Rauf Aregbesola: Hero Or Villain?

As Governor Rauf Aregbesola bows out of office today, Osun state will usher in a new governor in the person of Mr Gboyega Oyetola.

Oyetola was elected governor on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) during the last governorship election that held in the state in September.

The incoming governor had defeated his closest rival, Senator Ademola Adeleke, who was the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the poll.

The outgoing governor, who spent eight years in office, has received tributes for the massive infrastructural development of schools and roads witnessed under his administration.

At a colloquium titled “Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola in Eye of History” which was organised to celebrate the outgoing governor’s achievements, the Governor of Kebbi State, Atiku Bagudu, lauded Aregbesola’s education policies as the best in the country.

“I got to know governor Aregbesola through my colleague in the Senate, Prof. Sola Adeyeye. He told me a lot about Aregbesola before I eventually met him. When I met him, I was not disappointed,’’ said Bagugu.

“Our committee, while in the Senate, was in Osun to see some of his projects in education sector.

“In our separate reports, we all concluded Aregbesola had best education policies in the country.

“He took risk to develop Osun. He is a patriot, a nationalist. He is humble and a true believer in Nigeria, who has good thought about the country,” said the Kebbi governor.

Also commending Aregbesola for his achievements, the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, hailed the governor for breathing life into the Awolowo and Jakande educational policies of free education and infrastructure development.

The Ooni said through Aregbesola’s free education policy, which the monarch compared to that of late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the governor has invested in many lives.

Meanwhile, in spite of his numerous achievements, Aregbesola’s tenure would be remembered for some of its controversial policies and events.

His tenure introduced an unprecedented religious tension in Osun State when his government acquired some religious schools in the state.

The outgoing governor’s tenure also recorded some controversies over the wearing of hijab by Muslim students in public schools.

A protest by a Christian group had greeted the State Government’s acquisition of Baptist College, Iwo, and the bid to allow hijab-wearing Muslim students to be merged with existing Christian students in the missionary school.

Aregbesola had been accused of trying to plunge the state into religious crisis by allegedly ordering the Muslim students to wear hijab to their classes, an allegation he refuted.

The issue of non-payment of civil servants’ salaries may also form part of the negative episodes that Aregbesola would be remembered for, especially as the outgoing governor had been accused of sacrificing workers’ salary for infrastructure development in the state.