Chief Olu Falae, Chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), was linked to the alleged diversion of $2.1 billion meant for the procurement of arms by ex-NSA Sambo Dasuki when Chief Tony Anenih confirmed that he made a payment of N100 million to him.
Since then, Falae, who also confirmed receiving the money but stated that it was meant for his party, SDP, has been in the spotlight of the media.
The former minister of Finance sat down with Vanguard Newspaper to answer some questions on the arms money probe, Buhari’s administration and the way forward for Nigeria.
These 10 things are some of the things to note from his interview.

1. He does not have any personal relationship with Dasuki
Olu Falae has repeatedly claimed that he has no relationship whatsoever with Sambo Dasuki and therefore could not have been a beneficiary of his seeming rain of arms money.
“I want to say with all emphasis that I never took even one naira from Dasuki. Beyond that, I want to assert that I never had any relationship with Dasuki. I knew Dasuki way back in 1986-87,when he was ADC to General Babagida and I was Secretary to the Federal Government. Since he left that government around 1987, I had no contact or dealing with him; absolutely none.”

2. The N100 million he received was sent immediately to the party’s account
Falae said that even though he got the said payment from Chief Anenih in his account, he only acted as a channel for his party, SDP, of which he is the chairman.
“And on receiving the N100 million, I promptly paid it into the account of the SDP at the First Bank in Abuja. And from there, I set up a committee of the party to work out the modalities for distributing the money among the various state branches of the party and campaign organisations. Taking to account the number of candidates for House of Assembly, Senate, House of Representatives, governorship, weight was attached to it and they did it rationally and fairly.”

3. He is not a beneficiary of the allegedly diverted arms money
Falae maintained that since the money did not come from Dasuki, and it was not for personal use, rather as it was a money from a broker between two political parties, he and his party are not complicit in the said diversion of funds.
“In summary, we had no contact whatsoever with Dasuki. We took nothing, not a kobo from Dasuki. The money that came to us was from the PDP through Chief Anenih to me as the Chairman of SDP, which I then passed on to my party. My party held a press conference on Monday, January 11, 2016, where they declared that I gave them the money in full, promptly and they used it for the elections. So, those who said the money was given to Falae are lying, the money was only sent through me to my party and my party has acknowledged receipt in full. The money did not come from Dasuki but from the PDP.”

4. All the party chapters knew about the money, even Ogun state chapter
Shortly after Falae revealed that the money paid to him was shared between the 33 active chapters of the party across the nation, the Ogun state chapter came out to state they were not aware of such funds. Falae clarified the records, maintaining his word.
“It is only Ogun, we have active branches in about 33 states. I was surprised to read that Ogun said they were not aware. The truth is that the allocating committee in Abuja was supposed to send N8 million to Ogun but I know the amount is something from the campaign fund.
“This is not the only money we were using for the campaigns, that was just a small part of what we spent on the elections. Our own contribution was much more than the N100 million, so, the committee said they were going to send N8 million to them.
“But Chief Osoba said the money available for the party was too small, N8 million could do nothing in the state; so he would take care of the needs of the party in Ogun; we should leave what we were going to give to the state to states that were in need. Ogun knew about it, something was allocated to them but they declined to take it because they said they could take care of their needs. So, it is not true that they were not aware.

5. For Falae, #Dasukigate is a ‘smear campaign’
Chief Falae stated that he and his party haven’t done anything wrong, yet they are being hounded by the media as these reports make their way out. He believes his involvement in the probe is just a smear campaign to tarnish his image.
“Of course, that is the point. From what I have told you, there is nothing legally or morally wrong. It is a two-party cooperation, normal; when there is such a collaboration, the participating parties contribute money to actualize the objective.
“We did it in 2007 when we adopted General Buhari: ANPP, DPA and other parties, there was nothing absolutely wrong with this. We did not go to Dasuki for money, it was PDP that sent us the money; for the PDP to decide where to get their money was not our business. The PDP sent us the money, I sent the money to the party; the party said they got it in full and it was used for the purpose it was meant, which was the elections. So anybody that is raising issues is merely trying to start a smear-campaign, but I am totally at peace with myself because my conscience is absolutely clear. Indeed, I am proud of my track record and my performance even in this state.”

6. The EFCC has not contacted him
Because he believes that he has done nothing wrong, the Yoruba chieftain is not bothered about the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission coming after him. He however revealed that he has not been reached in any way by the commission because they know he has not done anything wrong by the law.
“Up to this moment, EFCC has not got in touch with me about this matter because they know the truth, that I did not take money from Dasuki; it was PDP that sent money to SDP through me and the money was delivered to SDP. Legitimate, normal and non-controversial. That tells you that there is a smear campaign going on. Some newspapers are saying I will have to refund the money when nobody has been in touch with me about the money. Those reports showed bias, malice and campaign of smear.”

