Aregbesola, who served as Osun State Governor from 2010 to 2018, commemorated his 63rd birthday with a virtual colloquium on Saturday, May 30, 2020.

The theme of the conference was ‘Government Unusual, Innovative Economic Solutions to Unlock Mass Prosperity.’ 

The panelists were El-Rufai, Chairman of Citibank Nigeria Dr Yemi Cardoso, CEO of Lotus Capital Ltd Mrs. Hajara Adeola, Country Director of DA Dr. Joe Abah, Statistician General of the Federation Dr. Yemi Kale and Kebbi Governor Abubakar Bagudu.

“The theme of creating mass prosperity is a very relevant one, because we tend to talk about poverty reduction, when we should flip it and talk about the other way round,” El-Rufai began. 

“What do we do to create mass prosperity? Now, I have great admiration for Governor Rauf Aregbesola. I still call him Governor because I think Governor is higher than Minister. 

“I was Minister first before being Governor,” he said light-heartedly. 

“I was privileged to be sent by the APC to conduct the primaries for Aregbesola’s second term of office. That is when we first spent quality time together. 

“And what struck me about him is his passion, his concern about the fate of the most vulnerable and the simplicity and the inclusive way he ran his government.”

El-Rufai was elected Governor of Kaduna in 2015 and is currently serving his second term which kicked off in 2019. 

It was however that visit to Osun for the APC primaries that birthed his ambition to run for office, he shared. 

“At the time I went to Osun to conduct the primaries, I was not contemplating running for office as governor….but what I saw in Osun, the quality of the schools I saw which Hajara Adeola made reference to..now I know how they were built.

“The way and manner...you could see, just driving through Osogbo and going to Ede, you could see that everyone was busy. 

"And I asked Aregbesola what he was doing and he told me how he was getting young people, paying them a stipend of N10,000 I think for a month, to engage in construction of drainage and civil works and so on. 

“So, I can understand why his unemployment levels are so low, because he tried to use the machinery of government to get virtually every young person busy, doing something. They were not earning minimum wage, they were earning something.

“And by the time they have a full day of activity, they are too tired to engage in crime and so on and so forth.

“So, the collateral thing which none of the slides have shown is that Osun state is one of the safest states in Nigeria with the lowest levels of crime. So, I picked that up from him,” El-Rufai added.

El-Rufai also said he borrowed some of Aregbesola’s social investment programs like the school feeding program and the distribution of ICT tablets pre-loaded with textbooks, to students. 

“And I also saw that he was doing the homegrown school feeding program. And the value chain he created in delivering that program for 250,000 pupils in primary schools, was amazing.

"It involved producers of agricultural produce to intermediaries that produced eggs and so on, up to the cooking of the food and its delivery to pupils. 

“And that struck me. At that time, Osun state was the only state in Nigeria doing this school feeding program. 

“So, we sort of connected because I saw a socialist as governor, but a socialist with a good heart.

"A socialist that wants to use the machinery of government to ensure that those at the lowest rungs of society are given the opportunity to realise their potentials and I picked that up and that’s the basis of my friendship and relationship with Rauf.

“He did so many successful things to create prosperity in Osun as you can see from the slides of the statistician general.”

El-Rufai also added that he isn’t ashamed to say he replicated Aregbesola’s policies and programs in Kaduna.  

“In the end, by the time I got elected as governor and sent a team to Osun state to look at some of these policies and try to adjust and implement them in Kaduna…

“You know, I like copying whatever works, whatever succeeds, because I don’t think you need to reinvent the wheel or be too proud to say I have to do this my own way. 

“If something works, I am shameless in copying it. We sent a team to Rauf, spent some time with him and we started a school feeding program in Kaduna.

“But of course in Kaduna, while Osun was feeding 250,000, we had to feed two million, so the scale was different and the challenges were different. But we learnt something.”

El-Rufai also challenged the electorate to choose good leaders across all tiers of government and hold them to account. 

“A bad government can mess up and destroy the private sector. We need to be very circumspect in who we choose as our leaders. We have the opportunity to vote and we should raise the quality of public leadership,” he said.

Other speakers at the conference also commended Aregbesola for his visionary and prudent leadership during his stint as governor of the southwest state; and applauded him for how he kept unemployment and poverty levels low.