ISSUES/POLICY: Power Is Responsibility (II)

Being the text of an addressed by the Osun Head of Service, Dr Olowogboyega Oyebade at the 2018 Civil Service Lecture and Award Ceremony at Aurora Event Center, Osogbo

Continued From Last Edition: ISSUES/POLICY: Power Is Responsibility (I)

Your emergence as a Governor and your achievements threw up the real challenge we had as a race and as a nation.  In Nigeria, we prided ourselves the giant as many of our citizens were denied basic rights such as the right to education and health.  But your investment and your very near to fanaticism,  passion for education and health reversed the ugly national statistics.  Apart from building stellar signature schools, you served millions of plates of quality food to our children in schools to motivate and retain them.  Alas! Their enrolment doubled.  You created free ambulance service that saved thousands of lives through emergency responses and trauma treatment.  You created a State-wide Health Insurance Scheme for all the people of our State.   Your silent revolution in rehabilitating the mentally challenged people on our streets was novel.

The way you arrested cultism in our schools by introducing EDU- Marshall was legendary and the way school sports were revived and encouraged could not go unnoticed. Our pupils won medals at Olympics.  Pupils of our Government Elementary School in Obokun Local Government won Silver Trophy in the International Football Tournament organised by Channels Television last year. The play-way method you used to let the entire State key in to Calisthenics, owning it and ready to pay for it was a worthy revolution that must continue.  The subtle way you brought recognition to traditional religion cannot be done better and the way you promoted tourism could only be done by a culture propagandist that you are.  Ogbeni!  Come to think of it! How did you wean the government from using its hard-earned resources from sponsoring religious pilgrimages to Jerusalem and Mecca without shedding of blood in a State where a boy once lost his life for daring to post posters of an evangelist on the wall? Today, muslims, christians and traditional worshipers are sitting on the same mahogany table to listen and practice your gospel of peace without any appeal to demagoguery.  A true  Oranmiyan once passed through this road!   You deserve thunderous commendations.

Ogbeni, our country has been facing constitutional challenge.  Without firing a bullet, you brought a new State Anthem, a new flag, a new State colour and our own crest.  Without arguing with any man, you created new local governments, creating multiple opportunities for development.  As the conscience of our collective responsibility that you are, you legally put all of us on track again by reverting back to parliamentary system of government contained in the 1963 Constitution still under suspension.  As an unrepentant federalist, you  gave direction to the House of Assembly by encouraging the members to activate their powers on Local Government.  Without firing a bullet and without any resistance from the Federal Government, you disarmingly conducted Local Government elections into the new councils.  You had de-emphasized executive authority of the Chairmen of Local Government which was breeding corruption.  Each contestant in the Local Government must first be a councilor before he or she could become anything at that tier of government.  Accountability had been sown by your template.  You crowned it all by unifying all the services in the State.

You inculcated public integrity. You inspired confidence.    You re-positioned public service delivery. You introduced clocking as part of the civil service reform to herald efficiency. Tutors are now Education Officers.  Elementary School teachers and Middle and High School teachers are now Permanent Secretaries.  Today, a very local Local Government worker, born in Orile-Owu by very poor farmers that could not pronounce ‘coca-cola’ correctly was appointed by you as the 7th Head of Service of our State.  Aregbe, you brought hope to the hopeless, strength to the weary and loving kindness to the broken-hearted.    You were the only Governor in our State who would ask the tax-man to go after tax defaulters even during the period of crucial elections without fear or favour. On the challenge of building Institutions for democracy and development, you empowered the police to do their assignments better.  You procured 30 Armoured Personnel Carriers.

You procured for the police, patrol vehicles and motorcycles.  You recruited our youths as road marshals assisting the police in traffic control. You secured for our State a secured free toll emergency code. Your measures were forcing armed robbers to retreat and run for cover to  other States because of the power of deterrence in your armament for the police.   You created a Mediation Centre that resolved countless minor disputes.  You secured for our State the new Administration of Criminal Justice Law of Osun.   Curiously, and for the first time in the history of Nigeria, you submitted as an Executive Bill, the whole of Chapter Two of the Nigerian Constitution (1999 as amended) which the entire Nigerian Government had been denying the people.  That is your Social Protection Law which is now a law under your watch and it is now made justiciable in our State, the first of its kind in Nigeria.  This is the greatest gift of your administration to humanity.

Under your watch, the Judicial Institutions were given the pride of place and you allowed them to inspire public confidence.  You never sent parcel-bombs, even when one of our courts declared that the tag ‘State of Osun’ which was the expression of your federalist tendency, was unconstitutional.  Though painful to all of us that were your followers, we checked your countenance.  You were unruffled.  You just smiled and shrugged it off.  When another court pronounced as a foray in illegality,  the State Land Use Charge.  You never succumbed to demagoguery. As an apostle of peace who never encouraged blood-shed during elections, you scientifically identified those who had tendency for base instincts for thuggery, gave them ego-trip, rehabilitated them physically and psychologically and they on their own volition became born-again in public functions and are now calling themselves ‘Omoluabi’ as voluntarily reflection of conversion.

