Aregbesola, politics in Osun and beyond. By: Oluremi Omowaiye

Oranmiyan who has become a phenomenon in Yorubaland traversing the old Oyo Empire was a Prince, a King, warrior and custodian of cultural authority during his heroic days. Many centuries after he left, another symbol of peace, progress and prosperity for the Yoruba race is Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola, the Governor of Osun State.

Ever since he assumed the position of the chief executive officer in Osun, he has come under tense and heavy criticism, largely orchestrated by the opposition. However, the radiating love between him and his people (citizens, residents and electorate) remain uncompromised.

Fundamentally, Aregbesola is a mountainous movement, better described as an unstoppable revolution. It is a promulgation of enduring legacies for today and the coming generations: these and more he professed, he has demonstrated over the years in deeds, words and actions.

Travelling down memory lane, just thirty two months ago, the most vindictive and politically intimidating election since the advent of the Fourth Republic was conducted on August 9, 2014 in what political scientists often refer to as an over-militarized supervised ballot of  a little above 700,000  electorate where well above 70,000 security operatives stretching from masked DSS to army officers, mobile and regular policemen and several other paramilitary agencies terrorized and intimidated innocent and law abiding electorate but the Osun people rose and stood against tiring oppression, frightening influence and terrific intimidation with the broom mentality of purposeful unity, Aregbesola won clearly.


His dexterity and natural instinct of participatory governance is legendary. He posits with enormous humility that he remains the only governor who can confidently boast of two large territories in different domains of Osun East senatorial district and Lagos West senatorial district where he can make himself available for an election if he so desires.

Putting the issues in clear perspectives, the success story of infrastructural development under Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu in Lagos State between 1999 – 2007 and beyond which epitomizes symbolic revolution in massive infrastructural development, cannot be waved away; it is documented with indelible ink in the annals of the Ministry of Works and Infrastructure at the Centre of Excellence.

Till date, his unflinching loyalty, strength and noticeable discipleship to the Tinubu political dynasty makes him the delight of the politician and a force to reckon with in the political landscape of Lagos and beyond.

Is Aregbesola actually a large political heavyweight in Osun? How? When? Where? Well, his mode of governance is patently unusual, reversing the old trends and bringing government in its entirety and totality closer to the governed by expressly surprising the over four million teeming populace through the constitutional and conventional roles of entrenching the depth of democratic principles with legacy projects.

The construction of new 70 state-of-the-art educational facilities for elementary, middle and high school pupils/students, with complementary renovation of additional 1,500 classrooms. The government alone has served 200,000,000 plates of nutritious meal as at December 31, 2016 with 250,000 dished out daily under the O-Meal scheme with O – REAP (Osun Rural Enterprise and agriculture programme) a platform for peasant and mechanized farmers to translate their farm produce into profits and prosperity as the bed rock.


Undoubtedly, the chunk of the success stories have now metamorphosed into a national template for implementation of the blueprint of APC Muhammadu Buhari led Federal Government.

The Osun Special Ambulance scheme (O – Ambulance) don’t discriminate between Fulani, Ibibio, Efik, Igbira or Oyo when discharging effectively their statutory duties of saving accident victims and offering emergency services to the residents of Osun, records show that 12,000 lives have been saved from untimely death within four years of operation.

We cannot exhaust all existing channels to salute the doggedness, patience and understanding of the rank and file of the workforce, the labour unions for standing unceremoniously with the government in solidarity.

The succession conspiracy theory can’t distract our government, the model of finesse for emerging and performing successors under the Tinubu dynasty is not accidental, Babatunde Raji Fasola was thrown up less than three months to the defunct Action Congress (AC) 2007 Governorship primaries, same applied to Akinwumi Ambode whose entry into the race was less than a year. The baton will be passed to a worthy apostle of the six point integral action plan of Aregbesola in due course.

Rauf does not give in to hypocrisy or pride as erroneously analyzed in some quarters, but a firm grip of the political firmament in Osun as this was again displayed at the just concluded seven-hour all night interactive session tagged Ogbeni till Daybreak where a random sampling showed residents glued to their television sets despite the leprous and epileptic power supply.


Conscious efforts to resuscitate the Osun economy to boost the revenue generation through the agricultural and ICT revolution is commendable, the Cocoa processing industry in Ede is back on its feet after 15years of collapse, the chocolate liquor from the firm is touching grounds in China and  Europe.

Aregbesola is reinventing the wheels of Awo legacies, approaching the mechanism of sustainable development through agriculture, infrastructure, social intervention and education for the benefit of mankind, he is purpose driven and remarkably focused on his set goals, he cannot be distracted by rabble rousers as every available parameter by both government and private establishment clearly reveal indices, statistical figures and empirical data of progress in human capital development, poverty reduction, infrastructural development, agricultural prosperity, etc. Saboteurs of development and political scavengers should halt all moves to replace Aregbesola with retrogressive element as they are whipping a dead horse; they have lost the battle al binitio.

Oluremi Omowaiye, an engineer writes from Osogbo