I Rise in Defense of Chief Falae

By

 

Chief Samuel Oluyemi Falae spoke the truth when he wondered aloud about his legacy when the great majority of his grand and great grand children are Nigerians born abroad who are fast losing touch with their motherland, and can see very little to be proud of in Nigeria which, despite her many blessings, is fast losing her place and relevance in the committee of nations due in large part to visionless and mediocre leadership of our country across the board. I completely share his frustration because I understand where he is coming from and I know him up close and personal and decidedly better than any other contemporary Nigerian leader

  

I was for 25 years of my prime a senior Civil Service administrator in the Federal Public Service of Nigeria and I had the honor and privilege of working under him as a Permanent Secretary in the Manpower Department of the Federal Ministry of Establishments. I was Secretary Staff Development grade level 15 and I headed that Unit until it was upgraded into a full fledged Department to be headed by a Permanent Secretary on grade level 17. Chief Falae who was then the Director of Central Planning in the Federal Ministry of Economic Planning with the great Allison Ayida as Super Permanent Secretary was more than qualified to be posted to Finance or Economic Planning as Permanent Secretary, but was instead posted by Obasanjo to go take over the job that was previously headed by me, a level 15 officer because Obasanjo wanted to punish or frustrate him out of the service. He came to the Manpower Department and within a year, he had used his clout and impeccable credentials as a Permanent Secretary to turn the place around. While still Permanent Secretary he was catapulted into the first Chairman of CAFRAD, (African Training and Research Center in Administration for Development) based in Tangiers, Morocco

 

Chief Falae became the first African to ever head CAFRAD, which had been monopolized by Morocco for more than 40 years. Himself working with me as the representative of Nigeria on the Board of Trustees of CAFRAD had managed to defy all odds placed on our way to turn CAFRAD into a first class regional affiliat e of the OAU by naming Professor Thomas Kanza of Zaire of Harvard University to succeed Dr Kariuki of Kenya despite strong objections raised by Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Ngbendu Waza Banga, the late President of Zaire. Chief Oluyemi Falae has always been a progressive and an achiever of no mean caliber and one of the best technocrats Nigeria has ever produced. I would rate him among our best bureaucrats like Simeon Adebo, Abdul Azeez Attah, Alison Ayida, Philip Asiodu, Eme Ebong, the late Sunday Adeniyi, the Aro of Mopa, Alhadji Ahmed Joda, Alhaji Abubakar Alhaji, the late Festus Adedinsewo Adesanoye, Osungbedenola the  Osemawe of Ondo and a few others whose names I would leave out to save time.

 

Once Olu Falae had reached his peak in the Manpower Department because the place was too small an arena for him to anchor his multiple talents as an achiever, he was persuaded to become the Managing Director of the Nigerian Merchant Bank taking over from one Mr. Ogundipe of Ilesha. The turnover of the Bank when he got there was less than 5 million Naira. By the time Falae was lured out of the Bank to become the Secretary to the Federal Military Government under Ibrahim Babangida in 1985 or thereabout the turnover of the Bank was more than 200 million.

     

It was partly because of that, that Chief Falae was picked out of three distinguished Ondo State nominees including himself, namely late Iwajomo of Okitipupa/Ikale and late Asabia of Upele to get the position that has been denied him many years earlier by Olusegun Obasanjo who wanted Olu Falae summarily dismissed from the Service in 1979 for being Chairman of a special task force to reform the Public Service. Among distinguished members of that Task Force, as I recall, were fearless Nigerians like eloquent and charismatic late Rex Akpofure, the first Nigerian Principal of Kings College, Lagos, Mr. Okpara of the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation. Unflappable Alhaji Gambo Gubio from Bornu State, The late Mr. Awoniyi, the brother of late Federal Permanent Secretary, Sunday Adeniyi, the Aro of Mopa and my humble self as Secretary.

