Speaker, State of Osun House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Najeem Salaam has warned those who are not saddled with the responsibility of speaking for government to desist from making comments on policies, issues and government business, saying that avoidable friction should not be brewed among the stakeholders in the state again.

 
In a statement signed by the Chief Press Secretary to the Speaker, Mr. Goke Butikakuro, Speaker Salaam stressed that it became imperative to warn government officials and politically exposed persons whose duty were not speak on contending issues in government to excuse themselves from doing so, because the intervention of the parliament was at stake.
Speaker Salaam said it has been brought to  his notice that labour force was allegedly reconsidering its position on memorandum of understanding which has thus far engendered industrial peace in the state, because some politically exposed persons were arrogantly taken their (workers’) understanding on the salary issue for granted.
He then urged the workers to continue to maintain peaceful working relationship with the government, promising that the state assembly under his watch was monitoring the economic situation in the country in general and State of Osun in particular, and would seek upward review for them as soon as the revenue generation notches up.
Speaker Salaam further appealed to the workers to shun shenanigan of some elements  who were labouring hard to drag the state down, saying their antics  was to use the economic meltdown to buoy up their politicking, not to defend the interest of the workers.
He said: “I would want to appeal to our workers to continue with their patriotism, for we have no other state we can call our own, and it is a statement of fact that our state would not be in perpetual cash crunch; thus our workers would not be permanently stagnated on the current structured pay.
We salute our workers for their resilience, understanding, and for placing the state’s interest above personal interest. Let those who are hellbent in fracturing the relationship between the government and workers know that their disservice is out of vogue.

The Governor of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola on Tuesday said that his administration will make ‎judicious use of its revenues in such a way that increasing the number of councils will least constitute any financial burden.
 
 

 
This was even as he dissolved the management committees of the existing 30 Local Councils and Area Office  and their Executive Secretaries, deputy executive secretaries, members, Special Advisers and other functionaries.
The Governor stated this in a state‎ broadcast to the people of the state on the creation of additional 31 Local Council development Areas, 3 area Councils and two administrative offices.
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The request for additional local councils by the people of the state after several legal procedures was sent to the state House of Assembly in form of an executive bill.
The House looked into the bill, set up a committee and subsequently, a referendum was held on February 19, 2015 in which the people of the state overwhelmingly gave a Yes vote on the bill.
The House passed the bill creating 31 new Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs), three Area Councils and two Administrative Offices, signed into law by the governor.
Aregbesola, speaking on why the state is creating more councils at this special time of financial challenges, held that his administration has given it sufficient consideration, saying he has put in place procedures that will cost less and safe money thus bringing rapid development.
He added that the primary responsibilities of the newly created councils are to bring development to the people, market management, revenue mobilisation and generation among many others instrumental to the yearnings of the people.
The Governor stated that the state will be saving huge cost with the new system adding that the same number of staff will still run all the councils and no new appointments will be made to existing ones.‎
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He hinted that the entire local government system will be managed by Council Managers for three months, adding that managers shall be appointed and deployed by Local Government Service Commission from among the substantive grade level 14 officers in the local governments.
‎He said, “Many would be wondering and asking: why create more councils at this special time of financial challenges? We have also given sufficient consideration to this. With this new parliamentary system, it will cost less to run the new councils and save a lot of money for the government than in the past.
“The primary responsibilities of our new local government system are sanitation, market management and revenue mobilisation and generation. This is consistent with local government administration worldwide.
“The beauty of this new system is its parliamentary nature, which requires the chairman and the vice chairman to be elected by the councillors from among their own ranks, thereby saving cost,” The Governor told the people of the state.
He added that the creation of additional local government should not be seen as being alien in the sense that In advanced western democracies, the local government controls the police and provides many municipal services to the people.
The Governor also highlighted the importance of the local government, saying that the usefulness of this smallest tier of government  cannot be overstated.
According to him, “It is where the government is designed to be closest to the people. While you need to follow some protocols for reasons of security and tight schedule before having an audience with a minister, a state governor or the president, you can walk in on your local government chairman or other officials of council.
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“Also, because the geographical space of the local government makes it the smallest unit of administration, it is easier to get things done at this level. The local government is also the ideal training ground for political leadership”.

The Governor of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola on Tuesday called on Universities in the country to impact positively on the Nigerian society‎ rather that the role of just admitting students and awarding certificates at the end of their academic exercise.

The Governor while giving the charge ‎at the fourth and fifth convocation ceremonies of University of Osun at the University’s convocation arena, main campus, Osogbo also named the university auditorium after the former Governor of the state, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola.

He held that university education  should be a sector that should impact on the society, saying the country ‎is daily beset with life threatening challenges in wars, hunger, diseases that are defying solutions.

‎Aregbesola also admonished Universities to be prepared in providing leadership for the country to be able to overcome it’s present economic challenges.

