Aare Afe Babalola (SAN), 83, is a man of many parts. He is a senior frontline lawyer, founder of Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD), and much more. Yetunde Oladeinde recently met him in his office at Ado- Ekiti
How and when did the vision for ABUAD start?
I was Pro-Chancellor, University of Lagos from 2002 to 2008. At that time, the University was polarised due to series of factors including the Korean Outreach, when the Vice Chancellor then established a branch of University of Lagos in Korea. This was awarded without the approval of Senate and the whole University became polarised.
I took over, conducted enquiries and at the end of the day, we were able to solve the problems. Later, I found that there were many other problems facing the university which included cultism, they strike almost all the time.
Others were corruption, poor infrastructure including the lack of teaching aids. The laboratories were already in poor condition, the libraries were not good enough and the structures were in bad shape. I called my clients, raised about N3 billion for the university and carried out some repairs. The university under me then was rated as number one.
However, I found that I could not achieve my objective then, making the university one of the best in the world. When my tenure expired, I left. From my experience, it showed that somebody had to do something about education, someone had to redefine education, somebody had to reform it.
Hitherto, I had made 22 donations in terms of buildings, hospitals, equipment and scholarships all around the country. So, it occurred to me that, instead of giving the donations, I could establish a university and pursue my goals. That was after I left the university. I said there was an urgent need for someone to establish a modern university which would be a reference point for others. Not only for others, but for government to follow, I saw that the quality of education was going down. People thought that it was too late in my life.
I am over eighty years and the dream started in 2008, about four years ago. It looked a bit too late in my life and some people told me to forget it. However, I decided to put everything I had into this dream. One of the best ways to do it is to be personally involved in the planning, construction, supervision and execution of establishing my dream university.
I can proudly say that our university is one where all the 36 states have children. The Yoruba are not up to ten per cent of the population. Ekiti is landlocked; no rail line, which is the best form of transportation in the world today.
You mentioned in the course of your discussion earlier that determination was a factor in achieving success. Let’s look at you as an example of determination, and are people really determined in our society today?
I was born into a generation where my parents, though peasants farmers, were determined to lead honest and decent lives. Maybe its hereditary, but to a large extent was made possible by my parents.
As early as 4.30 am, the first cock crows you wake up as small children ,we followed our parents to the farm as far as five miles, towards the hill, narrow paths and start work almost immediately after the long walk. I learnt that very early. Even though my education was limited to standard six, that determination made it possible for me to overcome all the initial problems of life, reading on my own for Cambridge, GCE Ordinary Level, Advance Level, BSc Econ, LLB by private study. We had that determination, you don’t have that anymore. The only thing they want is to make money without working for it. They would inflate prices, in spite of that, they would do bad jobs and would not keep to time. Something has to happen.
Linked to this is the corruption at the higher level. How can we overcome this?
We have endemic corruption. The Nigerian factor now has affected almost all spheres of life. Whether it is in the civil service or the judiciary, all strata of life. My answer is, is it redeemable? Yes we can certainly redeem the situation. One of the ways we can do it is the way we are doing it here. We conducted screening exercise from registry to medical, to colleges, bursary to screen out those who are not likely to be amenable. We have to start from somewhere.
This university put premium on character. A University certificate given by all universities are for two reasons: academic performance and character, but how many universities in Nigeria can talk about character? A university which has 40,000 students, which has facility for 4,000 and allows 32,000 to live outside?
How much of character monitoring can that do? Those living outside would now come and pollute those in the school. So there is no character moulding. That is what we are doing here. All students live on campus, all teachers live on campus and there are rules and regulations. When these students leave there would be a new generation of well behaved and well tutored students. They would now be legends of change.What is happening here is already having a ripple effect on other universities.
One other problem that is on the front burner is the issue of insecurity and Boko Haram? Is there a solution in sight?
I am the President of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators in Nigeria, a very important organisation where you have chief justices and other personalities including the president of this country. We had our last anniversary about three months ago, and one of the awardees, a Supreme Court justice said that there are different geo political zones and he said if the leaders can be like Afe Babalola there would be no Boko Haram.
