Engr. Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola was born in the month of May, 1957. He had his primary and secondary education in Ondo State, and later attended The Polytechnic, Ibadan, where he studied Mechanical Engineering and graduated in 1980. As a pupil in the primary school, Rauf was a centre-point around whom his mates hovered for guidance and direction. As a student, he was focused for remarkable performance which he made distinctively and seamlessly. In the Polytechnic, he positioned himself to conquer his environment by engaging in prolific studies.
The career man
Fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Management (FNIM), Fellow of Nigerian Society of Engineers (FNSE), Fellow of the Nigerian Association of Technological Engineers (FNATE) and Fellow of the Certified Marketing Communications Institute of Nigeria (FCMCIN), Rauf Aregbesola has a wealth of experience garnered through wide exposure in the private sector, such as the Nigerian External Telecommunications, now renamed Nigerian Telecommunications Ltd. and Lagos Airport Hotel, before establishing his own Engineering Services Company, Aurora Nigeria Limited, in 1986. The company had handled numerous major projects for both government and private organisations in most States of the Federation.
The politician
Politically, Rauf has been no less a phenomenon. His involvement in politics dates back to his undergraduate days when he was Speaker of the Students’ Parliament (1977/78), The Polytechnic, Ibadan, and the President of the Black Nationalist Movement (1978-1980). He was also an active supporter of other progressive students’ movements nationwide, which earned him, for instance, the life membership of National Association of Technological Students. In June 1990, he became an elected delegate to the SDP Inaugural Local Government Area Congress. In July of the same year, he was also a delegate to its first National Convention in Abuja.
Rauf Aregbesola, as a pro-democracy and human rights activist, was a major participant in the demilitarisation and pro-democracy struggles of the 1990s. Prior to his appointment as the Lagos State Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure (1999-2007), he was Director of the Bola Ahmed Tinubu Campaign Organisation (BATCO), which engineered the electoral victory of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the Governor of Lagos State in 1999. He performed similar feat using the platform of Independent Campaign Group (ICG) to ensure the re-election of Asiwaju for a second term in office.
The Commissioner
Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola acquitted himself excellently as Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure in Lagos State between 1999 and 2007 with the strength of his commitment to selfless service. His diligence, sincerity and tirelessness in the administration of the vast Ministry of Works and Infrastructure, as well as supervision of the Public Works Corporation and State Electricity Board, has been acknowledged as being responsible for the outstanding success recorded by the Tinubu administration, especially in road rehabilitation/maintenance and street lighting; and achievement that solidly laid the foundation for the actualisation of Lagos as the model of development and good governance as being sustained by Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola today. Indeed, it is a known fact that he is one of the brains behind the infrastructural re-engineering that has now resulted in the transformation of social amenities in Lagos State.
Some of the novel achievements and innovations due to Aregbesola’s visionary qualities and enterprise include the redefinition and application of new aesthetic standards to ministry blocks and offices as corporate workplaces; vision and mission definition, annual staff retreats and modern manpower capacity building trainings; introduction of facility management practices; pioneering achievements in PR (ministry journal) and IT (website) operation; Pioneering Private/Public Sector Partnership Ventures; Award-winning best practices projects; etc.
The believer and advocate of the rule of law
Aregbesola’s belief in the sanctity of the rule of law is exemplary.
Engr. Rauf Aregbesola, on the platform of the then Action Congress (AC) contested for the Governorship of Osun State in the April 2007 elections, and won. To be so declared, however, took close to four years of what must go down as one of the most titanic mandate recovery legal battles of all time, and a moment for the manifestation of the omnipotence of the Almighty God and his steadfastness in support of those who rely on him.
Having gone through the tribunal of first instance, an appeal and a retrial tribunal, the second appeal court, delivering judgment on October 26, 2010, declared Aregbesola governor and ordered he be sworn in the next day.
Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola, since assuming office as Governor of the State of Osun on October 27, 2010, has redefined the meaning of governance in the public sector, not just with symbolic posturing, but real and sustainable interventions that will presently enhance the quality of life of everyone that lives or works in the State of Osun. Rebranding of the state as the ipinle Omoluabi (State of the Virtuous) started from himself, adopting the title Ogbeni, simply Mister, in deference to the singular Excellency of the Almighty God. In just over a year, the chronicle of his achievements is astounding, and may be summarised as a chain of “O-Models”, the most astonishing been the engagement of 20,000 youth in the Osun Youth Empowerment Scheme within his first 100 days in office; an accomplishment without precedence that has become the model for others to follow.
The strategist/visionary
Rauf is a born strategist. Throughout his life, whether as a pupil, student or career man; political appointee or Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola has applied the art and science of strategy to ensure success in all endeavours in which he is engaged. He strategised and was outstanding as a student. He strategised and was efficient and effective as a career man. He strategised and was accomplished as a grassroots politician. He strategised and was excellent as a commissioner in Lagos State. He strategised to reclaim his mandate when he was rigged out in the race to offer selfless service to the good people of Osun. He strategised to lay a sound foundation for a regenerated Osun State knowing that sustainable development does not happen with ‘quick fix’ methods, tools, and techniques. He is strategising to position Osun and the good people of the state appropriately in the geo-economic milieu of Nigeria. He is a fervent believer in the dictum that strategists do not fail and so will not fail the people of Osun.
Committed to a better, egalitarian society, Aregbesola, though fully anxious to build a society with massive physical infrastructures that promote better living, believes in first pursuit of those human values that can pave the way for the emergence of that total man, who is socially responsible. Hence his dogged pursuit of programmes extra-curricular schemes, such as the Calisthenics, Omoluabi Boys and Girls Club, and other schemes aimed at re-orientating the youths to channel their energies towards a society where the promotion of the common, collective goods will dominate the crazy pursuit of the good of the self.
He stirs the hornet’s nests often; but, these are in his determined attempts to break the norms to achieve extra-ordinary results. To date, he has ignited debates on federalism, restructuring of education towards functionality, equity, justice and fairness in all spheres of life. Even in the face of mounting criticisms, he holds tenaciously to his ideas, convinced that oppositions to them are products of long years of military rule, ignorance of what is even good for humanity and the acute manipulative capacities of those whose interest it is to keep the ordinary people perpetually subjugated.
The family man
An exemplary family man, Rauf Aregbesola is a loving husband and caring father. Married to Alhaja Sherifat Aregbesola, he has nurtured his family with equal devotion and commitment.
For these reasons, he is a thinker, ardent performer, a visionary leader, a transformational leader, an agent of strategic change, a man for the people; Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola, Governor of the State of Osun.
 DAILY INDEPENDENT

