We hope the outcome of this election will be acceptable to all – Falae

Chief Olu Falae, national chairman of SDP, spoke to some journalists at his Obanle polling unit in Akure, Ondo state, after casting his vote during the governorship election last Saturday. The elder statesman articulates his assessment of the electoral process among other issues. EMEKA NZE who was in Akure, reports

How would you describe the process
The process so far so good peaceful, good natured and I have not seen any tension. So we hope that there will be a good outcome that will be acceptable to all of us. Because we are a civilize country now, and we are to conduct elections without bitterness, violence and rancor.

On the call for postponement of election
Gentlemen, 28 parties are running for the election, if one party had issues with its candidacy, how do you project that. It is the internal affairs of the party. They couldn’t manage their affairs and that is their own business. In my own party, we have challenges but we were able to manage that.  One of the attributes of a party that could govern is its ability to govern itself and manage its own affairs without crisis. If a party couldn’t do that, in my view it is not ready to rule.

On the expectation of the outcome of the election
Well, before I answer that, We in the SDP, about a month ago, when we saw the way the primaries of other parties went, the bitterness that came out, I sent out a committee to reach out to all of them, whether APC or PDP to ask them that if we win the election, we will run an all- party government; if we win the election we will have a consensus government, that is our culture, it is the European culture, the winner takes all. That is that is the democracy the Europeans gave to us. Our culture is consensus, if you are doing well you take care of your younger brother but we have abandoned that because the white man told us that. But we say if we win we will make appointment from other parties. We will set up a stakeholders consultative forum made up of our parties and other parties and other leaders who are not politicians at all.
This state belongs to all of us and not to the SDP alone or APC and PDP. We are just a fragment of the society, the whole state own the government. We will set this template if we win to demonstrate that we can run our affairs in a peaceful, competent and collaborative way.

On consensus issue
I don’t know, but we will do that if we win. In any case, most of the people in the other parties, will accept me as their leader, although they are not in my party, they will accept me of course once upon a time, we were in the same party and I was their leader before they broke into whatever they are now, but I remain their leader, if we win I will call them and they will come.

On advise for winner of the election (Governor-elect)
Whoever wins this election should consider the consensus template, bring the other people. Look the problems on ground are monumental. We have huge areas of salaries. We can’t pay salaries on a regular basis. Now if you cannot meet your recurrent expenditure, how can you have money for development.  Look at Akure, the state capital, you go through Adesida Road in the night, it is beautiful, that is the end of the matter, the cross roads are not tarred, there is no modern sewage system in place, no running water, this is my house i have got had water in the last 30 years. So we have a very long way to go. So if you cannot pay salaries, you cannot have money to develop the state. So we need everybody’s wisdom to tackle the problem on the ground. I’m surprised that people are struggling to become governor, without thinking about the problem they are going to confront. How are you going to pay your workers, how are you going to develop the state. If you cannot make a difference, why would you want to be the governor.

On his rating of the current governor
I am not going to assess Olusegun Mimiko.


One of the attributes of a party that could govern is its ability to govern itself and manage its own affairs without crisis