The Deputy Governor of the State of Osun who doubles as the state Commissioner for Education, Mrs. Titilayo Laoye-Tomori, has reaffirmed determination and commitment of the present administration in the state to provide functional and qualitative education to citizens and residents of the state.
Mrs. Laoye-Tomori stated this after receiving on behalf of the state government, a cheque of N500,000 presented by the LASACO Insurance Plc led by its Managing Director, Mr. Olusola Ladipo Ajayi, in support of the state’s school feeding programme of the Aregbesola administration, O’MEAL, held at the state government house, Osogbo, the state capital.
The deputy governor said records available to the administration of Governor Rauf Aregbesola at its inception in October 2010 stated that only three per cent of secondary school students from schools in the state qualified for matriculation into the university.
She said ways to correct the anomaly and other rots found in the state’s education sector led the state government to convey an education summit for stakeholders in the education sector in February 2011.
According to her, the sector has been repositioned and improved tremendously as more than 43 per cent of students who finished from public schools in the state are now qualified for matriculation into universities of their choice. Mrs. Laoye-Tomori said the state’s school feeding programme is in line with the United Nations Education Scientific Cultural Organization ‘s (UNESCO) recommendation, noting that the programme has led to an increase in school enrolment geometrically as the state now has the highest number of elementary school enrolment in the country.
Mrs. Laoye-Tomori disclosed that the present administration committed over N3.6 billion to O’MEAL programme annually, adding that commercial activities of the state have witnessed a lot of transformation following the introduction of the O’MEAL programme as over 1,000 female farmers, 1,500 farmers and over 3,000 food vendors have been empowered through O’MEAL.
Recommending the programme to other states in the federation to curb the menace of out -of -school children, the state deputy governor appealed to other wealthy Nigerians and corporate organisations to partner with the state government in the people-oriented programme, saying the Aregbesola led administration is poised at taking education to the next level in the state of Osun.
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Mr Peter Babalola, the Chairman of  Osun Local Government Service Commission,  on Monday urged  technical  officers in local councils  to give priority to maintenance of government’s infrastructure.

Babalola, who made the plea in Osogbo at the opening of a workshop on efficient maintenance culture, said this  would sustain government’s assets.

He said: “ If all saddled with maintenance of equipment see themselves as crucial to the efficiency of such implements, they would be more dedicated.

‘’No matter the amount of money committed to acquisition of capital assets and infrastructure, if not properly maintained, it will result in waste of resources.

‘’Many Nigerian industries have become comatose due to lack of commitment to maintenance needs.

“ It is wrong for employees not to be concerned about the state of tools provided by the employers.

‘’Technical and maintenance officers in the employment of the commission in Osun are enjoined to have a change of attitude by keeping all facilities safe from encumbrances and neglect.’’

“When infrastructural facilities are maintained, they tend to have a longer life span while people enjoy and benefit immensely from such facilities.

“ With the rate at which the government is constructing roads and putting up other capital intensive infrastructure, the issue of maintenance must be properly addressed,’’ he added.

(NAN)

Download inspiring Quotes from the Governor of the State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola. Today’s Quote is focused on the impact of the O’MEALS Project. Visit the website at www.osun.gov.ng  or Twitter @stateofosun for more updates on the State of Osun and its projects.

Osun government spends more than N3 billion annually on its home-grown elementary school feeding programme launched by the Federal Government in 2005, Gov. Rauf Aregbesola has said.

Aregbesola made this known during a high level technical meeting of the Home Grown School Feeding Programme in Abuja on Monday.

He said N12.5 million was being expended on the programme on a daily basis, adding that more than N600 million was spent on about 3,000 community caterers as transportation fare to the various schools.

The governor was at the event to share the experience of his state on the programme and how it could be replicated at the national level.

He said the programme had contributed to increased enrolment of children at the basic level.

He said the programme, christened `O’MEALS’ by the government, had also led to improvement of the health status of the pupils and had reduced incidences of school absenteeism among others.

The programme is consistent with our goals of banishing hunger, creating work and wealth, creating functional education, restoring healthy living and engendering communal peace and progress.

