By Igbotako Nowinta
Finally, the much expected ministerial nominee list from President Muhammadu Buhari has been made public, and now being placed before the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria for consideration.
Expectedly too, some Nigerians have given the ministerial nominee list a heavy knock blaming President Muhammadu Buhari for not meeting up to the expectations of the people given the prevailing social political and economic realities in the country.
Even, as some groups and individuals have boldly expressed their joy and at the same time appreciation to Mr President for including some people on the ministerial nominee file, because of their extraordinary commitments to public service and advancement of the highest level of humanity.
That is to say different strokes for differrent folks or as it is normally done in local parlance – ‘one man’s meat is another man’s poison’
Objectively, some characters and individuals that appeared on the presidential nominee list have no business at all there, given their established antecedents and public perceptions about them.
But quickly, one man l consider a most appropriate name on the ministerial nominee list, considering the huge challenges confronting our country today, and as a result of the magical feats he exhibited for eight years as Governor of the state of Osun is Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola.
In all of this, one fact that some critics have often forgotten is that the study of political science and the practicalisation of political currents in the true sense of the word, most especially in Nigeria is a differrent ball game.
In a society that is heavilly and politically prebendalistic,where rent taking is valued and priced over scientific individual creativity and priductivity; where competence/excellence is substituted for political loyalty and patronage, where political spoils are shared recklessly without regard to cerebral dimension being displayed glaringly in some quarters, much is not suppossed to be espected from political actors and players in such scenario.
Distinctively and exceptionally, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola that l know very well,among the long list of ministerial nominees submitted by the presidency to the Senate recently, is every inch taller than the scale being used to weigh competence, excellence, political spoils,patronage and loyalty in the political scheme of things in Nigeria.
Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola stands out as a tireless bundle of performance, creativity and ingenuity, because he rose from the terrible ashes of a most precarious political corner in the state of Osun, to deliver democratic dividends to his people.
For me Ogbeni Aregbesola is a paradigm shift in our urgent current quest to get things fixed in Nigeria today, no doubt he is going to be a round peg in whatever ministerial hole he will be detailed to handle,given his sacrificial administrative performance in Lagos State,as Commissioner for Works and as Governor of the State of Osun.
Whatever his political enemies would want to attach to his unblemished public record or conjure up concerning his sincere humanistic nature, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola’s revolutionary dedication and honesty of purpose is like the legendary Fidel Castro of Cuba and Ho Chi Mihn of Taiwan;his motives are noble and altruistic.
He is a politician any nation should cherish and zeolously preserve.
In eight years in Osun, Ogbeni personified the attitude of principle,responsibility,
Universally detribalised, ideologically clearheaded, religiously liberated,energetically sound, intellectually efficient, socially accessible, the Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola that l know will be a great asset to the Federal Executive Council being envisioned by President Muhamnadu Buhari government today.
Nowinta, is a serial author and a prolific commentator on public affairs, based in Benin City.
