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From Lateef Dada, Osogbo
Former governor of Osun State and immediate past Interior Minister, Rauf Aregbesola, on Saturday said the state was one of the most peaceful and secure states in the country during his administration.
He explained how he made human and infrastructure development his priority and lifted not less than one million people out of poverty.
Aregbesola spoke at the commissioning of projects by the Osun Economic Development Team in Osogbo, the Osun capital, as the grand patron of the team.
He said: “In our time, Osun was one of the most peaceful and secure states in the country. When we were at the helm in Osun, for eight years, we made human and infrastructure development our priority. The reason for this is not far-fetched.
“When we came to Osun in November 2010, it was apparent then that Osogbo as the capital city was not befitting. It was a throwback to the colonial era. But by the grace of God, we pledged solemnly before God and man that we would change it, and we did.
“Our human development programme covered the entire state.
We built state-of-the-art schools that are still a reference point all over the nation five years after we left.
“Our education programme lifted Osun from the bottom performance in external examinations that we met to a top performance by the time we left.
“Our empowerment programmes lifted not less than one million people out of poverty and cut unemployment to near zero, according to the best rating agencies. We met an employment rate of 17.2% in 2010, by the time we were leaving in 2018, it had dropped to 5.3% according to NBS data.
“Our youth were engaged in various empowerment schemes thereby reducing the incidence of poverty and ranking Osun with the second lowest unemployment rate in Nigeria as of 2017.
“We were the government in Nigeria to create a Micro Credit Agency, the Osun Micro Credit Agency (OMCA) which gives interest-free loans to individuals and cooperatives.
“We unleashed prosperity across the state whose impact reverberated all over the country. In fact, according to the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) Report, Osun had the lowest poverty rate in Nigeria as of 2017,” Aregbesola said.
He commended the team for the solar-powered streetlights at Oluode and Ajegunle markets, as part of the ‘Operation Light Up Our Markets’ initiative of the team, saying: “The icing on the cake is the N50 million interest-free loan made available to traders in markets across the state capital.”
The Ataoja of Osogbo, Oba Jimoh Oyetunji, said the development of Osogbo as the state capital remained stagnant until the emergence of Governor Ademola Adeleke.