The passion, prudence and seriousness we deployed to the implementation of the O’MEALS have earned us the support of the London-based Partnership for Child Development (PCD).

“Through this fruitful collaboration, we have received technical assistance in redesigning the school feeding programme through endorsement of the Transition Strategy Plan Document,” he said.

The governor noted that with the state enrolment figure of almost 253,000, O’MEALS is one programme that is worthy of every naira and kobo that had gone into it.

In a welcome address, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education, Dr MacJohn Nwaobiala, said Nigeria was a signatory to the Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP).

Nwaobiala said the CAADP, endorsed in 2003 was aimed at promoting the right of the African Child to education, food, freedom from hunger.

He added that it was also aimed at boosting agricultural productivity at the grassroots to improve the income of small holder farmers.

He said that convening of the meeting was timely as it would afford stakeholders the opportunity to identify the challenges militating against the effective implementation of the school feeding programme.

The Executive Director of PCD, Dr Lesley Drake, said the HGSFP was gaining prominence and contributing to the achievement of the MDG Goal 1 to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.

“The programme is a multi sectoral partnership by stakeholders in education, health and agricultural sectors to support governments’ efforts to deliver cost-effective school feeding programmes using locally grown food by small holder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa.’’ he said.

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Photos from the Technical Workshop on Home grown School Feeding programmes where Governor Aregbesola Delivered A Lecture. Event held at Transcorp Hilton hotels Abuja on Monday 19-05-2014.

From Right -Guest Lecturer/Governor State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf
Aregbesola; Executive Director, Partnership for Child Development
(PCD), Lesley Draice, Former Governor State of Osun, Prince Olagunsoye
Oyinlola and World Bank Representative, Prof. Don Bundy at the
Technical Workshop on Home grown School Feeding programmes, at
Transcorp Hilton hotels Abuja on Monday
19-05-2014.

Guest Lecturer/Governor State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola(middle);
Executive Director, Partnership for Child Development (PCD), Lesley
Draice (2nd right) Permanent Secretary Federal Ministry of Education,
Dr. Macjohn Nwaobiala (right), World Bank Representative, Prof. Don
Bundy(2nd left) and Representative of Kano State Governor,
Commissioner for education, Alhaji Tajudeen Ganbo at the Technical
Workshop on Home Grown School Feeding programmes, at Transcorp Hilton hotels Abuja on Monday 19-05-2014.

From right – Guest Lecturer/Governor State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf
Aregbesola; Executive Director, Partnership for Child Development
(PCD), Lesley Draice and World
Bank Representative, Prof. Don Bundy at the Technical Workshop on Home
grown School Feeding programmes at Transcorp Hilton hotels Abuja on
Monday 19-05-2014.

Guest Lecturer/Governor State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola(5th
left); Executive Director, Partnership for Child Development (PCD),
Lesley Draice(6thright), Representative of Kano State Governor,
Commissioner for education, Alhaji Tajudeen Ganbo(5th right), World
Bank Representative, Prof. Don Bundy(4th right) Permanent Secretary
Federal Ministry of Education, Dr. Macjohn Nwaobiala(3rd right) and
others at the Technical Workshop on Home grown School Feeding
programmes at Transcorp Hilton hotels Abuja on Monday 19-05-2014.

From right –Board member, Partnership for Child Development (PCD),Uwem
Esist, Guest Lecturer/Governor State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, Executive Director, Partnership for Child Development (PCD), Lesley Draice, Former
Governor State of Osun, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola and World Bank
Representative, Prof. Don Bundy at the Technical Workshop on Home
grown School Feeding programmes at Transcorp Hilton hotels Abuja on
Monday 19-05-2014.

