See what this Lagos Magazine, Paparazzi reports about Osun Governor, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola. Aregbesola’s Massive Looting of Osun State Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola, the Executive Governor of Osun State or as he chooses to call it, the State of Osun is a man who courts controversy with every move he makes. If he attracts controversies, without intending to, that would have been a case of others reading undue meanings to his actions and utterances but the Ogbeni of Osun seems to thrive in and enjoy controversies. He is no doubt one of the controversial amongst the 36 governors the country has on parade. Born in the late fifties, in Ilesa, Aregbesola had his elementary school in Ikare Akoko, in the Akoko Division of present day Ondo State. He enrolled at the Polytechnic, Ibadan, where he graduated in the Department of Mechanical Engineering with a Higher National Diploma in 1980. As a student, he was an activist, who was involved in students’ union activities. On graduation, he did his primary assignment at the defunct Nigeria External Telecommunication (NET) as a member of the National Youth Service (NYSC) in Kujama. During this period, he resided at Sabon Tasha, a suburb of Kaduna, where the company had staff quarters. It was during this period, he met and married his wife, Sherifat. In 1986, he moved down to Lagos and there he became the Maintenance Engineer at Lagos Airport Hotel, Obafemi Awolowo Way, Ikeja. He later resigned to establish his personal engineering firm, Aurora Ventures in Shasha, Lagos. Ogbeni Aregbesola was an active participant in the third republic, when two parties existed. The Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the National Republican Convention (NRC) held sway. He belonged to the SDP. When General Abdusalam Abubakar returned the country to civil rule in 1999, Ogbeni Aregbesola was in the forefront of the Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu Gubernatorial Campaign Organisation. Rauf, as he is fondly called, was appointed commissioner. While he held sway as commissioner of works and infrastructure in Lagos State, Rauf Aregbesola was undoubtedly the most powerful of the commissioners and a close ally of Bola Tinubu, a man he recently described as his mentor. Tales abound on the pillaging that took place in Lagos State under the watch of Tinubu and Aregbesola. It has been said in different quarters that the strategic ministry of works strategically assigned to the Osun State governor as the Asiwaju’s trusted ally was because he was a man who could be relied upon to do the bidding of his mentor and Rauf certainly did not disappoint. Towards the end of the Bola Tinubu regime, Ogbeni Aregbesola launched his Oranmiyan movement which he used as a political platform to penetrate Osun State. The memory of the violent eruptions that his entry into Osun politics caused is still fresh in the memory of those who were victims of his importation of thugs from Lagos, as was reported then. Since the Ogbeni took over as governor of Osun State through what a prominent indigene of the state called “Justice Salami’s fraudulent grace”, he has carried on with a fiery gusto that tends to suggest the state is on its own and that he is lord and conqueror of the space he now refers to as the State of Osun in flagrant rebellion against the constitution of the federal republic. He has carried on despite cries and admonition from far and near and in the process attracted a crowd of cheerleaders who see him as the new bastion of democracy and exemplary leadership in a fashion similar to what obtained while his mentor and master, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu held sway in Lagos State. Accolades and praise have never been in short supply for the self styled socialist; he has always postured as one man who is truly one. He has carried on somewhat as an activist in government house much in the mould of the comrade governor of Edo State. It will be recalled that Ogbeni Aregbesola openly led protesters in Osogbo during the January 2012 fuel subsidy protests. That singular action, described as a well calculated and highly published stunt, was meant to further throw him as a man of the people and a populist in government. There is no doubting the fact that this and other publicity grandstanding his handlers have been throwing up in his agenda have worked wonders in positioning him most adequately. He has received praise and commendation even from some unexpected quarters. Not a few people were impressed, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the Minister of Finance and the Coordinating Minister of the Economy, at a function in Osun State openly praised Aregbesola as an example of good leadership and performance. Also, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, wastes no time, whenever the opportunity presents itself to praise sing Aregbesola’s virtues and performance in office. A critic of Tambuwal once retorted that he is turning Osogbo to his second home. Tambuwal’s romance and frequent praise have unsettled the PDP leadership in the state as they wonder why a member of the party and the number four man in the country will descend so low as to be praising an opposition politician the way he does. Aside these two figures, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola has equally remained large in the media, courtesy the highly partisan Lagos press and its online partners. But what is the true nature of this man, who many said was rescued from penury by Asiwaju Bola Tinubu when he was appointed commissioner; a man who could only situate his office is Shasha, a distant surburb of Lagos in the Akowonjo area? What are the true realities on ground in the state? How does his government work? Is he the crusader and populist governor he claims to be? How has his policies and actions affected the people of the state and what are his chances come 2014? Paparazzi dispatched our reporter to Osogbo the Osun State capital to see things first