I heard the news of Chief Dele Falegan’s transition just this last weekend even though he passed on a few weeks ago. I was filled with sadness that I could not immediately head straight to his residence in Ado to commiserate with his family. It is not safe traveling these days because our territorial space has been taken over by killer herdsmen and other brigands manning our highways.
There are other logistical problems which most people in my age bracket have. But I owe chief Falegan deep respect and God willing one way or the other I will play some role in the celebration of his life.
Chief Falegan’s life epitomizes the Shakespearian dictum that “The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling but in rising every time we fall”. He would never have gone beyond standard six but for the courage of his father and understanding of the white man, the Reverend Leslie Donald Mason, who was principal of Christ School Ado Ekiti in 1948 when he took the examination and passed. Passing the examination was of course not enough; there was the not too little problem of school fees. The old man was a farmer, a hard working one for that matter but apparently did not grow cash crops but had abundance of yams. So he took the young son who wanted to go to college to the office of the white man and told the white man he wanted his son to go to Christ’s school but had no money but loads of yams. He then suggested to the principal that since the school was a boarding school, he could supply yams to feed the school and the principal should cost the yams supplied equal to the school fees. The principal smiled at the honest proposal and said that was a deal!
That was how Dele Falegan went to college and had an excellent education on Agidimo hills. The principal also yearly gave the young man pocket money after paying his fees from the yam supplied. This arrangement lasted 10 years – six years while Dele was a student and four more years to accommodate younger siblings.This episode shaped the life of honesty and courage Falegan lived.
Falegan after leaving Christ’s School in 1954 worked for some years before going in 1958 for a four-year degree programme in economics at Fourah Bay College Sierra Leone, a college of Durham University in England. He did not have it easy there because of his bad health and poor financial situation. But he never gave up. He later as a staff of the Research Department of the Central Bank of Nigeria earned a Master’s degree in Economics at the University of Oregon, United States.
He had a checkered life marked by ups and downs but had always risen against all odds. He specialized in international finance and banking. He rose to become Director of Research in the Central Bank of Nigeria from 1977 to 1979 and was Managing Director of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria and he transformed the bank from what was essentially a building society kind of institution jointly owned by the Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC) and Nigeria to a Mortgage Bank. He was also at a time one of the directors of Standard Bank of Nigeria now First Bank. He was on the Governing Council of Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research (NISER). He was director and later chairman of OWENA Bank. When the federal government was concerned with inflation, Falegan served on the Inflation Task force from 1974 until the task force lapsed but it was during this time that he earned the nickname of anti-inflation man. It was with this reputation that he got into some kind of trouble with the then Head of State, General Olusegun Obasanjo while discussing the 1978- 84 Development Plan. While all the experts had concurred or kept quiet on the planned estimated expenditure, Falegan raised his hand to disagree. He told the small committee of experts coming from line ministries of finance, economic development, the Cabinet Office and the Central Bank that the expenditure budgeted for one year of the plan was 50% of the entire plan and that this would cost runaway inflation. Obasanjo then asked the others if this was true.
They answered in the affirmative. The Head of State then closed the meeting and asked everybody to go home. The following morning, Falegan was removed as director of research and shunted into the mortgage bank whose British management team had one more year to go and where Falegan’s presence was met with hostility of both expatriate and Nigerian staff.
He had hardly settled in at the bank when the Shehu Shagari government took over and meetings of the board of the bank became a struggle for how to loot the bank and any call by Falegan for propriety and restraint was met with accusation of being a card-carrying member of Obafemi Awolowo’s opposition party, the Unity Party of Nigeria( UPN). Being from Ekiti whose people were regarded as Awolowo’s diehard supporters did not help .One of the experiences which Falegan wrote unchallenged in his memoirs My Yesterday- years published in 2013 by Bamboo Books Ltd and which I reviewed in a public presentation in Ado Ekiti was his victimization by Chief Remi Fani- Kayode. Chief Fani-Kayode had a colorful political life moving from the Action Group to the NCNC then teaming up with Chief Ladoke Akintola to form the NNDP and finally ending up with Shehu Shagari in the NPN. Fani-Kayode wrote Falegan as managing director of the Federal Mortgage Bank asking for five million Naira loan for an unspecified purpose. Out of respect, Falegan wrote to ask Fani- Kayode for specifics of the loan and that his approving capacity as managing director was one million and that Fani-Kayode could however write directly to the board of the bank. This displeased Fani Kayode who wrote to Wahab Dosunmu, the supervising minister of works, saying Falegan was hostile to the ruling party. He also accused Falegan of having loaned money to his sister in Ife to fund ‘Ife Stores’. Ife sores indeed belonged to Falegan’s sister who had actually written to the mortgage bank for a loan and had been turned down for which for months she was not on speaking terms with her brother. When Falegan met Dosunmu to state his case against Fani-Kayode, he was pleasantly surprised when the minister turned down his resignation letter and said he had heard a lot about Falegan’s integrity from his time in the CBN and then asked him to ignore Fani-Kayode . But more trouble came from the hierarchy of the NPN including M.K.O Abiola who was determined to remove him by fair or foul means.
For using his good offices to get OWENA Bank owned by his state of origin Ondo established when he was director of research in the Central Bank, the NPN government suspected whatever he did to help the bank. He played into their hands when he got the management of the Federal Mortgage Bank to place funds of the bank in commercial banks to earn interest instead of just leaving them in current accounts. Newspaper like the Concord of Chief Abiola was used to say he gave a loan of N5 million within 72 hours to OWENA Bank. Even people with no banking knowledge know the difference between investing in term deposits and granting a loan. No matter how strong his defence was and that about 13 banks were involved, he was still suspended from office for unauthorized disbursements of the money of the mortgage bank. This led to intervention of Governor Adekunle Ajasin of the then Ondo State with the President Shagari. By this time, Falegan had had more than enough and in spite of Shagari’s exoneration, he was determined to end his unhappy relationship with the bank during which time he developed hypertension.
But life went on with the proverbial ups and downs. He was also involved in the struggle to create Ekiti State and since its creation he has made his expertise available to whoever requested it trying very hard to stand above political differences and Ekiti people’s penchant for politicking sometimes with bitterness. Our people always see issues either as black or white and are not ready to consider any position in between the two extremes. I am not sure this is an advantage in politics which is the art of the possible. Falegan like most people in his generation worked without any consideration of material reward. They in fact seemed to shy away from any opportunity that could bring to them material benefit. I remember another person of his generation, Olufemi Eperokun who became an unfortunate victim of his refusal to use his office for pecuniary reward when he was the registrar of the University of Lagos and the late Kwaku Adadevoh was his vice Chancellor. The same political shenanigans were called into place to get rid of him. This made me to say in private discussion I had with an important Ekiti man that until an Ekiti man became governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, this country will remain shortchanged in the kind of banking leadership and expertise this country needs and deserves. We need people like the late Eperokun and Falegan who would offer service which does not expect rewards. May be no such Ekiti man now exists! This and other exemplary instances of honesty and patriotism are what Falegan will be remembered for. In 2014 without any prompting from me, he issued a cheque for one million naira to Ekiti State University for which my family contributed one and half million to fund a Professor Kayode Osuntokun prize for best graduating student in the Ekiti State University College of Medicine and he also suggested that the college should be named after Kayode Osuntokun. That is the kind of generosity of spirit that Falegan was known for. He recognized and worshipped excellence wherever it may be found.
Rest in Peace good man, honest and courageous champion of whatever exalts God and man.
- Akinjide Osuntokun (CFR, OON) is a Professor of History and a former Nigerian Ambassador to Germany.
