Bamidele Atoyebi: Without Full Financial Autonomy for LGs, There Will Be No Real Progress

super saturday

The founder and convener of the BAT (Bola Ahmed Tinubu) Ideological Group, Bamidele Atoyebi, is a political figure who leads a group of technocrats and supporters dedicated to promoting President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda and governance principles through grassroots engagement, public awareness, and policy advocacy. Atoyebi believes that Nigeria’s democratic renewal must begin at the grassroots, and that no reform will truly work unless local governments are empowered to function independently. In this wide-ranging conversation, he argues that years of centralised control have weakened communities, stalled development, and fostered a culture of dependency. At the same time, Atoyebi makes a strong case for continuity at the federal level. Reflecting on major policy shifts under Tinubu — from fiscal and monetary reforms to infrastructure ambitions and social intervention programmes — he argues that Nigeria is undergoing a difficult but necessary transition.  For Atoyebi, the turbulence of reform is not proof of failure, but evidence of a system being reset.  Ahamefule  Ogbu brings the excerpts:

Tell us about the BAT Ideological Group. What informed its establishment, what is its objective, and its vision?

I was born in Lagos, specifically in Badia Ijora. At the age of three, I was taken to my mother’s village in Kwara State. At the age of 12, I developed an interest in politics. Then, it was the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that was the dominant party. But I was attracted to the Alliance for Democracy (AD), which was the party that Asiwaju Bola Tinubu also belonged to. I got to know about the party when Alhaji Lai Mohammed came to campaign for the Governor of Kwara then. I was attracted to Bola Tinubu’s style of politics because when the PDP swept all the states, he was the only one standing as the Governor of Lagos. So, I went to school and came back to Lagos and developed a personal interest in the man Bola Tinubu. I wanted to know what made him unique and distinct.  My parents gave birth to me the night before Chief Obafemi Awolowo died and I was told that a certain Igbo man who was their neighbor said I was Awolowo reincarnate. When Awolowo died, people started crying that we lost a great leader. But today, we have someone who possesses all the leadership attributes of Chief Awolowo, in the person of Bola Tinubu. And I’ve been following him. So, I was looking at what I can do to promote everything about Asiwaju Bola Tinubu. Look at what he did in Lagos and how he developed the State. Someone courageous enough to stop the sea at Eko Atlantic and turn it into what you have there today. Look at what he is doing about local government autonomy. I feel that without bringing governance closer to the people, the real people at the grassroots level will not feel it. Look at those who succeeded him and a whole lot that he did in Lagos. So, I felt there was a need to institutionalise Asiwaju Bola Tinubu because  I have been seeing him as an institution. So, I built a library in his name at the University of Ilorin, where people could go and read about him. So, it was that library initiative that transformed into this movement, which is called the BAT Ideological Group. We have even gone further and working towards turning that library to a proper research and educational centre on Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, where people can even come and study and are awarded postgraduate degrees.

So, what do you intend to achieve with this BAT Ideological Group?

As I said earlier, the objective is to build men and women who would become living carriers of the Asiwaju Bola Tinubu’s political spirit, his ideas, and philosophy. When you see him, you can see that he’s the only one who has raised men and women in politics. You know that, naturally, politicians are greedy. But for you not to be a Governor, but you are pushing people to contest for Governor; you are not a minister, but you are putting people for ministerial appointment; you are not a vice president, you can install a vice president; you are not a president, you have put someone to become a president. So, as he has raised men, we also want to raise men and women who would be his disciples, so that when he dies, we’ll have men and women across the state that will continue to propagate his ideologies. While he is alive, let us raise men and women who can carry his vision, who understand his ideology, and who will become a carrier of it.

As preparations for 2027 begin quietly, what convinces you that President Tinubu deserves a second term?

