House Of Reps Member, ADEBAYO BALOGUN
Hon. Adebayo Balogun represents Ibeju-Lekki federal constituency at the Federal House Representatives. He is one of those few politicians who can beat their chests proudly and say they started their political career as a grassroot politician. He began his political trajectory as secretary to the local government before emerging as the chairman a few years after. He is presently the Chairman of the House Committee on Electoral Reforms and he and his team have done a fantastic job so far.
This ever cool, calm and collected Lawmaker was one of the award recipients at the recently held Global Excellence Awards for Excellence. He was recognised as the Outstanding Lawmaker of the Year. The evidently excited politician took out as few minutes to speak with City People’s Senior Editor, WALE LAWAL (08037209290 ) and the highly knowledgable Lawmaker shed light on a few contentious areas about the reforms and explained why a lot of people believe President Tinubu remains our best option for now. Enjoy excerpts.
Congratulations, sir, on the award you just received, how do you feel about this recognition?
I feel elated for being recognized for serving my people. It’s not just enough for you to do it, but when people recognize that you’re doing it, it gives you the will to do more. It makes you feel good to do more. And I want to thank our Rt. Honourable speaker, the Rt. Honourable Tajudeen Abass for the opportunity given to members to ensure that we express ourselves and give back to our communities. And that is what we have all been doing.
How do you feel having been very involved in the new Electoral Act and its success?
Well, the major problem we have in Nigeria is about bad governance and they say bad governance starts with bad election. And by ensuring that we get a good electoral act that wiil guide us into a free, fair and credible election. It makes you feel good to be part of such a programme that will ensure that Nigerians will start having elections that will make their votes count, an inclusive one that gets everybody involved in the electoral process, that makes you own the process. And what we are doing is to make the people be involved in the amendments. When you are part of the amendments, you’ll be able to own it, that its ours. When there’s any mistake, we all do the amendments together. It’s a good feeling to be part of such a process.
You can be said to be one of those who are more or less a disciple of the President and you have risen through the ranks, moving from the grassroots to the very top….
Oh, yes, when he was governor, I was secretary to the local government, after he left office as governor of Lagos state, I became the chairman and years afterwards, contested for House of Reps and here we are. That’s why we believe Nigeria deserves someone like him and that’s why we have been so optimistic because of what he did in Lagos, transforming Lagos to the height that it is today. So, what he’s doing today in Nigeria does not surprise people like us, because we believe in him. And by the time he finishes his second term, Nigeria will be a place every one of us will be proud to be a citizen of.
What would you like to say to Nigerians, particularly those who are, believe in him but are worried that things are not picking up as fast as they would’ve loved?
Let’s be patient. Rome was not built in a day. We don’t make omelettes without breaking eggs.There’ll be pains for us to achieve some gains. So it’s just a process. And I can see, if you look at the situation in Nigeria today, things are really improving in terms of fundamentals. Yes, everybody might not feel it right now, but as individuals too, we must change with trend. If agriculture is now making so much money, then I can leave my job as a banker and go and be a farmer. You can’t stick to a particular job that’s no longer in vogue. Now, Nigeria is not producing petroleum products. It will be unproductive for every one of you now to be embarking in tank farm, to bring in fuel. So if you’re an importer, you know already that importation will now become a very bad business very soon. If you don’t change your business, then you have yourself to blame. So we must adjust to the situation in Nigeria..
So, you have no doubts that the President will take us out of the woods?
Absolutely, I have no doubts in my mind at all that he will take this country to the next level. He is the very best that we have for now. None of those contesting the office with him can withstand the pressure that he has been carrying since he got to office. He is our only option, the best bet for now. He has the experience, he has the capacity, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu will turn things around, Nigerians have nothing to worry about, all they need to do is pray for him and support him.
Being the chairman of the House Committee on Electoral Reforms, and seeing that Nigeria has just celebrated 25 years of uninterrupted democracy, how would you say this country has fared?
If you look at the electoral transition, let’s look at what happened during the 60s that led to Operation Wet tie, where people would vote, and the votes would not be counted there. They would be taken down to the electoral office, and many things happen before it gets there. So that was a transition, that was a particular scenario. Yes, there was the time where we were using the open ballot. People would line up, and I still tell people, open ballots can never be a fair election. I, as a landlord, cannot be on a different queue with my tenant that’s owing me some money. I’m sure he would never attempt it. That’s another scenario that we passed through. We would pass through the scenario of ballot box snatching, stuffing of ballot boxes. All these are situations we’ve gone through in the past. But the last electoral amendment has been the best thing I’ve ever experienced.
The inclusion of the BVAS. Accreditation of voters has been the major bane. How do you ensure that the number of people that are registered in that area and are present are the only ones that will vote? Because collation and all the rest, yes, are also necessary. But the first action is the voting itself, accreditation of voters. Before the use of BVAS, many people would come, maybe about just 5-20 people in the polling station would vote, the whole 500 registered voters in that unit. So if we have been able to achieve that through the proxy voting now, we do proxy voting for them at the end of the day, just 50 people will be present and 500 votes will be counted in that ward. Either I now transmit it manually, electronically, it doesn’t even matter again.
So the best thing that has actually happened is the BVAS that happened within the last 2023 election. Yes, some people might not agree, but for us politicians, we know the fear of the BVAS is the beginning of everything. So we can now see, from what we’ve been having, that’s why some people were saying that there was a lot of voter aparthy during the last election. No, that was the first time we got the realistic votes. In many polling units, you have about 2,000, 3,000 registered voters, but most of these people are no longer, either no longer in that area, or they have died, transferred their PVC to another unit, but all these numbers are still kept. So you just have a growing number of voters until INEC is able to clean up its register. To remove all those, I will call it maybe dead registration now, then they will be able to get the actual number of voters. That is the day we now know if there is actually voter aparthy or not.
What’s your impression of the turn out of voters generally?
The last election witnessed the highest turnout as far as I’m concerned. Many students that never voted before came out to vote. People were agitated for many reasons and they came out, but we still saw a very low turnout. It is because the number we have on the data of INEC is not realistic. We have about 93 million as of now, and at the end of the day the election will be between 27 and 33 million, just about one third of the register.
So far, would you say our democracy has been fair to the people, to the electorates in particular, because it appears the politicians keep getting richer and bigger than the people?
I always say one basic thing, that many politicians leave office worse than the way they got in. The only thing is, like you only see some of the few extravagant ones and you generalize. Do you know how many politicians who, after leaving office find life very difficult? Because now, they’ve left whatever they were doing before. And that’s one of the areas we’ve got to amend in some of our laws that says you have to resign before you contest election. You have to resign from your job. You have to do this, you have to do that. So that means we are making politics only available for those who have nothing doing because you have to risk leaving your employment to go and contest. There are many people who want to do that. That would be very interesting.
So you’re implying that we should make politics part-time?
Look, you see, I’m telling you something, majority of members are not finding it easy. No matter how much you say we collect, whatever you input is not as much as the output. We are talking about real politicians, not the few appointed ones who are just lucky to be appointed, who don’t have constituency. A real politician who has constituency, who has his people, he feels whatever they feel. Check our messages. Everything is about, there’s a problem here, we need money, we need money. Sometimes I print my statement of account and its quite bulky because of so many transfers done every day. Even when you are not with them physically, anywhere you are, because of e-banking, you can do e-transfer now, you can’t escape. All they need to do is just send a text and include their , account number. So, you’re always there. We do not have any other choice but to see how we can offer them succour in their time of need.