 

He stressed that their will be hope for Nigeria if Universities in the country start preparing students for a self-reliant post-graduation life and guiding society with the ideas and philosophy of change, science, technology, finance and entrepreneurship.

 

‎”Our universities are primarily suffering from the crisis of mission. While they may have beautifully crafted mission statement, in practice, they are giving the impression that their raison d’etre is to admit students and award certificates to them at the end of their studentship.

‎”How impactful on our society and governance have these institutions been? We are daily beset with life threatening challenges in wars, hunger, diseases that are defying medical solutions, homelessness and just anything imaginable. Of course, it could have been worse.

‎”Where there is no vision, the people perish, says the holy writ. Lack of mission consciousness inevitably leads them to in-fighting and other self-inflicted crises.

“It is therefore the case that apart from graduating students, another veritable product of Nigerian universities is jostling for power, influence and resources with factions as many as there are faculties and petitions as powerful and numerous as academic journals. Where there is no vision, the people perish, says the holy writ,” Aregbesola said.

‎The Governor chided most Nigerian University for relying on grants and subventions, adding that no serious institution will think of surviving with subventions.

He said, “Most universities are underfunded. They rely mostly on subventions from their proprietors. Yet, there is nowhere in the world where a good university lives only on subvention.

“One of the disingenuous ways to fill the gap is to charge exorbitant tuition fees. While tuition is universal, it is lazy and unimaginative to make this the basis for generating revenues to sustain a university.

“Universities must learn also to generate revenues through endowments and creative revenue yielding ideas in patents, copyrights and so on”. Aregbesola stressed.

In his speech, the Acting Vice Chancellor, Prof. Jelil Oguntola Alamu, remarked that the University has been sustaining it’s reputation as an institution purposely established to promote academic excellence and sound moral education.

He revealed that the University has continued to grow in leaps and bounds with the recent accreditation of six more programmes by the National University Commission, bringing the programmes the school is running to 32 mature academic programmes.

Professor Oguntola equally disclosed that the university has become a member of the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) as well as signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN).

According to the Don, the school also excelled both nationally and internationally as students of the state, who participated in debating competition organised by African Regional Inter-University Debate Competition organised by UNESCO, came 3rd overall.

“Osun State University continues to sustain it’s reputation as an institution established to promote academic and moral standard.

“My greatest joy today is the relative peace and high level of academic excellence attained by the institution since I became the Acting Vice Chancellor about a year ago.

Barring all odds, the University successfully completed 2014/2015 academic session promptly without any form of interruption in our academic calendar,” Prof Oguntola said.

In his valedictory speech, the overall best student of the institution for 2013/2014 session, Adeyemo Kazeem Adekunle, was full of appreciation to the Government of Osun for the establishment the University.

Adekunle, with the best CGPA of 4.7 from Civil Engineering Department, commended Osun Government for catering for thousands of students from Osun and other adjoining states.

He stated that the school will continue to serve humanity in numerous significant ways as long as it is in existence.

Governor of Osun state, Rauf Aregbesola has announced the creation of additional 31 local council development areas LCDAs, three Area councils and two administrative offices.

This is just as he dissolved the executive secretaries of the existing 30 local government council and moadakeke area office.
Governor Aregbesola made the announcement in a broadcast to the people of the state at the earlier hour of today.

According to him, creation of the LCDAs which would be managed by council managers to be appointed by local government service commission from grade level 14 officers in the local government for three months, became necessary to bring government closer to the grassroot people.

Aregbesola further revealed that, the new LCDAs would be saddled with the responsibilities  of market management, revenue mobilization and generation and sanitation.

He maintained that the creation of the LCDAs, was in accordance with the law and general demands of the people of the state

The authority of Osun State University has disclosed that 51 students will graduate with first class in the combined 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 academic sections’ convocation coming up next week.
The University has also said it would graduate 3164 students from six Colleges of the institution for the two graduating set.