There are so many reasons. Firstly, everybody knows that fuel subsidy was a major drain on the economy and Nigeria cannot grow with that kind of arrangement. It’s just like a dirty house. You came in, you put the dirt on one side; another person came in, you put the dirt on the other side. There was a need to totally clean up the room. That was President Tinubu removed the subsidy. Secondly, he unified the multiple exchange rates that we had in the system. Do you know how many people are in prison because of the variance of forex rates that we had, in the past? I know someone who is presently indebted to the tune of N60 billion because of the instability in the forex market, as well as the differences in rates. Even I was affected. But President Tinubu changed all that and saved a lot of young men by unifying the forex rates and eliminating the special rates for some preferred persons, and eliminated rents. I wrote in an article that President Tinubu was the first to truly take from the rich and give to the poor. How did he do that? This fuel subsidy, he used it to estabflish the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) and several other intervention initiatives. Do you know that more than N150 billion has been disbursed to thousands of students? That is what we call truly giving to the poor. On the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) programme, he encouraged poor Nigerians to go and learn skills that they don’t have, and the government pays them stipends of N45,000. I know children of the rich would not apply for those kinds of things. These are the best ways to give to the actual poor people in society. In the health sector, we have subsidised dialysis treatment for patients at the federal health institutions. We also have a health fellowship programme, where they pick people randomly from different local governments to come and become support staff for healthcare workers. They learn, and they also employ them. There are a lot of other initiatives by President Tinubu, and I believe that he has done so much that he deserves re-election in 2027. The poor people who are the major people that vote on election days, should know that Asiwaju means well for them and for the country. So, he deserves to be re-elected in 2027. Look at the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway, the Sokoto-Badagry Highway. These are the things that Asiwaju is doing that would earn the support of the real voters in 2027. Look at our revenue, it is improving, and the economy has rebounded. We don’t struggle to fund infrastructure anymore. Are we going to bring someone else in 2027 when we are seeing all the good things he has started? No! That is why we must re-elect him to continue. Why won’t you allow somebody who has started the good work to continue, instead of bringing a new person who you don’t even know what he’s bringing to the table?

Assuming you are accused that you are just using all these groups to find favour with the president, what would be your reaction?

The truth is, naturally, I’m very big on value. So if you accuse me of using it to find favor, I will tell you I have never even met the president before I started doing all these. Even in my own little capacity, I had four NGOs already. There is one that sees to the people at the prison; another caters to the needs of the widows; seeing to the needs of female healthcare workers and another that develops emerging young leaders — we make Nigerian youth know that they don’t need to stay frustrated on social media platforms all day or even japa. We try to train them to improve on their skills. So, I have all these organisations and initiatives. I am naturally big on value. So, I am not looking for favour from anybody. I do this with my hard-earned money. I thank God for all our State coordinators, a lot of whom are spending their money to make this a success. In a recent article I wrote, I asked the questions: Are you a true BATist or a political opportunist? A lot of the people around the President today are political opportunists. They don’t know how to contribute to society or how to raise men. They don’t even know the spirit, the vision, and the idea of the man they are working for. So, I am just using this platform to add value to society and humanity.

Are you not afraid of the opposition that is coming from the north, can your group and state coordinators weather the storm and opposition from the north?

The truth of the matter is that when we started this movement, before we even had state coordinators in the south, the northerners, that is the real masses, they embraced it and they have taken over this movement and they are spending a lot of money to make this movement succeed. Majority of them were neglected in the previous support groups they belonged to. They believe so much in this ideology such that they now see it as their personal responsibility. So every day the group is booming in the north. This is a moving train. Nobody can stop it. All the opposition they are doing, they will all crumble. So they have nothing to offer. They don’t know how to raise men. They don’t know how to add value to people. The real people in the north love Asiwaju and they carry this movement on their head like their lives depend on it. So, we are not worried. The north is 100% secure for Asiwaju.

Critics argue that Nigerians have yet to fully feel the benefits of current reforms. How do you respond to concerns about economic hardship under Tinubu’s leadership?

Despite the challenges, Asiwaju is going to restore Nigeria’s hope. Inflation that was about 34 per cent has fallen to below 15 per cent in line with the President’s target. He also set a target of crude oil production, which he has also achieved. Today, the country enjoys exchange rate stability and the naira exchange rate is about N1,450 to a dollar. Can’t you see that you have a man who has foresight and vision and who is delivering with his foresight? He has all the plans mapped out. He’s not a regular politician. So you can see. In Nigeria, things don’t usually go this way. When things go up, they do not come down. You can see how things are coming down, especially food prices. Look at the price of a bag of rice, I bought close to N100,000 for 50kg last year, but today, it is less than N80,000.  Asiwaju is also resetting our brains, and gone are those days when prices go up, and they will not come down. You can see prices are coming down. Fuel prices, for instance, every December, year in, year out, you see queues, but under President Tinubu, that is not the case. I’ve said that this man is a prophet. This man was sent for a purpose, and you can see what he is achieving. See, some people are naturally blessed.  Now, let me talk about the local government autonomy. I issued a press statement a few days ago in which I stated that the President’s Executive Order threat is good for the country because the Governors, the majority of them don’t mean well for the country. Upon all the money they are getting — the allocation has tripled — do they still need to continue dipping hands into local governments’ funds? No. Without local government autonomy — full financial autonomy — there won’t be any progress. Let us be saying the truth. How will they be able to do their local roads? How will they be able to open access roads to farmers? How will they be able to do boreholes? How will they be able to handle insecurity, provide electricity, or bring some transformers where people need transformers? How will they be able to do all those things? But when they have financial autonomy — money — they will be able to do these things. Look at Lagos, the State is different. Since Asiwaju created local governments in Lagos and even created LCDAs, they don’t touch local government money in Lagos. That’s why you see local government elections in Lagos is like a real battle, because they have money to spend. You can see them doing things some State Governors can’t even do in other States. Do you know a lot of local governments in other States don’t even have procurement departments? So, we must let the financial autonomy for local governments work. So, these are the things Asiwaju has come to address and everything you see him doing today is in his manifesto. Withdrawal of police VIPs and farmers’ cooperative are all in his manifesto. Yes, we still know that there is still hardship, but we are making progress, and we would get to the promised land with Asiwaju.

