Obafemi George: Nigeria Needs Visionary Leaders Willing to Make Tough Decisions

For Samuel Obafemi George, leadership is not about choosing the popular path, but making difficult decisions that secure a better future. The Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Barachel Realty Limited believes Nigeria’s current economic pains are temporary sacrifices necessary for long-term prosperity, insisting that bold reforms, infrastructure investments and social reengineering remain the only sustainable path to national growth. In this conversation with  Sunday Ehigiator, the entrepreneur, politician and youth advocate speaks about President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s reforms, Nigeria’s housing crisis, the importance of family values, and why he has devoted years to mentoring young Nigerians through leadership and entrepreneurship initiatives. Excerpts:

What have you done in politics, beyond your achievements in the corporate world?

I believe that patriotic citizens can’t sit on the fence and complain. So, I joined ACN in 2007. I was a founding member of APC. I was the first Assistant Youth Leader of APC in Eti-Osa local government. I contested for the chairmanship of Eti-Osa LG in 2016. In 2018 and 2019, I was the Director, Lagos State, for the Buhari Campaign organisation. I ran the entire political architecture in Lagos State and was responsible for strategy implementation, door-to-door campaign and all of those. Thankfully, God helped me, and I did very well. I studied Political Science and obtained a Bachelor’s degree from LASU; Master’s degree from Unilag, and Master’s degree in International Law and Diplomacy also from the University of Lagos. I’ve attended foreign courses in many places. The most recent being the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts. I’m happily married with three wonderful kids. 

As a real estate expert, what would you say is Nigeria’s problem in providing affordable mass housing for its citizens?

For me, the game changer will be if the new Minister can come up with a social housing policy. Historically, the only leader who has been able to crack that code was the late Alhaji Lateef Jakande, as Governor of Lagos. Unfortunately, we’ve been struggling to produce or deliver social housing across Nigeria.

But some people argue that the Jakande houses are substandard. What do you think?

Jakande delivered solid buildings, most of which are still standing today, so how will anyone say they were substandard? The model was to deliver social housing by delivering on the basics. Just block work, no balcony, no façade, no aesthetics. People bought the finished carcass and completed the interiors. Once there’s a political will, there will be a way.

 As a professional and someone focused on reducing poverty in Nigeria, shouldn’t the APC’s policy focus be on aggressively reducing poverty given the global poverty index that rates Nigeria badly?

First, from my perspective as a political scientist, when you see data from the Western world, you must learn that not every piece of data is objective. It is in the interest of the West to paint Africa as a dark continent, a jungle that needs a messiah from Washington, New York or London. They try to control the global narrative. When COVID-19 came, Bill Gates and others like him said they’re going to be picking up corpses on the streets of Africa. Same thing during the Ebola pandemic. But they were shocked. Our medical institutions, doctors, nurses, paramedics, government and wealthy individuals beat the pandemic hands down. The West knows that once Nigeria gets it right economically, Africa will get it right, and once Africa gets it right, take it or not, it’s going to affect Western economies negatively. So it is not in their interests that we get it right economically. So, I will rather focus on the statistics that show we are making progress. The government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is investing massively in infrastructure, from roads to airports and seaports. There is investment in tertiary education supported by a transparent scholarship programme that is flawless. These are the long-term investments that take a nation out of poverty. Let me give you an example. China created a pathway to lift almost a billion people out of poverty. You need to create infrastructure for that, long-term. They also invested massively in education.

They created special economic zones, comparable to what we call free trade zones. Those are the three things they did. In the first 10 years, nothing much happened. China’s economy only grew by 100 per cent. But they did not stop.

They kept doing those three things. By 1999, 20 years later, they crossed the $1 trillion threshold from just their $99 billion economy 20 years before. By 2019, China’s economy was worth $44 trillion. So, when you see a data wallet that says poverty is increasing in Nigeria, that is just one side of the data. Can we quantify our investment in education, infrastructure and the free trade zones?

So, beyond Western criticism, how have we fared as a country?

Let’s begin to track the growth and look at this data together. APC came into power in 2015. By 2016, the global price of crude oil had dropped to 27 dollars per barrel from $100 in 2014. Let’s personalise it. If your salary was N100,000 per month, and it suddenly dropped to N27,000 per month, yet your obligations and expenses keep increasing rather than dropping, what choice do you have but to borrow? Since 1970, every government has promised a Second Niger Bridge in political campaigns, but nobody did it. As a matter of fact, a former president launched the bridge in 2014 with no drawing, nothing. Who delivered on that bridge? An APC government started and finished that bridge, even though when he contested, President Muhammadu Buhari did not win any of the South-East states.

Secondly, since 1908, when the first railway station was built in Lagos, no government, either colonial or Nigerian, ever started a rail project and finished it, except the APC-led government. Thirdly, we’re talking about infrastructure. The Lagos-Ibadan expressway has been under construction since 2006 and was not built until President Muhammadu Buhari came and completed it.

As of 2015, when President Goodluck Jonathan was leaving, his PDP-led government spent N3 billion to launch the flag off of the construction of the Sagamu interchange, but that interchange was just built and completed two weeks ago by President Bola Tinubu’s APC-led administration. And there is the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway, where construction is going on at a record-breaking speed. Funding for the Sokoto-Badagry expressway has just been approved.

 But there are complaints that life has become almost unbearable for some Nigerians. What can you say about that?

