By Femi Orebe
The depth, the meaning, the interpretation and the understanding of every word of the valedictory song, (at Christ’s School, Ado- Ekiti), all put together, was so appealing and penetrating that one could not help but feel a vacuum was being created, while the ones with emotions burst into tears at departure.
I remember vividly the following January (1955), when the school was resuming and I was miles away in Ibadan in search of a job. I recalled the tolling of the school bell at 6pm for assembly at the school chapel. Full of past memories of the school days and years gone-by, I burst into tears. That is Christ’s School, built on Agidimo Hills, which lives in the hearts and souls of every alumnus. That is why I still value and remember with nostalgia, the Christian life and discipline, and all other beautiful Hymns in Songs of Praise, Hymns Ancient and Modern, Methodist Hymn Book and the Church Hymnals, all of which shaped our lives and behaviour” – Chief Falegan in his Autobiography: MY YESTER-YEARS, a truly powerful, down to earth Magnum Opus, with not a scintilla of the “tawdry burnishing or massaging” of his own ego” – Chief Falegan in his Autobiography: “ MY YESTERYEARS.
This quote is archetypical of the departed icon. What he loves, he loves to bits. However, God help you if your paths crossed his, as the former Emir of Kano, HRH Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, would readily confirm.
He simply loved his Christ’s School.
Attempting to write another article on the life and times of Chief S.B Falegan after the one by Professor Jide Osuntokun soon after the icon passed, (Google:’Falegan: Patriot and Honest Man If Ever There Was One’, Feb 4 2021) will be the equivalent of carrying coal to Newcastle as I shall, willy nilly, have to repeat a lot of the things he wrote.
Why so?
Simple: MY YESTER-YEARS, Chief Falegan’s powerful and down to earth Magnum Opus of an Autobiography, “with not a scintilla of the tawdry burnishing or massaging of his own ego”, as the late Professor Adeloye described it, is our primary source of information; for while I was privileged to be one of the three who edited the book, Professor Osuntokun it was, who reviewed it to a deafening applause at its launch.
Instead, what I have chosen to do in honour of this incredible Ekiti elder statesman, who was reputed to be honest to a fault, and who you always knew where exactly he was on any given issue as he goes home, this week, to the bosom of his Maker, is to reproduce here, one of my many articles on him during his life time; one which shows what a great patriot he was.
I wrote as follows;
Memo to southwest governors on economic integration – Chief Dele Falegan
As I have had cause to write once or twice on these pages, I speak with Chief Dele Falegan every day of the week. Unlike before, I now make the calls as early as 7 am lest he calls first as is his wont. Chief Deji Fasuan’s calls, fewer though, come much earlier than 7 am. My prayer for these Ekiti icons is that the good Lord will continue to preserve them in good health. Amen. They are both archetypical of many elderly Ekiti who love Nigeria like they love their Ekiti – even though they have had to endure tremendous psychological pains arising from the punishing inability of both Nigeria and Ekiti to attain to the lofty heights they believed were readily available to the two entities given their endowments. They had both attended the prestigious Christ’s School, Ado-Ekiti, a privilege the columnist proudly shares with them, and were in a pole position, long before independence, to see the huge possibilities awaiting Nigeria. That their hopes for country and motherland fatally miscarried must be chalked up to our rapacious politicians and an equally gluttonous army of ‘anything goes’.
It should, therefore, be no surprise, to say that I have seen both men agonise severally over many facets of the Nigerian nation, many times expressing their views in full length newspaper articles or in Letters to the editor. The first meeting of Southwest governors held in Ibadan, the Oyo state capital, gave Chief Falegan an impetus I have not seen him display in my over half a century close relationship with him. He has, literally, never stopped talking about how unfairly treated in infrastructural development the Southwest had been from one Nigerian federal government to another. In confirmation of this, I remember that at the AGBAJO YORUBA a few years ago, under the leadership of Lt.General Ipoola Akinrinade, we had to set up a 3-man rapid response group to protest the constant neglect of the Southwest when, at the end of every of Obasanjo’s executive council meetings, with Muktar Shagari as his Water Resources Minister, huge irrigation projects were being announced in favour of the North with none to these parts.
I digress.
For Chief Falegan, the next meeting of the governors’ forum scheduled for Ado-Ekiti was divine. I promptly linked him up with Biodun Famakinwa, the indefatigable Executive Secretary of DAWN. Out of respect to the Southwest Governors’ Forum, I shall refrain from going into the nitty gritty of Chef’s memo. Instead, and as a pointer to his thoughts on the subject matter, I reproduce below my article of 30 November, 2011.
