THE outgoing governor of Osun State, Mr Rauf Aregbesola, on Saturday said his greatest achievement in the last eight years centred on human capital development through the successful implementation of social investment programmes, which he said, had rubbed off positively on the economy of the state.
He made this disclosure in the early hours of Saturday, while responding to questions from journalists and members of the public in an interactive programme tagged “Ogbeni Till Day Break”.
Aregbesola, who stated that he would leave the Oke-Fia Government House by Monday contended that “my greatest achievement is in human capital development or what I would describe as social investment programme. We have changed the thinking of our people in terms of Omoluabi ethoes. The school feeding programme which we revive is the most important thing we have done in terms of improving the mental capacity of our children.”
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According to him, “OYES is a major life changing programme. Osun per se was never part of the Nigeria’s economy before our advent. But, from that backwater, Osun is now the state with the lowest unemployment rate or mystery index in Nigeria. How best can you describe the success of our administration because government exists for the welfare of the people.”
While explaining that continuity was key to the steady growth of any society, he declared that “nothing can stop the mandate of Gboyega Oyetola. Wherever they take it to, this mandate remain unshaken. Your tenure would be peaceful in Osun State”, stressing that “what we are doing in Osun State is only done in Lagos State. It has never happened before in Osun. Awolowo did the same thing in the Western region. Tinubu had done the same thing when he handed over to Babatunde Raji Fashola, who also handed over to Akinwumi Ambode.
Commenting on his successor, he said “Oyetola is a calm, cool and collected individual. He is not a radical like me. He does not have my swagger. But, he is a goal getter. The person that does the most jobs for governor in an executive administration is the Chief of Staff. He is a silent achiever. He is not mercurial or does not grandstand.
Aregbesola stated further that “I would leave Government House by next Monday, 19th of November. But, I would not leave Osogbo, even though, I would not disclose where I would stay in Osogbo. My political leader, Senator Ahmed Tinubu left the Government House about three years before exiting power. I am going to my father’s house at J69 A, Arogbo Street, Ifofin Ilesa. That is where I am returning to after leaving the seat of power.”
Reacting to the recent position of the former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who accused some state governors of allegedly stifling local government administration in Nigeria, the outgoing governor argued that “I would not want to join issues with Obasanjo. Nigeria is a federation. The country was founded on federalism, some of us are so committed that the principle upon which this nation is founded is not toyed with.”
Aregbesola continued, “the federation is two tier. It can be regional or state apart from the central government. Whatever is in a region is between the the central government and the federating unit. The issue is about effective management of what we have. The issue of autonomy for our local government is a no go area. If I were to join issue with Obasanjo, I would say the contract awarded for the construction of primary health care centres in the states during his regime was it successful, the answer is no.”
He, however, defended the quality of roads constructed by his administration, pointing out that none of the road had failed, saying “Gbongan-Akoda is still under All the roads we have completed and commissioned will last for nothing less than 50 years. The standard of our roads is incomparable to the standard of roads constructed in this state before. Our roads compares with the best in the world.”
“We constructed minimum of three kilometres in each of the 30 local government and area council. Osun West Senatorial district is not marginalised in the construction of roads. The Omoluabi motor way or Gbongan Akoda, which is in the Osun West road would cost the state N39 billion. We did not neglect the West. There are areas we would have done, but funding is the challenge”, Aregbesola remarked.
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