ADDRESS DELIVERED BY THE GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF OSUN, OGBENI RAUF AREGBESOLA. AT THE HIGH-LEVEL TECHNICAL MEETING ON HOME-GROWN SCHOOL FEEDING AND HEALTH PROGRAMME, HELD AT TRANSCORP HILTON HOTEL, ABUJA, ON MONDAY MAY 19, 2014
It is with genuine warmness of the heart that I stand here today to share our experience on the Osun Elementary School Feeding and Health Programme, which we christened O’MEALS.
The O’MEALS, I must say, has come a long way. The progress we have made and the achievements we have recorded in the State of Osun is on the one hand a clear testimony to what can be gained from multi-layered and multi-level coordination. It is, on the other hand, an affirmation of the benefit of political vision and passion.
The O’MEALS had its humble beginning in the inclusion byAfrican Governments of locally-sourced school feeding programmes in the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) in 2003.
The same year also witnessed the launch of an initiative by theNew Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), along with the World Food Programme (WFP) and the Millennium Hunger Task Force. The initiative involved ‘a pilot Home Grown School Feeding and Health Programme (HGSFHP) designed to link school feeding to agricultural development through the purchase and use of locally and domestically produced food’.
Our country, Nigeria, happened to be one of the 12 pilot countries invited to implement the programme. As a result, the Federal Government came up with the Universal Basic Education (UBE) Act in 2004, which provided the enabling legislative backing for the execution of the Home Grown School Feeding and Health Programme (HGSFHP).
The Federal Ministry of Education selected 13 states of the federation, including the Federal Capital Territory (Abuja), to begin a phased-pilot implementation of the programme. Osun was fortunately among the selected states.
Thus the pilot primary school feeding programme in our state began as Osun State Home Grown School Feeding and Health Programme in May 2006. However, on our assumption of office in November 2010, we undertook a comprehensive review of the programme and re-launched it as O’MEALS on April 30, 2012. We immediately began its execution across all the 1,375 Elementary Schools in Osun.
The home grown feeding programme for school pupils has the advantage of being consistent with our own government’s goals – of banishing poverty, banishing hunger, creating work and wealth, creating functional education, restoring healthy living and engendering communal peace and progress.
Hence, we integrated it within the larger context of our overall development programme implementation. The objectives behind O’MEALS are: improvement of the nutrition and health of our school children; increase in school enrolment, retention and completion; and reduction of poverty and stimulation of small and medium scale enterprises development.
Towards these ends, experts were consulted to draw up suitable school-day menu while 3007 community caterers were employed to provide the meals on a daily basis. The days and menu are as follows:

• MONDAY (YAM with FISH STEW and ORANGE);
• TUESDAYS (RICE and BEANS with CHICKEN and ORANGE);
• WEDNESDAYS        (BEANS PORRIDGE and BREAD with WHOLE EGG and BANANA);
• THURSDAYS   (RICE with EGUSI-GARNISHED VEGETABLE SOUP with CHICKEN and BANANA);
• FRIDAYS (COCOYAM PORRIDGE with VEGETABLE SOUP and BEEF, with A SLICE OF PAWPAW).