In pursuit of regional integration in Nigeria
It is for me a great pleasure to present below, the views of Chief Dele Falegan, a renowned banker and Economist, former Director of Research of the Central Bank of Nigeria, and the pioneer Managing Director of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria, as he writes on how Economic Integration can see Nigeria out of its current economic morass.
Wrote Chief Falegan: “As a former banker, Femi Orebe’s paper on South-West Regional Integration at the recent EKITI ECONOMIC SUMMIT (14th – 15th October 2011), provided for me, an opportunity to dilate further on how such proposals, both within and , even across geo-political zones, can hasten the much-talked about economic take-off of the country. It is therefore my view that we have to rapidly put in place, a project along the ROAD MAP already outlined in the DAWN document.
One specific proposal/project I have in mind is aimed at resolving the problem of neglected Federal Roads in Ondo, Ekiti, Osun and Kwara State in the Northern axis with the South-West serving as the fulcrum.
I do not think that the neglect of federal roads in this part of the country is deliberate. But the crying lack of attention relative to other parts of the country in this respect cannot but give room for concern. The daily carnage and loss of lives on these roads cannot but raise eyebrows, especially the inability to drive safely along Ondo and Ekiti States where the Federal roads linking them have been rendered completely impassable.These include the roads from Ikare in Ondo State and Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital; the one between Ikere and Akure, the Ondo State capital, which has become totally impassable, all collectively impacting negatively on the economy of these states. It is unthinkable that as you read this, there is no dedicated Lagos-Abuja highway in spite of all the huge fortune that fell on our laps during the Obasanjo years.
I concede that apart from financial constraints, there is in addition, a gaping lack of executive capacity within the Federal government, the Federal Ministry of Works and its direct Agency in this respect, FERMA, which makes it impossible for them to cope with the challenges inherent in this massive business of keeping our road network in top shape as one would normally expect. This cannot, however, be an extenuating reason for the humongous level of carnage on these roads as well as the attendant disruption to economic life
These are the reasons I like to propose that the named states in the South-West and Kwara State should jointly access the facilities available at the International Development Association (IDA), which is the soft loan arm of the World Bank to fund the reconstruction of all the Federal roads in the zone/s. Should the IDA require a guarantee from the Federal Government, the states should not hesitate to approach the Jonathan -led Federal Government, for same.
IDA loans have long term gestation periods lasting between 40 to 50 years and with a grace period of 10 years during which there is no repayment, and with interest charges at less than 1%. This means there will be no repayment burden for the present generation, and the future, paying generation would have benefitted immensely from increased economic activities to be generated there from. Repayment will therefore be almost painless. It is worthy of note too that IDA facilities have no hold on the borrowers’ existing resources which can thus be devoted to other pressing developmental needs.
The roads within the proposed co-operating states pass and cut the states vertically and diagonally from (a) Akure in Ondo State, Ado-Ekiti in Ekiti State to Omuaran in Kwara State: (b) Ikare in Ondo State to Ado-Ekiti to Ilesha in Osun State: (c) Iyamoye in Kwara to Ikole in Ekiti State via Ogotun-Ekiti to Ikeji in Osun State.
It is suggested that the roads should be dual carriage. They will be about the only major Federal project in this part of the country since independence. The recent inspection of Federal roads (and indeed all Federal projects) in this part of the country confirms the need for a concerted effort by these states in making this joint effort and for a Federal Government, eager to join the group of the most developed 20 economies barely nine years from now, to eagerly lend its support.
A committee of experts on infrastructure procurement made up of members from all the states can be set up immediately to work out details. This should be far and beyond politics and partisan politics must not be allowed to kill it off. Details should include (a) the project coverage showing the number of kilometres from each state which will determine the financial commitment of each state (b) the total financial package which will determine the proportion of repayment by each state as at future repayment schedule (c) debt burden sharing and typology of debt per state.
Fortunately, these states, individually or collectively, have very low current debt burden and are under-borrowed whether from the point of view of external or domestic debt or both. To make each state a major beneficiary of this scheme is to maximally improve overall economic activities in the country. As at today, only about 10 states are benefiting from IDA facilities in Nigeria. Japan has identical facility and repayment terms as the IDA credit and it is a great pity that Nigeria is not maximally utilising IDA to massively build up its infrastructure stock.
This proposal, if accepted, will add value to the overall development and growth of the entire country. The example can be replicated in other zones of the country so as to cut down on the carnage and the unnecessary loss of the lives of the most active and productive0segment of our population just as it will generate massive employment opportunities for our horde of unemployed youth and, without a doubt, enhance security of persons and property”.
- May the good Lord grant Baba eternal rest and comfort his darling wife of many decades, and the children. Amen
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