29 Facts About Rauf Aregbesola

Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola is a Nigerian politician who served as the minister of the Interior of Nigeria from 2019 to 2023.

Rauf Aregbesola previously served as governor of Osun State from 2010 to 2018.

Rauf Aregbesola had his primary and secondary education in Ondo State.

Rauf Aregbesola later attended The Polytechnic, Ibadan, where he studied Mechanical Engineering Technology and graduated in 1980.

Rauf Aregbesola was an active supporter of other progressive students' movements nationwide, which earned him, for instance, a life membership in the National Association of Technological Students.

Rauf Aregbesola, as a pro-democracy and human rights activist, was a major participant in the demilitarization and pro-democracy struggles of the 1990s in Nigeria.

Rauf Aregbesola was Director of the Bola Ahmed Tinubu Campaign Organisation, who drove the electoral victory of Bola Tinubu in 1999, and he performed a similar feat with the platform of the Independent Campaign Group, with which he ensured the re-election of Tinubu for a second term in office.

Rauf Aregbesola had to withstand several attempts by the incumbent state government to cut short his ambition, from the failed attempt to abort the launch of Oranmiyan, the campaign organisation of Rauf Aregbesola, which was fixed for Oshogbo Stadium until the state government deployed force to stop the event.

Rauf Aregbesola narrowly escaped assassination plots in Ilesha in 2005 and on Osogbo Oroki Day in 2006.

In May 2008, Rauf Aregbesola called over 100 witnesses and tendered 168 exhibits in his petition before the Election Petitions Tribunal, alleging violence and ballot box stuffing in the election.

Rauf Aregbesola claimed that 12 people had died in the election violence.

Rauf Aregbesola denied any involvement, stating that he was in Abuja at the time.

Rauf Aregbesola actively pursued all action points of this plan in his first four years in office.

Rauf Aregbesola did these while championing the cause of equality among all religions to promote peace among communities.

Rauf Aregbesola introduced Isese Day as a public holiday for traditional worshipers to celebrate like the Christians and Muslims in the state have always done, and adopted the title of "Ogbeni", while branding the state's citizens as "Omoluabi".

Rauf Aregbesola introduced the Opon-Imo, an electronic tablet distributed for free to students in public schools in Osun.

Rauf Aregbesola began the commissioning of school infrastructure invested in by his government.

Two months after he was sworn in, Rauf Aregbesola organized an educational summit to chart a new way forward in the educational sector in Osun.

The Rauf Aregbesola administration introduced the Opon-Imo Project.

Rauf Aregbesola's government paid the external examination fees for all public senior secondary schools, in an effort to reduce the burden on parents.

The Osun Elementary School Feeding and Health Programme was launched in the state under Rauf Aregbesola to provide free daily meals in school to students, in a move to encourage school enrollment.

The state currently has about five bridges nearing completion, when none existed in 2010 when Rauf Aregbesola was sworn in as governor.

The Rauf Aregbesola administration pioneered a conditional cash transfer scheme called "Agba Osun".

Rauf Aregbesola has always received press attention for his approaches toward human capital development, education, and infrastructure, which have often landed him in the center of public discussion.

Rauf Aregbesola has supported the development of human values through extracurricular programmes, such as calisthenics, the Omoluabi Boys and Girls Club, and other schemes for youths to channel their energies towards a society that promotes the common good.

When Rauf Aregbesola decided to embark on a rebranding of Osun State shortly after his inauguration, he did so by naming the citizens of the state "Omoluabi", and driving a strong campaign about the values that make an Omoluabi in what was a rallying call to citizens to embrace such values.

Rauf Aregbesola's contributions were recognized when, in 2016, the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi III, a revered Yoruba traditional leader, named Aregbesola as the 'Omoluabi of Yorubaland' for being at the forefront of projecting the Omoluabi ethos.

Rauf Aregbesola has remained within the same political group even as it went through several mergers, first changing to the AC, then the ACN and the APC, which would later become the federal ruling party in the country.

When Rauf Aregbesola decided in 2005 to run for governor, a political support movement was instituted named Oranmiyan, after the son of Oduduwa, regarded as the founder of the Yoruba race.