   

That famous report crafted at Luwera Hotel in Ijebu Ode, was not only critical of Government, it was the first panel to ever look the Federal Military Government in the face, to tell her she was wrong and should turn a new leaf Obasanjo as Head of Government was so upset with the report that he threatened to lock up Chief Falae and all the members of the task Force. Chief Falae stood his ground telling Obasanjo he was willing to go to jail because he was not ready to disown his own report or let down the members of his panel

  

It was for that reason that Obasanjo would not let the incoming Shagari Administration to ever name  Olu Falae to head any Ministry as long as he remained the power behind the throne of Shagari whose election to President was openly stage-managed by Obasanjo in 1979 in a quid pro quo type of compact between Obasanjo and the power brokers in the North who paid him back when he was brought out of prison in 1999 to run against Oluyemi Falae as candidate of the AD/ANPP coalition.

   

Ibrahim Babangida by later naming Olu Falae as Secretary to Government was a subtle repudiation and rebuke of what Obasanjo had done to him, four years earlier. It was the triumph of Justice over Injustice that Olu Falae had suffered from the Balogun of Owe. Babangida had further added the icing on the cake when he catapulted the same Olu Falae to Federal Minister of Finance for 6 months thereby making it possible for Olu Falae to be able to run for President in 1999 against Obasanjo who had lost to Falae in his own State and Local Government and the whole of the South=2 0West. It was a repudiation and embarrassment that Olusegun Obasanjo would never forget or forgive as long as he lives. You can quote me on that. What goes around comes around.

 

Oluyemi Falae had joined the Babangida Administration, as I hinted earlier on, to take the only position that had not been filled because Ondo State was conveniently forgotten or sidetracked due to her unchanging loyalty to Obafemi Awolowo. Falae soon became the hatchet man and the most powerful bureaucrats in that Government because it soon dawned on Babangida that Falae was one of a kind and truly a superman, whichever way you slice it.

    

The famous speech delivered by Babangida at the burial of Chief Obafemi Awolowo in 1986 was the brainchild of Chief Falae as his Secretary to Government. Olu Falae was decidedly one of the best speechwriters the Nigerian Government has ever produced and he would easily rank as equals to speechwriters like William Saffire and Patrick Buchanan, at their prime in American Politics. Olu Falae, an alumnus of Yale  is a first class brain and I can vouch for him any day because I know him well. His role in the failure of the Structural Adjustment Program (SA P) that critics like Joe Igietseme and a few others often referred to in denigrating Olu Falae cannot, and should not be ascribed to him if these critics were aware, as I was, that the program failed, not because it was ill-conceived but due in large part to poor execution and implementation by a cabal of ignorant military aides who misled Babangida into abandoning some or all of the safety net prescriptions Olu Falae had recommended and brilliantly articulated .

   

There was very little Olu Falae could have done as a civilian in a Government dominated by charlatans in uniform. Blaming Olu Falae for such failure would be tantamount to blaming Professor Omo Omoruyi for the failure of Babangida to heed the advice given him to not fool around or annul the June 12 election that made Chief M.K.O. Abiola the undisputed winner of that election not only in the south but also in the northern part of Nigeria including Kano, the home base of Alhaji Bashir Tofa himself.

 

That victory, if it had been allowed to stand, would have, forever, changed the political History of Nigeria in much the same way like the Obama election in America has forever changed American History, if you can believe that 

  

Falae spoke the minds of millions in expressing the views credited to him. I guess you can call him a one- man battalion joining hands with other progressives he can find, to turn our country around. Nigeria needs a virile alternative to the PDP, if Democracy is to have any hope of succeeding in our country. I am hundred percent in support of the position taken by Chief Falae, and so will many of us, if they are following Nigerian History as closely as many of us do.

  

I cannot think of any time more auspicious than now as we get ready again to celebrate the 49^th anniversary of our Independence on October 1^st If we look back in time, .we can all see that Nigeria has recorded more retrogression than progress and it is time to just say “no” for once to the forces of evil holding us down.

   

We should in the prayerful refrain of Pastor Olukoya and his Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries when they shout and scream “All evil forces holding up the progress of Nige ria, “Be consumed by everlasting fire in the name of Jesus.”  Now repeat after me seven times. Amen.

“ Kum Faya Kum”

 

I rest my case.