hand, feel the pulse of the people and confirm the many grandiose reports of performance that have been flying around. The report is damning as it can be. This is another Paparazzi world exclusive! From Populism to Anti People Policies Gov. Aregbesola has always branded his socialist credentials said to have been acquired from his days as student unionist. And he is quick to throw this at your face! In the run off to the much disputed governorship elections in 2007, he brandished this same populist agenda, telling the people of the state in no unclear terms that he has come to work for them but findings in Osogbo shows the contrary. According to sources in Osogbo the lives of the people of the state is much worse under the now APC administration of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola. “It like we have gone from frying pan to fire and the common people in Osun are praying that Aregbesola must go. The present government has destroyed the means of livelihood of the ordinary people in the name of beautification. We are all crying, waiting for succour to come our way. I believe in development but not the way the governor is going about it.”, the source said. A house wife, who operated a container shop around the railway line in Osogbo lamented her ordeal thus: “I was managing a small container shop around the railway line but it has been destroyed and taken away. The shop was the only source I have to cater for myself and my family because my husband’s carpentry business has not been doing well lately. But now I am at a crossroad. We go hungry on a daily basis because the governor’s people have destroyed our only source”, she says amidst regrets. According several sources Paparazzi reporter spoke to in Osogbo, the government of Ogbeni Aregbesola has not impacted on the common man at all. “The truth is that Aregbesola is running an exclusive government that does impact on our lives at all. Infact, he is running a Lagos government because the people in government are his Lagos crowd who do not have any touch with the people at the grassroot”, one of the sources complained bitterly. Opon Scam One of the most celebrated achievements of the Rauf Aregbesola’s government in Osun State in Opon Imo {Tablet PC} with inbuilt text books and past exam questions for WEAC and JAMB. The launch of the tablets and its distribution to students in the state was hailed and an innovative move by the state government by many. The N8.2 billion tablets christened Opon Imo may however take on a new name, some people have already christened Opon Scam because of new revelations coming out the procurement, configuration and distribution of the tablets. Kabiru Aregbesola, the 27 year old son of Ogbeni Aregbesola has been revealed as the brain behind the procurement of the tablets. Though the governor has laboured hard to deny the involvement of his son in the procurement, insisting that he only helped with software without invoicing the state, sources say the governor may be hiding the truth from Osun people and Nigerians. “ The governor actually believes Osun people are not intelligent and for that he is trying to cover our faces with wool. He has forgotten that at Ilesha, during the launch of the tablets, Tinubu was looking for Kabiru; they wanted to hide the boy as they did not want people to know that it was Kabiru that handled the project. It was Tinubu that exposed everything. He called Kabiru and said you are a billionaire now, announcing publicly that Kabiru is the brain behind the tablets”, the source said. Aside the above, there are concerns over the distribution of the tablets, as sources say that contrary to widespread propaganda by the state government, only very few of the tablets are in circulation. “In my own local government area, I don’t think we have fifty students that have the tablets and they are saying it on air that they have distributed it to all SS3 and SS2 students in my local. You can go round all the local government areas in Ife division comprising of Ife North, Ife East, Ife Central, Ife South and the Area Council Modakeke and you will not get more than 200 of the tablets. Let Aregbesola come out with his statistics and let him also take us to where the tablets are. This Opon Imo project is a scam in its entirety. It is another avenue for Aregbesola and his family to continue to steal the state blind. How can you procure tablets for N8.2 billion and we won’t feel it? It does not make sense”, a source said. A Crippled Economy A visit to Osogbo, the Osun State capital will reveal a town whose economy has been brought to its knees as economic activities are near paralysed because of the policies and actions of the state government. Besides the demolition of shops and houses along the road where citizens make a living, every other avenue that could have boosted economic activities in the state are said to have been effectively blocked. A source confided in Paparazzi magazine that the state government as a matter of practice does not patronize Osun State based contractors or suppliers. “All the jobs in the state are handled by people from outside the state. If you hope to join them, you must first relocate to Lagos and now make your way back to Osun to join them. These are people who do not believe in anything Osun yet they want to control our lives. “The House of Assembly went around recently inspecting ongoing projects and they came back expressing dissatisfaction with some of the contractors. Who are the contractors? Who awarded the contract? Why can’t they call these people to other and bring them to book? But it is like they are playing on our intelligence in Osun state. A single family is in control; they are deceiving us as if they are not together, they have the same pocket where they keep our money, they are just deceiving us, their own level of embezzlement is worst than anyone that I have seen in my life. All construction projects in the state are handled by a company called Ratcom. “Who owns Ratcom? This is a question I will like Gov. Aregbesola