Hurray!!! The Government of the State of Osun under Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola is Seven.  In many parts, it is worth celebrating. Seven years of Hard work, Seven Years of Progressive Leadership, Seven Years of Growth and Indeed, Seven Years of Building Legacies that are Indelible and Strategic for the Next Generation.

 
 
 
Perhaps, why will Aregbesola celebrate in a state that owes salaries, indebted to pensioners and has a huge debt profile? Despite these red flags, it is still worthy of mention that the dynamic transformation Osun has witnessed in the last seven years has put it on a pedestal of expected greatness in years to come.
For those who knew about the intrigues of the three and a half years legal battle that eventually returned him back to office and the tremendous achievements recorded so far, it is no clear understatement that the present government has done a lot in taking Osun far beyond where it was in November 2010 when it took over.
During the electioneering in 2007, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola had his developmental agenda which he enveloped in a small book titled “MY PACT WITH THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF OSUN” where he discussed thoroughly his six point integral action plan namely; Banish Hunger, Banish Poverty, Banish Unemployment, Promote Functional Education, Restore Healthy Living, Enhance Communal Peace and Progress.
Since he assumed office, he has pursued his programmes vigorously with doggedness, commitment and vision to achieve more. And with 90 days in office, Aregbesola did the unusual, he employed 20,000 unemployed indigenes of the state who hitherto have no job with #10,000 as their monthly pay. The effortless commitment to the people did not stop there, the Governor continued to roll out programmes which are of immense benefits to the state.
With his O-symbol, several policies and people oriented have been rolled out and are still rolling daily as if his 8-year mandate will not end one day. In the Osun Youth Empowerment Scheme O’YES, various interventions to gainfully engage the Youths after their 2-year period were instituted in collaboration with other government programmes like O’REAP, OYESTECH, O’HUB and so on.
In Education, Aregbesola re-jigged the sector by introducing a world class education reform programme, a baby of the Education Summit convoked by his government about 6 months into office that has resorted into mega schools, the award winning Tablet of Knowledge, OPON-IMO, O’Calisthenics, O’Uniform, O’MEAL that has fed over 350,000 elementary school pupils for the past seven years which the President Muhammadu Buhari administration has also adopted into its own Social Investment programme and many more that is earning the state accolades nationwide and internationally.
The government through its passion for excellence in all fields and ramifications ensured that 65 medical students of the Osun State University who were hampered to continue with their clinical studies in the university due to accreditation issues completed their medical education in Ukraine with thorough and adequate intervention,
In the Health Sector, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola upgraded the nine state hospitals in the state with the state hospital, Asubiaro in Osogbo refined to the status of a specialist hospital. Numerous interventions have been done in the realm of Free Eye Surgeries, Provision of Basic Drugs in health facilities, giving health grants, containing the break out of epidemics and the rest despite the daunting finances.
One of the areas where the present administration has received so much accolades is in Road Construction, one which has earned the Governor the name, ONA BABA ONA meaning the Extraordinaire Architect of Road Construction. In the last seven years, major roads have been built with the government rehabilitating, reconstructing and putting in place new ones. The efforts on Road Construction has been felt so much more with over 300 kilometers of township roads cutting across all the 30 local governments, 33 local council development areas, 2 area councils and 2 administrative offices.
Still on roads, 222km of rural roads have been done with support from World Bank and the French Government under Rural Access and Mobility Project RAMP that now connects the state together. Major roads also like the Gbongan-Osogbo road under construction with the Chief Bisi Akande trumpet interchange bridge, November 27 Interchange connecting two divisions of the Oba Adesoji Aderemi East Bye Pass, the dualisation of Osogbo/Ikirun/Ila-Odo, Kwara State boundary road and the very strategic, Ola-Iya/Asubiaro/Ita-Olokan Road that has just been completed.
Another beautiful thing is that not just that roads are constructed, the roads are of immense quality with thick bridges that can stand the test of time for years. In the history of the State of Osun, it is the Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola administration that will construct a road that has in it 7 big bridges within 7 years. That is unprecedented you”ll say.