He explained why. That Boko Haram arose because of poverty; all those in Boko Haram are doing that because they are poor. He said poverty is at the root. What exactly do they want? If a person is very educated, you cannot say you don’t want education, after all I was on the farm when my father brought me into education. I didn’t like it but now I know what I have gained. Our political leaders have a lot to do. Those who have access to them must let them know the damage that they are doing, talk to them and make them change. We also need to sympathise with them rather than criticise them. You can only cure a disease if you know what caused it. We must identify the cause and treat it. If it is leprosy, you know what to do, if it is scabies you know what to do. You cannot use the drug for scabies for leprosy and vice versa. There wasn’t Boko Haram 20 or 30 years ago. So why is it now? There is no disease in the world that has no cure.
Kidnapping is another menace that is affecting the society today. Was it a trend in your days?
Kidnapping, Boko Haram, robbery of all types only existed in the dictionary when I was growing up. At that time, when they did not exist man was contented.
Life was sweet, the needs were very small and the name of the father or the mother was more important than wealth. You work hard and get money. But now the song writers are singing and composing something different, the message now is small work, big money. There is the new one which says ‘Awon kon waye wa sise, awon kon waye wa jaiye’ (some came to the world to work, some came for enjoyment).
The philosophy of life has changed; we must go back to what we inherited from our parents. If we do that we can be sure that peace can come back to this country. Otherwise, a man who rented a room and parlour, campaigns to be a Senator or a member of the House and he becomes a billionaire one year after. Politics has become so lucrative that people think it is the only way to make it in life. That is why I am adjudicating: Let us go back to the old constitution that our forefathers drafted for us and worked for ten years in the Lancaster House in London, appreciating our diversity, religion, culture, tradition and everything and the contribution to the federal government.
No development that is why people are kidnapping because they are poor. Let me tell you a personal example, four women had been looking for me in my office in Ibadan for about four months. They kept on coming and going because there are so many people. One day, I came late to the office and I saw them downstairs and they rushed towards me. They all knelt down, one had a baby, one was pregnant, the other two were much older they were all looking wretched. I asked the first one for her problem and she said the person who impregnated her had absconded. The other said the father of the child was dead and the other two also had poverty related problems. Then I came back to the first and asked how much she wanted and she said N10, 000 and they all said almost the same thing. The first said she wanted to buy plantain to sell boli, the second wanted to sell maize, third wanted to sell yam. I burst into tears and ran away from them to my toilet. It reminded me of how poor this country was, how a person can ask for N10,000 to trade! What kind of trade? You can see the level of poverty.
What are the challenges of running the University?
People do not understand that I do not have all the money. When we wanted to mould blocks we assembled a number of workers and agreed on N25 per block. They agreed to start work and we bought sand, cement and other materials. I left for Ibadan and when I came back I discovered that they had left. They met and said that the money was not good and they were not going to work. I then went to a friend in Lagos and contacted some people in Cotonou and Togo who agreed to charge N22 per block. When they realised that the Togolese were doing it, they came back and said they were very sorry. They were ready to do it for N25 now but I said I did not need them anymore. Again, there are very fetish people around here who were not happy that we were establishing the university here.
What is your view about the National Honours and what do you think about those who have it and have been convicted for one crime or another?
If you are given national honour and you are convicted, then you lose that honour automatically. It is given to people who have honour, a convict has no honour. Secondly, I think the number is getting too large. However, something nice which I saw is this last one is that for a long time, national honours were given to politicians who were in the good book of government and a few offices, once you are there you would get it.
National Honour should be for achievements not just only in politics. This is the only way they know now. That is why I thank President Jonathan for honouring Aliko Dangote and Mike Adenuga Jnr. because these are businessmen. When I got an award from Oxford, the Queen’s Memorial Commemorative Award by the European Business Assembly based in Oxford, their motto is that we recognize achievement and celebrate it.
So, Nigerians should celebrate achievements, it encourages those who merit it and inspires others to do well. Of course, such a person deserves National Honour. Not because you are holding political office then you get OFR, GCON.
