AREGBESOLA’S QUIET REVOLUTION IN OSUN

Thomas Kanza insists that revolution in Africa must be a revolution in thinking. Revolution is not always about gun-wielding militants and fire-spitting ideological demagogues. There are men and women who changed the course of history by making their environments a better place to live in. Others simply showed the light for

others to follow. According to Machiavelli’s two lessons in policy and strategy, first, a ruler can always learn and be more effective; second, a ruler can learn to be more effective in the use of resources. It takes only those rulers who understand the nature of policies and master the principle of strategy to truly appreciate that strategic management demands both effectiveness and efficiency in the use of scarce resources.

A quiet revolution started in Osun State on November 27, 2010 with the inauguration of Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola as fifth democratically elected governor and the eighth chief executive since creation. It was Max Depree who once said, “The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality.” There is no gainsaying that Aregbesola has done this with deep commitment and selflessness. Since he came on the saddle 27 months ago, he has sufficiently demonstrated that he has the resolve and determination of a work-horse. And this is the attitude he is deploying to take the state of Osun to greater heights. This perhaps, informed his foreign trips to attract foreign investors, which have started yielding desired results.

To state that his administration has substantially institutionalized a vibrant economic roadmap to lift the people of the state of Osun out of poverty and build a society which embodies peace, social harmony and economic empowerment is merely underscoring the obvious. The essence of good governance is to institute policies and programmes that would seek to fast track the socio-economic development of the society and thereby ensure the welfare and economic well-being of the people. According to one time U.S Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, the task of a leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been. Also to former U.S President, Thomas Jefferson, “The overall objective of any government is to provide the greatest good for the greatest number of its citizens”. The good and long- suffering people of the state of Osun can now compare two eras: The era of Oyinlola led PDP government when people are pauperized, as compared to the era of Aregbesola led ACN government when they are empowered. Under the Aregbesola-led administration, the state of Osun is undergoing manifest social and infrastructural transformation that has never been witnessed in the state since its creation. One refers here to construction of roads, urban-renewal, and provision of electricity and water supply, effective housing and healthcare delivery, agricultural and industrial development, grass roots development and above all, educational empowerment, a major plank on which the success or failure of any well-meaning administration will be measured in the new knowledge-based world economy.

Today, the rank of the unemployed has been decimated through Aregbesola’s ingenious job creation initiative which has received both national and international accolades. The state has also latched on to the Information and Communication Technology revolution. A new crop of competent farmers is emerging through various farm institutes and settlements that have been resuscitated. Tourism is also featuring prominently in the scheme of things. My admiration for Aregbesola is informed by my conviction that he is a man of destiny, who has excellently acquitted himself as a visionary leader and statesman. Even some objective key members of the opposition like former President Obasanjo and Chairman of the Senate Committee on Education, Senator Uche Chukwumerije, had during their visits to the state of Osun agreed that the success story of the state under Aregbesola’s watch will soon become a reference point in developmental strategy.

Nigeria that has failed over the years because it has been saddled with leaders that can at best be described as accidents in our political firmament. Arguably, the paucity of qualitative political leadership in our country, Nigeria tended to be a consequence of our collective inability to celebrate quality leadership, due to myopic and parochial considerations. The question that has been agitating the minds of right-thinking persons and every neutral political- observers is: why is quality leadership a virtue that is not much in abundant supply amongst members of the PDP as demonstrated by the lacklustre performance of its ambassadors in states controlled by it and the centre but virtually abounds amongst members of the ACN as demonstrated by the sterling performance of its ambassadors in states controlled by it since the inception of this democratic dispensation 14 years ago?

Not a few will agree with this writer that the only legacies PDP can claim to have bequeathed to Nigerians are profligacy and ineptitude. The foregoing explains the present socio-political and economic woes of the nation, despite the stupendous amount of petrol-dollars it has made in the last 14 years of its administration. In our own country, PDP has turned us to hewers of wood and fetchers of water. As the race to 2015 inches closer, is it not about time we, the Nigerian electorates take our destinies in our own hands by pitching our political tents with coalition of progressive political parties that has merged to challenge PDP dominance? It is in our own interest and that of our children to embrace the All Progressive Congress (APC) that parades the likes of Adebisi Akande, Muhammadu Buhari, Nuhu Ribadu, Bola Tinubu, Segun Osoba, Raji Fashola, Adams Oshiomhole, Rauf Aregbesola, Kayode Fayemi, Abiola Ajimobi, Ibikunle Amosun, Rochas Okorocha, Nasir El-Rufai and others too numerous to mention as members. If we all believe that we are not comfortable with the status quo in our country. A word, they say, is enough for the wise.

• Aminu is Head, Media and Public Relations, Awo Centre for Philosophy, Ideology and Good Governance, Osogbo

-         Osun defender