Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola has said he spent the last eight years as an “absentee husband”.
The governor, whose eight years in office lapse today, was jocular about the distance his highly demanding job had on his closeness to his wife.
He said: “I want to go and rest. I have been an absentee husband for long enough. I now want to stay with my wife and enjoy each other.
“We are happy we have someone like Gboyega Oyetola succeeding this administration because he knows everything we did and will surely continue where we stop.
“So, there is hope for this state.
“All praises go to God for not allowing those who wanted to use trick to get to power without vision and who will destroy our legacies and reverse the direction and the development of the state. Every file before getting to me must pass through Oyetola. So, he is set for the job.”
Tomorrow is the inauguration of the new administration to be led by Alhaji Isiaka Adegboyega Oyetola and his deputy, Mr. Benedict Olugboyega Alabi.
Aregbesola came into power on November 27, 2010 after the Court of Appeal sitting in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, sacked his predecessor, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, who had spent three and a half years of his second term in office.
In the last two weeks, the outgoing governor, who spent two terms in office, unlike his predecessors, has been engaged in a series of activities, including tributes, inauguration of projects, such as road projects, mega schools and others.
He gave the Oluwo of Iwo, Oba Abdul-Rasheed Adewale Akanbi, the honour to inaugurate two schools in his domain on behalf of the outgoing administration yesterday at the Methodist Middle School, Araromi, Iwo, and D. C. Elementary School, Araromi, also in Iwo, opposite Iwo Local Government secretariat.
Aregbesola vacated the Government House, his official residence, last Monday.
Speaking two days before he vacated the Government House during the last edition of Ogbeni Till Daybreak in Osogbo, the state capital, the governor said he resolved to move out of the government residence a week before the expiration of his tenure to give Oyetola the ample chance to do the necessary renovation.
He promised to return to his father’s house at J69A Arogbo Street, Ifofin in Ilesa, Osun State.
Aregbesola said: “I am vacating the Government House on November 19. I resolved not to wait till November 27 because I have to give the incoming governor enough time to make some renovation work according to his taste. As a virtuous Yoruba person, I must do what’s right at all times. My boss, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, as governor of Lagos State, vacated the Government House three years before the time he was supposed to do so.”
The governor said he would not pick a senatorial ticket, like some of his colleagues, because he wants to rest.