Olu Falae

Olu Falae Biography / Profile

Samuel Oluyemisi Falae (simply known as Olu Falae), was born on September 21st, 1938 in Ilu Abo (also called Ago-Abo), close to Akure in Ondo State, Nigeria to the family of Joshua and Abigail Falae. His father was originally from Akure but due to opportunities in cocoa farming, moved with his family and a few other Akure natives to Ago-Abo.

Olu Falae Age

Olu Falae is 86 years old.

Olu Falae Early Life

Falae started school on January 1944 at St. Stephen’s Anglican Primary School, Ijomu in Akure when he was five years and three months old. That was very strange and unusual because in those days, children didn’t start school until their right hands could go over the tops of their heads and touch their left ears, and that was usually between six and seven years of age.

Before he proceeded to secondary school, Igbobi College in 1953, he lost his mother in October 1946. He left Igbobi with Grade One. He obtained his Higher School Certificate at Government College, Ibadan in 1958. Thereafter, he was a tutor at Oyemekun Grammar School, Akure. He attended the University of Ibadan for his undergraduate studies before pursuing a graduate degree at Yale University in the United States. At the University of Ibadan, he represented his hall of residence in the Students Representative Council and was editorial board member of the student run campus magazine.

Olu Falae Career

Falae worked in the National Manpower Board as assistant secretary under Professor T.M Yesufu. The Board was established as a result of a report on higher education in Nigeria, which recommended that higher education should be developed in consonance with the national manpower needs of the nation. His work was to conduct survey - labour force, ample survey, unemployment. He was part of the Ministry of Economic Development. After few years, he was transferred to the Central Economic Planning of the same ministry under Mr Allison Ayida.

In 1971, he won a Ford Foundation Fellowship and got admitted into both Harvard and Yale universities in the US for a postgraduate degree as an in-service training. The government wanted to upgrade members of staff by giving them the opportunity to go for Masters or PhD, especially in the area of economic planning where he was engaged. Then, he had worked for eight years in the civil service, representing Nigeria in the United Nations, so was not just a young graduate going for his masters.

Falae was Minister of Finance under the military administration of Ibrahim Babangida and later served as Secretary to the Government of the Federation. He was detained by the military administration of Sani Abacha over his demand for the return of democracy to the nation. He was freed when the taciturn general died. In 1999, he was the joint presidential candidate of the defunct All Peoples Party, APP, and the Alliance for Democracy. He, however, lost to former President Olusegun Obasanjo. He belongs to the Yoruba socio-cultural organisation, Afenifere and also the chairman of the revitalised Social Democratic Party (SDP). He is coming in on the elder statesmen category from Ondo State.

Olu Falae Personal Life

Chief Falae is married to Rachael Olatubosun Fashoranti whom he met during his days in primary school. His first introduction to her was way back around 1946 and they eventually we got married in 1967. The union is blessed with children including Yewande Towobola and Oladapo Falae.

Falae was kidnapped by suspected Fulani herdsmen on September 21st, 2015, his 77th birthday. The chieftain and leader of the ‎Yoruba Socio-cultural group, Afenifere, was said to have been abducted on his farm in Ilado, along Igbatoro road, in Akure, the capital city of Ondo State.