Senator Babajide Christopher Omoworare represents Osun East at the National Assembly. In this interview with GBENGA ADERANTI, Omoworare opens up on life as a senator and his best kept secrets, among other issues
I’M surprised that rather than engaging a driver as a senator, you chose to be driving yourself…
I like driving. As a senator of the federal republic, I don’t see why I should not drive, because if things were the way they should be in Nigeria, the pedestal on which we have placed public officials, so much so that some people are almost worshipping them, should not be. We are the representatives of the people. We are normal people even though a lot of people expect us to behave in a way that is out of this world, as if we are not elected representatives of the people.
We are elected representatives of the people and we must be responsive to the people and behave in a manner that dictates our position. So, I drive myself because it is me, Babajide Omoworare. I happen to be a senator of the federal republic; it is sincerely shouldn’t be a big deal. So I should ordinarily be able to drive myself within my senatorial district, in Abuja, in Lagos, wherever I find myself. Wherever I find the opportunity to drive, even when I travel abroad, I drive. So sincerely, it is no big deal.
I enjoy driving and it gives me the opportunity of feeling the road. It is a different ball game entirely when you drive and you sit in the owner’s corner as we call it in this part of the world. If you are chauffeur-driven, you don’t feel the road. We must feel the road so that we can make adequate recommendations towards their repair.
One would expect you to stay in a more reserved area, but you have chosen to stay in a crowded environment. Why that?
Well, I have a place of my own in Ile-Ife where I come from. Don’t forget that I represent Osun East, which is made up of the entre Ife and Ijesha lands. However, I have moved back to my father’s house which I have renovated because I actually want to live right with the people. If you stay on the outskirts of the town, you sincerely may not know what is genuinely happening in town.
I live right in the heart of the town, not far from the palace and right by the market. In fact, my family bequeathed the land for the market to Ife town for the new market, which is called Oja Odo Ogba. That is where I live. That is where I vote. That is where my polling unit is. Although I was born at the General Hospital, Ilesha when my father was the principal of Ebenezer Grammar School, Ijeda, very close to Iloko, Oriade Local Government in my senatorial district, I can easily say I was born in that neighbourhood,
I remember growing up at Odo-Ogbe. We actually left that house when I was five years old and we moved to Akarabata in Ile-Ife. But I have decided to go back to that place because that is the heart of Ife. It will always give you the feel of what true Nigerians are saying about government or about your party. You will have the opportunity of meeting the youth, the elderly women and ordinary Nigerians. That was why I moved back to Odo Ogbe and I have not regretted it. It is always tough.
You know you have a lot of people who need attention. You must always try your best possible to give them attention. That was what informed my going to live in a place that. I now have the opportunity of representing the people with a view to letting them know that governance is not a mirage. It is not about somebody you can’t have access to. It is about the man next door.
People must live among the people they represent. I will give you an example: the Vice President of the United States of America, Joe Biden, was a senator for about 36 years. Every weekend, he would go back home and on weekdays, he would go back to Washington to represent his people. That is how it is supposed to be. But what you see nowadays is a senator riding in a convoy of about 30 vehicles, blowing the siren. You are not representing the people if you scare them away from the streets. The best way to feel the people is to live among them and deemphasise that position you are holding with a view to let the people have access to you.
That leads me to the issue of people who want to be in government because of the paraphernalia and the aura of office. They have made it a matter of life and death because of siren, orderly and people’s salute. I even think the executive positions of governor and president should be de-emphasised. However, when it comes to persons representing the people in the legislature, they should not blow siren on the street and scare people away. That is my view.
Are you not concerned about your security when you say siren should be de-emphasised?
My father, a school principal, there are two very significant things he did which I must allude to now because of the question you asked. He lived among the people. I used to follow him to Akodi Ile Moku or family meetings. So, it is now not strange to me. I have a lot of friends. I have a lot of contemporaries who find it difficult meeting with people at that level; the monthly meeting held at Akodi, which is the hall at my family compound. What I have noticed as a legal practitioner is that it is the first step towards conflict resolution. What they do most every month end is to resolve issues which would have gone to court. So, I feel free.
Secondly, of course, as a school principal by profession, he was a farmer and a hunter. Out of hobby, I followed him hunting and did all such stuff. But that does not mean that I would brandish a gun. I don’t have a gun. I don’t have anything. What I have is God. I have had close shaves with death too many times that at the end of the day, you will know that it is only because God is on the throne that you survived. So why should I start organising security for myself?
I agree with you that at times it may seem that people want to get very close to you. But at the same time, you must let them know how close they must get to you. You must not discourage them from getting close to you at all. Yesterday, a lot of people wanted to see me. At a point, I had to beg to have my very late dinner. But I must say that it is a duty for me. I see it as an obligation. I sincerely appreciate the security challenges in the country, but sincerely, what matters most, like I said, is to keep trusting in God and having faith in Him. Like I said, I’ve had extremely close shaves with death but God has always been on the throne.
