Rauf Aregbesola

The Osun Elementary School Feeding and Health Programme (O-MEALS) was launched in the state under Aregbesola to provide free daily meals in school to students, in a move to encourage school enrollment. Osun won several endorsements from the World Bank and other world bodies, with the House of Commons in the United Kingdom also inviting Aregbesola to address it on the impact of the programme on child health and education. Also, the United States Ambassador paid a visit to Osun in June 2017, where he praised Aregbesola for his implementation of social investment programmes. The O-MEALS programme feeds about 252,000 elementary school pupils daily and helped increase school attendance by 25% within 6 months of its commencement. In addition, the scheme engages 3000 women community caterers and thousands of smallholder farmers. Today, O-MEALS is being used as the template for the current National Government's Home-grown School Feeding Scheme. The state government also oversaw the standardisation of the school uniforms to create a unique identity for its students, promote its culture and stimulate the local economy. The implementation of the O-Uniform scheme led to the building of the largest garment factory in West Africa in Osogbo, Osun, where the uniforms are made and shared to students around the state.

Upon re-election, Aregbesola consolidated his achievements in his first term. He introduced the Opon-Imo, an electronic tablet distributed for free to students in public schools in Osun. Aregbesola also began the commissioning of school infrastructure invested in by his government. In September 2016, President Muhammudu Buhari visited the state capital to commission one of the 3000-capacity schools, which have become a model emulated by other states. The governor also unveiled a plan to site an aircraft maintenance hub in Osun and completed five bridges in a state which did not have one before he was elected governor.

In 2016, The National Judicial Council recommended Justice Oloyede for compulsory retirement after it found that the petition written by the judge "contained political statements, unsubstantiated allegations and accusations aimed at deriding, demeaning and undermining the State Government of Osun, the person and character of the Governor, his deputy and aides".

The state government then built new structures to benefit student learning. Across the state, a plan was drawn up to rebuild 96 schools, while tripling the capacity of each school and increasing the facilities therein. A number of those schools have now been commissioned and, in September 2016, President Muhammadu Buhari went to the state capital to personally commission the Osogbo Government High School, while showering encomiums on Aregbesola.

When 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. His 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.

In June 2015, an Osun State Judge, Justice Oloyede Folahanmi, wrote a petition to the State House of Assembly requesting the impeachment of Aregbesola on claims of financial mismanagement, which had been a recurring allegation due to the large investments in several projects for the state by Aregbesola. After many delays, a panel was set up by the House to probe Aregbesola, and the Governor appeared before the panel, which later found him not guilty of the allegations raised by the judge.

In 2015, The Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative rated Osun second highest on its Human Development Index among the 36 states in Nigeria. In 2014, Rennaissence Capital ranked Osun as the 7th largest economy in Nigeria, while in 2017 the NBS rated Osun as the state with the lowest poverty rate in Nigeria. In Osogbo, there was a irenovation of the Nigeria Railway Station terminus and urban renewal of the city center towards Olaiya junction and the building and repair of roads.

In the 2014 election, the People's Democratic Party (PDP), which controlled the federal government, sought to win the governorship to secure a stronger base in the south-west for the general elections to be held in 2015. National forces were therefore deployed in a plot to intimidate voters and reduce votes, but despite several arrests of his key associates, Aregbesola defeated the PDP's candidate, Senator Iyiola Omisore.

Investments and production has been on the rise in Osun. In 2009, International Breweries plc, Ilesa, known for its Trophy brand, doubled its production capacity to cater for the boost in the local economy. Tuns Farms, an indigenous poultry company, in partnership with small holder farmers, ramped up broiler production to position the state as the second largest broiler producer in the country. Omoluabi Garment Factory, a PPP between Sam and Sara Garments and the State, emerged as the largest garment factory in West Africa. An indigenous computer assembly plant, RLG Adulawo, also set up shop in Osun as a result of the favourable infrastructures in the State.

