PIUS ADE BABALEYE (PAB)
It is often said in political circles that Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, the former Governor of Osun State, was one of the engines that drove the early success of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Smile if you may, but the irony remains bitter: while Aregbesola may have helped another man rise, he could not build a solid foundation for himself or his people when entrusted with leadership in Osun State.
For the people of Osun, Aregbesola’s eight years in office were marked not by prosperity, but by pain, debt, and disillusionment. He is remembered more as the “Hafusa Governor” — the governor of half-salary and unpaid wages — than as a reformer. Civil servants and pensioners were left in untold hardship, many unable to feed their families, pay school fees, or meet medical needs. The ripple effects of his anti-people policies are still felt to this day. Some even lost their loved ones to the harshness of those years — my own uncle among them.
Yes, he built some schools — massive structures that today stand as a paradox of beauty built on the ruins of people’s livelihoods. What is the essence of grand buildings when the human lives that were supposed to thrive inside them were pushed into misery? These projects came at the cost of mortgaging Osun’s future, plunging the state into debts so heavy that even his successors, Gboyega Oyetola and Ademola Adeleke, are still grappling to manage them.
The question must be asked: was Aregbesola’s economic policy not even worse than what President Tinubu is currently implementing at the national level? Salaries slashed or unpaid, families broken, lives lost — all in the name of governance that served the state more debt than development.
As Minister of Interior, he equally fell short. Under his watch, prisons became porous, with multiple jailbreaks recorded. Passport issuance turned into a national nightmare, riddled with stress and inefficiency. Today, his successor in the ministry has shown that the same position can be handled with far more competence and less drama.
The truth is simple: Aregbesola failed his own people. He may be celebrated in some quarters as Tinubu’s early-day engine of success, but in Osun State, he is remembered as the architect of half-salary, half-life, and unending debt. His legacy is a scar, a reminder that political loyalty is not the same as governance capacity.
*Those who still follow Aregbesola blindly are choosing to be blindfolded. For Osun people, his memory brings more pain than pride. And for a man who inflicted so much suffering, the least he could do is cover his face in shame*