There were so many people around you yesterday and I saw you spending a lot of money. How much do you spend in a week?
The position we are, if it were to be in other climes, you don’t get to spend the way we spend. And after giving it a thought, I think the reason is that there is so much poverty in the land, which is why l have always said that we must reduce poverty. We cannot eradicate it, but we must extremely reduce poverty, and the only way we can do it is to provide employment for people. Not by of way of everybody having a white-collar job. but by SMEs, (small and medium scale enterprises) setting up youths so that youths can themselves employ labour.
Having said that, you still have a lot of youths there you have promised to get jobs for, to set up or do one form of skill acquisition or the other. You don’t really have a choice; you have to redeem those pledges. So, you saw a lot of them yesterday. A lot of pledges have been redeemed. We have a skill acquisition centre at Ajebandele. We’ve done economic empowerment.We’ve given people tools with which to work. Don’t forget that officially, the poverty level of Nigeria is enormous. What that means is that whatever I do at the moment cannot be enough, even in the State of Osun which has the least in state by state analysis. According to the National Bureau of Statistics record, the State of Osun has the least pool of unemployed pool, yet there is always need for us to do interventions. So, what you saw me doing yesterday was basic intervention.
In other climes, you don’t have to do it. I know that will reduce corruption in governance. Representative of the people appear in the Senate on their behalf and come back to give them feedbacks, but lot of us do more than that. In fact, almost all politicians do that. While some of us are saying no to corruption, we sincerely cannot vouch for everybody in government and we feel that corruption must stop. But the most important lesson we must learn is that if you live among the people and they have concerns, you don’t have any choice but to intervene.
I don’t have a choice. Youths would be restless if they are not gainfully employed. I will try my own best possible despite the fact that I go home broke. Definitely, I can’t place a figure. I can’t say I spend X amount of money every weekend. You have to keep spending as long as there is need, and I also have to keep spending as long as the federal government, to be specific, is not responsive to the yearning of the people. I sincerely cannot put a figure to what we spend every weekend. As long as you are among the people, you will keep spending.
What has being a senator taken from you? I’m sure you are missing certain things.
I think the most important thing it has taken away from me is the perception that Jide is now a senator and we can no longer reach him. You see your friends who are still supposed to be in touch with you but are no longer in touch with you. If you run into them or visit them, they would say, ‘You know you’re now a senator, we can’t reach you any longer.’ We have all mystified some political offices.
Like I said, I’m still Babajide Christopher Omoworare. I still stop in Ife to say hello to my friends when I drive, and I pass in front of my friends’ shops or my friends’ residence. I would park and they would tell me, ‘We are surprised that you’re driving. We are surprised that you stopped to say hello to us.’ I have to convince them that it is no big deal. I have really missed that.
I’ve really missed a lot of good friends. I’m the one looking for them. They have stopped looking for me. They are under the wrong impression that once Jide becomes a senator, he will no longer be accessible. From what you can see, having spent some time with me, I think I’m accessible. I bear in mind every day the fact that power is transient. I bear it in mind ever day I wake up and sleep, reminding myself of the fact that there were senators before me and there will be senators after me; that what I do when I’m in office, the number of lives I’m able to touch, the number of people I’m able to assist using my position, matter to me most, not how much wealth I accumulate.
I’ve seen people who have made billions in government but are broke today, because what is called albarka (good fortune) is only given by God and not by man or how much you think you can access when you are in government.
What about habits?
It really has not changed. I still attend programmes and functions. I saw last week whose father turned 80 and I did not know. I asked why he didn’t invite me. The response I got was, ‘I didn’t want to bother you.’ I want to be bothered. I want to attend. I still go to church. I still go to weddings. I go to naming ceremonies. I go to funerals. I do all sorts of things. It does not make any difference to me. The position has not affected my social life.
Don’t forget that I had the opportunity of representing the people of Ifako Ijaiye Constitutency 1, Lagos, and I left Lagos House of Assembly as the Majority Leader. Even then it did not affect me. And I told myself that when I become the senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria representing Osun East, my lifestyle would not change. My social life would not change and it has not changed. My children are in the boarding house. I still find time when they are at home, we bond and go to places together. I make them attend programmes. They go to the parliament to observe proceedings. I take them to court to observe proceedings. Whatever I think they may be missing, I feel the gap for them. I take them to banks. I do personal excursion for them, I take then to broadcasting corporations. They see television stations and radio stations. I don’t want them to miss anything in life because their father is a senator.
I know the stress that being in this office has on me, my wife, my family, my children and stuff like that, but I’ve tried my possible best to even raise my children in a normal way so that I won’t be ostracised by my children. At the same time, I will also not give them the impression that their father is big; that they are not the children of normal people. So, I’ve tried this and I thank God that so far so good, He has been so good in this area.