Photos from the Countdown to 2014 to Herald New Year with Fireworks Display at Nelson Mandela Freedom Park, Osogbo, State of Osun on Wednesday 01-01-2014

 Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola has urged Nigerians to be agents of peace, unity and progress in the New Year.

The Man-of-the-Year is a difficult proposition.  And for a reason. In our dysfunctional polity, the parameters set have to be exacting. As is known, the Republic is ill at ease with itself.
Dashed hopes, disappointed expectations as well as promises unfulfilled make the task of picking an individual who has made an outstanding contribution daunting. From time to time, a nugget representing a beacon of hope comes up. When for example a few years ago we picked the venerated Chinua Achebe, it was an inspired choice.
This is because by refusing to subordinate his principles to immediate expediency, Achebe caught the imagination and made picking the Man-of-the-Year easy. This year’s discourse was typically ferocious. The central theme being, who has attempted to break the mould? Who is today’s contrarian who has at least attempted in a positive direction to alter the terrain of discourse and operations? Who has been making resolute attempt to clear the fog of widespread cynicism and disenchantment with the polity and most of those who navigate the shop of state?
The choice of the State of Osun helmsman is in response to the need to roll back the tide of cynicism. We know of course that there is an intellectual-in-residence in the State House in Ado-Ekiti. Concomitantly there is also an activist in residence in Osogbo, the capital of the State of Osun.
Often times in history the activist has disappointed in office. Engineer Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola has here bucked the trend. He has shown a knack to turn deep philosophical conviction into result-yielding good governance. It has helped in that he actually prepared himself for office both intellectually and practically. He has in this way merged ideological fervor with the practical act of governance.
The practical act of governance was horned on an exhilarating eight years of being the infrastructure czar of Lagos State, good old rambunctious, perennially demanding Lagos state. A seminal performance in Lagos State has been horned into administrative sagacity in the state of Osun.
The intellectual preparation has also stood him well. He came into office armed with a seminal six point agenda spanning the key socio-economic issues affecting the State of Osun. This has proved to be a very sensible thing to do. For taking over the state after a ludicrously long judicial battle came with a hefty debilitating prince tag.
The lacuna was that the state had barely seen even perfunctorily sensible governance for a long-time. The state’s public finance was not just opaque, it was in shambles. Waste, bizarre duplication of effort leading to cost inefficiencies had led to bureaucratic elephantiasis. Huge recurrent expenditure, insecurity and a general feeling of desperation was fast turning Osun State into a by-word as the generic term for maladministration.
The distinguishingly factor about Aregbesola which facilitated our choosing him as our Man-of-the-Year, is that he redefined the territory of discourse and operations. The state’s public finances had to be re-directed away from consumption towards the arena of production. Recurrent expenditure has been slimed down thereby increasing the capital votes. Emphasis on production has led to an increase in the capital votes in geometric proportion.
The difference is clear. The State of Osun today has a spring (pardon the pun) in its step. The emphasis is now on production and jobs led economic trajectory. This new thrust has implications for the nation far beyond the narrow confines of partisan politics. This is because if the unfulfilled promises that have resulted in widespread cynicism are to be rolled back, the nation must become a proper democracy.
A proper democracy is based on social solidarity, community cohesion and a convergence of ideals centred on a social contract linking the political establishment with those they govern. Aregbesola has become a symbol of this new thrust. Imperfect yes, sometimes imperious. Nevertheless his policy thrust like his engagingly humane heart is in the right place.
Nowhere has this shown more than in his policy on education. A sweeping repositioning of the education sector is clearly leading to a situation where generations will now be technically prepared and empowered to face the reality of a brutally competitive world.
Some of it is contentious, certainly. Fine tuning has had to be done in implementation of course. However, this is nothing like the flak that United States President Barak Obama is today receiving over the implementation of Obamacare. In instances such as this we must be careful not to throw out the baby with the bathwater.
