The fear of God Almighty and the readiness to sacrifice all in order to keep promises which are the hallmark of the annual symbolic celebration of the Eid il Kabir are the very basis of good governance.

This was the admonition by Governor Rauf Aregbesola of the State of Osun in a statement on his behalf by the Director, Bureau of Communication and Strategy in his office Mr. Semiu Okanlawon.

The statement said the lessons contained in the story of Prophet Ibrahim should be an inspiration for those in the position of authority to always fulfill their promises. “If those in government demonstrate enough fear of God; resolve to fulfill promises and ready to give up anything no matter how dear and costly in order to fulfill a promise, most of the problems of bad governance, injustice and insensitivity to the plight of the common man would vanish,” the Governor stated.

He added, “This is why for us in Osun as a government, we are conscious of the fact that our electoral promises are not only before men from whom we seek electoral support, but before God who created and watches over all that we do here on earth.

Programmes of this government such as the highly impactful employment schemes such as OYES, OMEAL, OYESTECH, Agric Academy, functional educational programmes such as digitalization (Tablet of Knowledge), OMEAL, O’SCHOOL, poverty alleviating programmes such as the micro-credit schemes, farmers cooperatives schemes, Agba Osun monthly welfare package; OREAP, infrastructure programmes such as urban and rural roads construction, urban renewal projects and many others are the products of promises fulfilled.”

Aregbesola said that nothing should be too much to give up by politicians in order to bring about good governance. The statement said despite the very meager resources that accrue to the state, the government has sacrificed everything to ensure that life gets better.

“There would have been a reason for failure to bring about people-oriented policies because of the poor state of finance. But having made those promises to better the lots of our people, we have stretched ourselves very thin by sacrificing everything to keep those promises. This should be the way out to all politicians regardless of their political affiliation to transform our country,” the statement added.