Aregbesola symbol of a great leader, says El Rufai
By Samuel Ogunsona
The Governor of Kaduna State Mallam El Rufai has described the Minister of Interior Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola as a striking example of a great leader who dedicates his life to the service of mankind
El-Rufai commended Aregbesola for his sence of vision, his leadership style and above all, his honesty of purpose.
El Rufai said many development projects executes by Aregbesola while he was the Governor of the State of Osun was copied by many of the 36 states of the federation including Kaduna, his own state.
El Rufai spoke on Saturday during the Zoom conference attended by over a thousand audience.
The conference was monitores by Irohinoodua.
‘I shamelessly copied Aregbesola’s programs for Kaduna’
“The basis of my friendship and relationship with Rauf is because l found out that he is a socialist with a good heart,” El-Rufai said during a virtual colloquium put together to honour Aregbesola on his 63rd birthday.
Some of the participants are the Minister for Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El Rufai, Governor of Kebbi State Senator Abubakar Bagudu, Chairman, Citibank Nigeria, Dr Yemi Cardoso, Country Director, DAI, Dr Joe Abah, Mr Bismark Rewane, Chief Executive Office, Financial Derivatives, Dr Statistician General MBS, Yemi Kale Chief Executive Officer, Lotus Capital Limited, Mrs Hajara Adeola.
The participants including the Governor of Kebbi State Senator Abubakar Bagudu were full of praises for Aregbesola describing him as a unique and selfless leader.
El Rufai said further “I got closer with him when l went to monitor his re-election in 2014 and saw quality school buildings, busy youths on roads sweeping and constructing drainage. I asked him and he said they were on a N10,000 stipend.
He saie what many have not said is that Osun has the lowest crime rate in the country apart from its low unemployment and low poverty rates adding that the state became the safest in the country with Rauf Aregbesola as the governor.
“His passion and concern about the fate of the vulnerable is legendary.
“This was a governor that had long distributed ICT tablets to public schools in his state before some of us started struggling to replicate the same in our various states.
“He started the free school feeding programme for public school students with huge value chains of cooks and sellers of farm produce which l copied for Kaduna state students.
“I had to send officials from Kaduna to under-study his style and system of governance. And l spent some time with him for tutorials. I am not ashamed to copy when I see something that is good.
“In fact, I am shameless when it comes to learning. These days, you don’t need to reinvent the wheel. There’s no new idea. If something has worked somewhere, there’s nothing shameful in borrowing and replicating it,” El-Rufai said.