Moving to Agriculture, the government through Osun Rural Enterprise and Agricultural Programme, O’REAP has empowered many, created opportunities for farmers as well as establishing opportunities for agriculture to thrive. In the sector, some members of the OYES who were enlisted to the O’REAP Youth Academy were sent to Germany on the bill of the State Government for thorough training on modern best practices in agriculture. Aside this, farmers were given lands with opportunities abound in O’BEEF, O’BOPS, O’CATTLE, O’HUB, O’PIG and others that have impacted positively on the citizenry and those involved.
About 20,000 Youths were given jobs in the first phase of O’YES. After 2 years, they were replaced with another set of 20,000 after the volunteers in the first phase were trained in several skills that helped shaped focus for the next challenges they were to face. A good example is OYESTECH which provided participants the opportunity to be trained in useful computer technology and mobile phone assemblage with repairs coming up. Selected Youths were sent to Ghana for training to come back and impact on others that has continued to yield positive results till today. A brainy intervention is the institutionalization of RLG Adulawo Technology City in Ilesa where mobile phones are assembled and other technological driven apparatus are done; all with efforts from the dynamic Rauf Aregbesola.
In commerce, Market Men and Women are incorporated into government’s programmes and policies. About 33,000 residents of the state have been empowered through the Osun Micro-Credit Agency, an agency of government that provides soft loans for small scale business owners in the state. Aside this, modern international markets like the Ayegbaju, Aje and Dagbolu International Market(s) which is still in focus have in a great deal transformed the state’s commercial sector. The Dagbolu Infrastructure Market which is still in focus is to be one of the foremost warehouses in the country. The newly introduced Standardized Weigh and Measures to promote efficiency, prudency and restore Trust into Trade activities is also a plus.
The Osun Free Train Ride that has conveyed over 350,000 passengers from Lagos to Osogbo during Christmas, Easter, Eid-El-Fitr and Eid-el-Kabir festivals has contributed in no small quantity to the economic situation of the state during festivities. Aside the free train, the just-concessioned Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola International Airport, Ido-Osun when completed will be another blessing to the state’s economy. Apart from the numerous commercial benefits, it would also be helpful to local trade, employment opportunities, hospitality and many more.
On Security, Osun is the 13th safest in the federation with much more focus on ridding the state of crime. There is also the relative peaceful disposition between farmers and herdsmen that has plunged several parts of the North to serious danger with the committee put in place by the present administration. Businesses especially in the hospitality realm are springing up, The cocoa industry in Ede is being revived. The GDP has improved tremendously with Small and Medium Scale Enterprises given the opportunity to rise.
The State of Osun especially Osogbo, the state capital has been reformed physically. With the beautification efforts put in place by the current government, the state now looks cleaner, neater and beautiful. One of such is the Nelson Mandela Freedom Park, Osogbo, a former den of rascals that has turned to a beautiful amusement park that becomes a destination for birthdays, picnics and relaxation.
This write-up would not be complete without the support of the Civil Servants who have shown unequalled commitment to the course of the state. They have in hard times shown their doggedness to the course of developing Osun and making our State great. Despite not receiving full pay, they are avowed, diligent to duty. The State will never forget this sacrifice made when the nation’s economy nosedived which did not hinder the development vision of the visioner per excellence, Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola.
The government also appreciates the section of Pensioners who believe in this dream of rebranding our state while calling on those who keep condemning government every time to see reasons why Aregbesola has taken time with much more efforts to transform our state. Government is indeed committed to fulfilling all financial obligations when the state’s economy improves.
What Aregbesola has done in the last seven years is worthy of note and indelible as Osun in the next three to four decades will continue to savour what this man has been able to do. His successor will not have to reconstruct the roads, schools, bridges and other infrastructural projects he has done, they will have no other option than to build on the Existing Legacies and Mirror In the Future.
Special Thanks To Royal Fathers, Community Leaders, Market Men and Women, Artisans, Members of the Progressive Party, the APC and the Entire Citizens of Osun who believed in his re-election that has now culminated in the development witnessed and the legacies developed for the future.
Happy 7th Year Anniversary to the Progressive Leadership of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola!!!!!
Osun To Tin Dara, Ko Ni Ba Je Oooooo!