The community caterers were organised into 124 functional Cooperative Investment and Credit Societies (CICS) in order to benefit fully from bulk procurement and allied services. Necessary operational funds are then transferred to the personal bank accounts of each caterer through their CICS.
The account from which this funding emanates is secure because it is not accessible through issuance of bank cheques. Funds can only be transferred from the account into the caterers’ and other contractors’ accounts by approved mandates.
The caterers receive funds in advance concerning meals to be prepared for school pupils within a two-week period (i.e. 10 school days). For organisational purpose, the number of pupils assigned to each caterer varies and so is the fund allocated.
The caterers each benefit from a government facilitated interest-free loan of N41,500 for the acquisition of their cooking and other kitchen utensils. The loan repayment period is spread over 36 months, with N1,152.78kobo deducted from their account every month. Already, our community caterers have each repaid a third of their loans.
I must also note that the community caterers are provided free-of-charge with a pair of uniforms (comprising gowns, caps and aprons) by the State Government of Osun at a cost of N11.6 million to the government.
The financial implication of feeding our Elementary school pupils is the expenditure of N12.7 million every school day, while the sum of N601,400 is paid out to the 3007 community caterers as transport fares on a daily basis. The financial expenditure for the O’MEALS is shared between the State Government and the constituting local government councils on a 40-60 per cent ratio respectively.
For effective implementation, the O’MEALS Programme is monitored at various levels. At one level, there are Planning Officers within the Local Government Education Authority office who are responsible for carrying out the implementation logistics. They act as liaison between the O’MEALS Office and the community caterers.
There are also the Local Inspectors of Education who also operate at the local government authority level. Then, there are the Independent Monitors who are drawn from the ranks of retired civil servants, Parent Teachers Association and community leaders. The O’MEALS Secretariat staff act as coordinators for the monitors.
In keeping with our Backward Integration policy, the O’MEALS has an input supply chain that is linked to our various agricultural development projects. Consequently, our OFOPS (Osun Fisheries Outgrowers Production Scheme) provide the catfish used for the school feeding programme.
The same applies to eggs, chickens, and cocoyam which also serves as material input for the feeding programme. Indeed, our administration initiated a ‘Cocoyam Rebirth Programme’, which is a major project under the direct supervision of the Osun Deputy Governor.
The Cocoyam Rebirth Programme scheme was designed with the aim of directly reaching the grassroots and practicing farming communities on how to improve and enhance cocoyam production, utilisation and marketing in the state. The ultimate objective is to revitalise cocoyam cultivation, with a view to using it on the O’MEALS menu.
In view of this, a training session was conducted for state and local government extension workers on cocoyam utilisation, production, marketing and post-harvest handling. The training programme, held on June 28, 2012, was attended by 234 extension workers.
A similar training programme was conducted for 2,000 farmers on August 8, 2012 across all the nine Federal Constituencies in the state. In the end, 332 Osun Youth Empowerment Scheme cadets, one from each of the electoral wards in the state, were selected as Cocoyam Off-takers for the rebirth programme.
The passion, prudence and seriousness we deployed to the implementation of the O’MEALS has earned us the worthy support and partnership of the London-based Partnership for Child Development (PCD).
Through this fruitful collaboration, we have received technical assistance in redesigning the school feeding programme through endorsement of the Transition Strategy Plan Document. The PCD also facilitated a Study Visit for four officers from O’MEALS Secretariat, along with a member of House of Assembly, to Accra in September 2013 to see the Ghana School Feeding Programme.
In the same vein, the PCD has facilitated technical assistance in collaboration with CHI Pharmaceuticals and Osun State Government on School Health and Nutrition (SHN) activities in public Elementary schools, especially regarding deworming of school pupils.
It is also, among other assistance programme, helping in the production of a programme document to better guide the implementation of the programme, as well as the appointment of a consultant to facilitate the development of Monitoring and Evaluation System for O’MEALS Programme.
The introduction and sustenance of the O’MEALS Programme has enabled us to achieve many of our development objectives. These include among others: Increased enrolment of pupils in our Elementary schools. To be sure, within the first five weeks of our introduction of the O’MEALS, elementary school enrolment shot up by 38,935 pupils.
Today, Osun has the highest Elementary school enrolment in Nigeria, second only to Niger State, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. This has had the implication of increasing our annual expenditure on O’MEALS to about N3 billion. And this does not include staff salary.
The programme has likewise improved the health status of our school pupils benefiting from the programme. It has drastically reduced the incidence of school absenteeism in comparison with the pre-O’MEALS period.
As a result of the O’MEALS, the production capacities of the farmer-suppliers of farm produce has been boosted, with corresponding increased prosperity for smallholder farmers.
The multiplier effects of the economic and material empowerment of different segment of society, consequent upon the implementation of O’MEALS, has had a redounding impact on the lives of our people and economy of Osun.
The O’MEALS is thus one programme that is worthy of every naira and kobo that had gone into it.
I thank you all for giving me your valuable time.

