We Used 2023 General Election To Send ‘Important’ Message To Kwara PDP, Prove A Point–Nurudeen Adeyemi
An aerospace engineer, Chief Nurudeen Adeyemi Balogun, who is known for being altruistic, is a man of many parts.
In this interview with Team@orientactualmags.com , Engineer Nurudeen Adeyemi , a former Kwara South APC Senate aspirant , who is based in the United States of America, talked about his love for his party, the APC, and how the 2023 General Election served as a platform and an opportunity to prove a point in the State of Harmony.
Read On:
If you hadn’t been an engineer which profession would you have given consideration ?
Assuming I’m not an engineer, what other profession would I have ventured into? Hmh.., well, I don’t know. I think I’m just naturally programmed to be a problem solver. I will call myself a jack of all trade. Mostly, I revel in identifying problems or I’m intrigued by problems and look into solving them. So, I think engineering is just a natural problem solving profession. But these days, the field of engineering is far and wide. I’m in engineering and also in business operations improvement. I think I’m just wired to look into how to make things better, to identify problems and solve them, or to identify what is not working and try to figure out an improvement to them. So, whatever that may be, I think generally speaking, businesses value are also problem solvers and I think that is why they need people.
Otherwise, in this age of Artificial Intelligence, there are algorithms or automatic solution that businesses can put in place but there is no substitution for the imagination of the human intelligence. So, I don’t know what field I would have been but I guess that I’m just naturally made to be a problem solver.
You’re a politician and a technocrat, how have you found it easy combining the two?
I will say I’m a technocrat. If you say I’m a politician because I have sought party nomination in the past , so be it. Again, that goes back to being a problem solver. When things are not right in the society, in the democratic settings that we have, the only alternative to improving and impacting the lives of the people in a major way or in a way that affects a good number of people is through politics. So, the politics side of me is about problem solving. If we look around and things are not working, we will turn things around within our own private means.
Look at the ENACT Innovation Hub for example, we have possibly trained hundreds of people, or close to a thousand of people since we opened the Hub in November 2021 or so. If I happen to be a serving senator for example, I would have probably found a way of using the resources of the state to affect hundreds or thousands of people. So, that is the scalability. You know, Igbomina Mobile Clinic probably affected and possibly impacted 12,000 to 15,000 possibly 20,000 or something. But as a serving senator or something like that, I probably would have had the opportunity to use the state resources to affect hundreds and thousands of lives or even millions of lives. So, politics is an avenue to positively affect or solve problems at a larger magnitude than one can do as a private citizen. So, they are all combined or intertwined in one way or the other. You know, once you are in a democratic dispensation, there’s no other way to positively impact lives other than through politics. That’s just the bottom line. Yes, you can be a businessman and employ thousands of people. The only thing you can do for them is pay them wages and possibly do CSRs. Then what? But if you’re in politics, you have the access to the state resources, then you can allocate those resources to positively impact in lives of people in a greater magnitude. That is the truth.
You are based in the United States. Yes, we have the APC UK chapter, APC USA chapter, APC Canada chapter. Most of the members possibly campaigned for the party’s candidates over there. But you came to Nigeria 3 months to the last General Election and you even served as a member of the campaign council. You were still around and did not leave for USA until about 2 months after the elections. You actually love your party?
Well, you know that in the previous attempt, we tried to uproot a dynasty that had been in place in Kwara state for a long time. Alihamdulillahi, we were able to dislodge them and we got 35 , they got 0. Like some people would say; ‘a stopped clock is right twice a day’, it doesn’t mean the clock is not broken. It just means you’re lucky. And on any given day, anybody can win. I remember vividly listening to news stating that Buster Douglas has defeated Mike Tyson in 1990 in Japan, I remember myself crying that day. I don’t know why but I cried because Mike Tyson was invincible and nobody could beat him and then we had a no-name Buster Douglas and you just all but feel sorry for him.
That’s the thing about what happened in Kwara state where we won 35-0 or 36-0 if we add the deputy governor. Then, in order to do it again, to prove that the first one wasn’t a fluke, to prove that Kwarans truly supported us, we have heard things like ‘ehn everything is propaganda’ but Yoruba people would say; ‘Ekan ni atanni do ma n tan ni’. If he’s able to do it twice, that means you enjoyed it. So, to prove that the first time wasn’t through propaganda and to say that Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq’s first term in Kwara state was all about performance ,we had to do the needful ahead of the 2023 General Election.
If it was truly about propaganda, the people would have seen through the propaganda within four years. But politics is about carrying the message to the nooks and crannies. I wake up 24/7 to kwara politics. You know many other people marvel and ask ‘do I even sleep at all? . Every politics is local in my own view. I want to help my people the way I can. Since the governor and some of our party people are doing just that, it doesn’t necessarily mean that I have to be in position of authority. If I see people occupying positions of authority that are being guided by the spirit to help my people, I will do everything I can to support them. Hopefully if Allah ordains it that it’s my own time, I will need other people to help me do the same. You know I cannot be everywhere so, we need people that believe in our vision .