Governor of the State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola is a first class citizen in the education sector and history will eventually judge him rightly.

Head of Service in the State of Osun, Dr. Olowogboyega Oyebade made the assertion today at Owena and Ipetu-Ijesa while on education drive mission to two schools in the area.
It was in his separate address to the principals and teachers of Community High School, Owena and AUD Middle/ High, Ipetu-Ijesa after engaging the final year students of each of the schools in a period of English Language.
He charged them to double their efforts to improve students’ performances, adding that our challenge is to pass the forthcoming WAEC and NECO examinations with distinctions without cheating.
While commending teachers for being the most hardworking set of workers in the State, Dr. Oyebade pointed out that their best is not yet enough considering the unsatisfactory performance of students in the previous external examinations.
The Head of Service then enjoined the education stakeholders to, between now and April next year, concentrates their efforts on the final year students, advancing that they can only give good accounts of themselves through their students performances.
In an interview with the principals of both schools, Mr. Kayode Awe and Alhaji Idowu Bisiriyu who expressed delight to see the Head of Service teach in their schools, promised to do their best to ensure improved performances in the forthcoming WAEC and NECO examinations.

Local Government budget officers in the State of Osun have been charged to prepare a transparent and realizable budget for 2018.

The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs in the state, Mr Muftau Oluwadare gave the charge today while declaring open  seminar for Heads of Budget in the local government on the International Public Sector Accounting Standard (IPSAS).
The State Accountant General, Akintayo Kolawole who was represented by the Director of Final Account, Mr Ojo explained that IPSAS required full disclosure of financial information of government in the budget preparation.
Mr Akintayo said ‘whatever we budget for there must be corresponding figure for it.’ He added that the era of forcing the budget to balance was over saying that there are must be justification for every items in the budget.
The Auditor – General for Local Government, Mr Kolapo Emmanuel advised them to work in collaboration with other officials of the Council to ensure production of implementable budget.
The Director of Finance and Account of the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Mr Ibrahim Adewale encouraged budget Officers to make use of excel to prepare budgets.
The Director of Local Government and Inspectorate Services, Mr Kola Adedokun advised them to follow the call circular sent to them to prepare their budget.

ISAAC OLUSESI writes, LUC, Land Use Charge is a single most salient source of internally raised revenue that will evolve considerable equity in income distribution and solve the problem of expanding urban service system in the State of Osun.

