I Dont expect this to make front page because APC members are the ones controlling Nairaland . But it will be a very ,very bad mistake if Aregbesola wins 2nd term in Osun .


I DONT BELONG TO ANY POLITICAL PARTY




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.


source: paperazzipress.com

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

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.

Aregbesola (Ittaqillah), I told your people here you CANNOT WIN the re-election, my discussion with good people of Osun State (Ila-Orangun, Osogbo, Ilesha, Iwo, Ipetumodu, Modakeke, Ile-Ife, Gbongan and so on...) they confirmed you are only been deceived with the crowds following you around.

Goodbye Raufu Aregbesola (Hayyak Allah - Allah maintain your life )

Goodbye Tinubu

Goodbye APC

true yarn