The Osun Osogbo Festival is celebrated yearly in the month of August and attracts thou­sands of Osun worshippers and spectators from far and near. The stage is set for the 2015 edition of the cultural fiesta.
The 2015 Osun Osogbo Festival will be celebrated amid fanfare when the grand finale holds Friday, Au­gust 21. This was disclosed by the Chief Festival Consultant, and the Managing Director of INFOGEM, Mr Ayo Olumoko at the Festival Programme Unveiling which held at the Institute of Directors Nigeria (IoD) office situated at 53, Glover Road Ikoyi, Lagos.
Osun Osogbo Festival is a period of stocktaking and assemblage of all sons and daughters of Osogbo land, and most especially, Yoruba speaking people, both in Nigeria and in the Diaspora.
Olumoko, while briefing the media, expressed that various sponsors who have been co-opted in the celebration of the Festival are gearing up to make the occasion an eventful and memorable one.
He said the cultural festival, which is 600 years old, has a two-week programme, which commences with the traditional cleansing of the town called ‘IWOPOPO’ which is followed by the lightening of the 642-year-old points lamp three days after called ‘OLOJUMERINDINLOGUN’.
According to him, this will be followed by ‘IBORIADE’ four days after, which is the assemblage of all the crowns of the past rulers for the blessings, adding that the Festival’s grand finale will showcase the cultural procession of the people to the Osun Groove.
Olumoko disclosed that the Osun Groove was enlisted officially as a World Heritage Site by United Nations Educa­tional Scientific and Cultural Organiza­tion (UNESCO) in Durban, South Africa on July 15, 2005.
He said to get the UNESCO attention, the National Museum, Federal Govern­ment and many others had to be drafted and co-opted into the Festival, as the en­dorsement of IoD has also been secured.
He added that to gain the internation­al prominence, the INFOGEM came in as the official consultant of the Festival in 2002, and since the recognition by the UNESCO, the Festival has gained inter­national prominence the world over, as the Festival Programme Unveiling keeps being moved from one venue to the other.
Olumoko said further that in a couple of months to come, OsunOsogbo Festival will be listed on the Nigerian Stock Ex­change (NSE). He explained that the rea­son the festival will be listing on the NSE is because it (the Festival) is consistent, a Nigerian product which generates rev­enue, and which other festivals look up to as a yardstick to develop. “If our cultures are well developed, our IGR will grow, tourists will be attracted and by this we will have more players,” says he.
Present at the Festival Programme Unveiling are the representative of His Royal Majesty, Oba Jimoh Oyetunji Ola­nipekun, Larooye 11, the Ataoja of Os­ogbo land, the Otun Eesa of Osogbo land, Chief MoshoodAdeyemiAremu, the Olo­ri and Chairperson Women Development Ataoja Palace, Mrs Jelilat Oyetunji, the President/Chairman of Council Insti­tute of Directors Nigeria (IoD), Mr Yemi Akeju,Senior Brand Manager, Seaman, Mr Olayinka Amuwo and Marketing Manager, KASAPREKO, Mr Peter Ad­ekho and the Corporate Communication Manager, Mr Patrick Olowokemi.
Speaking on the sponsors, Olumoko said the Festival always associates with sponsors of proven record and brands that are consistent. The selected sponsors for this year are the Nigeria premiere brewery, Nigerian Brewery Plc (Golberg brand) for the third year running, Grand Oak Ltd (Seaman’s Schnapps, Royale), KASAPREKO (Alomo Bitters), IoD and UNESCO among others.
Some of these sponsors while respond­ing at the forum expressed that they will all be available to add glamour to the oc­casion with the presence of their brands. In the words of the Senior Brand Man­ager, Seaman, Amuwo, “Seaman will be at the groove to be part and parcel of the blessing that the people of Osun will par­take of”, while the Marketing Manager, KASAPREKO, Adekho, said his organi­zation will bring “Alomo Bitters” to the event, as the Corporate Communication Manager, Nigerian Brewery Plc Olo­wokemi, expressed that his organization will do a lot to uplift the town of Osogbo with exiting communication materials. “We will create a beer village in Osogbo, involve in entertainment and increase trade transaction at the village to impact positively on the entire Osogbo people,” he said. The President of Council IoD, Mr Yemi Akeju expressed that IoD will always identify with the Festival.
