Aregbesola:
Beyond the inauguration ritual
December 9, 2014 by Niyi Akinnaso 2 Comments
Our performance in the first term endeared us to you and convinced you to give us the mandate for another term
– Governor Rauf Aregbesola in his inauguration speech on Thursday, November 27, 2014.
Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, Governor of Osun
State, had at least three reasons to celebrate when he was inaugurated
as governor for a second term. My focus here is not so much on the
reasons for celebration as on their implications for our young
democracy. However, I first have to bore you with the reasons for
celebration in order to appreciate the discussion that follows.
First, Aregbesola won a hard-fought
electoral battle against the power machine of the Peoples Democratic
Party. The PDP operatives maligned his administration virtually
throughout his first term and distorted his records during the
campaigns. In the days leading up to the election, Osun voters were
intimidated by unprecedented security presence. Finally, on the eve of
the election and the very day of the election, Aregbesola’s supporters
were harassed, and as many as 700 of them were arrested or otherwise
prevented from carrying out their legitimate duties. Clearly, these are
not the best ways to grow a democracy.
Second, in spite of all odds, Aregbesola
won the election by a wide margin. Not only did he win with 55 per cent
of all lawful votes, being the widest margin of victory in recent
governorship elections, he garnered over 70 per cent of the female
votes.
Third, Aregbesola would be the first
governor of the state to have legitimately won reelection and,
therefore, the first to serve a legitimate second term in office.
Interestingly, his predecessors had teamed up with him and were by his
side during the inauguration.
What is more, Osun voters, who made his
re-election possible, were at the inauguration in all their diversity –
traditional rulers, religious leaders, political leaders, business
leaders, professionals, market women, artisans, youths, and so on. It
was an unusually large crowd for a second term inauguration and on a
week day.
My encounter with one of the voters at
the inauguration venue was quite instructive. The woman was pleading
earnestly with the security at the gate to let her into the stadium. I
decided to intervene, when I observed that she had a child on her back,
while holding her young daughter by the right hand and her son by the
left. The security at the gate would not let her into the VIP section of
the stadium. Besides, she had no invitation card. I decided to lead her
to another gate and pleaded with the security there to let her in.
On the way to the other gate, I asked her
why she came with her children, and without an invitation card. She
said she wanted to see the governor who feeds her children in school,
gives them free uniform, and gets “Ijoba” (the government) to buy fruits from her kiosk. “Iruu re s’owon pupo
(his likes are very scarce)”, she added. The sentiment she expressed
reflects the attitude of most Osun women towards Aregbesola.
This leads to the first of three key
issues arising from Aregbesola’s inauguration, namely, the role of
performance as a qualification for re-election in a democracy. This is
an important issue in Aregbesola’s case, given the historical,
political, and media contexts of his re-election. Historically, no
governor before him since 1999 ever won re-election. The odds were
equally stacked against him politically: If there was one governor the
PDP and the Presidency wanted out of power, it was Aregbesola. Moreover,
he was a target of negative press, which often jumped on the bandwagon
of the opposition to blow up distorted information about the man and his
programmes.
So, why and how did he win? Two short
answers: Outstanding performance and the resilience of an appreciative
electorate. Here is how Aregbesola put it in his inauguration speech:
“We revamped agriculture and made it a profitable venture for farmers.
We have positioned our youths for greatness by providing them with
quality education. We have redefined the infrastructure of education by
building state of the art schools, and proving cutting edge technology,
free school uniforms, free meals and so on. We have empowered our people
economically through all the ‘O’ projects: O’REAP, O’MEALS, O’BEEF,
O’HUB, O’HONEY, O’CLEAN and so on. We have made micro-credit available
to our people on a large scale, … we have lifted the GDP of the state,
making Osun the seventh largest economy in Nigeria. We have cared for
the environment in an unprecedented way. We have banished flooding and
cleaned the environment of filth … There is no local government that did
not partake in our local and intercity road projects. We have embarked
on a most ambitious urban renewal programme. We have cared for the old,
the weak and infirm while special people have not escaped our touch. We
have delivered on our six integral action programme”.
This leads to the second issue: Why and
how was Aregbesola able to accomplish so much with limited resources and
within so short a period? First, it must be appreciated that Aregbesola
is a trained engineer, a pragmatic and seasoned administrator of people
and resources. For eight straight years, he was the Commissioner for
Works in Lagos State, under whose watch the unprecedented urban renewal
projects in Lagos were crafted. His knowledge of policymaking and
project execution was deployed to its fullest when he became a governor
in Osun. Even more importantly, he has long adopted an ideology of
governance that puts people first. The lesson here is simple: Elect
candidates who have cognate experience in governance and have verifiable
track records.
Second, Aregbesola recruited the best
people, all professionals in their own right, to his cabinet and created
the Bureau of Social Services to monitor and oversee all state
projects. The Bureau, headed by Femi Ifaturoti, is staffed with
engineers, architects, lawyers, quantity surveyors, and other project
specialists, who monitor and provide monthly assessments of all ongoing
projects throughout the state. BOSS, as the department came to be known,
has become an institution in the Osun government circle.
Third, Aregbesola got national and
international sponsors, private partners, and Osun citizens involved in
appropriate projects. He also employed direct labour, where appropriate,
by engaging volunteers and thousands of young graduates in his O’YES
programme. Most importantly, he ensured that every single project he
embarked upon generated jobs for Osun citizens and he encouraged the
reinvestment of their earnings within the state. As a result, Osun
became the seventh largest economy in the nation.
Finally, he adopted a governance ideology
of progressivism, which views social and economic development as twin
engines of growth. It was not enough for him to invoke Obafemi Awolowo.
He reinvented him in his approach to governance, by putting people first
in all his programmes and projects. Surely, his style is different from
the sage’s; but the results would have gladdened the sage as they did
Osun voters.
The critical question now is about the
sustainability of the programmes and projects. For a start, Aregbesola’s
To-Do list over the next four years must include four items.
First, he should consolidate the
programmes and projects he has so far embarked upon. Second, he should
focus more on the necessary infrastructure that connects the people with
one another and with the projects. Third, he should ensure that
institutions, such as BOSS, are so entrenched in Osun governance
paradigm that future state governors cannot brush them aside. Fourth,
future leaders must be identified and groomed, who would share the same
philosophy of governance and advance on the programmes and projects. He
should develop an enduring Osun brand.
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