1999 election was rigged overnight after I defeated Obasanjo – Falae

Former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Olu Falae, said the 1999 presidential election was rigged overnight to give Chief Olusegun Obasanjo the victory after he had won votes counted during the day.

In an interview with Daily Trust, Falae said the military rigged the election for Obasanjo because he was one of them and they trusted him.

According to him, the military government headed by General Abdulsalam Abubakar had already shown their preference for Obasanjo by giving him the presidential plane to fly with.

“I didn’t lose. In fact, I won the election.

“The military felt safer in the hands of a fellow military man as their successor. Yes, I worked with them; they knew what I could do, they knew my integrity, but I was not a soldier. One of them later said ‘you could trust a sergeant more than a graduate’. Before the election, the government was already giving the presidential plane to him to go round Africa. I saw that, it showed their preference, but I won the election,” Falae said.

“I was able to serve the point of view that it was time for real change in Nigeria.  But when the results came, it was very funny. I will give you an illustration. Imo State had 22 local government areas. The results for the first 18 came out and I won with a ratio of 4 to 1, which was not close. I was sure I had won Imo State, so I went to bed. The result from the remaining four local governments came out when I was asleep and completely overturned the results I had in the 18 local governments. It was very clear that they gave it to Obasanjo, there’s no argument about that.

“They thought that was the best thing for them to do. They also thought that as a civilian I would go after them, but I had made it plain that it would be stupid of me to undermine a government I was part of. It would be suicidal.”

On how he defeated late Chief Bola Ige to emerge the candidate of the Alliance for Democracy, Falae said: “Now, you remember that Chief Ige did not participate in the transition from 1990 till 1998. He said he had taken the position of ‘sidon look.’ But I was there with Shehu Yar’adua, mobilising the party, running all over the country and building offices.

“By the time Ige decided to participate in 1998 in the SDP, I was far better known. I had won elections in the North and East. He was not as well known in the party circle as I was. Two, he had no followership, but I had built up mine nationally. I had campaign committees in all the states of Nigeria. I had offices and buses. Secondly, I believe he had done things in his political past that affected the attitude of a number of leaders in the South West.

“What happened was that Afenifere set up a committee of 23 people to serve as electoral college to choose between me and Chief Ige. What I did was to visit everyone of them to have a one-on-one and try to persuade them that I would be a better candidate for the presidency. Yes, Ige had been in the party for a long time, but for 10 to 15 years the military government had been the political machine of Nigeria, I was in the very centre and core of the government. I was there when most of the important decisions about Nigeria were discussed and decided; therefore, I too had a very relevant and adequate political education. I was not a neophyte in politics.

“I also went to those I knew would never vote for me as they were close to Bola Ige. I was able to persuade 14 out of the 23 to vote for me. I went to see one of Chief Ige’s personal friends from Kogi State in his village and told him to keep his friend but make me his presidential candidate because what was important was winning the election. I believed I had a better chance of winning nationally. He agreed with me, so I told him to support me.”