The origin of Osun Osogbo Festival can be traced to the legendary encoun­ter between the early settlers/founders of Osogbo with OsunOsogbo deity. In about 1370 AD, the founder of Osogbo, Oba Gbadewolu Larooye and the great hunter Olutimehin settled in the sacred Osun forest to establish the kingdom and actualize a pact of association and togetherness with the River Osun deity.
The festival is to retain the African and traditional heritage of the Osogbo people. Speaking on the event, Seun Akintola an indigene of Ososgbo lauded the organizers for their contribution to the festival. He said “the festival is one that brings to bear the cultural pride and traditional legacy of the Osogbo people. In the age of globalization, so many peo­ple have lost their communal identities due to lack of preservation of cultures and traditions that will always appeal to our uniqueness as Nigerians from differ­ent traditional societies. It has become essential to keep the momentum of this kind of traditional festival in order to preserve our unique identities and still maintain our affinity to the values and traditions of our ancestors”.
Another person Mr Kenneth Ojoh a scholar in African Studies stressed on the importance of Osun Osogbo Festival stressing that the festival is a big legacy and inheritance to Africans in the face of what he termed as “the extinction of African Cultures”. He cited example Oriental countries that are great today because they refused to be westernized. He said “China today is great because they refused to dispose their cultural uniqueness. There are other issues that have made them great but the preserva­tion of their culture is one of the out­standing reasons”.
The festival is one of celebration, tra­ditional cleansing of the city and cultur­al reunion of the people with their ances­tors and founding fathers of the Osogbo Kingdom.
NATIONAL MIRROR

Prince Dotun Babayemi is a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun State. In this interview, he says, despite the challenges the state is facing, it is a model for future generation of good governance.
As a politician and entrepreneur, what are you doing to boost the economy of Osun State?
We have started the process and it is going to be a continuous exercise. What drew me to politics was the style of governance l saw in Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola in the first two years that he became the governor of Osun State. He came as a crusader who has the knack to serve, the type that we witnessed in the early 60s. Not looking at the state as it is but as it can be in the future. When the late Obafemi Awolowo in the 60s introduced free education, a lot of critics thought the policy cannot work, but look at the benefits today and where it has put the former Western Region.
That was what attracted me home that something unique is happening here and wanted to be part of it. Apart from interfacing with organization within Nigeria, we are working with the government to see how we can bring investors to the state to open her economic potentials which are all over. One of the core policies of the state is to make it the food basket of the country. We have the green land and all what it takes to make this a reality.
Action has been taken to that effect about 80 per cent of the rural areas have been  linked up with the state capital through  road net work where food has been transported from Oshogbo to Lagos and other states. What we are seeing is the gradual civil servant economy to that of agro-based economy. Since the Federal Government has said that the country is now ready to exploit the country’s natural resources, Our state has a lot of gold that can be exploited. We are going to collaborate with the Federal government to aggressively pursue those natural resources.  In terms of employment our outfit has engaged significantly the people of the state. We queued into the programme of the state by providing employment for the youths.
Are you comfortable with what is going on in the National Assembly? What is the way out?
No, The APC members in the House should look back and be conscious of where they are coming from. They did not get to the House in a vacuum; the constitution provided that you must run under a party therefore the supremacy of the party should be sacrosanct. Therefore since you are representing the party in the house you must follow the rules and guidelines of the party. The decision of the party is supreme and should be adherent to and should be respected. Our members should realize that service to humanity is one of the cardinal goals of APC; therefore they should be guided on this so that the nation can be moved forward.
