junctions of policy formulation and implementation. There cannot be a better opportunity to understand the numerous challenges facing our people, but also to make connections with their needs, juxtaposing that with the available resources.
As I speak with you, it will be left for you to find out, but we have representation all across the 33 local governments of Oyo state. That includes also the ward level meetings. But in political processes, there are methodologies and strategies that individual contestants can do and are predisposition to. For some it could just simply mean pasting posters and renting crowds. But to others, who understand what really it takes, will first and foremost start both a medium level and low level what we call grass root consultations.
By consultation, I mean asking the people germane questions and asking them not only questions, but giving them insights, things that you want to buy in, a kind of a commitment and this is why our own movement encourages the participation. First, you have to consult at the local government level and at the ward levels and also most importantly our leaders, on the desirability not only for us to have a change in Oyo state. And I make very bold that the last election was won by PDP, but the then ACN which has now transformed into an amalgam of APC, did not win that election. And I can say that categorically for the entire South-west and I just want to leave it at that for others.
What do you think you can bring on board that can make you be the chosen one?
If you have followed the historical trajectory of Oyo state and its politics, you would come to the very simple conclusion that the present administration not only was it ill prepared, they certainly have no consistent policy or its implementation towards the people. That gives a very major gap and today you can look at the physical arrangement of the APC government in Oyo state and see the skills between the current and the capital ratio that is how much money is available to funnel into those projects that would benefit our people either they are in the villages or in the urban centres. That is one.
The performance of the APC administration in Oyo state, it will be over simplified if I tell you now that it is just simple politics. But when you go to the artisans on the street, when you go to the medium scale entrepreneurs, when you go to the peasant farmers in the rural areas, when you ask a pregnant woman about her access to health care, when you ask a parent about the availability of an adequate education for his or her wards. When you look at those very critical parameters that can tell us about the level and the adequacy of governance, you will score present Oyo state near zero.
When we came, the government never had the resources to look after the entire health care position by way of drugs and consumables in our hospitals and it was during our administration that we were able to evolve a public-private partnership in drug administration within Oyo state, such that you can go to any hospital, urban or rural, at any point in time and find all the necessary medications that a health worker will need in its intervention.
This is added to the repeated significant procurement of essential drugs. While I was there, we had a very robust interface with Africa development bank, all instruments of global governance such as UNICEF, WHO to the extent that we were able to build hospitals across the 33 local government areas in the state, general hospitals during that administration.
We did not only build them, but equipped them too, bought ambulances. For the first time in the history of Oyo state, we had the most advanced health management information system. It was under my humble leadership that at the touch of a button, you are able to say in Eshuwaju local government, you had 20 malaria cases last month, or you had 150 diarrhea diseases such that the minimum resources that is available can be targeted, funneled to the areas that is most needed and therefore Oyo state became the template for the entire Nigeria.
It was also of course during that administration that we were able to form, I personally, formed the forum for commissioners of health in Nigeria where we had an opportunity to crossbreed ideas and shared best practices all across the states.
In other words we can share ideas from each state to the other, how have we been able to combat or make connections to communicable diseases so on and so forth. Many achievements during my tenure as commissioner for health. For instance the childhood disease we met at immunisation rate of 13%, by the time I was leaving office, you can confirm from UNICEF, immunisation rate for Oyo state was at 97% coverage. And of course, the biggest vaccine storage facilities with the most modern equipment that can sub serve the entire South-west was built for our people during my tenure. I can go on. I became the chairman for all commissioners for health in Nigeria, I was able also to contribute to the national strategic framework that dove tailed into the national health plan. As the chairman for all commissioners of health then, I had that opportunity of contributing to the health Bill that you now have before the National Assembly. I do not like usually to talk about myself, but I can say that investigative journalism will give you added opportunity to investigate my person.
Now For the recent NECO, WAEC examinations, Oyo state came at the bottom. Not only would you go to the education institutions and find our children and wards are still sitting on the floor in the classrooms, the administration don’t even know how to budget for these critical sectors of our economy.
The first health management information system in the whole of Nigeria which was adjudged as the best in terms of empirical data was done while I was there.
In your party, PDP, there are those that can be described as political gladiators and by the grace of God you will be contesting for the primary with your former governor and boss, Otunba Christopher Adebayo Alao-Akala; his Deputy, Ambassador Taofeek Arapaja and a host of others. What do you think you have that will outwit them at the primary election?
