Sherifat Aregbesola 65 Years On ….Celebrating A Caring Heart
The self-effacing Mrs Sherifat Aregbesola will not want to be acknowledged, let alone celebrated. However we carry a milestone column which is archival and stores the institutional memory.
A dutiful companero to a husband perennially in the public glare, a devoted mother and gracious grandmother, as well a caring soul, there is a compelling urge to peel off the layers of reserve. In her years as the first lady of Osun State, she added value and placed human empathy first; this is worth resisting for the institutional memory
Born in Ijagbo town of Kwara state on this day in 1960, Sherifat is a graduate of Catering and Hotel Management from the Lagos State Polytechnic. Her professional experience spans industries including the Hospitality, Print, Aviation and Education sectors.
Before her emergence as the First Lady of the State of Osun, while her husband, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, the current National Secretary of the African Democratic Congress(ADC) and former federal minister of Interior, held sway as the Chief Executive of the state, Mrs Aregbesola had been a symbol of motherhood and an exceptionally supportive wife to her husband.
Throughout the administration, Sherifat Aregbesola showcased an exemplary profile of a Mother to all. She was the epitome of care and love as the chief hostess in the State Government House.
Her concern for the welfare and happiness of people prompted her to establish a Foundation named Sheri Care Foundation with the acronym (SCARF), with its activities revolving around care for the aged, the needy, people with physical challenges, widows and the young ones that transcended the administration with the last being her intervention to provide palliatives for the people of Alimosho Local Government of Lagos state, Ilesa East of the State of Osun and Ijagbo of Kwara state to cushion the effect of the total lockdown declared to curb the spread of COVID-19 in May, 2020.
Because of her special interest in the issues of Environmental Conservation especially Climate Change and Environmental Sanitation, Sherifat devoted a lot of her energy, resources and time to a statewide grassroots campaign to bring about attitudinal change among people in the area of Total Community Sanitation.
Till today, she continues to carry a caring heart, always understated, always there; it has become a quiet trademark.
Many Happy Returns, great decades ahead, Grandma.
Emi yin ma se opolopo odun.
