By Omolewa Adedotun
Honourable James Abiodun Faleke’s widely-publicized solidarity visit last week in London to the National Leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu literally added to the mix in the trending public commentary on the presumed aspiration of the APC chieftain ahead of 2023. It was also accentuated by the equally-publicized visit by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Some of Faleke’s critics have often queried his brand of politics especially his theory of loyalty. The critics have tried strenuously to rip open the under-belly of his politics that takes from Peter to pay Paul. They refer to a system that allows him occupy a seat in Lagos while seeking to take another in his home-state of Kogi.
But Faleke’s loyalists have quickly argued that such development says something good about the man. They posited that Nigeria’s true development lies in a system that recognizes more of the potential of a public office seeker than where he comes from or who are his parents. This is the core of Faleke’s message.
Existing literature on the astute parliamentarian shows that he is driven by the urge, where some others have ended up as traitors, to give back to his political benefactor, as well as to those who voted him to represent them at the parliament, and the entire community of humanity. In summary, to him, loyalty is a burden, and everything.
This explains why his loyalists easily point to the development element in his politics. They said when he is either meeting people or celebrating events with them or he is donating relief materials and commiserating with his people in, Lagos and Kogi State, in times of distress, or donating vans to security agencies to secure his people, or he is paying examination WAEC/NECO fees for indigent children, etc. Beyond these, they said that passion for the overall development of the nation runs deep in his blood.
Faleke was elected to the House of Representatives in 2011, to represent Ikeja Federal Constituency of Lagos State. He is known for his activism and brilliant contributions to debates at plenary. He was chairman of the House Committee on Anti-Corruption, National Ethics and Values, and member of House Committee on Public Procurement, MDGs, Interior, Public Accounts, Science and Technology and the House Committee on the Petroleum Subsidy Probe.
As a third-term ranking member of the House of Representatives and current chairman of the Committee of Finance, he says it as it is, opting for political correctness. He once openly came hard on his fellow party man, the Labour Minister and Employment Minister, Dr. Chris Ngige, over the latter’s alleged high-handedness in the sack of the last NSITF management. He is reputed for saying what he means without speaking from both sides of the mouth.
For example, he had in his mind the safety of lives and human development when he sponsored, among other bills, the NYSC Act Amendment Bill, proposing life insurance coverage for NYSC members across the country due to the dangers which corps members often face on the roads, at their primary places of assignments communal conflicts and the states prone to banditry, kidnapping and insurgency, etc.
The nation is still grieved by the gruesome death of five prospective National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members from Akwa Ibom who died in an accident along Abuja-Abaji-Kwali Expressway on their way to the NYSC camp in Katsina State.
He had also sponsored a bill prohibiting the sale and use of military uniforms due to the attendant security risks and, still focusing on the nation’s security challenges, as well as another motion on the need to shut over 1,400 illegal border routes to curb insurgency thereby bagging numerous awards for his legislative activism and the overall development of the Ikeja Federal Constituency and the entire governance of Lagos State.
Faleke once faced and passed a major loyalty test as deputy governorship candidate to Abubakar Audu in the November 2015 governorship election in Kogi State. They ran on a joint ticket sponsored by the APC. After campaigning vigorously across 21 local government councils of the state, election victory celebration was underway when Abubakar Audu’s sudden death was announced forcing INEC to declare the election inconclusive.
APC transferred Audu/Faleke votes to Yahaya Bello thereby nominating him as candidate as he was the first runner-up in the party primary and asked Faleke to continue in his deputy governor position.
Faleke declined, arguing that the collation of election results was already concluded awaiting official declaration of winner before the sudden death of Audu and that as the only surviving candidate on the joint ticket, he should be declared governor-elect.
He declared, ‘’I will not disappoint Prince Abubakar Audu. I, James Abiodun Faleke, will not be there for the swearing-in if we don’t finish the case (he went to the election petition tribunal to challenge the legality of the party’s decision to make him deputy to Yahaya Bello who was not on the ballot). Nobody consulted me before making me a deputy to Bello. Neither did Bello too consult me. I have made my position known to the party leadership on this. I am not ready to betray and disappoint Prince Abubakar Audu’’.
He did not present himself for inauguration as deputy to Yahaya Bello though he lost at the Supreme Court but he has enriched the nation’s jurisprudence, leaving the rest for history.
Looking back, Faleke said he is satisfied that he has kept faith with his conscience by subjecting his overall legislative and political engagements to the principle of loyalty which, to him, is a huge burden in an environment where treachery and the hollowness of vaunting ambition rule as the god of the belly.