This sort of issue raises the bugbear of plas ce chang. Nothing ever really changes that much. In the process of the sweeping transformative repositioning of the Western Region in the nineteen-fifties, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, faced the same dilemma. This being how to negotiate a democratic agreement on key policy issue. No democracy has ever functioned effectively without this.
What Engineer Rauf Aregbesola has done in the State of Osun is to redefine the terrain of thinking and practice. He has set a mark that must be a pointer to the future. If this country is to prosper, it must move in the direction of the new thinking determined by people like Aregbesola.
The emphasis must be on production rather than consumption. Social contract must be the trajectory of policy developing both human capital and the physical infrastructure. Government must be located as the engine room for real sustainable development, the BIG D.
This is why warts and all, in a fiercely competitive field, we have chosen the State of Osun helmsman as our Man-of-the-Year. He represents a new wave of governance. A symbol of the aspirations of generation next that we need not be enmeshed in cynicism and defeatism. He also embodies the new federalist ethos to be used as a battering ram against the military induced overtly centralist state. As the symbol of the new thinking, he deserves to be our Man-of-the-Year. He has earned our appreciation.
Aregbesola emerged from a list of other distinguished Nigerians including the former Governor of Lagos State and leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu as well as the Head Coach of the Super Eagles of Nigeria, Stephen Okechukwu Keshi.
Tinubu made a significant showing placing second on the ballot.
In a political space full of divisive characters, Bola Ahmed Tinubu divides opinion like few others. As the man leading the resurgence of the South West economically and politically, comparisons with the late Obafemi Awolowo are inevitable, and it is perhaps in this area where he divides opinion the most. His supporters view him as a master political strategist who is a worthy heir to Awolowo’s legacy, while to others he is merely a political hustler who cannot be mentioned in the same breath with a man Ojukwu called ‘the best President Nigeria never had’.
The story of Keshi is not lost on anybody who has been following soccer events in this country. When Keshi was appointed, the team was at its lowest ebb, having failed to qualify for the 2012 edition of the Africa Cup of Nations. The failure was not because the team lacked what it needed to sail through, but due to indiscipline that has taken root in the team.
It was during this sorry state, and against all expectations, that Keshi turned around the team’s fortunes to become champions of Africa by winning the Africa Cup of Nations, 19 years after. By this feat, he became the second man in history to have won the Africa Cup of Nations both as a coach and player.
DAILY INDEPENDENT

As the 2014 Gregorian calendar commences, Deputy Governor of the State of Osun, Mrs. Grace Titilayo Laoye-Tomori, has harped on the need for renewed approach to life with noble virtues and love for the State and the nation at large to form the core of people’s resolution for the new year.
This was contained in the  state Deputy Governor’s goodwill message to people of the state as the people joined people across the world to usher in year 2014.
Mrs. Laoye-Tomori congratulated residents of the state across all religious, ethnic, social and political divides for witnessing the new year and called on them to proceed into the year 2014 with renewed vigour and sense of commitment to virtous deeds.
The State Deputy Governor used the opportunity to appreciate people of the state for their continued support for the administration of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola since inception and charged them to remain peaceful, orderly and supportive especially as another guber poll is scheduled to hold in the state mid 2014.
Laoye-Tomori also felicitated with her boss, Governor Rauf Aregbesola, members of the state executive council, the legislature, judiciary, political functionaries, state leadership and members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and other stakeholders.
The  Deputy Governor assured that with continued peaceful and harmonious co-existence among all interests in the state, the present wave of progressive change already being enjoyed across the state will not seize in bringing comfort to every home.
Mrs. Laoye-Tomori identified continued service to God and humanity as part of her resolutions for the year 2014 and charged people of the state to follow suit so as to make the state a haven of peace to all.
BIOREPORTS