The Acting Vice-Chancellor, Prof Oguntola Jelil-Alamu, disclosed this during the press conference organised as part of activities marking the fourth and fifth convocation in Osogbo, yesterday.
Prof Alamu who was excited by the number of students who graduated with first class in the university also expressed happiness over the performance of the graduates of the institution, saying they were already making them proud.
He noted that First class products of the institution had been completing their postgraduate programmes with distinction in foreign Universities.
According to the VC, in 2015, Olojido Oluwatoyin Esther bagged distinction in M.Sc. Accounting and Finance from University of Leeds, while Odesanmi Oluwatosin Racheal also came back with distinction in M.Sc. Analytical Chemistry from Loughborough University, stressing that the testimony was a fulfilment of the global competitiveness of their graduates, enshrined in the vision of the University.
While commenting on smooth and peaceful academic atmosphere in the institution, Prof Alamu said there was no record of violence which might have led to the clog in the wheel of the academic programme of the University.
The VC further said that the University had successfully completed 2014/2015 academic section promptly without any form of interruption in the academic calendar, saying “the stable academic calender had aided the pioneer graduates from the College of Law into the Nigeria Law School in October, 2015.”
While laying emphasis on the need for the graduates to be independent, Prof Alamu hinted that most of the graduates had been trained in various entrepreneurial skills.
Prof Aremu said in a bid to ensure that their graduates were independent, they had trained most of graduates and they would be collecting two certificate by end of the ceremony, the Bachelors’ degree Certificate and entrepreneurship skill set certificate.
Commenting on the quality of the teachers at the University, VC said the institution had very qualified lecturers which had tremendously improved the quality of the faculty and translated to globally competitive graduates from the university.
“Within the last of year, 29 academic staff bagged PhD degree from Nigeria, South Africa, Malaysia and United Kingdom”.
This University has another set of 29 academic staff currently at advance stage of their Ph.D programme in New Zealand, Australia, Germany among others.
He therefore vowed that the University would continue to sustain its reputation which according to him established to promote academic and moral standard.
The activities lined up for the convocation was the commissioning of the Central Research Laboratory by the Visitor to the University, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola.
The final convocation ceremonies will hold on 8th and 9th March, 2016 with the convocation lecture title “Sustained Tertiary. Education in Post-Oil Nigeria” to be delivered by Prof. Michael O. Faborode. While investiture of Chancellor and Award of First Degree (2014/2015 graduating set on March 9.

Osun State Governor, Mr Rauf Aregbesola has approved the appointment of Prince Isaac Adeyeba Ayeni as the new traditional ruler for Erin-Ijesa town in Oriade Local Government area of the State.
 

 
 
The appointment was contained in letter signed by the Director of Chieftaincy Matters in the state Ministry of Local Government, Chieftaincy Matters, Rural and Community Affairs, Mr Femi Ogundun on behalf of the Permanent Secretary.
The letter said the appointment of the new Akinla of Erin-Ijesa was in accordance with Section 20,Subsection (1) of Chief’s Law (Cap 25) Laws of the State of Osun,2002.
The Director said arrangement is being made to publish the appointment in the Government Official Gazette.
The appointment of the 52-year-old engineer as the new Akinla brought the 17-year rulership tussle in the town to an end.
The new monarch hails from Ayeni Royal Family of Osefiri Ruling House.
His media aide, Mr Kayode Ekundayo commended governor Aregbesola for ensuring that Erin Ijasha gets a traditional ruler after 17 years of  vacuum at the palace of Akinla.
The appointment of the new Oba attracted jubilation as people of the town expressed their joy over the development.

The State of Osun House of Assembly has said that the services of externally auditors would be employed to look into the finances of the State Broadcasting Corporation (OSBC).

Chairman, House Committee on Information and Strategy, Honourable Olatunbosun Oyintiloye stated this on Thursday at the committee’s meeting with the management of the state Ministry of Information, Home Affairs, Culture and Tourism and the OSBC.

Lawmakers said, there is the need to look into the details of the Corporations especially its Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) and expenditure to block all perceived loopholes.

According to them, the paucity of fund in the state and Nigeria as a whole demanded that all hands must be on deck to ensure that the government pooled resources to finance its programmes and policies.

Oyintiloye who commended the station in the promotion of government policies and programmes, said more efforts must be made to improve the level of IGR in the corporation.

He also assured that the Assembly would do everything possible to assist the corporation in tackling the whatever factors militating against its optimal performance.

Addressing the management of the Ministry of Information, Oyintiloye challenged the officials to do more in the area of grassroot mobilisation.

This, he said, would go a long way to allow the people at the grassroot know more about the activities of government to improve their lots.

Also speaking, a member of the committee, Honourable Kamardeen Akanbi said the government need aggressive publicity at the grassroot to enlighten the people about the efforts of government, especially at this critical period.

Other members of the committee, Honourable Tajudeen Famuyide, as well as Honourables Gbadebo Ibrahim and Azeez Olanrewaju, representing Iwo and Ifedayo constituencies respectively also charged the officials to do more in the enlightenment of the people about the activities of government.

The Permament Secretary of the Ministry, Alhaja Olajumoke Bello and the OSBC Director-General, Prince Soji Fadehan said more ingenious ways would be introduce to improve the system

The State Government of Osun has enjoined shop owners at Ayegbaju International Modern Market to open their outlets for business activities by cooperating with Government in its efforts which is aimed at an early resumption of full-scale trading activities in the Ultra-Modern Market.
 

 
The appeal was as a result of meetings convened by the State of Osun House of Assembly Committee on Industries, Commerce, Cooperatives and Empowerment with all Stakeholders of Ayegbaju International Market, Osogbo.
The Government, after careful consideration of trading activities in the market, further suggested to owners of kiosks in the market to remove them immediately as they are constituting hindrance to the free flow of traffic and an impediment to the development of the Market.
In view of this, the State Government has made necessary arrangements to relocate Kiosk owners to a designated place within the market in a befitting manner that will not hamper the development and sales in the Market.