In May 2008, 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. In an October 2008 interview, he described Oyinlola as "a bully who came from a reactionary military arm", stating that Oyinlola had done nothing for the people of Osun state. He also claimed that 12 people had died in the election violence.

Following Tinubu's tenure as governor of Lagos State, Aregbesola ran on the platform of the then Action Congress (AC) for the Governorship of Osun State in the April 2007 elections.

After incumbent Olagunsoye Oyinlola was declared the winner of the 14 April 2007 elections, Aregbesola immediately proceeded to the courts to overturn this outcome.

In August 2009 the police arrested Aregbesola, apparently for involvement in the alleged forgery of a police report on the conduct of the elections. Later that month he sought bail so that he could perform the lesser Hajj in Saudi Arabia. In August 2010 the police summoned him to make a statement about a 14 June 2007 bomb explosion near the ministry of water resources. Aregbesola denied any involvement, stating that he was in Abuja at the time. Having gone through the tribunal of first instance, an appeal and a retrial tribunal, the second appeal court, delivering judgment on 26 November 2010, declared Aregbesola governor and ordered that he be sworn in the next day. The Court was presided over by Justice Clara Bata Ogunbiyi, who was flanked by four other justices; Honourable Justices M.L. Garba, P.A. Galinge, Chima Centus Nweze, and A. Jauro. The court unanimously nullified the election results of the 10 local governments pleaded for by Aregbesola and set aside the judgement of a lower tribunal which had confirmed the election of Oyinlola, after the deductions of the cancelled votes had left Oyinlola with 172,880 votes and Aregbesola with 198,799, thereby returning Aregbesola as the duly elected governor of the state, three years after the elections.

On 16 May 2005, a major financier of Aregbesola's campaign, Alhaji Sulaimon Hassan-Olajoku, was assassinated at Gbongan Junction after attending a series of political events to mobilise support of Aregbesola. Aregbesola also narrowly escaped assassination plots in Ilesha in 2005 and on Osogbo Oroki Day in 2006.

When Aregbesola decided in 2005 to run for governor, a political support movement was instituted named Oranmiyan, after the son of Odudunwa, regarded as the founder of the Yoruba race. The Oranmiyan group was led by Prince Felix Awofisayo since its inception in 2005, and was a major force in ensuring the success of Aregbesola in 2007. The group has since evolved by entering into mergers to become a worldwide group called Oranmiyan Worldwide.

Upon the return of the country to democratic rule in 1999, he was a ranking member of the Alliance for Democracy, led by Senator Bola Tinubu, who would go on to become governor of Lagos State in the same year. Aregbesola was Director of the Bola Ahmed Tinubu Campaign Organisation (BATCO), 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.

Oyinlola alleged that there was telephone contact between Justice Ayo Salami, head of the Nigerian Court of Appeal, and the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) chieftains prior to the decision and urged the Attorney General of the Federation "to exercise his power of public prosecution entrenched in Section 174 (1) and (2) of the 1999 Constitution by initiating legal action against MTN Nigeria Limited" after he petitioned the National Judicial Council. The Court rejected his application for Salami's call log.

Aregbesola is a Muslim born into a family of both Muslims and Christians. He had his primary and secondary education in Ondo State. He later attended The Polytechnic, Ibadan, where he studied Mechanical Engineering and graduated in 1980.

Aregbesola's interest and involvement in politics dates back to his undergraduate days when he was Speaker of the Students' Parliament (1977–1978) at The Polytechnic, Ibadan, and the President of the Black Nationalist Movement (1978–1980). He was also an active supporter of other progressive students' movements nationwide, which earned him, for instance, a life membership in the National Association of Technological Students. In June 1990, he became an elected delegate to the Social Democratic Party Inaugural Local Government Area Congress. In July of the same year, he was also a delegate to its first National Convention in Abuja. 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.

Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola (born 25 May 1957) is the current Minister of the Federal Ministry of Interior of Nigeria. Before that he was the fourth civilian governor of Osun State. He is a native of Ilesa, Osun.