What we have seen in the National Assembly in the recent time is that some members have allowed personal ambition to override the goals and objective of the party on whose back they all rode to the National Assembly. Though all that happened was still in the purview of the law, but morally it may not, as a representative of the people, they should lead by example. They should let the past belong to the past and sit down to put in place laws that will alleviate poverty in the country and let the people see in them that they are actual  representative of the people.
It is also important that the party that gave the platform of their existence in the Assembly should be respected in the future, this is critical so that they will remain focus and promises they made to the people would be actualized. When member strained out of line, the consequences of such action if un attended to, can cause anarchy. It is better that member should not stray out of the rule of the agreed norms; otherwise it is the beginning of the end for such a union.
What do you think should be the priority of the APC members in the National Assembly?
The first step they should take is that they should retrace their step back to the party and conform to its wishes. When a child falls, he look  at the front but when an elders falls, he looks back, the elders that looks back wanted to know what brought him down. They should do likewise. It is necessary that we should not forget where we are coming from. For 16 years that the PDP are in the saddle of power, the APC has been toiling all over to provide a credible alternative to the miss-governance of the past. That we have the alternative programme that can restore the lost hope of Nigerians and take care of their basic needs. That the university students would no longer stay at home unnecessarily due to lack of job to do after graduation. Now that we have the reality coming up, we should not buddle the opportunity. Some people toiled night and day to get us to where we are, therefore we should not derail from our known norms and value as a political party with progressive inclination.
Your critics said you are very slow in action which is not expected of a progressive, what is your take on this?
What we have seen in the last 16 years was a nick-jack reaction to situation, no strategy no cohesion and any form of articulation. Everything done was looked from their selfish and personal pocket interest therefore that was why a lot of rot was inherited by APC. A case in point is the recent happening when Ni.2 b was withdrawn from the nation’s purse with impunity. The government at the centre now is completely different from what it used to be, it is no longer business as usual.
Since our campaign days, we have put in place a strategic policy that will fall in place as we execute our programme. We are starting on security and corruption; we have to look at what is happening in the space of five weeks compared with what happened in the last five year.  In case of corruption, you can see how EFCC has been active in the last few weeks, unlike in the past. As we speak three governors have been charged to court, we did not see any of this those years ago.
For many years there was different kind of impunity, but now there is a wakeup call that the music has changed, likewise the dancing step. Accountability is now the watch word, there is always a tomorrow unlike in the past. For the first time on the issue of security, there is a concerted effort with collaborations with other likes mind in the sub- Africa to curb the insurgence of Boko Haram.  The money that suppose to go to the army as a driving forces in the past goes to private purse, but today things have changed. In terms of economy, we voted for a president that is focused, has integrity and know what to do.
The recent bail out to some states when they could not pay their workers salaries is a testimony that the president was not comfortable to see Nigerians workers in agony over accumulated un- paid salaries arrears. This has never happened in the last 16 years. Aside this we are now looking at viable economic impetus that can drive the industry. The President has announced that he is looking at textile, mining and steel industries to create employment opportunity. These industries are viable if you go back a bit into our history before the tenure of PDP. The best textile was made in Nigeria with good value chain that created a lot of opportunities. This government will take the country to this level once again.
THE NATION

Attempt by any group or persons to use the safety of Justice Folahanmi Oloyede as a strategy to throw Osun State into chaos would be futile, the state’s All Progressives Congress (APC) said yesterday.
It explained that from the first day that the state government became aware of judge’s petition for the governor’s impeachment, special security arrangements were provided to prevent anything untoward happening to her.
The party, which spoke in a statement by its spokesman, Kunle Oyatomi, said media campaigns alleging danger or insecurity to the life of Justice Oloyede were aimed at blackmailing the Governor Rauf Aregbesola administration.
The party said: “Unknown to the sponsors of this wicked campaigns of calumny, right from day one that Justice Oloyede submitted her petition, the government had taken a proactive measure by alerting the head of the courts in Osun, Chief Justice Adepele Ojo and security agencies, including the police and the Department of State Services (DSS), to provide adequate and enhanced security around the person and residence of Justice Oloyede.
