…Aregbesola counters, credits Asiwaju for success
Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State shook the tables, on Saturday, at the annual Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola Colloquium when he openly told Minister of the Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, that though the minister was an unapologetic Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu man, he, el-Rufai, is not an Asiwaju man.
In the words of Governor el-Rufai, ”I have problem with Asiwaju. But I have no problems with you. You are my man any day.”
He did not, however, go into details of what his problem with Tinubu is.
The Kaduna State governor, who was making his contribution as one of the panelists at the colloquium, which had to be a virtual one this year, owing to the restriction on movement as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic, however, praised Aregbesola for what he achieved as governor in Osun State.
He said he was not ashamed to confess that he borrowed a lot from what Aregbesola did with the school feeding programme as well as the Opon Imo initiative in education.
Aregbesola, who did not get an immediate opportunity to reply the controversial governor’s comments on the National Leader of the All Progressive Congress (APC), however, restated, in his vote of thanks, that outside of God, the next person responsible for the man that he has become is Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
READ ALSO: https://www.thexpressng.com/2020/05/30/benue-lg-polls-gov-ortom-votes-urges-voters-to-leave-after-voting/
Speaking to the theme of the colloquium, ’Government Unusual… Innovative Economic Solutions to Unlock Mass Prosperity’, Governor el-Rufai noted that a major challenge to mass prosperity was the need to ensure that the growth does not widen existing economic inequalities, as well as the need for government and the public service to understand that government should be interventionist and not obstructionist to business.
The colloquium, which attracted hundreds of participants from across the world was moderated by Boason Omofaye and had other speakers/panelist including Sen. Abubakar Bagudu, Governor of Kebi State, Mrs Hajara Adeola, CEO, Lotus Capital and Mr. Bismarck Rewane, member of the presidential economic advisory council and chief executive officer of Financial Derivatives.
Others were Dr. Olayemi Cardoso, Chairman, Citibank Nigeria, Dr. Joe Abah, Country Director, DAI and Dr. Yemi Kale, Statistician General, National Bureau of Statistics. Debo Adesina, Editor-in-Chief of The Guardian, also made some incisive interventions.
The colloquium is an annual event to mark the birthday of Aregbesola and this year’s edition focused on bottom-up approach to development, using the Osun State example and the recently released poverty ranking of states by the NBS.
In all, the speakers were unanimous on the need to reduce the cost of governance, implement the recommendations of Oronsanye report on public service reform, deliberate empowerment of women, bringing more people into the tax net, create enabling environment for foreign direct investment, digitalization of agriculture and education, diversification of the economy, and to gradually shift focus from trading in agricultural produce and other raw natural resources to adding value and manufacturing, among others.
Aregbesola used the opportunity to pay a glowing tribute to President Muhammadu Buhari, Asiwaju Tinubu, the team that worked with him as governor of Osun, as well as the team assembled by Tinubu in Lagos, which has not only ensured that Lagos State continued to set the pace in development and good governance, but also assisted him to make a success of his tenure in Osogbo.