“From the Land Use Charge Collection Fund, consisting of all land use charge payments deposited in designated banks, the share to be paid to each local government council shall be such percentage of the net land use charge on deposit, being 80 per cent of the gross collection at the end of each month as agreed between the state and local government areas. The state portion shall be remitted to the General Revenue Accounts of the state,” a law, establishing the State of Osun Land Use Charge (LUC) states.
LUC is one of Governor Rauf Aregbesola’s numerous inventions in Osun, with considerably enchanting emphasis on greater mobilisation of internal financing sources to eliminate adverse effects of his development finance policy by constantly making efforts to increase the states IGR, internally generated revenue. His LUC aims at cutting down recurrent expenditure, to match the growth of current expenditure with the growth of revenues for the development of the state, having fully convinced self that governance at all levels globally, is hindered or slowed down by acute shortages of financial sources.
Aregbesola is constantly convinced that Osun could no longer afford the luxury of perpetual dependence on the central government inadequate finances which either have dangerous implications for the state political economy even in the face of shared party identity with the centre; or had in the past, directly contributed to incoherence and retardation of the economies of the federating states in Nigeria, especially in the erstwhile Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) government at the centre.
There was thus that exigency for a  revolutionary overhaul of the tax lists in Osun which Aregbesola  actually did, heightened by factors  of equity, revenue loss and tax administration efficiency requisite, to upsurge tax revenue from both the existing and additional sources. One of such latest sources to be intensively explored in his dive to mobilise more revenues is LUC, a consolidation of all Property and Land-based rates and charges payable under the Land Rates law, the Neighbourhood Improvement Charge law and Tenement Rates law. LUC will evolve an equitable distribution of incomes and accelerate considerable equity between tax payers in the different income groups and same income groups.
Regrettably, however, the tax structure in the PDP days in Osun was not only abysmally regressive if tax payments were related to the benefits received from the government expenditures. Those who plundered Osun vaults in the PDP days in government were invariably the people in high income position who transferred tax revenues from the low income group to themselves, with obvious regressive consequences. Horizontal equity was also violated in the sense that fraudulent officials transferred income to themselves from honest tax payers in the same income group as themselves.
In summation, instead of using the tax expenditure mechanism to redress income inequities, the PDP government in Osun actually deployed its own paradigm that accentuated them. The PDP government in its widest imagination, never consolidated revenues from sources for assessment purposes. The state was considerably under taxed most effectively in terms. Worst still, the degree of tax evasion was so high, and mal-administration so pronounced that the taxable escaped tax net, that brought the average effective tax rate in the state to its nadir.
Why LUC in Osun? Land use charge is practically most useful to tool-up equity among tax payers, directly attuned to the re-distributional objectives and persuasive resource allocation effects of Aregbesola’s All Progressives Congress (APC) government in Osun. LUC is a single most salient source of internally raised revenue that will help solve the problem of expanding urban service system at low cost, judging by  the forces of rural-urban migration with accelerated effect on the growth of properties/buildings in the urban centers.
In Osun, the LUC demand notice has gone ‘viral,’ it is everywhere, here and there. The assessed value of the property in the designated areas of the state is subject to land use mill rate, determined by the annual amount of LUC and the assessed value of the property – its classification, land parcel in square meters, land value rate, building quality, building value rate in the neighbourhood; and property code rate, with a view to reinforcing both growth and equity in Osun.
LUC is administratively simple. The authorized assessors are to enter, inspect, survey and assess the property; and issue LUC demand notice and deliver it to the owner/occupier of the property for payment to be made within 90days in any of the designated banks specified in the demand notice. The LUC payment slip carries annual demand notice number, identity number, revenue code, local government code, and the amount payable or paid. What’s ultimately required is that the payer drops the bank copy of the LUC payment slip at the bank, and the other copy deposited at the LUC corporate office, or in the state Ministry of Finance, Osogbo, state capital.
Interestingly, there is discount if the property owner/occupier pays within 40days of receiving the demand notice, and a corresponding 10 per cent increase in the amount payable when the property owner/occupier fails to pay the LUC demand notice within the specified period. It is more interesting that, by fiscal analysis, LUC in Osun is a source of financing public services in the state. It is one basic exchange, with the payment of the land use charge by property owner being traded for public goods and services for accelerated development of the state.
The LUC in Osun is progressive; and on the right track, exempting  substantial properties/ buildings used exclusively as Oba’s palace, public library, public cemetery, public worship, public recreation, non-profit making educational institutes, non-governmental organization work; and any other property being used for benevolent purposes owned by the state, local and federal governments, or any property specifically exempted by the state governor by notice published in the state government official gazette. But the exemption ceases when the use of the property or its use by the owner /occupier changes to one that does not qualify for exemption.
There is a warning. If the payment is not made on non-exempted, but assessed property after 365days, then the property becomes liable to receivership by the state government, and such property under receivership will be advertised in national newspapers. But the owner is entitled at any time to apply for a release of the property upon payment of the outstanding taxes, penalties and administrative charges. However, property owner could go to the LUC Assessment Appeal Tribunal, convinced of excessive assessment of his property. The tribunal, with powers akin a Magistrate Court’s could subpoena the appellant’s witnesses to appear before it, and  also has power to confirm, reduce, increase or annual the assessed value and rule that payment should be made into the state government Assessment Appeal Account.
Meanwhile, the property owner/occupier who mutilates, damages or destroys the LUC identification placed on assessed property/building, or incites another property owner  to misrepresent his chargeable capacity, commits an offence, attracting a maximum fine of #100,000 only or a term of 3months imprisonment, or both. Payments of all such monies including actual LUC demand notice, outstanding taxes, penalties and administrative charges are made on Electronic Banking System of Revenue Cycle Management (EBSRCM) platform, and automated receipt and bank teller obtained.
Good enough. The government of Aregbesola is a government of bio-metrics in all matters and in all circumstances. The government is not inhibited by inadequate availability of data and documented information on the extant buildings in the state. In fact, cadastral maps of properties/buildings in Osun are available on finger-tips, considered requisite for LUC identification and assessment. Neither is Aregbesola stifled by inadequate manpower situation germane to the operational efficacy of LUC. Rather, he’s brimful of emulsifiers for the evaluation of the effectiveness of LUC with no encumbrances to Osun economy.
The expedient LUC could be expanded to inaugurate site value taxation, vacant land taxation and property transfer taxation on land development to induce land use effect, and importantly as revenue raising measure. Such expanded LUC will publicly recover land value increase or land betterment value and influence better planning of land development in the Osun.
The LUC is a must tax to pay.

• OLUSESI is Assistant Director, Directorate of Publicity, Research & Strategy, All Progressives Congress (APC) State of Osun.

AAC OLUSESI writes, LUC, Land Use Charge is a single most salient source of internally raised revenue that will evolve considerable equity in income distribution and solve the problem of expanding urban service system in the State of Osun.

