Comrade Rauf Aregbesola Was Right

By Adewale Adeoye

I have read criticisms against former Osun Governor of the State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola on his recent statement after assuming office as the Minister of Interior.

He was quoted to have said, in summary, that he didn’t know anything about the Ministry he had been posted to oversee. This was a cynical twist of plain logic and clear thought.

Those were not his exact words.

This argument has been stretched by critics who claim that Aregbesola had exposed his ignorance, and, therefore would not be able to handle the demand of office he has been entrusted and assigned.

It has been twisted to suggest that Aregbesola is one of those incompetent people in the current league of Ministers

Far from it. In summary, what Aregbesola said was that he was coming to the Ministry to learn.

For me, that is the hallmark of leadership; the trait of modesty and the height of humility.

The statement was figurative; it was meant to present himself as a servant-leader; an administrator not ready to impose his knowledge but determined to share experiences and if possible, in the process, learn new curves. This negates the garrison mentality of a person who wears the imposing tag of a boss.

In epistemology, that is dedudtive reasoning; In Philosophy, we call it Socratic method: The leader who teaches by learning to navigate through the alleys of the knowledge of other peoples and in the process, arrive at a collective decision.

It will be spurious for anyone to say that Comrade Aregbesola has no idea of his new job.

He was the Governor of Osun State for 8 years and not without milestones.

He was the first governor of Osun to run an unbroken chain of 8 years and also the first in Osun to be succeeded by someone in his own political party.

During his tenure, he was the Chief security officer of Osun for 8 years.

His mandate included overseeing issues of immigration, prisons in the state and also challenges of civil security.

Earlier and for 8 years, he had been involved in issues pertaining to security in Lagos, Nigeria’s political and economic nerve centre as a Commissioner and also a member of the State Eexecutive Council where for 8 years he took part in the debate on security in Lagos.

For 8 years, Aregbesola attended the Federal Executive Council, (FEC) meetings where he took part in robust debate, in part, about the myriad of issues pertaining to the Ministry of Interior.

He is an Engineer, a thinker, a creator and above all, a student of dialectics, the last makes him a Professor in the University of Life for nothing is as precious, nothing exposes one to the deepest knowledge of matter, being, essence and the whole gamut of human existence more than DIALECTICS.

So, for me, we have an excellent man on the steering, let us give him another chance.