“Justice Oloyede herself cannot deny the fact of this enhanced security around her person and residence up till now.”
The statement added that Aregbesola took the precautionary measure, “bearing in mind what opponents of his administration were capable of orchestrating with the life of Justice Oloyede”.
It added: “This is because of the antecedents of the sponsors of this inexplicable and unnecessary tension in our state that they might want to use the opportunity of her petition against the governor to unduly stoke crisis in the state.
“It is, therefore, worrisome that several weeks after this had happened, the scallywags are still pursuing their totally untenable subversion of the popular will by campaigning on the pages of newspapers, a threat that never existed, except in their weird imagination and criminal intentions.”
The APC called on the public to be wary of the activities of those plotting to throw the state into chaos, asking the security agencies to be alert.
“This is to alert members of the public and all security agencies of the criminal intentions of the sponsors of these orchestrated campaigns to prevent our peaceful state from being plunged into needless anarchy.
“Osun has been peaceful and remains so and any impression of tension or anarchy being created is just a manifestation of the evil plots of those who are in desperate pursuit of an agenda to plunge the state into crisis,” the statement said.
THE NATION

Two days after Valentine’s Day (February 14, 2014) that was some 17 moths ago, Governor Rauf Aregbesola in a front page interview on Vanguard Newspaper, alerted warned the Nigerian public that the Jonathan’s Administration had declared an economic war on Nigerians, but like a prophet scorned, GEJ and the PDP ignored his timely warning.
The story by Nduka Chiejina, Assistant Editor, went on to point out that “Two weeks after sharing tax proceeds from the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas, NLNG, the three tiers of government yesterday shared a larger amount of cash from the Federation Account for the month of June than they did for the month of May 2015.” With all due respects to my colleagues in the media, this is a story for the front page of every newspaper and headline news on electronic media.
For those who have lately rained maledictions on the governors of Nigeria in general, and inexplicably Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola of Osun state in particular, it might give them a pause for reflection on the true state of the nation’s economy.
Without defending the governors against charges of profligate spending, the published allocation for June goes a long way towards sustaining the point that the fault is not entirely their own – irrespective of political affiliation, APGA, APC or PDP.
Incidentally, the fault does not belong entirely to the Federal Government under Jonathan either. A lot of what has happened could be traced to our faulty federal system, as will be explained later and to external factors which are totally out of their control.
The majour source of our current problem lies in the federal government assuming sole responsibility for determining the benchmark of price and volume of crude exports on which the annual budget is based, exclusively reporting the revenue generated without verification by the two other tiers of government, states and Local Governments, and declaring whatever the FG wanted as gross revenue, distributable revenue and Excess Crude revenue. It was a “Father knows best” system which had landed us in trouble.
The states, from the 1970s, when crude became the mainstay of the economy, not just now, had been administered by mentally lazy people – both as Governors and Commissioners of Finance—without exception. Otherwise, why should states which depend on revenue from crude for up to eighty (80) per cent or more of their revenue allow the FG alone to determine all the parameters mentioned above?
Why should the FG alone determine the benchmark, export volume, gross revenue and distributable income without checks and verification by the states? The Governors of states, up till now, had managed their relationships like members of a religious group based on faith in which the leader is totally trusted. “Faith”, meanwhile, “is not belief without proof, but trust without reservation.” (Elton Trueblood, in VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS, p 55).
Unfortunately for the States and LGs, the trust had been totally misplaced as the current controversy over the disappearance of US$2bn from the Excess Crude Account, ECA, had demonstrated. That there is a dispute at all is clear proof that the states and LGs now have started to exercise doubt – which should have been there all along. That no small group of individuals can be trusted with funds belonging to others had been the verdict of history.
That is why there are independent or external auditors to verify what those in charge declare. Politicians, who should know themselves better than others should have been the last people to allow the fraud-prone system foisted on us by the military since 1967 till today to continue. The result, which should take some, but not all, the heat from the governors, is shown below between the allocations to states in 2006 and today 2015.
