Aregbesola urges sacrifice at Osun State anniversary

Osun State governor, Rauf Aregbesola, yesterday urged the people of the state to shun acts capable of causing disaffection and embrace values that promote unity and development of society.

He made the call in a broadcast to mark the 26th anniversary of the creation of Osun State on August 27, 1991. In the broadcast titled: We Have Overcome, he urged the Osun people to eschew all forms of anti-social behavior capable of putting different ethnic nationalities on the edge to enhance the unity and development of the country.

Besides, Aregbesola also urged Nigerians to be more hardworking, creative and be prepared for the global efforts to discover a new world economic order without crude oil.

He argued that if the people unite, work hard, harness their God-given potential and pray fervently, Nigeria would overcome the challenges that come its way.

His words: “We should practice tolerance in religion, ethnicity and ideology and abhor hatred or discrimination against anyone. We should remain strong, united, unbroken and unbreakable, in the spirit of togetherness.

“An economic transition is in the horizon in which our national dependence on oil will end, as we know it. We should all brace up for this development by preparing spiritually and intellectually, using our God given endowments.

“Our faith in God and responsible use of our endowment will see us through. We will overcome any challenge we face. Our best is yet to come.”

While saluting the vision, courage of the founding fathers and the contributions of successive administrations in raising the stake of development, he charged the people to play their part in order to sustain the socio-economic and physical development of the state.

“Under our watch in nearly seven years, we have worked hard to establish a people-friendly government whose resources have been judiciously used for the development of the people in every area.’’

“Though we went through a daunting financial challenge occasioned by tumbling oil price, but we have steadied the ship of state, ushered in unprecedented peace, prosperity and human development.

“We have made agriculture to be important and assisted farmers to excel in their vocation and banish hunger as we promised during our campaign,” he added.

Aregbesola pointed out that the state under his watch, invested huge sum in education, stating that state’s brand new state-of-the-art schools are now the reference point in quality and standard for others.

“Our social protection programmes like youth engagement and empowerment, women development and empowerment, care for the aged and care and rehabilitation of the destitute have won laurels and hoisted for others to duplicate,” he stated.