to answer for the good people of Osun State”, the source concluded. “Even tailors and school uniform sellers are not left out in the economic strangulation. The governor came out with a policy that all schools owned by government should be wearing the same uniform and these sellers started selling the fabrics and the tailors off course were making a living out of that. But suddenly, he established what he called Omoluable garment factory under his wife and stopped students from patronizing people outside. So a uniform that goes for N800 outside now sells for N1,500 from the garment outfit. The fabric sellers and the tailors lost business to the governor’s wife. And you say you have the interest of the people at heart. A Lagos Colony Continuing, our source says: “This government is about deception! Everything you hear is propaganda; this government has a lot of contempt for the people of Osun State and while glorifying the Lagos crowd. “Aregbesola has virtually turned Osun State into a Lagos colony of some sort. Everything about the state is from Lagos. Every major political appointment in the state is taken over by his Lagos crowd. If you ask him, he will tell you they are his people from Lagos and that they were with him during the struggle for his mandate. He brought them to embezzle money in Osun. “This is capital flight; these people, including the governor only stay in Osun from Monday to Thurdsay. You can’t find them sleeping in Osogbo on Thursdays. They are in Lagos. Almost all political appointees are foreigners and so we are not enjoying them. They are not accessible to the people of the state. Osun is tired. “As if this is not okay, he has sold large portions of Osun land to Lagos State government for farming purposes. So the Lagos State government will come and farm here in Osun and take the food back to Lagos with all the revenue derivable `from it. What stops the governor from making provisions for Osun farmers to take over such venture and export their products available to Lagosians? “The Aregbeshola’s government has paralyzed completely the economic activities of Osun state; you see, democracy is a government of the people, by the people and for the people but in his own case, it is not so. It is the government of Osun State, by the people of Lagos State and for the people of Lagos State. All the commissioners, SAs, SSA and about 80% of his political appointees are from Lagos. So they come to Osun state on Mondays and go back to Lagos state on Thursdays. Floored Educational Policy In an era when governments are establishing new schools and hiring new teachers, a supposed progressive governor like Aregbesola has been closing down schools in the name of mergers. Many see his policy on education as floored. “By September a lot of things will be revealed in the education sector because of schools that have merged. In my own home town, we had eight secondary schools and the eight have been collapsed to two while a town like Ikeji with four does not have any longer. “The state government is doing this because it has no teachers for the schools and instead of doing the reasonable, they have decided to merge schools together, making an already bad situation worse. The state is also having problems with constant strikes and bankruptcy, so they are trying to reduce the workforce. It is an irony for a government that claims progressive credentials and fraudulently projects performance, to now have a school with a student population of over a thousand having between 10 to 15 teachers. Between Fanaticism and Confusion For those who know Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola, they will describe him as a staunch Muslim who sometimes dangerously tends towards fanaticism. Earlier in his administration, he was accused of trying to Islamise the state and was actually said to have engaged the services of an Islamic sect in the state to handle his security. The fears of a fanatic governor was rife then and almost real but recent happenings in the state may have put a permanent lid on his supposed strong Islamic beliefs and in the same vein paint a picture of a confused state chief executive, who in a bid to remain popular and score cheap political points, dances dangerously to every beat and proclaiming and professing every religion. The recent “Odun Isheshe” {traditional religious festival} held in the state, truly showed the governor as a man who is ready to romance anything and anybody just for political gains. According to a source in Osogbo, “what the governor has done amounts to sacrilege. He has polluted the land and it will take only God to cleanse the state. What he did is akin to what Nigeria did during Festac 77”. Another source confided in Paparazzi that out of the N200 million the state government approved for the festival, only a little above N60 million was released to the organizers while the remaining went to private pockets. 2014 and Aregbesola The countdown to the 2014 governorship election in the state is no doubt getting interesting by the day and as expected, political forces and blocks are getting set to give the incumbent a run for his money. However if feelers on ground are anything to go by, then Ogbeni Aregbesola may have a lot to contend with. “If you conduct an opinion poll now in Osun State, the definite answer you will get is that they we are tired of Aregbesola. We are only waiting for the right time which is around the corner. Aregbe has stepped on many toes in Osun State and religious people followed him the first time because they believed he was a devoted Muslim but, they were all disappointed in him”, the source, a devout Muslim from Iwo said. As it stands, except a miracle happens or the governor makes an urgent u-turn, he may be as good as gone as the PDP and its stalwarts have concluded plans to work together irrespective of interest, to unseat him come 2014. And the calibre of these people is certainly intimidating.
Posted on: Fri, 20 Sep 2013 18:57:48 +0000
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