In July 2006, the aggregate to states was N196.26bn when the price of crude was under US$45 per barrel. In June 2015, nine years after crude oil at US$56-60 per barrel, “Mrs Anastatia Nwaobia, Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Finance, said the sum of N449.68 was shared…the states shared N111.04bn.
For further reference the states’ allocations in July 2006, were as follows: Abia, N3.96bn; Adamawa, N3.53bn; A/Ibom, N14.44; Anambra, N3.61bn; Bauchi, N4.10; Bayelsa, 13.16bn; Benue, N3.8bn; Borno, N4.1bn; C/River, N3.98; Delta, N15.8bn; Ebonyi, N3.0bn; Edo, N4.2bn; Ekiti, N3.08bm; Enugu, N3.3.29; Gombe, N3.15bn; Imo, N4.37bn; Jigawa, N3.92bn; Kaduna, N4.29bn; Kano, N5.55bn; Katsina, N4.30bn; Kebbi, N3.3.59bn; Kogi, N3.5bn; N3.12bn; N5.49bn; Nass, N2.99bn; Niger, N3.90bn; Ogun, N3.45bn; Ondo N6.95bn; Osun, N3.33bn; Oyo, N4.19bn; Plateau, N3.0bn; Rivers, N23.25bn; Sokoto, N3.72bn; Taraba, N3.4bn; Yobe, N3.39bn; Zamfara, N3.53bn.
No state will collect anything close to that now.
The year 2006 was two years after Obasanjo and Okonjo-Iweala imposed the ECA on the states and the Federal Government commenced robbing the states blind. In 2006-7 US$13-16bn was withdrawn from ECA for POWER PROJECT which has not seen the light of day till now. Thus today, states are receiving less than they did in 2006 –long before the minimum wage reached N18,000 per month and exchange rate escalated from N150 to N220 per US$1.
The first question we must answer is, how was it possible that states received N196bn in allocation in 2006, and a mere N111bn in 2015? The astonishing answer is: the Federal governments of Nigeria under Obasanjo, Yar’Adua and Jonathan had increasingly kept more than their own share of the revenue as a result of which the states are being pauperized.
The theft of states and LGs share of aggregate revenue, which started under Obasanjo, reached its peak under Jonathan. Between 2004, when ECA started and today, the states and LGs might have been robbed of close to a trillion naira because they were careless enough to allow the FG to determine everything about crude oil.
Now we are all in trouble as crude prices plummet to US$40 per barrel next year. The only silver lining in the horizon is the fact that we would never again have Okonjo-Iweala and Obasanjo in charge of the national purse.
By Dele Sobowale
SOURCE: VANGUARD NEWSPAPER

Pictures of the Governor State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, the President Ijesa Society Group, Chief Tunde Aluko, and others during the courtesy visit to the Governor, at Government House, Osogbo

Governor State of Osun, 0gbeni Rauf Aregbesola (4th left); Secretary
to Osun State Government, Alhaji Moshood Adeoti (3rd right), President
Ijesa Society Group, Chief Tunde Aluko (3rd left), First Vice
President of Ijesa Society Group, Chief Felix Fagbohungbe (4th right),
Second Vice President, Chief Obafemi Aluko (2nd left), Engr. Ade
Famuboni (right), Members of the Group, Chief Tunde Olojo (right) and
Dr. Niyi Adedeji, during the courtesy visit to the Governor, at
Government House, Osogbo

Governor State of Osun, 0gbeni Rauf Aregbesola and President Ijesa
Society Group, Chief Tunde Aluko, during the courtesy visit to the
Governor, at Government House, Osogbo

Governor State of Osun, 0gbeni Rauf Aregbesola (2nd left); Secretary
to Osun State Government, Alhaji Moshood Adeoti (right), President
Ijesa Society Group, Chief Tunde Aluko (left), First Vice President of
Ijesa Society Group, Chief Felix Fagbohungbe (2nd right), during the
courtesy visit to the Governor, at Government House, Osogbo.

