IN the heat of the global human carnage that was the Second World War, Britain’s famed politician and war-time leader, Winston Churchill,  gave a significant new insight into the affairs of humankind.

He facilitated our capacity to see that every human being, irrespective of his stations in life, must have some moments in his existence that can truly be adjudged to be ‘his finest hour’. The only difference is that, more often than not,famous men and women enjoy the privilege of public inquest and assessment into their lives such that it is they alone who are most frequently thought to have such moments in their lives.

But the truth is that such moments of indisputably outstanding performance in whatever one does is far from being the exclusive preserve of the famous and the celebrated of human species. Rather, even the most lowly placed and unassuming do have such moments  in their lives. The crucial distinction is  the fact that such moments in the lives of the ordinary man are unknown to the public and are therefore left unsung.

But then it is one of those uncanny sociological realities of human life that we cannot all have the same share of limelight and public glory. It does not mean that many of us do not have achievements  in our little lives that are worthy of celebration; it is just that most of us will have such achievements unnoticed and uncelebrated.

But this would not also detract from the truth that the famous and the celebrateddo have achievements to their credit that are worthy of laudation.  And so it is with the Governor of Osun State, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola -a man whose character qualities have earned him a deserved place in the sun.

At a distance, he is most likely to give you an impression of a non-personable individual and one of those typical ilk of Nigerian politicians. But a close contact with him would reveal a man of strong character and amiability. One who knows exactly what he wants and goes for it.

He aims high and matches those high aims with steely determination and doggedness. He is an engaging speaker whose high intellect contrasts sharply with what you tend to see from afar.He is a man of deep conviction who stubbornly clings unto his beliefs.

Perhaps, this explains why he has the capacity to attract opposite emotions in equal measure of intensity. Those who love him are unflinching loyal.

Those who don’t are diehard opponents. But in fairness to the man, and contrary to what one might be tempted to deduce from his political activist posture, he is someone with genuinely accommodating spirit. He engages with the people across all social strata right from the political ‘treetop’ to the grassroots.

All of these have come into play in his political career in recent years. His rise to the governorship seat occurred in extraordinary circumstancesthat were filled with mortal dangers and high-wire political intrigues. It took over three years of resolute and relentless battle through the courts to prove his victory at the 2011 polls. His re-election for a second term of office on Saturday August 9, 2014 happened in no less intriguing political fashion.

The election was a battle for the soul of Osun and by extension that of Nigeria in its present political configuration. In a significant way the Osun governorship election outcome would affect the electoral contest for Aso Rock in 2015 between the two leading political parties in the country, the PDP and the APC.

Accordingly, having achieved a largely unforeseen victory at the Ekiti gubernatorial poll barely two months ago, the PDP became emboldened to emasculate the APC in its strongest-hold, the South-West, which would have been achieved with victory in Osun.

Hence, the PDP-led Federal Government threw everything at it, including placing Osun under a security lockdown, not to mention the inexplicable and inexcusable arrests of APC party functionaries, along with members of Aregbesola’s cabinet on the night preceding the election. But the people of Osun stood firm. They did not succumb to intimidation and the Federal Government’s unwarranted show of force. They voted massively for the incumbent to reaffirm his genuine popularity among his people.

But Aregbesola’s greatest moment was to come the day after the election on Sunday when he rode triumphantly to the Nelson Mandela Freedom Square to address his supporters. Incidentally, he was formally declared the winner by INEC on that Sunday morning after hours of waiting. The announcement was greeted by a spontaneous outburst and tumultuous gathering of mammoth crowds all over Osogbo who then converged on the Olaiya intersection as the Governor’s convoy emerged from Okefia Roundabout.

It was some of the biggest crowd I have yet seen assemble just to welcome only one man. As I watched the man and his crowd inch their way towards Freedom Park at Old Garage, I remembered those memorable words of Churchill’s. However, as humans, it is in our nature that until we actually cease to breathe, it is difficult to definitively say that we’ve had our most glorious moments. So Aregbesola may yet have greater days of glory ahead of him.

But this much can be said- that irrespective of what greater glory he may still step into in the days, months and years to come, Aregbesola’s triumphant entry to Freedom Square on SundayAugust 10, and his grand reception by an enthusiastically massive crowd, would go down in history as arguably his Finest Hour.

Jimoh is a graduate student of politic.

Folabi Jimoh, a graduate student of politics , wrote from University of Ibadan, Oyo State.