Highlights from Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola Colloquium 2020
1. “I am not ashamed to copy when I see something that is good, we sent people to sit with Aregbesola so that we can copy him.”
2. “What I picked from Aregbesola was that he used the instrument of government to engage the youths, thereby making Osun the state with the lowest crime rate in Nigeria.”
3. “When I became governor, I sent down a team to Osun to study Rauf Aregbesola’s policies so we could implement them in Kaduna. I am shameless in copying whatever works fine.”
4.”I had no plans to run for governor when I went to conduct APC gubernatorial primaries for Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola’s second term, but I was moved and I learnt a lot from him when I saw the quality of schools he built as we drove through Osogbo.”
5. I had learnt from Rauf Aregbesola. Cites O-YES as an example of a social programme that kept youth too busy for crime. Says he is happy to copy whatever succeeds elsewhere.
6. We must begin to think of how to make government intervene without being obstructionist. It is public-private partnership. I think this is the way to go.
7. Ogbeni’s plans were disrupted by the oil price slump, and the fact that it was difficult to suddenly stop the social programmes. Gives Rauf credit for borrowing domestically as opposed to borrowing from abroad and servicing fix debt with Naira.
8. I have great admiration for Rauf Aregbesola,his passion, his concern about the state of the most vulnerable, the quality of schools.He is a socialist with a good heart.”
9. I congratulate my man, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, you’re my man everyday I have no differences with you, thank you for what you did for your people.
10. We must be more nationalistic, we must be self sufficient, we must invest in digitizing technology aggressively like the way Rauf Aregbesola did in the State Osun.
11. We are on our own. The rest of the world don’t care. Nobody cares about Africa. We must develop our internal capacity to produce and be self-sufficient.
12. “Rauf introduced school feeding program, Opon Imo etc. I saw in him a socialist with a good heart.
~Nasir El-Rufai