Elite Society, a socio-cultural organisation in Ijesaland, has reiterated its support and confidence in the administration of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola to lead and transform the state for better.
The society representing Ijesa sons and daughters worldwide, described Governor Aregbesola, as a pride to the Yoruba nation going by the numerous developmental initiatives he initiated under his leadership in the state.
The society stated this during a courtesy call to the Governor at the Government House in Osogbo on Tuesday.
The President, Chief Tunde Aluko, described Aregbesola as a torch bearer who has represented Ijeshaland well, saying it was the duty of all well-meaning Ijesa and Osun indigenes to support the administration for the greatness of the state.
He said that, contrary to wrong impressions created by cynics, that Aregbesola’s passion for rapid development of the state informed the level of financial commitment of government to various developments across the state, without jettisoning the welfare of workers.
According to him, “You mean so well for Osun. If you were to develop Osun overnight, you would do it. The only thing that is slowing you down is money,” Chief Aluko stressed.
He expressed optimism that the financial challenges confronting the state would soon be over, adding that the governor was creating a legacy that would outlive him in office.
Addressing the guests, Governor Rauf Aregbesola noted that the settings of towns in Osun which dated back to more than 100 years is the most qualitative across Africa.
He added that every construction and other contracts entered into by government were conducted in the most transparent manner.
Appreciating the visit of the Ijesa elite, the governor described the visit as “huge and significant at a time some people are being sponsored to rubbish our achievements.

With the May 26 Judgement of the Supreme Court that affirmed Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola as the winner of the August 9, 2014 governorship election in Osun, the state’s PDP knew it has come to the end of the road in its long sustained but futile bid to come to power in the state. It therefore had to devise some unconventional means to unseat the governor.
On Sunday June 14, one of the leaders of the party in the state called a meeting of party bigwigs, stakeholders and loyalists at the party’s secretariat for the purpose of repositioning the party for next elections after its brutalisation and crushing defeats in elections since 2011. But to their chagrin, they were told by the frustrated politician to brace up to his plan of action of making the state ungovernable, if they ever hope to win any election in the state.
However, Osun State Security Council got wind of the plans and read the riot act to them on June 19 after its emergency meeting.
The first stage of the plan was to import thugs and hoodlums into the state in the week starting from June 22. These thugs were to unleash mayhem in the name of protesting delay in payment of workers’ salaries and pensions. The ‘protest’ was to be accompanied with killing, looting and arson, both of public and private property. An NGO was formed a week before the rioting to be the arrowhead of the felony in order to give the thugs a façade of legitimacy.
Justice Olamide Folahanmi Oloyede’s petition asking for the impeachment of the governor was to be the second stage of this plot. Coming after the mayhem, destruction and state of insecurity, the petition would have provided a comfortable ground for some of the legislators who had been promised money and positions if they should carry the impeachment through.
When the state security council aborted the subversive protest with its sabre rattling, we though Oloyede’s petition would be shelved too. However, Oloyede went ahead with her petition. If stage two was to ride on the wave of stage one and stage one was aborted, why go ahead with stage two that landed on dry ground without the expected support?
This is because there was stage three designed to give fillip to stage two. Stage three was eventually carried out on Tuesday July 7 but it was stillborn. The ‘protesters’ made up of known PDP members and local leaders, a very tiny section of the retirees on the payroll of an Ife politician (about 50) and sundry thugs (local and imported) had gathered around Ola-Iya junction in Osogbo (The area is a hotbed of progressive activism).
However, Aregbesola, the master tactician and a good student of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu took the wind out of their sail. While going to his office that morning, he turned the trip into a carnival as he slowed his convoy to acknowledge cheers from the people on the route, who trouped out to greet him. Women, men, children, traders, artisans, commercial motorcyclists, just everybody within the vicinity came out to mob his convoy. Some were weeping. Others were praying loudly and openly for him while others were cursing his enemies.