So it has really not affected my social life. I still find time to hang out with my friends. We sit down and gist. We talk about Nigeria. They know when I don’t want to talk because I might have been talking about Nigeria for two, three weeks, and we may just need 5, 10 or 20 minutes to catch up with old friends and we still end up talking about Nigeria, because they may just have the solution to the problem bothering me in the senate. If I don’t have such opportunities to talk to my friends, I could end up talking to people who instead of giving me proper advise would be looking at status. I’m of the view that my friends would tell me the truth. I always appreciate those sessions. These are the people that will always tell you the truth. They’ve always known you. They are not the people that just knew you when you became a senator or when you became a member of the House of Assembly.
So nothing has really changed, my social life, my relationship with friends, my relationship with people has not changed. I’m as humble as ever. I still respect those that I should respect. In our part of the world, irrespective of your position, you must give respect to people you must give respect to.
If I’m correct, you were abducted in 2005 or thereabout. What was going on in your mind while you were being held?
Essentially, like I told you earlier on, I’m a very prayerful person. I pray a lot and I think God answers my prayer. Nothing else was on my mind, I prayed and God answered my prayer.
What are the things you can’t do without?
I’m not really a material person because you don’t really have the time to enjoy the material things. That is the truth. Even if you amass or acquire material things, you don’t even have the time to savour them. So, I enjoy time with my family. Like I said, I always do my vacation with my family. It doesn’t have to be abroad. We’ve had cause to spend our vacation at the Golf Course at Ada. We’ve had cause to spend vacation in Ile Ife, Cross River, Lagos, Ghana and, of course, abroad.
You always have people in government or people who are very busy. They don’t know their children. They don’t know their family. They get estranged from their children. They don’t know what their children crave for. They don’t know the interests of their children. They don’t know the hobbies of their children. They don’t know anything about their children. I look for time, even if two or three weeks in a year, to spend an explicit time with my family. That is my passion.
Maybe apart from that I love driving. I don’t have the opportunity of driving exotic cars, but at least I drive whenever I have the opportunity of driving. I read a lot of books. I read biographies, and autobiographies. I read very good books. I read books on recommendation. But learning from what my father told me, to appreciate good books, you have to read bad books. I read anything that comes my way. It broadens my mind.
I enjoy soccer a lot. When I have time, I play soccer. Apart from that, I watch football a lot. When I was growing up, I supported Shooting Stars Football Club of Ibadan. I’m still supporting Shooting Stars. I don’t have any choice at the moment, I also support Prime Football Club in the State of Osun. Apart from that, I support Nottingham Forest and Manchester United in the UK. But you know, I’m of the view that we must look inward and support our clubs at home because we are missing a lot of things. We actually contribute a lot of money to those playing abroad without developing our own. So, I enjoy football a lot.
I also enjoy hunting and farming, one of the things my father taught me. We have a big farm in Ife North Local Government. I enjoy farming a lot, but I no longer go to farm as much as I used to. At the age of 17, I planted 25 hectares of corn and cassava and I thoroughly enjoyed myself throughout that period. I was about to be admitted to the Obafemi Awolowo University and I was the one that ran my father’s farm for that period. We had 14 labourers on the farm at that period in time. I was the one managing the farm and I enjoyed myself thoroughly.
Of course, one of the things my father taught me was hunting. You cannot be on the farm and not hunt, I farm and I hunt. I enjoy farming tremendously.
You mentioned that you’ve had so many close shaves with death. You were once caught up in an anti-fuel price hike protest. How did you escape? You probably had what others didn’t have.
I don’t have anything; it was God’s grace. That was sincerely blown out of proportion. I’m a civil libertarian and I believed in the cause the people were fighting for. We were not travelling during the day, and it was deliberate. And we did not meet protesters; we met miscreants. Sincerely, we met miscreants. There was no more protest at 5 or 6 pm. We were driving to Abuja. Don’t forget that you can drive in Nigeria at any time. We are always concerned at the National Assembly about mass transit and the public transporters transporting people in the middle of the night.
Of course, we have sufficient security men and we were missing out of proceedings in Abuja and we felt we could represent the people better in Abuja. Because of the protests, the airports were shut. I was part of NADECO. I was part of those effecting the Campaign for Democracy instructions when we had to ensure that people stayed at home during the June 12 struggle. So, we would never travel during the day when there was an instruction that people should stay at home.
So, we were travelling very late with a view to getting to Abuja maybe very late of very early the next morning with a view to representing the people on the floor of the Senate. But I think it was over-exaggerated. People blocked the road and we wanted to avert crisis among those people, because there was an argument among the people. Some said, ‘Don’t you know them, they are the people fighting for us. This is Senator X, Senator Y, Senator Z. They are our people.’ And there were people saying, ‘We need money; let us just take money.’ And we felt we that we would be saving not just ourselves but averting a security situation by going back to Lagos and going back to Abuja some other time.
Of course, the latter people I spoke to threw stones which hit one or two vehicles in the convoy. But sincerely, I think it was blown out of proportion.
But whether you like it or not, that was part of close shaves. It is not as if I have anything that protects me other than prayer.
