Yoruba Professionals Name Aregbesola Governor of theYear

Yinka Kolawole

The Governor of Osun State, Rauf Aregbesola, has been named the Best Governor of the Year 2017.

A statement by the Southwest Professional Forum (SOWPROF) named Aregbesola as the most distinguished state governor throughout the year 2017.

The group described the governor as a leader who “created gold from stone and brought out the best in the most difficult situation.”

It said it was referring to the ingenuous ways the resources of the state have been managed and how he has continued to make personal sacrifices with many of his aides in the face of lean state resources.

“In the year 2017, we have found a man whose energy is unlimited, a man whose vision is unimaginable and his courage in the face of adversary situations tough and cast in iron.”

The statement signed by SOWPROF President, Chief Olusegun Ajibulu, who is currently in Nigeria, stated: “A good leader must be thorough, decisive and intelligent. He must be able to withstand the wave and the tide. He must be able to confront difficult economic situations with uncommon creativity backed with unlimited power of imaginations. These are the exact characters Aregbesola has demonstrated.”

Ajibulu is a tax consultant based in the United States and has been leading the professional group since 2014.

SOWPROF is an association of thousands of Yoruba professionals drawn from home and abroad. The group has its head office in Southern Carolina, USA.

SOWPROF said it had sent its professionals to Nigeria on many occasions through out the year 2017 and was amazed at their various reports on ‘real development of human beings and investment in the future of the greater society,” saying the two represent the most striking elements of transformation and renaissance.

The group described Aregbesola as a ‘man of integrity, a honest icon, a revolutionary and a downto-earth leader of the people” saying his moral high grounds are unequalled.

The group said his government has made outstanding contributions to the upliftment of the Osun State in ways that would impact on the entire South-west and the country at large.

SOWPROF praised Aregbesola for the launching of the Ago-Owu Farm settlement and the provision of about 205 hectares of land for the state’s agrarian revolution adding that his actions represent the most practical and profound ways of demonstrating regional integration.

The group listed the ongoing building of the biggest Cargo Airport in West Africa sub region in spite of the lean resources of the state and the strategic importance of the airport to the entire Southwest region, at zero cost to the Osun State Government, as some of the most compelling interventions the South-west have seen since the days of the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo.

It said the Osun State is building the airport at the cost ofN216 billion at Ido Osun, Ede North/ Egbedore Local Government Areas with the focal point of serving human and cargo transportation added to this is the historic tourist attraction being the first airstrip in Nigeria used during the second world war by the allied forces.

SOWPROF said Aregbesola’s investment in the industrial park would transform the rural backwater South-west in unimaginable ways.

Ajibulu said: “It is heartwarming that the Chinese firm, Jiangsu Wuxi Taihu, in partnership with the people and government of Osun will have several industries including the Cocoa Food Company Limited worth $600million,” adding that the first phase of the project includes industries, the cocoa bean processing, chocolate and food processing, salt processing, cassava starch processing, gold mining and power plants.