When the convoy reached Ola-Iya, which is a market place, the crowd surrounding him had become tumultuous, swallowing and overwhelming the miserable protesters who had gathered in the place before. Possibly out of fear and or shame, many of them took to their heels on being overwhelmed. And so, Aregbesola rode to the office triumphantly that day, overwhelming and shaming those who thought they could ambush and embarrass him.
To add salt to injury, the story that went to town that day was how Aregbesola rode triumphantly to office and how his enemies put tail between hind legs and fled – ran away as in terror.
Interestingly, while signing a memorandum of understanding with the state government before calling off its industrial action, the state’s NLC denied that its members participated in the farcical protest of July 7, claiming that the charade was politically motivated.
The body of pensioners in the state also claimed that the union did not participate in any protest, that Governor Aregbesola’s administration had treated retirees very well before the financial crisis that engulfed the whole nation, and not Osun alone.
Also, the chairman of the state’s vendors association also signed a statement, denying that his members were attacked by Aregbesola’s supporters.
Lastly, on July 28, Justice Oloyede refused to appear before the house committee set up to investigate her claim. Apparently, she has developed cold feet. There are unconfirmed reports that the state’s Judicial Commission is unhappy about her petition, which has put the judiciary into disrepute. They were shocked to find that a judge displayed open political partisanship, something unheard in the history of the judiciary.
Her not appearing meant her petition is dead and she herself is in trouble. For all practical purposes, therefore, the coup of PDP to remove Governor Aregbesola from office through subterfuge and conspiracy has failed.
The first lesson we must learn from this is that if God is with someone, no matter how formidable his enemies are, he would overcome them and put them to shame.
Secondly, politicians must accept that a democratically elected governor, that is popular with his people and has not committed an impeachable offence, can only be changed through tenure expiration, losing election or by a competent court of law.
Thirdly, a new dawn has come to Nigeria where only values like credibility, integrity and a track record of unblemished public service will commend a candidate to voters.
It is my hope that the defeated candidates of PDP will accept their destiny and try to amend their ways, instead of working to destabilise Osun State. If, with all the support they got from former President Goodluck Jonathan with cash, dogs, masked gunmen and other security operatives, they could not unseat Aregbesola in Osun, what makes them think that they could overthrow him now?
DAILY INDEPENDENT

Members  of Osun Progressive Left  organized a  rally to show support for the government of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola. Comrade Wale Adebisi, the convener, in this interview,  speaks  on contentious issues in the state  and why the governor remains credible.
As a matter of fact, our own rally is to show support for a government constituted by a popular mandate through victory in the election that has been said to be free and fair in all the tribunals up to the supreme court.The rally that is to show that the man is transparent , still credible and has the interest of the labour at heart. At no point as he ever been anti-labour in his policies. Going by the happenings in Osun State, especially the call for the impeachment of the governor, why did you organization organize a rally in support of Governor Rauf Aregbesola?
He has been always ensuring that the interest of labour is uppermost in his government. For instance, since he came into power in 2010 ,for the first time in the history of the state, he gave the workers 10 percent bonus on the basic salary. In the second year,he gave 25 percent and third year he gave 50 percent. Then last year December immediately after the election, he gave 100 percent. This has never happened in the history of the state.
Don’t forget that the governor is a product of popular struggle, labour struggle and he has worked with trade unions, there is no way he would be anti-labour. I want to state that Governor Aregbesola is not being fought by the labour, the anti-Aregbesola rally was sponsored by the opposition led by some hoodlums who claimed to be pensioners.
The governor has increased the pensioners’ money since 2010 so the people can’t say he is anti-labour. The genuine pensioners have never agitated; they want to hide under the issue of non-payment of salary to cause anarchy in the state. We know those who are behind them.
