I have nothing personal against Aregbesola – Oyetola

The Osun State governor, Adegboyega Oyetola, has dismissed insinuations that he and his predecessor, Rauf Aregbesola, are quarrelling.

He made the clarification when featuring on NAN Forum, a special interview programme of the News Agency of Nigeria, in Abuja.

The governor described Aregbesola, who is currently the Minister of Interior, as a brother and a well wisher.

Oyetola said though disagreements could not be totally ruled out in politics and governance, but that there is nothing personal between the two of them.

He said the possible areas of disagreement could have been in respect of disparities and changes in some policies and programmes his government inherited from the Aregbesola administration.

He said: “Let me say this, Ogbeni (Aregbesola) and I are brothers. Yes, we can have little disagreements; these are not unexpected.

“You mentioned the issue of tinkering with some policies of education, which in any case was desirable by the people.

“Some could misinterpret this to mean something else. We did it in good faith and in line with the demand of the people and we followed due process to do that.

“Like I mentioned, policies are supposed to be reviewed from time to time.

“I have had cause to reverse myself even as a governor. That’s part of life. That thing was unduly exaggerated by some people, giving different meanings to it.

“That doesn’t change the fact that we are brothers. I hate people saying we are quarrelling. There’s no basis for it. We are not quarrelling at all.

“I don’t know why people are always asking me if he’s going to support my second term election. Well… I have said that he is my brother and I believe he will want to ensure my success.

“Without quantifying it, I put in my best for the eight years of his success. That is the most that I can say.

“I don’t want to go into specifics, all I know is that, yes some people are aggrieved for different reasons and it is natural.

“You do appointments and some people believe they should be part of it, but they are not; they become aggrieved. But that doesn’t mean that what you have done is wrong.

“Naturally, we could have a few disagreements even in politics. Fixing conflicts is part of politics; we can find a way of conflict resolution and move on.

“We have actually set up a committee on reconciliation; to see people who are genuinely aggrieved and to be brought back to the same single family that we used to be.

“I believe with time, we should be able to achieve that.”