Interior Minister, Ogbeni Rauf
Aregbesola
Interior Minister, Ogbeni Rauf
Aregbesola
The Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, has said that
his Ministry would continue to collaborate with relevant
Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of the Federal
Government to ensure internal security in the country.
Aregbesola made the pledge today in his office in Abuja when he
was presented with the Nigeria and Africa Development Indicators
Monitoring (NADIM) Foundation 2018 outstanding leadership
awards.
According to him, security of Nigeria is one of the major
cardinal policy thrust of the President Muhammadu Buhari
Administration and the mandate of the Ministry of Interior is to
drive this policy by ensuring the protection of lives and property
of Nigerians and citizenship integrity.
The Minister assured that he would bring his wealth of
experience over the years as a Governor of the State of Osun to
bear which includes his policies and initiatives that led to his
getting nine NADIM 2018 outstanding awards into the Ministry of
Interior through the provision of purposeful leadership and
political will so as to ensure that the mandate of the ministry is
achieved.
“I will not renege on the promise I made when I assumed duty in
the Ministry in August 2019 that I will provide necessary
leadership to the Ministry of Interior and its agencies in a way
that would ensure the safety of all Nigerians,” Aregbesola
said.
He therefore restated the determination of the Ministry to work
in synergy with all relevant stakeholders in the security sector so
as to return Nigeria to a safe and secure nation in order to move
the country to the next level of socio-economic development.
The prestigious NADIM 2018 outstanding leadership awards
presented to the minister was in recognition of his achievements
during his tenure as the Governor of the State of Osun.
He was given nine awards for being first Overall Best State
Development in Nigeria, Second Best State in percentage of births
delivered in health facilities, third best State in percentage of
women employed, among other awards.
The minister recalled that while he was Governor of the State of
Osun, he empowered women to be self employed by granting them
interest free loans, as well as youth empowerment to promote
security in the State.
He thanked NADIM for the selfless task of the findings that led
to the awards, and equally thanked President Muhammadu Buhari for
the opportunity to serve.
Speaking earlier, Founder of NADIM, Professor Taofeek Ibrahim,
while presenting the awards to the minister, said they came up with
the idea on the need to assess developmental achievements of people
in leadership in Nigeria and Africa.
According to him, the achievements of Aregebsola as Governor of
State of Osun between 2010 and 2018 which were critically analysed
based on academic research, findings and evaluation earned him the
honour.
Ibrahim said the report of NADIM’s analysis and awards were
presented to the public at the Yar’Adua Center, in Abuja on 22nd
January, 2019.
“It took us more than three years of rigorous research and
scrutiny to come up with these findings, hence, the length of the
time before publishing our figures in 2018. We also obtained data
from reports of the World Bank, World Health Organisation,
Transparency International and Social Progress Imperatives for the
comparison of African Countries,” he said.
Ibrahim said further that, NADIM foundation was born out of the
need to address the Developmental Gaps arising from the key
findings of the Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey.
He said the findings were carried out by the Federal Government
through the National Population Commission “and further analysed in
our book tilted, Development Performance Ranking of Nigerian States
and Monitoring of African Countries.”
SIGNED
Mohammed Manga
Director (Press & Public
Relations)
For: Honourable Minister