Governor, State of Osun,  Mr. Rauf Aregbesola yesterday presented the budget estimate for the 2014 fiscal year totaling #216Billion to the state House of Assembly for approval. The Governor who was represented at the House of Assembly by his Special Adviser on Budget, Mr. Bade Adesina said the budget cut across all the sectors of the state’s economy and was prepared in line with the six points Integral Action Plan of his administration. Governor Aregbesola stated that his administration would continue to embark on projects that would make life more meaningful for the people of the state.
Christened “Budget of Growth, enhancement and Development”, the budget totaling N216,745,213,260 was smaller than that of last year which was N234,269,308,820.
The Governor explained that the short fall in the prices of crude oil and the oil theft in the country were responsible for the reduction in the budget compared with that of 2013.
According to the budget estimate, the overhead cost was put at N17,969,297,750, the consolidated cost was N52,493,953,200, while the total recurrent expenditure was put at N97,608,280,660 and capital expenditure was N119,136,932,600.
The Governor appealed to the parliamentarians to give accelerated hearing to the budget and pass it into law.
He also urged the people of the state to give maximum support to his administration for the implementation of all his programmes for the state.
In his remarks, the Speaker of the house, Hon. Najeem Salaam assured that the house would ensure speedy hearing on the bill, even as he assured the Governor of the support of the legislators in the state.
 

Photos from Chairman, Police Service Commission, Sir Mike Okiro’s Courtesy visit to the governor at the Government House, Osogbo, State of Osun on Friday 27-12-2013

Governor State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola (middle); Chairman,
Police Service Commission, Sir Mike Okiro (left) and Commissioner of
Police, Osun Command, Mrs Dorothy Gimba (right), during a Courtesy
visit to the governor in Government House, Osogbo, State of Osun on
Friday 27-12-2013

Governor State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola (centre); Chairman,
Police Service Commission, Sir Mike Okiro (3rd left); Assistant
Inspector General of Police, Zone 11, David Omojola (left);
Commissioner of Police, Osun Command, Mrs Dorothy Gimba (3rd right);
Dr Sylvester Odije (2nd left) and others, during a Courtesy visit to
the governor in Government House, Osogbo, State of Osun on Friday
27-12-2013

Governor State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola (2nd right); Chairman,
Police Service Commission, Sir Mike Okiro (2nd left); Commissioner of
Police, Osun Command, Mrs Dorothy Gimba (right) and Dr Sylvester Odije
(left), during a Courtesy visit to the governor in Government House,
Osogbo, State of Osun on Friday 27-12-2013

Governor State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola (right) and Chairman,
Police Service Commission, Sir Mike Okiro, during a Courtesy visit to
the governor in Government House, Osogbo, State of Osun on Friday
27-12-2013

Governor Rauf Aregbesola Saturday literarily ‘dropped’ protocol to become a fire fighter for more than a quarter of an hour.
Aregbesola, in his convoy was on his way to attend the 2013 edition of Iwude Ijesha celebration; and ran into a road side bush fire growing fiercely along osogbo-Ilesha road.
The emitting heat from the fire was felt by occupants of vehicles that passed along the spot of the burning roadside bush.
This, apparently was what prompted the boys-scoutish spirit in Governor Aregbesola as he caused his driver to pull up on the other side of the road; thus bringing the long convoy of the Osun Governor to a halt.
In a show of leadership by example, Aregbesola pulled his native ‘Agbada’ gown and grabbed a fire extinguisher in his vehicle then proceeded to put out the fire.
Aides as well as other members of his entourage quickly joined in the fire fighting operation. For those who did not have fire extinguisher, tree branches became handy for them to ‘beat-out’ the fire. Some of them ran to a near-by block making industry to fetch water for the fire fighting operation.
Governor Aregbesola ordered men of the Osun state fire service to move to the scene to forestall reoccurrence; just as he noted the proximity of the spot to a filling station along the axis of that road. Other Photos Below…
     
BIOREPORTS

The Government, State of Osun on Monday said it had concluded plans to usher in the New Year with fireworks display in 10 towns across the state.
The Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Sunday Akere, said this in Osogbo. Mr. Akere said the towns where the government would officially display fireworks to usher in year 2014, include Ilesa, Ife, Ikirun, Iwo and Osogbo. Others are Ikire, Ede, Ejigbo, Ila and Okuku.
The commissioner said the display would be a way of letting the people know that government activities should not be localised and centralised to the capital alone.
“The essence of a responsible government is to spread its policies and programme with a view to allowing the populace to have a feel of government at all times. It is our way of celebrating and welcoming the year in conformity with global practice. It is the desire of government to ensure that the New Year is celebrated with fanfare.”
Mr. Akere said that government officials from each of the constituencies would monitor the display. He appealed for calm from the people of the state during the exercise, adding that there would be no reason for panic.
(NAN)