This reality is painful for every right-thinking Nigerian. You see, as of December last year, Nigeria’s economic figures were positive in all ramifications, even at the macro-economic level. In January this year, our economy was on cruise control. Then all of a sudden, we all woke up to the news that Israel had attacked Iran.  The result of that, coupled with war escalations between Russia and Ukraine, has toppled the global economy, and Nigeria doesn’t exist in isolation. That singular crisis crashed Nigeria’s economic projections, and that is beyond anybody’s control.  Just two weeks ago, Germany – the strongest economy in Western Europe – cut its economic projections by half. No country or president has control over global economic shocks. Where we are as a nation is temporary, and we are on the right path to a prosperous nation.

 Some may say you are saying all these because you are a party loyalist, what can you say about that?

I am a party loyalist, no doubt about that, but I don’t follow people blindly. There are hard decisions that the government must take, not just to rescue Nigeria, but to position it for true continental leadership. Tinubu’s predecessors refused to make those tough calls that Nigeria needs. Let me give you an example. When President Tinubu came in, the first thing he did was to remove fuel subsidy. He didn’t allow it for any public debate. In his maiden speech, he declared the subsidy was gone forever. For the past 15 years, we have been sinking billions of dollars into foreign refineries, all in the name of subsidies and watching our own refineries fail. It is hard on everyone now, but it is a price we must pay for a better tomorrow. I don’t have a second passport, nor do I plan to relocate, so we must make Nigeria work for us all.

Aren’t you overhyping this administration?

But let’s look at the BRT buses, which Ghana came to study. Some of these buses are so comfortable and convenient, some even air-conditioned, that Lagos has almost forgotten the derelict and dangerous Molue buses we used to commute in. This is visionary leadership, stirred up by our party leader and head of government. Tinubu created the free trade zone in 2003 that today houses Africa’s largest such investment, the Dangote Refinery, which Nigeria is proud of. A visionary leader doesn’t always do what is popular, but what is needful. Tinubu was heavily criticised for creating the free trade zone. His promise of a deep seaport was disbelieved. And they started voting against ACM in 2007, against AC against APC in 2015.

All of a sudden, Lagos has a deep seaport there now. Today, land that was selling N80,000 per plot has turned quite a few of the indigenous land owners into billionaires, marrying second, third and fourth wives, etc. Now, they’ve made a complete U-turn to see what Tinubu saw 20 years ago, which they did not see. Look at the economic explosion along that Lekki corridor, which the United Nations has described as the fastest-growing corridor in Africa.  Now, in terms of policies, all the candidates had similar manifestos in 2023 that they would remove fuel subsidy. But it is doubtful if any of them would have the guts to do it. It could have just been a mere campaign promise that would melt away once they see the cabal behind the fuel subsidy.

Jonathan couldn’t do it. To govern a country as complicated as Nigeria, you need a man in office who is street smart, globally exposed, and can dare anyone based on his convictions. Nigeria will consume Peter Obi completely. Looking at all the candidates for 2027, none of them has Tinubu’s competence, capacity or sagacity.

 What can you then say about the growing insecurity in the country?

The dynamics of our insecurity vary from Northeast to North Central and North West. In the Northwest, like Zamfara, as an example, to be honest with you, it is criminality built around illegal mining that is fighting back. In the North Central, like Plateau and Benue, the crisis is fuelled by an age-long battle over land control between Settlers who are predominantly Muslims and indigenes who are predominantly Christians. A crisis that started with the Jihad of 1804, led to the Tiv Crisis of 1963/64 and is still ongoing till today. It requires justice, it requires a collective and united effort by all Nigerians, and I believe the state police will go a long way to curb the insecurity. Northeast is purely religious extremism perpetuated by Radical Islamic fundamentalists who now have international backing/affiliation. It requires international assistance; we can’t deal with it alone. The federal government is fighting illegal mining in the northwest by successfully formalising the mining industry. Three factories have been set up in Nasarawa State alone in the past 3 years of this administration.

What is the installed capacity of these lithium factories?

All three factories have installed capacity to process up to 10,000 tons of lithium on a daily basis, which is equivalent to about 200 million US dollars. Now, the question is, who was illegally producing lithium before 2023?  Who were the people making hundreds of millions of dollars steadily before Tinubu came to power? Those are the people sponsoring most of these heinous crimes to destabilise the polity in the Northwest.

Do you support godfatherism in politics, and who is your own godfather?

I have mentors, but I don’t have a Godfather. Some people have helped me up in life, within and outside politics, and I would forever be grateful to them and God. In politics, I am a party loyalist to the core. From the perspective of a political scientist, I must let you know that in every community, society and country, there’s what you call a political culture, which controls how leaders emerge.  Although we are practising Western democracy, as Africans, we follow and preserve our political culture, which defers to those who came before us. In Yorubaland, historically, leaders emerge by consensus.  Once there’s a disconnect between your natural political culture and the kind of government you’re trying to run, there will be conflict and chaos. Once both align, you will see smooth leadership. Lagos State is an exceptional example.

Outside of business and politics, what else is a top priority for you?

My family and my faith as a Christian. The family institution is very important to me. If you look at my wife’s social media page, you will see that we do some videos on etiquette, family and marriage. If, as a nation, we put family values first, Nigeria will cruise on autopilot. You see, those rugged area boys out there are victims of absentee fathers and mothers. We are who we are today because we had parents who sent us to school and trained us to be successful, law-abiding citizens. Nobody can come and give any of us a bomb to go and blow ourselves and others up in the name of religion. But for someone who never knew his father and has been on the streets all his life, scrounging for survival, he can easily be brainwashed to be a killer or suicide bomber. Family is everything.