Mr Bola Babarinde is the national chairman, All Progressives Congress (APC), South Africa chapter. He shares the story of his life and how he joined politics with SUBAIR MOHAMMED.
You have been living in South Africa since the past 21 years; how has life been for you?
I was born and bred in Nigeria before I relocated to South Africa in 2000 in search of greener pasture. In South Africa, I was the first Nigerian to be president of Rotary Club of Pretoria West, a position I held for five years. I later became Assistant Governor of the same club between 2020 and 2021. In all these, I have learnt something great about life and humanity. I learnt that life is not about oneself alone. We must learn to live for others.
While in South Africa, I learnt the importance of power of cooperation. As a Rotarian, I realised that no amount of assistance to the people or service to humanity is too small. If you give in your own little way and another person do same, the world will be a better place to live. Basically, I have learnt not to be too aggressive about life unlike when I was in Nigeria. I have learnt to take things easy in life. I believe that what will be, will be. This world is vanity and what matters most is the sacred nature of human life.
What informed your perspective of life, anything to do with your background?
In South Africa, there is a popular saying, ‘no hurry in life, what will be, will be’. Almost every South African patterns his/her life along this dictum. Guided by this, I realised that regardless of the extent of your hustling and aggressiveness, you cannot have what God is not willing to give you. Everything is all about His grace. The thought of this made me to move closer to God. When I was in Nigeria, I attended church service only on Sundays but when I got to South Africa, there was no job to do, so, I devoted my time to serving God rather than wasting around.
And in serving God, you’ll know that there is more to life than yourself alone. Remember I told you about the South African street lingo of ‘no hurry in life’. It was this lingo that opened my inner mind to a lot of things in life. I realised that if you move closer to God, most of the things you don’t deserve will come your way. This is grace.
Apart from this street lingo, any particular experience that shaped you?
There are loads of experiences. Initially, I couldn’t practise my engineering profession in South Africa. I engaged in anything that comes my way as far as it was legal. During this period of hustling, some members of the Christ Apostolic Church (CAC) came to South Africa on missionary work. There was a man in the delegation. We got talking and he introduced me to training. Meanwhile I had no experience in training. It will interest you to now that the first training programme I organised was at a loss because all the money went into it, but I had the experience on how to organise and conduct training programmes. The church actually exposed and shaped my path in South Africa. At that time, being a church member gave the guarantee that you would not be betrayed or defrauded. Also the kind of upbringing I had is another factor.
What about your childhood?
I was very lucky with the kind of childhood I had. I was very young when my father died. He died in 1975. My mother was educated and growing up in a village with a parent of little means wasn’t easy. Like I said, when my father died, I was in the village at Igangan. I completed my primary education in our village and was brought to Ibadan where I enrolled in an evening class.
My journey in life took a turn for the better when my uncle, Mr Fagbemiro, who at the time was working at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and my brother who worked with the Ministry of Works brought me down to Lagos to stay with them. That marked a turning point in my life because after relocating to Lagos, I did not know poverty or lack. My uncle treated me like his first son. l had all the care and love a child from a wealthy home could have. I could recall I had five school uniforms, one for each day of the week. I also had two shoes and three belts. Everything was smooth for me. By the time I completed my primary six, I was enrolled at St. Timothy’s College from where I moved to Baptist Academy where I finished in 1981.
After that I did my HSC at the Federal school of Arts and Science, Victoria Island, Lagos, I went to the University of Lagos to study Civil Engineering. My uncle trained me up to HSC level and by the time, I got admission to the university, my brother had graduated and started working with Total Oil.
Ordinarily from my background, I was supposed to have it rough, but I was lucky with the kind of support I had from my uncle and brother. During my student days at UNILAG, I used a Peugeot 504 till I graduated. My brother had two Peugeot cars. He bought one and he was given another one as his official car. So he gave one to me to be driving. It was very smooth for me.
When I graduated, I served in Chevron and after my NYSC I was offered an employment as contract staff. But I saw the way contract staff were treated, therefore, I rejected the offer. As a contract worker, you were not entitled to go on staff bus whereas a messenger was entitled to the staff bus. He was placed higher than a contract worker who was an engineer.
You must have painted the campus red with your Peugeot 504?
Unfortunately, I did not. The saying, ‘remember the son of whom you are’ was at the back of my mind. It never occurred to me to go clubbing, womanise or even joined cults. Apart from driving a Peugeot car on campus, I also enjoyed what is called Luncheon Vouchers. My brother would give me a pack which I spent at Domino mall and at Total.
