Rauf Aregbesola

Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola (born 25 May 1957) is a Nigerian politician who served as the minister of the Interior of Nigeria from 2019 to 2023.

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.

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

There have been several dispute about Aregbesola's professional qualification.

The Polytechnic, Ibadan which he attended, awards National Diploma and Higher National Diploma in Mechanical Engineering Technology, therefore a graduate of the school can only be an engineering technologist, according to COREN's Engineering Cadres in Nigeria.

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.

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.

Upon Tinubu's inauguration as governor, Aregbesola was appointed the Commissioner of Works and Infrastructure, which included supervision of the Public Works Corporation and the State Electricity Board(Lagos).

He not only oversaw a large investment in road infrastructure in the state, but also birthed the master plan that has served as a basis for the infrastructural development and expansion observed in Lagos even after Tinubu's two terms 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.

In a reply to a memo submitted by Aregbesola to a Truth and Reconciliation committee he had set up to look into the alleged atrocities committed by the previous government, Oyinlola described Aregbesola's claims as lies.

In his first term as governor of the state, Argebesola outlined his goals for the state: banish poverty, banish hunger, banish unemployment, restore healthy living, promote functional education and enhance communal peace and progress.

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

For instance, he introduced an initiative for the creation of 20,000 jobs for youths in his first 100 days, which he achieved through the Osun Youth Empowerment Scheme (O-YES).

Other initiatives he introduced in his first term included the Osun School Infrastructure Development Project, which involved the construction of about 170 new schools, the Osun mid-regional market (O-HUB), the Osun Rural Enterprise and Agriculture Programme (O-REAP), the Osun Elementary School Feeding Programme (O-MEAL), Osun Tourism (O-TOURS), and the Osun Special Ambulance Scheme (O-AMBULANCE), along with investments in roads and bridges.

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

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.

In addition, a petition led to the arrest and detention of Aregbesola for three weeks by men of the Lagos State Police Command until a High Court ruled in favour of him and awarded a penalty of N5m against the police for wrongful arrest and detention.

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.

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 Aregbesola, which was fixed for Oshogbo Stadium until the state government deployed force to stop the event.

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 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.

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.

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.

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

Aregbesola is a Muslim born into a family of both Muslims and Christians.

He had his primary and secondary education in Ondo State.

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.

The Governor of Edo State, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, offered his congratulations for the belated recognition of his election victory.