7. His track record is spotless
Chief Olu Falae chronicles his service as a public servant as well as a bank executive while stating that his record is clean and devoid of scandals or corruption.
“I have been a public officer all my life. I became a Permanent Secretary at the age of 39. I did not abuse my office. I became the Managing Director of a bank at 42. I did not abuse my office.
“The signature of an MD of a bank is money, yet I did not take one kobo illegally and, at that time, my bank was one of the fastest growing banks in the country. I did not receive one single query from the Central Bank. Then I became the Secretary to the Federal Government of Nigeria and substantial amount of security vote was under my control. I did not touch one kobo illegitimately. Then I became Minister of Finance of Nigeria, both naira and dollar were under my control at the Central Bank, I did not abuse the office. So people should look at my type of person and say, can this person do this? When as a young man that I needed money for many things I didn’t take anything, now that I am old, what will I be doing with it? When you grow old, the less you enjoy money. So that is the truth of the matter. I feel ashamed that some people can be repeating these lies. It is absolutely false and there is no basis for it.”

8. Buhari’s fight against corruption is ‘going out of hand’
Speaking on the war against corruption waged by President Buhari, Chief Falae said “It is going out of hand. They know that there is no charge they can bring against me. That’s why smear campaign is used as a substitute so that, over time, people will say I am a bad man. I read some articles in the paper that say the anti-graft war is increasingly becoming controversial. It is truly becoming controversial because it is no longer reasonable, it is beginning to look selective. How could you link me with Dasuki? The person I have not seen for more than 20 years. The man I had no dealing with whatsoever.”
“It is important to clean Nigeria up. When we were launching our party, SDP, in Abuja, in 2014, the title of my speech was; Nigeria must kill corruption so that corruption does not kill Nigeria. I have been an anti-corruption campaigner all my life; so I support anti-corruption campaign but it should be conducted within the confines of the law and should be fair.”

9. Buhari should use scape goats to fight corruption instead of trying all cases
He further gave his 2 cents on how the war against corruption should be fought in a way that would not affect the development of the country. He believes in the use of scape goats to set a precedent.
“Let me tell you a story. In 1985 when Buhari was the Head of State, I had retired from the civil service and had joined the banking industry. This kind of thing was going on. But, you know, once a public officer is always a public officer. So, I went and met with the then Head of the Civil Service, Mr Gray Longe, and I told him to advise the government that they could not be going on sacking people, probing people. There are two models to clean up a society: The Sampling Model and Total Revolution, like the French Revolution.
“The one that might be suitable for our own situation is for the government to take cases that are very unambiguous to court and make such people as examples, take the money from them and send them to jail. Then put that behind you and go ahead with the development of the society. But, if you take all the time looking for every criminal to send to jail, that will be an endless journey. At the beginning, the people will hail you because they like to see big men fall, but, as more and more people are destroyed, more and more members of the public will be affected. For some, their brothers or fathers or friends would have lost their jobs and, at the end of the day, the tide will turn and people will turn against that government. To avoid that, my recommendation is that government should make some people who are found to be corrupt scape goats.
“Similarly, my advice will be that, those people who are the criminals in this system, whose crimes are unambiguous and documented, take them, apply the law, confiscate the loot they have taken, try them, let them go to prison. Do that for a couple of months and leave the rest for the police to do their jobs in a normal way. This omnibus anti-graft campaign phase would have been over, but the police would continue to monitor the system and catch thieves and criminals and the government would now focus on the development of the society”

10. The Confab report of 2014 will save Nigeria but APC is not interested in restructuring the country
Falae, who was a delegate at the National Conference that was held in 2014 believes that the report submitted by the Confab would give Nigeria a lifeline but the current administration is not interested in restructuring Nigeria.
“They are not interested in the report. Even when we were in the National Conference, the APC opposed it and this is one of the reasons we did not support the candidate of the APC because what is most important to Afenifere is the restructuring of Nigeria so that each area can develop at its own pace in accordance with its own priority. If we don’t do that, the crisis will continue. So restructuring, to me, is number one priority and we believe in it and those who oppose it naturally oppose what I stand for and I will not be surprised if such people work against my interest.
He continued “Then Nigeria will be as it is till eternity; governments come and go, a day will come when one government will see the need to implement this report because, for the first time in the history of Nigeria, over 450 people, from various sections of the society, sat down for about six months and, in a very cantankerous society like Nigeria and by some divine grace, we passed over 600 resolutions by consensus.
“To me, that was a miracle. I believe God has a hand in that confab and, therefore, I believe that document is going to save Nigeria if it is implemented. That is the panacea to our myriads of problems as a nation.”

Adebayo Emuleomo