So, if I can be a messenger of the party’s achievement through every nook and cranny of the state, especially in the area of influence that we have in Kwara South and so be it. If I need to invest my time, my resources and my brain power. I always give Alhaji Jani Ibrahim credit for this one when we talk about the three talents, the three ‘Ts’, your Talent, your Time, your Treasures. The three things that Allah has given us and some people have all three, some people have only one, some people have two. But how do you maximize that. Alihamdulillahi, I’ve been given the three. I have time, I have the talent and Alihamdulillahi, God has given me a little bit of treasure that I can invest in the people and in the party and I have actually done that. So, it is important for me to further cement the legacy of the party in the state that our first term win wasn’t a fluke, that we can do it again. Absolutely, I reveled in the outcome because some people believe that it wasn’t going to happen. We proved them wrong, alihamdulillahi. Even though we thought it was 34-1 on the Election Day, so far so good, we’ve gotten back to 35-0. Some thought it was not going to be possible in the beginning but alihamdulillahi. Yoruba people would say: ‘Adunse bi nkan ti Olohun l’owo si’. We thank God for that.
Do you think your party can change things for the better in the country ? Should Nigerians sustain trust in your party’s ability to deliver good governance?
Democracy is a very tough business in terms of what it entails. There’s no way anybody, any party can satisfy all of the yearnings of all the people at the same time. Let me give you an example, if I’m able to transform your life today and I’m able to give you a land cruiser car jeep and a duplex and you don’t really have to worry about food. You would say ‘okay my life is better than yesterday’. But after a while you’ll look and say, can there be something better than this? Then you start to look for such things. That is what democracy is all about because the only constant thing is change. So, people tend to look for what is next and whatever you give them after a while, it’s just human nature, the only way humanity is advancing constantly and everyday is because we are not satisfied with the status quo, we’re never satisfied with whatever we have. We are always saying ‘what is next?’.
Our father would trek from Esie to Ajase to catch a bus in those days to go to Lagos. Today, it is a chauffeur-driven car if Iam leaving Lagos for Esie. All within a hundred and something years, right? But I’m not stopping there. Now, I’m talking about an aircraft. I say Lagos to Esie is taking me 4 hours. I want to do it in 30 minutes. I come out of my house, get my own aircraft, press the button and in 30 minutes I’m in Esie. That is just the human nature. We are always looking for the next best thing. So, the party has a challenge and that is anticipating what is the next thing that the people are looking for and providing it to them ahead of the time.
That’s why the Yoruba people would say: ‘A ma n pon mi le de oungbe ni’. If you are constantly doing things to stay ahead of the game, that is the only way you can stay relevant. If you wait for the people to ask for what is next, you are probably already losing. Any government that wants to be relevant and stay in power for long has to be anticipatory in nature. It’s the nature of human being to live day to day but it is the nature of any serious government to plan ahead a year from now, five years from now, ten years from now, fifteen years from now so that when the need arises, the resources or the infrastructure needed is already there. If you are constantly trying to catch up you are likely to lose the game. That’s just the nature of the game because your opponents are not sleeping. They will come out and promise them the next good thing. But if you’re already doing it, no problem.
Take the last guber election in Kwara state for example, I dare say that 80% of what gubernatorial candidates of the opposition parties were proposing, the governor is already doing it. So, what do you want to tell the people. So ,that’s the way APC can stay ahead of the game in anticipation of what the opposition may be trying to sell and beat them to it. People are constantly looking for what is the next greatest thing but the only way to stay ahead of the game is to be anticipatory in nature and make sure that all the things are there before the people ask for it. It’s a tough business but any serious minded government wants tough challenges.
How would you assess the Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq administration and what advice do you have for Kwarans?
What I can tell Kwarans is that the Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq administration has put a lot of iron in the fire. We have a lot of projects and our people are dejected somehow especially the ones that are not keeping up. Those of us that are keeping up during the progress made we know the status of most of these things and we know that they are going to get delivered. I will not say the common man on the street because the common man on the street sees a little bit here and there of the various infrastructural development or the day-to-day impact on people’s lives. We can’t get away from the fact that we are a civil service state and it affects the market women as well. When they are paying salary and pension regularly, and the gratuities that we have inherited. That means there is money in the pockets of the people to spend which means the market women, other artisans are actively engaged.
The state government has revealed this month that come next year many of these projects will be nearing completion. Like the garment factory now, it has been announced that they will actually start operations in January and they had put out employment advert a while back. Hopefully, they will begin to execute some of these things. A lot of the mega projects that the current administration are putting in place will be coming up soon. For most of our people on Kwara South and Kwara North, I want to let them know that the governor is an equitable governor. He believes in equitable distribution of wealth across the state. Some people will say why are we concentrating flyovers in Ilorin, we can be doing other things in other parts of the state. What I want to assure people is that the governor that I know keeps tracks of key metrics whether spending, whether appointments or what have you by ward, by local governments, by senatorial districts and have the details of those information at his fingertips. All of that in a way to ensure that certain things don’t weigh too much on the other.
