Falae to Jonathan: Forget presidential ambition in 2011

By Dayo Johnson
Former secretary to the Federal Government, Chief Olu Falae has advised President Goodluck Jonathan to forget his ambition of succeeding himself but to limit himself to conducting of a free, fair and transparent election that will be acceptable to all Nigeria

Falae who spoke with Vanguard in Akure said that it would be unfair for Jonathan to want to succeed himself.

According to him “Immediate he shows interest in contesting election, there will be conflict of interests and you know in human mind if there is conflict between your interests and that of the nation, yours will win, which means, he may compromise the objective of conducting a free and fair election.

“He should not compromise himself by contesting election.

“He is a young man of 53, 54, he can afford to write his name in gold now by giving  us  credible election, he can come back later and we would bring him back later to reward him foe saving Nigeria from embarrassment and shame as a nation that cannot conduct credible election.

Falae denied that he was working surreptitiously for the emergence of Jonathan.

Falae who spoke with Nigerian Compass said he had never met with anybody in order to champion or campaign for the presidential ambition of President Jonathan.

Also, he ruled out the possibilities of supporting any candidate of any other political party who is not member of the newly formed Social Democratic Mega Party (SDMP).

He declared that “I have nothing against Jonathan but he is not in my party and therefore I cannot strategize about his candidacy. As far as he is a candidate of the PDP, to which I do not belong and I cannot support him.

“ But if he were to change his mind and decamp from PDP and joined SDMP, then he can aspire like other Nigerians. Until he does that I have no interest about his candidacy.

On IBB ambition, Falae said he is free to contest but that he would not support him unless he decided to join his party.