Chinua  Achebe once identified that the trouble with Nigeria was the failure of leadership.  Leadership is a critical factor in nation-building and it should be understood in two important but related ways.  Firstly, there are the personal qualities of integrity, honesty, commitment, and competence of individual leaders at the top.  Secondly, there are the collective qualities of common vision, focus and desire for development of the elites as a whole.  The standards you used to recruit those serving with you were stellar.  Even when many of us had proven cases of disloyalty, when we chose to bark and bite you unjustifiably, you displayed tolerance.  Ogbeni! Every body knows your weakness….Yes! Not houses.  No!  You are yet to build a single house in the State of Osun.    Not clothes.  Most times, you wear ‘Teblik dresses.” Not paraphernalia  of office.  No!  You did not collect salary.  You were the only Governor who shunned the accolade of ‘Excellency’.  You were the only Governor who obeyed traffic light.  You shunned and avoided like a plague, the blowing of siren when you were passing by.  You saw leadership as responsibility.

We know your weakness.  Yes! Not titles.  No!  You refused to be titled engineer despite the fact that you are one.  Yes!  We all know your weakness!  Not money!  You gave more financial benefits to friends and foes with equal strengths and most times  more to the foes.  Your weakness is not women except some dews of appreciation and occasional banters to pep up social events when your numerous ‘Iyaloja’ fans were on stage with you to celebrate womanhood, possibly as odes to your mother, Iya Olobi..  Your weakness, like great Julius Caesar of Shakespeare drama, is that you trust others beyond the ordinary and you do not punish disloyalty.  You followed trusted subordinates to war, even when they were patently wrong.  Often, you damned any treacherous ways against any trusted subordinate without winking.   Such is the character of great men.  We are all beneficiaries of your giant heart.  No wonder that despite serious campaign of calumny by a section of the workforce against your person, you never descended to the ridiculous with them.  Despite all economic challenges, no worker under your watch lost his job. Rather than ‘exchanging ‘’ fire for fire’  you simply displayed leadership with equanimity.  It is on record that you were the first Governor to appoint a Fulani man an Adviser in your cabinet long before the on-rush of the mayhem of the herdsmen. In fact, you had a Commissioner handling the portfolio in the cabinet.

Your vision inspired you to create a Ministry for Regional Integration and the creation of the Development Agenda for  Western Nigeria (DAWN) and its Commission were enough testaments making you the true Oranmiyan.   Your leadership displayed ability, integrity, commitment, and vision. For these and more, we are grateful.  You are now a leader of leaders. This is a new challenge that will throw you up to other levels and climes. You are our own treasure.  You must like our ‘Caesar’ who must be cautious of ‘Brutus’ and the sons of ‘Brutus’ in our ranks.    That is the new challenge in your life.  It is your calling.  President Abner Nasir of Egypt declares: “There are roles wandering aimlessly in the air looking for heroes. These roles are fast beckoning to us, seize them by the line, put on the costumes and give them life.’

I can only wish you well with a song my late mother sang for me at a time.   The songf interludes:

“AregbesolaAremu!

Ma mayokonigbaojo

Koo ma fesekenini

Feso se ooo

Feso se ooo

Fesoo se ooo

Aremuawa

Ko ma baa lariwolo.!

I cannot conclude this speech without touching on the Deputy Governor.  She possessed infectious smiles and had never been in the radar frowning her face on any issue on statecraft.  There was no day that her comment about you set the State on the tipping edge.  And the in-coming Governor who was your Chief of Staff, carried the office with the full integrity of the office without acting gods.  Your Commissioners were our close allies in the business of executing your vision.  The House was marvelous and the Local Government system continued  to echo:  ‘By your mandate we shall stand.’ As a grassroots grand mobiliser that you are, you know how to decode “Tyres roll!  Drivers chop!”  You were always at home with all Unions and Associations.

I would like to end my presentation by reiterating that nations are built by men and women who have the will and vision like you to accomplish greatness, not for themselves, their immediate families and friends, but for their country.  We thank you for finding the will to offer such a leadership to our State and for supporting it by your strong and dependable determination. Your beautiful wife radiated love and industry to all that you stood for here.  She was a mother.  And your children never became an embarrassment to your public and private life.  We thank them.  Lastly, permit me to close this short address of welcome by evaluating you with the oath of office you subscribed to when you were sworn in on 17th November, 2010. On that day you said:

“I …Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola…. do solemnly swear/affirm that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to the Federal Republic of Nigeria; that as the Governor of ……. State, I will discharge my duties to the best of my ability, faithfully and in accordance with the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the law, and always in the interest of the sovereignty, integrity, solidarity, well-being and prosperity of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; that I will strive to preserve the Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy contained in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; that I will exercise the authority vested in me as Governor so as not to impede or prejudice the authority lawfully vested in the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and so as not to endanger the continuance of Federal Government in Nigeria; that I will not allow my personal interest to influence my official conduct or my official decisions; that I will to the best of my ability preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; that I will abide by the Code of Conduct contained in the Fifty Schedule to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; that in all circumstances, I will do right to all manner of people, according to law, without fear or favor, affection or ill-will; that I will not directly or indirectly communicate or reveal to any person any matter which shall be brought under my consideration or shall become known to me as Governor of  State of Osun, except as may be required for the due discharge of my duties as Governor; and that I will devote myself to the service and well-being of the people of Nigeria. So help me God”.

On behalf of all workers of the State, I hereby confirm that Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji  Aregbesola has fulfilled this oath of office. You proved to us that ‘Leadership is Responsibility.  We thank you. A song interludes:

Song:  For he is a jolly good fellow.