Olu Falae carpets opposition politicians over presidential ambition, says single candidate impossible

A former Secretary to the Government of the Federation and 1999 presidential candidate, Olu Falae, has criticised opposition politicians pushing for a coalition ahead of the 2027 general elections, saying their individual presidential ambitions would make it impossible to produce a single consensus candidate.

Falae stated this on Friday during an appearance on Channels Television’s Inside Sources hosted by Laolu Akande, while speaking on ongoing alliance talks among opposition political parties seeking to unseat Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

According to him, the opposition leaders involved in the coalition movement are driven more by personal ambition than collective political interest.

“One thing I learnt in politics is that once a man decides to run for a public office, in most cases he becomes absolutely unreasonable, impervious to reasoning, ego takes over. Nobody will step down for anyone,” Falae said.

The elder statesman noted that although opposition politicians publicly support the idea of presenting a single presidential candidate, each aspirant secretly believes he should emerge as the candidate.

“When they came up with the idea of a single candidate, they all said yes, it is good but everybody thought he would be that single candidate,” he said.

“When you have a dozen people thinking that each of them will be candidate, the next step is the realisation that it is not viable and possible.”

The traditional ruler of Ilu-Abo in Akure North Local Government Area of Ondo State also argued that the inability of opposition figures to unite behind one candidate would weaken their chances against the ruling party in 2027.