It will interest you to know that, most time, I parked my car at the New Hall while I would trek to the Engineering Department instead of driving. This is because I didn’t want the situation where I would bash the car and it would be taken away from me. I knew I was privileged to have such things and I wasn’t ready to bungle the opportunity. Talking about fashion, because of my uncle, I was always conscious of what I wore. He had good taste for fashion. He was always neat and you cannot but admire him. I love being comfortable in whatever I wear. It is not about wearing expensive clothes, but I won’t wear what I am not comfortable in. As an undergraduate, I know I had that high taste. Whenever I went shopping with one of my friends, I won’t mention his name, if he picked any brand of shoe, I can assure you that it would be the cheapest in that store, whereas anything I picked without looking at the price tag would be the most expensive in the store. This tells you that I had that high taste. I think I picked that from my mother’s side.
Can you compare Nigeria of your childhood days to that of today?
You can’t compare what obtained during my childhood days to what the children of today are experiencing. When we were in school, as bad as it was then, workers would come to our hall of residence to clean our rooms and change our beddings. We were treated to special delicacies like fried rice at weekend. Life at that time was better compared to what exists today. We cannot blame democracy for this. We can only blame the military junta for most of the woes. If we have had democracy since that time, by now, we would have perfected it.
Can you recall any adventure you had during your childhood days?
I love soccer. I played football a lot. And I was so adventurous. My uncle had a bookshop called Eji-ogbe book centre. We sold only university books. He employed a store attendant, but he had so much trust and confidence in me to oversee the store whenever he was away. But because of my love for football, I would trek to CMS Grammar School to play football. Most of the time, I would be back before my uncle returned. But on this day, I was not that lucky. My uncle had returned and I forgot to wash my leg. He asked me where I was coming from; I told him I was coming from the room at the boy’s quarters. He saw that I was sweating. He looked at my legs and discovered that I had gone to play football.
And whenever I erred, he never beat me but whenever he threatened to send me back to my mother at the village, I became gentle and behaved well. Imagine the kind of life I am used to in Lagos and I would now be sent back to the village!
Is there any wisdom you learnt from your parents?
Within the little time I spent with my father, I had the rare privilege of gaining a lot from him. I was young when my father died, but I remember his sayings or let me say, warnings to his children. He always tells us that he doesn’t want any of his children to be a lawyer.
Something happened to him that he lost one of his farmlands to someone else. Genuinely he owned the land but he lost it due to his lack of education. The person dragging the land with him had Standard Six. You know Standard Six of that time equals Senior Secondary School of today. So they threatened him and at the end of the day, my father opted for out of court settlement. He didn’t want to go to court. He approached the other person and asked him what he wanted. He told him to let them settle the case amicably and that he was ready to give him the money he would spend on the court process.
But this was misinterpreted by the lawyer when they got to court. The lawyer to the plaintiff told my father during one of the hearings that if truly he owns the land, why would he beg his client to settle out of court? My father felt bad that the lawyer twisted his genuine intention to settle the case out of court. And since then he preferred his children to study other courses except Law.
Another thing I learnt from him is honesty. My father was honest to a fault. Whenever he was given church fund to keep, even if he didn’t have any money of his own, he would not touch the money that was given to him to keep.
How did you emerge chairman of your political party in Pretoria?
Politics started for me when I was in UNILAG, but I preferred to be a kingmaker because of the orientation I had. My father was a member of the Action Group. They had this membership card with which they made monthly contributions. This is the kind of things I wanted to introduce to the All Progressives Congress (APC). My family didn’t like politics, but I engaged in it secretly. When I got to South Africa, at that time, there was the Alliance for Democracy (AD). From AD, there was Action Congress (AC) and from there to ACN and now APC. I joined politics because I felt it was an avenue to serve my people and serve some of my Nigerian colleagues who are not privileged.
How did you meet your wife?
I met my wife through my uncle’s friend. We courted for eight years before we got married. We were together throughout my university days. From there, one thing led to another and we were married.
How did you propose to her?
After eight years of courtship, do I still need to propose? In fact, one of her friends told her I was deceiving her having stayed that long in courtship without proposing to her. Since I was riding [Volkswagen] Beetle at the time and gainfully employed, I decided it was time to get married.
What has been your motivation?
Being good to people at all time is my motivation. Whenever I come to Nigeria and I see hopelessness on the faces of the people, I cry inside. But I cannot do everything. As an individual, I can only do my best and leave the rest. But most of the time, I feel I can do more which is why I sought an elective position. I prefer an executive position where you can generate fund, create employment and make positive changes in the lives of the people. I believe if I have the opportunity, I will change things because this world is vanity and you can only make an impact with the number of lives you touched.
Any regrets?
I have only one regret and that is: I started active politics a bit late. My regret is that I didn’t join politics early enough. If I had done it while I had some good money in Nigeria before I left, I would have impacted many lives. But the thing is that I didn’t get involved in politics early enough. If I had, I would have contributed immensely to the development of my constituents.
Have you found fulfilment in your chosen path?
Sometime what we want is not what God wants for us, but I am happy with the little I have achieved. I have been able to uplift a few numbers of people in the little way I can. Before I left Nigeria, I was able to sponsor the education of a lot of family members and ihave also been helpful to some friends and the needy. This gives me fulfilment.
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