Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State has said that in spite all odds, his administration has turned the state from being a civil service state to commercial, industrial and agricultural-based state.
He was the special guest of honour at Raufnomics III, the colloquium organised in his honour on the occasion of his 61th birthday, held at Aurora Events Centre, Osogbo over the weekend.
Speaking at the event, he expressed gratitude to God for making all his aspirations to come to fruition, noting that his government has in the last seven and half years impacted positively on the lives of every resident in the state.
Aregbesola stated, “Against all odds, the joy I have is the fact that our administration has given Osun a true identity it deserves as we have executed myriads of pro-people projects that have in one way or the other impacted greatly in their lives.
“Today we are proud that Osun has transited from civil service economy to rural agrarian, commercial and industrial based economy as being reflected in the latest rating of Osun as a state with highest human condition of happiness in Nigeria.
“We have done so much for our people, we have put in place indelible landmarks hard to be surpassed by anyone as our state is of today being rated as one of the most peaceful states with minimal unemployment rate in Nigeria”, Aregbesola enthused.
The governor also described ‘Jonathanomics’, the economic philosophy of former President Goodluck Jonathan as one in which oil proceeds are shared directly by PDP leaders and their cronies without remittance to the federation account. The amount lost to this, according to Governor Aregbesola, was more than N8 trillion of which Osun’s share should have been a whooping N75 billion, enough to complete all his projects and pay workers full salaries.
“Jonathanomics is undoubtedly the direct spending of oil proceeds by PDP big wigs without remittance to the federation account, in an unmitigated primitive accumulation of the commonwealth by a coterie of government insiders and their outside cronies. While PDP leaders were becoming stupendously rich, the country and its states become poorer” said the Osun Governor.
Speaking earlier at the programme, as the guest speaker, the Registrar and Chief Executive Officer of Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Professor Is-haq Olanrewaju Oloyede, described the infrastructural development which Osun has witnessed in the last seven and half years of Governor Rauf Aregbesola as unprecedented in the history of the state.
He said whoever that is sane must commend Aregbesola for aggressively transforming Osun and taking the state out of the shackles of retrogression and backwardness.
The JAMB Registrar lauded the Aregbesola’s administration for prioritizing the welfare of the citizens with the provision of basic infrastructural developments in all sectors.
He said the present administration in Osun has shown to the world the need for the enthronement of good government, governance and representation as being seen in the quality of services rendered and leadership exhibited by governor Aregbesola.
Oloyede described Osun as one of the few states in Nigeria that are blessed with good leadership, a favour he said has helped to reposition Osun beyond human expectation.
The JAMB boss lauded the efforts of Governor Aregbesola in the education sector, saying Osun has laid a worthy precedence that should be emulated by any government that desires quality education.
While commending the social investment programmes of the Aregbesola’s administration, the JAMB Registrar said Osun has made a huge difference in all spheres of life.
“Whoever that is sane must know that Aregbesola has done well. I am not a praise-singer neither I my a sycophant but to say the truth, Osun is lucky to have a personality like Aregbesola as governor because his emergence has not only repositioned Osun but transformed it beyond expectation.
“Every time I come to Osun, I wonder why people are not celebrating Mr Governor as much as I thought because we all knew how Osun was before and how it is now as we have seen changes here and there.
“He (Aregbesola) has changed the face of Osun through massive infrastructural development especially in the education and road construction sectors which I have testified to by myself.
“Osun is one of the states I can beat my chest on in terms of transformation, growth and development. I have seen good road networks that were not there before; I have seen schools with state-of-the-arts facilities across the nooks and crannies of the state.
“Aregbesola’s achievements beyond what anyone can fault, though it is far from what we hear in the media but I believe without any reservation that we are lucky to have Aregbesola as Governor.
“I am saying this emphatically because Aregbesola has performed excellently well by my assessment which I can justify by the facts I have gathered and seen by myself.
“I have brought a lot of people to Osun to come and see wonders going on in the state and as I am talking to you Osun has become a model of development in Nigeria”, Oloyede stressed.
Speaking on the theme of the colloquium: “Functional Education as a Tool for National Development and a Gateway to Freedom”, Oloyede called for quality, qualitative and functional education as the path to all round growth and development.
“For us to earn functional education as a tool for national development and a gateway to freedom, no effort must be spared to review our academic curriculum to suit the present and future challenges as functional education is the bedrock of freedom and bedrock of development
“Since the essence of acquiring education is to be self-sustaining, self-dependent, and to be useful for oneself, society and nation at large and to serve humanity, thus no effort must be spared to promote quality and functional education”, he added.
Packaged by Rahman Salami