“From the Land Use Charge Collection Fund, consisting of all land use charge payments deposited in designated banks, the share to be paid to each local government council shall be such percentage of the net land use charge on deposit, being 80 per cent of the gross collection at the end of each month as agreed between the state and local government areas. The state portion shall be remitted to the General Revenue Accounts of the state,” a law, establishing the State of Osun Land Use Charge (LUC) states.
LUC is one of Governor Rauf Aregbesola’s numerous inventions in Osun, with considerably enchanting emphasis on greater mobilisation of internal financing sources to eliminate adverse effects of his development finance policy by constantly making efforts to increase the states IGR, internally generated revenue. His LUC aims at cutting down recurrent expenditure, to match the growth of current expenditure with the growth of revenues for the development of the state, having fully convinced self that governance at all levels globally, is hindered or slowed down by acute shortages of financial sources.
Aregbesola is constantly convinced that Osun could no longer afford the luxury of perpetual dependence on the central government inadequate finances which either have dangerous implications for the state political economy even in the face of shared party identity with the centre; or had in the past, directly contributed to incoherence and retardation of the economies of the federating states in Nigeria, especially in the erstwhile Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) government at the centre.
There was thus that exigency for a  revolutionary overhaul of the tax lists in Osun which Aregbesola  actually did, heightened by factors  of equity, revenue loss and tax administration efficiency requisite, to upsurge tax revenue from both the existing and additional sources. One of such latest sources to be intensively explored in his dive to mobilise more revenues is LUC, a consolidation of all Property and Land-based rates and charges payable under the Land Rates law, the Neighbourhood Improvement Charge law and Tenement Rates law. LUC will evolve an equitable distribution of incomes and accelerate considerable equity between tax payers in the different income groups and same income groups.
Regrettably, however, the tax structure in the PDP days in Osun was not only abysmally regressive if tax payments were related to the benefits received from the government expenditures. Those who plundered Osun vaults in the PDP days in government were invariably the people in high income position who transferred tax revenues from the low income group to themselves, with obvious regressive consequences. Horizontal equity was also violated in the sense that fraudulent officials transferred income to themselves from honest tax payers in the same income group as themselves.
In summation, instead of using the tax expenditure mechanism to redress income inequities, the PDP government in Osun actually deployed its own paradigm that accentuated them. The PDP government in its widest imagination, never consolidated revenues from sources for assessment purposes. The state was considerably under taxed most effectively in terms. Worst still, the degree of tax evasion was so high, and mal-administration so pronounced that the taxable escaped tax net, that brought the average effective tax rate in the state to its nadir.
Why LUC in Osun? Land use charge is practically most useful to tool-up equity among tax payers, directly attuned to the re-distributional objectives and persuasive resource allocation effects of Aregbesola’s All Progressives Congress (APC) government in Osun. LUC is a single most salient source of internally raised revenue that will help solve the problem of expanding urban service system at low cost, judging by  the forces of rural-urban migration with accelerated effect on the growth of properties/buildings in the urban centers.
In Osun, the LUC demand notice has gone ‘viral,’ it is everywhere, here and there. The assessed value of the property in the designated areas of the state is subject to land use mill rate, determined by the annual amount of LUC and the assessed value of the property – its classification, land parcel in square meters, land value rate, building quality, building value rate in the neighbourhood; and property code rate, with a view to reinforcing both growth and equity in Osun.
LUC is administratively simple. The authorized assessors are to enter, inspect, survey and assess the property; and issue LUC demand notice and deliver it to the owner/occupier of the property for payment to be made within 90days in any of the designated banks specified in the demand notice. The LUC payment slip carries annual demand notice number, identity number, revenue code, local government code, and the amount payable or paid. What’s ultimately required is that the payer drops the bank copy of the LUC payment slip at the bank, and the other copy deposited at the LUC corporate office, or in the state Ministry of Finance, Osogbo, state capital.
Interestingly, there is discount if the property owner/occupier pays within 40days of receiving the demand notice, and a corresponding 10 per cent increase in the amount payable when the property owner/occupier fails to pay the LUC demand notice within the specified period. It is more interesting that, by fiscal analysis, LUC in Osun is a source of financing public services in the state. It is one basic exchange, with the payment of the land use charge by property owner being traded for public goods and services for accelerated development of the state.
The LUC in Osun is progressive; and on the right track, exempting  substantial properties/ buildings used exclusively as Oba’s palace, public library, public cemetery, public worship, public recreation, non-profit making educational institutes, non-governmental organization work; and any other property being used for benevolent purposes owned by the state, local and federal governments, or any property specifically exempted by the state governor by notice published in the state government official gazette. But the exemption ceases when the use of the property or its use by the owner /occupier changes to one that does not qualify for exemption.
There is a warning. If the payment is not made on non-exempted, but assessed property after 365days, then the property becomes liable to receivership by the state government, and such property under receivership will be advertised in national newspapers. But the owner is entitled at any time to apply for a release of the property upon payment of the outstanding taxes, penalties and administrative charges. However, property owner could go to the LUC Assessment Appeal Tribunal, convinced of excessive assessment of his property. The tribunal, with powers akin a Magistrate Court’s could subpoena the appellant’s witnesses to appear before it, and  also has power to confirm, reduce, increase or annual the assessed value and rule that payment should be made into the state government Assessment Appeal Account.
Meanwhile, the property owner/occupier who mutilates, damages or destroys the LUC identification placed on assessed property/building, or incites another property owner  to misrepresent his chargeable capacity, commits an offence, attracting a maximum fine of #100,000 only or a term of 3months imprisonment, or both. Payments of all such monies including actual LUC demand notice, outstanding taxes, penalties and administrative charges are made on Electronic Banking System of Revenue Cycle Management (EBSRCM) platform, and automated receipt and bank teller obtained.
Good enough. The government of Aregbesola is a government of bio-metrics in all matters and in all circumstances. The government is not inhibited by inadequate availability of data and documented information on the extant buildings in the state. In fact, cadastral maps of properties/buildings in Osun are available on finger-tips, considered requisite for LUC identification and assessment. Neither is Aregbesola stifled by inadequate manpower situation germane to the operational efficacy of LUC. Rather, he’s brimful of emulsifiers for the evaluation of the effectiveness of LUC with no encumbrances to Osun economy.
The expedient LUC could be expanded to inaugurate site value taxation, vacant land taxation and property transfer taxation on land development to induce land use effect, and importantly as revenue raising measure. Such expanded LUC will publicly recover land value increase or land betterment value and influence better planning of land development in the Osun.
The LUC is a must tax to pay.