If you check through the PDP documents, the manifestos and the conventions, you will see that the party does have adequate and extensive way of bringing about the selection. There is a process and that is what the present leadership both at the national and the state have repeatedly talked about. Not only talked about, they have been able to put up the guidelines that these are the rules. So first and foremost, I will be bound by that and remain bound by that. In other words we who are candidates will present ourselves to the party. The party has a set of rules and regulations through which a final candidate will emerge.
I do agree with you that Akala was my governor and I served with him, I represented adequately the interest of our people irrespective of nativity. And I am very confident that they will support me knowing that I hold very humble knowledge of the major challenges that confront the state. And I have been also, not someone on the sidelines, but been there consistently over time. So I think that for every democratic process, it is very important for us to follow the PDP laid down rules and I think that when we get to the bridge then we will be able to cross it.
How do you and your party plan to sweep the entire South-west as you have all boasted?
First and foremost, you are familiar with the history of Ekiti and Osun states. That is before this dispensation. We won the elections in Ekiti state and Osun state and we lost at the platform of the judiciary. I assume that the thing is playing out now. But PDP remains a law abiding party and this is why today Senator Iyiola Omisore and a team of lawyers are putting together and I think it is done already, to challenge the outcome of Osun election. Ekiti is gone.
Albeit, historically the people of the South-west have always been the progressive because it is ironical that APC today is passing through labelling themselves as a progressive party, but the word progressive itself is from the leftist. In other words, they have misconstrued the APC in its agenda, has completely misconstrued what progressive policy is all about.
A true representation of the challenged, excluded, voiceless and unheard and that is why I referred you again to the document of the PDP in terms of manifesto, in terms of several extant conventions of the PDP, by way of connecting and making sure that there is full participation of grass root and middle class as we are involving and finally party stalwarts.
I see 2015 therefore as an opportunity that our people are yearning for to foreclose the politics of ethnic politics, separation that remains at different points in the South-west. And I am confident that when you look at the history of 1950’s politics in the South-west, you will agree that trajectory is very valid and so it will count.
The governorship primary is November 26th. Would you dump the PDP if you fail to get the party’s ticket?
I can never decamp from my party, the PDP and I assure you that we have so much behind us that I cannot fail.
Will you agree on a consensus candidate if you are all called to step down for one of the aspirants?
For me, the party is supreme. The decisions of my leaders at the national and at the state are all binding. But I am sure that the processes that will lead to that will be very exhaustive considering the potentials and individuals, understanding of the gamut of challenges that besiege Oyo state. And I am sure that is the most important determinant factor of the primary outcome.
What is the zoning formula in Oyo state and do you think it favours you?
This is a very important question about federalism for very serious students of comparative federalism. Zoning itself is an opportunity for our party to mitigate the influence that majoritarian democracy can have on minority rights. In other words, you are saying if it is this and this and that side, it could be on the other side. Of course the application of zoning arrangement which itself is consensational has been subject of current debate. So again I will abide by whatsoever outcome the party decides.
But I want to tell you that the PDP designed the zoning arrangement just to address the issues of minority right and self determination group that are brought into being by the 1966/67 civil war.For Oyo state, whatever the outcome of our party primaries and the leadership of our party, I am certainly going to be totally abiding.
What do you think we should be doing as a nation as we move towards 2015 to guarantee free fair and peaceful election across the nation?
One, let us continue to believe in this country. We have no other than this. We have nowhere else to go, that is first and important central, to you and to me. Two, it is this administration under President Goodluck Jonathan that brought about some amendments in our electoral processes.
In other words, it has demonstrated the commitment of Mr. President and the PDP to ensuring that leadership and the evolution of leadership truly represents the aspirations of our people. That itself is an all common twine that connects our democratic process.
Once people’s voices and votes count, then those challenges that had been, will start to dissipate and I think we stand in salutation of Mr President and the entire PDP leadership for bringing again about an opportunity for true representations of Nigerians wherever they are, be it in the North-east, North- central, South-south or the South-west, that today we are starting to refine our democratic experimentation. And I can tell you that by way of continuity, we will start to see a remarkable improvement in those processes and that is my hope, and that I am assured.
