Giant strides of the Ajele

Two major factors influenced my decision to support Rauf Aregbesola, especially, in his reelection bid as governor of the State of Osun in 2014 and I think they are worth repeating here; perhaps they may be helpful to the cause of this piece.
 
I left Ijebu-Jesa in 1985, after the completion of my secondary school education, but by the time providence would take me back to my Native Nazareth some years later, almost all the roads on the axis had become so impassable that it’d not be out of place to ask if there had ever been a government in place in the state. As good governance would have it, the narrative took a turn for the better less than two years of Aregbesola’s assumption of office. As at last count, government has constructed not less than 1000km of roads and they traverse all the nooks and crannies of the state.
 
Closely connected to the above was my preference for this fiery and fearless politician at a time it mattered most. Like the story of the elephant and the knife on the day of the former’s date with death, some funny characters whose political antecedents were sufficient enough to qualify them as unworthy candidates for ‘Bola Ige House’ had thrown their hats into the ring in a desperate attempt to capture power from the incumbent governor. Unhelpful also was Nigeria’s political landscape, with its ‘the-more-you-look-the-less-you-see’ features in dubious connivance with the ‘by-any-means-possible’ disposition of its handlers. A third reason for supporting his reelection bid was his integrity. Amongst all the contestants, his integrity stood poles ahead and was clearly non-comparable with his closest rival from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). 
 

In any case, as ‘Ajele’ which the opposition has nicknamed him, Aregbesola is very proud of his relationship with the ‘Governor Emeritus’ of Lagos State, his leader and mentor. Little wonder many refer to him as the ‘Symbol’. On the other hand, in Tinubu’s clan and court, ‘Ogbeni’, as he is fondly called by his admirers, is the ‘numero uno’; but not to the point of being subservient. No doubt about it: Aregbesola is one person whose political judgment Tinubu respects.  

An American politician, Benjamin Franklin, once remarked: “Human felicity is produced not as much by great pieces of good fortune that seldom happen as by little advantages that occur every day.” One noteworthy reality is that politics is about the economy and economy is about the people. It is about prioritization and allocation of values. Put succinctly, politics is about the people.

It is about generational prosperity and usefulness to humanity. Without being immodest, Osun’s developmental strides have presented Aregbesola as a worthy product of Tinubu’s school of politics. An activist whose primary concern is how to build a super system, not super human,  Aregbesola has happily and healthily given pleasure to others by ‘rambunctiously’ spearheading the technological transformation of Osun into “a developed, cleaner, safer and more beautiful state.” The man behind the ‘O’ Revolution in Osun is an outstanding politician of authority who has by his pursuit of causes with unblemished peculiarities shut the mouths of enchanters whose remit is in sounding like broken bottles for reasons not unconnected with selfish ambitions and personal gains.
 
Mention his accomplishments! Is it in the education sector where, as at last count, a total of 55 new structures, comprising 20 Elementary, 22 Middle, and 13 High School have been added to existing structures while a total of 82 school blocks, comprising 1,534 classrooms across the state have been refurbished by his administration? Or the Elementary School Feeding Scheme, (O’MEALS) which has also greatly reduced unemployment by absorbing no fewer than 20,000 food vendors, in addition to providing certain categories of pupils with highly nutritious meals on a daily basis? Or the Osun Youth Empowerment Scheme (OYES) which, with its mopping up of more than 40,000 youths off our streets and productively engaging them, has succeeded in reducing the scourge of unemployment among our youths?