• OLUSESI is Assistant Director, Directorate of Publicity, Research & Strategy, All Progressives Congress (APC) State of Osun.

Cooperative Societies in the State of Osun have been charged to be tools for economic development and wealth creation in the State.  

This charge was given by the Special Adviser on Cooperative Matters, Ministry of Commerce, Industries and Cooperatives, Mr Gbenga Awosode while addressing Cooperative societies at the Zonal meeting held in Ikirun and Osogbo.
In his remarks, Mr. Awosode said the purpose of the meeting was to have an interactive session with stakeholders to address issues affecting cooperative societies and to bridge the gap between the Ministry and the societies.
He stated that the State Government recognises the importance of Cooperative societies and has initiated various empowerment programmes in line with its six-point integral action plan to banish poverty and unemployment in the State.
Awosode explained that in order to benefit from the empowerment programmes, there would be revalidation of certificate of cooperative societies to know those that are functioning and those who are not in the State.
He added, “Cooperative societies that refused to comply with the revalidation exercise would not benefit from government empowerment schemes.
The Special Adviser reassured the societies that the revalidation exercise is not a means to collect tax but as a way of sensitising people to their civic obligations.

The Executive Secretary, Ayedaade Local Government Council area of the State of Osun, Mr. Bashir Oduwole has warned teachers as well as pupils to take proper care of government’s properties in their various schools.

He gave the warning during his visit to some public elementary schools in the Council Area recently.
The schools visited included Olufi Government Middle School, Gbongan; St. David’s Mega High School, Ode-Omu, and Baptist Middle School, Ode Omu; St. Michael’s Government Elementary School, Ode-Omu, and Muslim Middle School, Ode-Omu.
In a statement by the Information Officer of the Local Government, Mrs. Khadija Amusan, the monitoring exercise also afforded the ES the opportunity to call on parents to make good use of the Open Day to visit and assess their children performance in the school.
The council boss stressed that the Open Day is designated worldwide to afford parents the opportunity to ask questions about the attitude of their children or wards, behaviour and general comportment in school.
Oduwole commended Governor Rauf Aregbesola for the initiative and promises to ensure that the standard of education is elevated across all the local governments of the state.
The ES then appreciated the government of the state for the computer systems introduced into schools to aid pupils’ knowledge about Information and Communication Technology (ICT).
The Open Day adopted into the state’s curriculum by the government through the Ministry of Education is a window which allows all parents and guardians to visit schools during session to ascertain the level of performance and attendance of their children/wards in school.
The council boss was accompanied on the tour by his cabinet members which include, the Council Manager, Alhaji Yinus Akande; Head of Administration Department, Mr. Odebode Adesayo; Head of Finance Department, Mr. Afolabi Kehinde; Auditor, Alhaji Mustafa Mutair among others.