Naturally, a lot of these mega projects have to be situated in the capital for obvious reasons. Obviously, I can situate an International Conference Center in Ajase-Ipo or Omu-Aran or Offa or Osi as the case may be but that is a big far from the other infrastructure projects needed to support such. People are landing at the airport in Ilorin. If they have to drive all to way to Omu-Aran or Osi after landing in Ilorin, you and I know that that is not that easy. So, such a thing like the International Conference Center obviously has to be in the capital. So, that’s just the nature of the business but what we are saying is that institutions especially are easy way or easy tool for the development of the communities where they may be located. After the state government has done all needed at the campuses of Ilesa Baruba and Osi campuses, we can begin to look at other campuses.
That’s why I like the initiative of upgrading one of our colleges of education to a degree-awarding institution so that they can begin to have campuses in other places. We have the general hospital now being given the status of a teaching hospital for the Kwara state University. Hopefully in the next distant future, we may have maybe the IVTECH in Ajase-Ipo becoming a campus of KWASU and other places located as campuses. The likes of general hospital, Offa, Omu-Aran, Oro and other general hospitals can equally be given the status of teaching hospitals and things like that. That’s my hope and prayer. So, I just want to urge our people to be patient and this development will go around. Especially our brothers and sisters from Kwara South and Kwara North as the case may be.
You’ve lived in Lagos, so, we can call you a Lagosian and a Kwaran, how would you assess President Bola Tinubu administration?
I won’t say I lived in Lagos. I was born in Lagos. I grew up in Lagos but I didn’t really pass my childhood there anyway. I grew up in Kwara. Since most of my formative years were spent in Kwara state because I attended boarding schools in Kwara. I was always in Lagos during the holidays. I’ll just call myself a Kwaran that found himself in Lagos. The Lagos of those days, yes, but the Lagos of the then Governor Tinubu administration in Lagos was very transformative. What I like about Lagos is that there is a blueprint that each successive government is keying into and building upon and that is what I do not like about most of the governments that we have around the country. This issue that another government will come in and start from somewhere else and have a lot of abandoned projects.
Especially when I look at the national assembly, it’s as if I just want to initiate a project, check off the box and move on without anybody else coming behind. If you look on paper and look at the vocational centers that we have especially in Kwara state and then you go to that centers and say how many of them are actually functioning. How many of them are actually impacting people’s lives on a daily basis. The number you will get will be shocking and surprising , it’s probably close to zero. What is the essence of saying I established a vocational center in this place, with no staff, no equipment, virtually nothing . How come all the people coming behind instead of creating their own vocational centers, why not revive the ones that are there already so that people can actually get the benefits. I was driving today towards Kwara South from Ilorin and I was between Jimba Oja and Idofian, you see all of these federal government agencies on both sides of the road and imagine how many people are working there? Are the people there from Kwara state or were they transferred from another place. So, there is a need for a blueprint and continuity.
That is why I like what Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq is doing in respect of the master plan for the state, creating a blueprint that each successive government can build upon but that continuity can only happen if and only if somebody that buys into the vision of the governor succeeds him and build upon it. If somebody that doesn’t buy into his vision comes, he will truncate all that he has done because the person wants to build his own legacy and start from somewhere else. Fashola continued where Tinubu left and today we have many train line running in Lagos but most of the plans of these train lines were 20 years old. Rails were laid down 10, 15, 20 years ago, now somebody just purchased the train and executed it. So, everybody is building something on the next one and that is the way we need to continue with our government or else we would have a lot of abandoned resources, that is waste of capital resources that is very scarce to come by in the first place. If I have to say anything about that, that’s what I’m going to say. Yes, it’s true that every government would like to have its own vision.
Even if you come from an opposition party, continue whatever is good and whatever differences you may have, generally come up with your own and in most instances everybody wants infrastructure. So, infrastructure should not be a pro-government or anti-government or whatever. Where opposition and the government of the day may tend to differ is about welfarism. Some people believe in the pro-business approach while some believe in social security approach. But all of them are trying to address the same problem which is how do we provide economic security for our people. We can have an intellectual conversation about that but that doesn’t stop us from ensuring continuity agenda in respect of infrastructure.
Can you please tell us about yourself?
Engineer Nurudeen Adeyemi Balogun is an indigene of the ancient city of Esie. My great grandfather was the Balogun of Offa and later the Balogun of Esie. We actually have many Baloguns across Kwara south.
Iam a husband and a father and I was honored with the chieftaincy title of Akinkanju Omo of Esie Kingdom by His Royal Highness Oba Yakubu Babalola the Elesie of Esie Kingdom.
I attended GSS Omu-Aran, Ilorin Grammar School and the Government High School, Ilorin.
I received a Bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering from the United States Military Academy, West Point, NY , a Master’s of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the North Carolina A&T State University, Greensboro, NC.
I also received a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan.
Iam a Professional Engineer with many years in the automotive industry working for Chrysler Corporation, Daimler-Chrysler AG, and Ford Motor Company.
Along with others, we earned a US Patent number 6,270,440 for innovative ideas generated.
I was a member of the Cadets Brigade Staff and the President of the International Students association of North Carolina A&T State University, Greensboro, NC-Team@orientactualmags.com
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