Last week, he told The Daily Spokesman, shortly after photos of his historic visit to Tinubu in London went viral, ‘’Asiwaju gave me the opportunity to serve, so we brought in Lagos style of politics, which is about development that’s maximally progressive, and minimally personal.
‘’Look, today Asiwaju can be anywhere in the world, and give instructions that this is where we should go. Everybody will follow, and I mean everybody, because of our understanding of his politics of development.
‘’Asiwaju is the only leader that I have seen, apart from maybe Awolowo, the only leader that I have seen that raised you, anybody from nowhere. And I keep on saying it, Asiwaju never asked me, who is your father? Go and bring your father, or mother, let me know them. He didn’t know me and he raised me politically. And for me, all that I can give back to him, to Asiwaju, is to also raise others so that the development idea will continue and deepen. That is the way we can develop this country’’.
On his political involvement in Kogi politics, he said, ‘’Kogi State has three senatorial districts, and when the campaign started, we told so many people that, these are the things we would do, and when the election came, we won, APC won. Abubakar Audu won for APC. Unfortunately, he didn’t live to take the seat, he didn’t live to take benefit of carrying out the assignment, but he died.
‘’When he died, of course, the party took their decision and then, of course I listened to my leader who said, oh yes, you are going to work for the party, not Yahaya Bello, go and work for the party.
That’s what Asiwaju told me and of course I called all our key people, I appealed to them, they listened to me despite the fact that I have left them for so many years. They listened as I appealed to them. They followed me and we were able to deliver Kogi West Senatorial District to make a statement that we are indeed on ground. Our party is on ground’’.
Checks by The Daily Spokesman could not confirm reports allegedly linking Faleke to some major behind-the- scene moves to push Tinubu’s aspiration for the next presidential election. But he is believed to have deployed his wide political network, resources and organizational skills to attract and recruit a cross-cutting phalanx of die-hard volunteers made up of publicists, politicians, professors, scholars, writers, youth groups, market women groups, reputation managers, image enhancers and grassroots mobilisers from across and outside the country.
This newspaper could also not independently verify his alleged links with the activities of a Tinubu Support Organization (TSO) but some sources at the weekend in Abuja insisted that Faleke had links with another platform, the Tinubu Support Group (TSG), a motley assembly of pro-development activists currently operating from a huge, magnificent and expansive secretariat located in high brow Maitama, Abuja.
The imposing structure speaks volumes for the activism and seriousness of the TSG led by highly-focused Umar Ibrahim as director general and cerebral Tosin Adeyanju as head of media, publicity and mobilization, among many others operating in London and in the Diaspora.
Celebrated American-trained Professor of Theory of Politics, Kingsley Macebuh, heads the intellectual wing. Strongly protective of Tinubu’s image across all existing media platforms, the group has been behind uploading a treasure trove of promotional materials positioning Asiwaju’s candidature for 2023. All accounts indicate that the TSG appears to be making huge inroads.
Faleke joined active politics in 2003 upon his appointment as pioneer Executive Secretary of Ojudu Local Council Development Area (LCDA) of Lagos State. He was in this position in interim capacity between November 2003 and April 2004, when he was elected substantive chairman of the local government for two terms ending in 2011.
Faleke joined active politics in 2003 after Tinibu as governor of Lagos state appointed him first Executive Secretary of newly created Ojodu Local Council Development Area (LCDA) of Lagos state. In 2006, he was voted as Chairman of Conference 57, (the body of Local Government Chairmen) in Lagos State until 2011 after participating in the activities of the Lagos State Electoral Reform Committee and the Governor’s Advisory Committee of Lagos State when he was elected to represent Ikeja Federal Constituency.
Faleke hails from Ekinrin Adde in Ijumu Local Government Area in the old Kabba Province. With the creation of Kogi State in 1991, Ijumu Local Government Area became a part of Kogi West. He had his early education in Ijumu.
He attended Abdulazeez Atta Memorial College, Ijumu. In 1986, finishing at the Kaduna Polytechnic with a Higher National Diploma (HND) in Purchasing and Supply Management with Upper Credit thereby bagging the award of the best student.
He holds Masters Degree (MBA) in Business Administration with Management from Imo State University, Owerri in 2003. He is a Fellow of Chartered Institute of Purchasing Supply (CIPS), London, and Fellow, Institute of Public Administration (IPA).
The article was first published in September 2021 in the premier edition of Daily Spokesman Newspaper
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