THE last 40 months of Governor Rauf Aregbesola’s administration in Osun State have indisputably been the most eventful in its 19-year history – at least in terms of developmental strides.
It is now crystal clear from the Osun example that the economic progress and development of any state are largely functions of the vision, will and ingenuity of the leadership. Osun State used to be rated among the backwaters of the Nigerian economy. The belief was that the state was inherently disadvantaged and thus incapable of making any major economic leap forward.
For one, Osun is 34th of the 36 states in terms of statutory allocation from the Federation Account. Again, the state’s poor economic profile limits the capacity to generate substantial revenue through taxes. Successive administrations had thus confined their vision and ambition within the limits of the paltry federal allocation and an internally generated revenue of approximately N300 million monthly. It is thus not surprising that the Aregbesola administration inherited a state characterised by rising unemployment, gross decay of public infrastructure and unsustainable debt.
However, through the determined and innovative implementation of its Integration Action Plan of banishing poverty, banishing hunger, banishing unemployment, restoring healthy living, promoting functional living and enhancing communal peace and progress, the Aregbesola administration has remarkably turned the Osun story around. For instance, the Osun Youth Employment Scheme (OYES) has created 40,000 jobs and injects N200 million into the local economy monthly. Farmers are being supported to boost food production and enhance food security. The massive road construction undertaken across the state has had a beneficial impact on economic productivity.
In the education sector, ingenious policies have led to the establishment of such enterprises as Omoluabigarments to produce school uniforms on a massive scale and O’meal to provide one meal per day for school children. These ventures generate jobs and stimulate economic activity. Consequently, not only has the state’s internally generated revenue risen to N1.6 billion monthly, Osun State has the lowest poverty index in Nigeria, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
Against this background, the administration could easily have assumed it had reached the limits of its performance and thus rest on its oars. The organisation of the recent two-day Osun Economic Summit, however, indicates that the Aregbesola government is determined to raise the benchmark of performance even higher. Tagged ‘OrisunAje’, the theme of the summit was ‘Crux of Osun Economic Developmental Master Plan: Analysing Radical Paradigm Shift’. The summit provided a forum for critical stakeholders in the state – civil society organisations, trade unions, cottage industry owners, community-based organisations and key financial institutions – to appraise the performance of the Aregbesola administration, deliberate on ways of improving current gains as well as identify new potentials and opportunities that could be explored to further uplift the state.
It is noteworthy that the summit was initiated and driven by an Osogbo-based Non-Governmental Organisation, the Peoples Welfare League (PWL), thus giving it the requisite independence to objectively assess the performance of the administration as well as identify its strengths and weaknesses. Equally significant in this respect was Aregbesola’s charge to participants in his opening address not to be patronising of his government but to critically and dispassionately analyse its policies and programmes. It is of course obvious that this is the only way that the summit can be useful in adding value to governance in the state as well as justify the resources committed to it.
We urge the state government to borrow a leaf from Lagos and institutionalise the summit as a critical and objective partner in achieving purpose-driven and qualitative governance. Above all, it must ensure that the summit does not end as a talk shop; its recommendations must not gather dust in government shelves as most other summits, they must be utilised for the development of the state.

Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun state yesterday described the activities of Boko Haram as a misguided mission which has no basis in Islamic religion and the teachings of Prophet Mohammed.
He said the campaign of the group “against education and female involvement is totally misplaced”.
“It is purely a misguided mission and must be stoutly countered with all gravitas. The group itself must be pulverised because of the sorrow it causes in homes and the privation it makes some children to suffer with respect to education”, Aregbesola said.
He stated this in a lecture at the 10th Mosobalaje Oyawoye Endowment lecture organised by the Faculties of Life and Physical Sciences, University of Ilorin. The governor was represented by his Special Adviser on Innovation, Science and Technology, Eng. Azeez Ajayi.
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The State of Osun House Committee on Education, Science and Technology has charged all stakeholders in the state education sector to ensure the smooth running of all schools in the state.

Chairman of the Committee, Folorunso Bamisayemi, who spoke on behalf of the members, gave the advice while hosting the Permanent Secretary and the management of the Ministry of Education including the Tutor-General representing  the three senatorial districts of the state.

He said the welfare of teachers, pupils and even the stakeholders cannot be compromised, saying the issue of welfare is germane since education remains the bedrock of all forms of development in the world.

On teachers transfer, the chairman stated that the newly recruited teachers have to start their service at the rural areas to solve the problem of lack of teachers in the rural areas in line with the policy of the present administration.

While urging the education authorities to carry along the committee, he said the committee is essentially put in place to assist and move education forward in the state.

Also, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Mr. Lawrence Oyeniran, had said that the ministry had been working hard to move education forward in the state.

The Tutor-General in charge of Osun West Senatorial District, Mr. Oyebamiji Adisa, who spoke on behalf of his colleagues, said they have been meeting the school heads regularly with the aim of charting ways of improving the education sector in the state.

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