With the way the BAT Idealogical Group is spreading, overshadowing groups that were there before, are you not afraid that you could get harmed?

I fear no evil. I believe that if I am doing what is right and people are accepting it, I don’t need to be scared. I know my conscience, and it is very clear. This might even be my own contribution to my society or even my assignment from God. So, even if my enemy gets killed, at least I have done something impactful to society. I have the belief that Nigerian youth should join politics. But don’t join them if you don’t have a bigger strategy to make an impact, which is what we are offering. Asiwaju is a man of superior ideas and if you have superior ideas, he wants you close to him. So, I am not scared. They’ve tried to attack me physically in several ways, but they have not succeeded. They’ve stolen our ideas severally, but original will always be original. Many of the other groups came out after they had seen what we were doing. They just want to take glory for what they don’t understand, the vision and the idea. I can’t start mentioning names, but I know more than six different groups have come out just to copy and paste our idea and intentions. But we are not worried, as long as they are doing it to also benefit society.

Will you be disappointed if, after all your efforts the man doesn’t invite you to appreciate you for what you are doing?

I’m a man of the spirit. I tell people that two people, after God, my wife and my immediate family matter to me the most. They are Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Pastor David Oyedepo. Oyedepo is my spiritual mentor, while Asiwaju is my political mentor. And I’ve not sat with any of them. In 2010, I had a dream where Asiwaju told me to go back to school, which motivated me to pursue further education. I know that one day Asiwaju will recognise us. He is not a user of man, who doesn’t recognise their support when he gets to the top and he believes in superior ideas. People might be blocking him from seeing me, but the moment he sees or meets me, he will definitely be attracted to me. Alhaji Lai Mohammed said something recently. According to him, a ruler is a captive, because the people around a lot of leaders don’t have ideas. So, if they see anybody who is bigger than them and is bringing superior ideas, they will try to block such a person. They don’t know that in this life, the sky is too wide for everybody to fly. So, I will never feel disappointed. The journey continues. We will still continue to be doing whatever we are doing.

What is your take on the gale of defections from other parties to the APC? Do you see it as an endorsement of President Tinubu’s governance style or a failure of the opposition parties?

In law, they say facts speak for themselves. That’s what I’m saying, the spirit of Asiwaju is natural. It will move you in its direction. You can see he’s a sophisticated leader. There’s no need to struggle to call you in. When you see what he is doing from afar, you will want to associate with him, you will want to tap from the grace he is carrying. That is what is happening presently. And this is what everybody is doing. Even the people who are not Governors like us — are all jumping into it because the man carries a special grace. His leadership is second to none. It is his leadership style that is attracting people. Somebody who gives you money to fund and run your administration smoothly, wouldn’t you join the moving train? When you know that your predecessors struggled to fund budgets, struggled to do projects, and finance infrastructure, won’t you be attracted to someone willing to support? I said it earlier, this movement is beyond Asiwaju. As he is finishing his tenure, we are going to propagate these ideas beyond Africa. Unlike other past presidents that will be leading election monitoring in Africa, Asiwaju, after his tenure, will be going to other countries to institutionalise his leadership style.

With your conviction, are you sure you are not going to go into propagating, like, a life presidency for this president?

We have a constitution and our democracy is intact. Asiwaju, I believe, has a good succession plan. Look at what he did in Lagos. He knew the person that would take over and continue the agenda. Dele Alake said something recently. He said, he’s looking for somebody who will come and become President after President Tinubu and say he wants to reverse all these good policies. So, he doesn’t need to be President forever.