The state of Osun is not the only state that owes salaries, 24 other states owe.    Non-payment of salaries is a national calamity as a result of the past administration mismanagement of the nation’s resources. Why Osun state is single out is because of the vibrancy of the governor and the fact that the state is the political heartbeat of the south west. With kind of politics governor Aregbesola is playing the PDP is going into extinction in the state and that is why the opposition is hiding under non-payment of salaries to foment trouble.    The Centre for Human Rights and Social Justice under the platform in which they organized the rally is not in existence in Osun State. We have the list of the registered coalition group in the state. They don’t even have a secretariat.
The workers in the state have a very good working relationship with the government. If it is not because of the drop in the allocation which has adverse affect on the state. Let me give you the rundown of the allocation as at today.    In January 2015 N 1.25b was released. The original allocation for the state was N4.6b now it has dropped since 2013 because of the ingenuity of the governor    he warehouse the excess crude oil accrued to him that was why the issue was not exposed last year. But in one of his public discourse he had mentioned and raised an alarm that the federal government might be able to sustain the state because there is crisis in the oil market in the world.    In February it was N1.12b, in March it was N624m,in April N466m,in May N2.2m.
If we want to look at the payment of salaries, the payment of salaries is supposed to base on the allocation; you cannot pay outside the allocation. What the state owes the workers is six months by allocation. One has been paid last week, remaining five. By allocation it is months by calendar are 7months. Same thing pensioners by allocation it is seven five months, by    calendar it is eight months. Local government by allocation is four months by calendar it is five months and you cannot pay beyond your allocation. The shortage in the world oil market, for instance Nigeria by OPEC’s quota suppose to be producing 2.6m barrel per day. But on record it 2.1 and former finance minister Ngozi    Okonjo-Iweala      told us about the theft of 400,000 oil barrel per day. The whole issue is now unfolding in NNPC; several monies did not enter into NNPC accounts.    All the 36 states are affected except Lagos because of her IGR base.
Talking about IGR,many have argued that    Governor Aregbesola should have alternative ways of generating revenue  instead of depending on the allocation from the federal government. What would say on this?
We are talking about statutory allocation to the state. People should not look at it as    if the states are begging. What is federal government doing, how many local government are they taking care of. All the states of the federation owns the money. The only thing we should talk about is the management and the lopsidedness in the sharing. There is no true federalism in Nigeria and that is 56.68 percent goes to the federal government and    22.62 to the state    and    the rest    to 774 local govt. What goes to the federal government is too much. People should not say the state should depend on IGR. The federal government does not have the right to hold money and gives at it pleases. The sharing is not regular. The states are even forced to embark on capital projects because of the negligence on the part of the federal government in the states.
The state of Osun is being owed N34b by the federal government; it is enough to pay the workers if the money is released. On the IGR, when Aregbesola came to power in 2010, the IGR he met was N3.6b per year. But it is now N10b apart from the money in Omoluabi savings and loans which he cannot touch because it  is for the generations yet unborn in the state. He is also taking care of the Agba osun with N10,000 permonth,O-meal    252,000 students are being fed and food vendors are hired and they were giving soft loans for empowerment. That is why we have peace in the state because the youths are engaged.
The inauguration of Aregbesola as governor of Osun State signaled a break from the past characterized by gross inefficiency, unfulfilled promises, culture of blackmail, failure of state and circumspect sincerity as he brought on board catalytic ideas that quickly got the state working. Despite the complexity and the technical nature of many of the problems confronting the state, the governor rose above the clouds by taking competent decisions that effectively rescued it from becoming “a war-ravaged territory”. Notably, he grew the state’s Internally Generated Revenues (IGR)    without any increase in tax payable by citizens. Tuition Fees in state-owned tertiary institutions were slashed by close to 30% as well as training and empowerment of over 5,000 youths in Information Technology through the Osun Youth Empowerment Technology (OYESTECH) scheme.
But there is argument in some quarters that the governor should put his helicopter for sale to augment salary payment, what is your view on this?
How much is the helicopter we are talking about? People are just frivolous. And this is just pure politics. Individuals owed private jet in Nigeria. The reason for the chopper is because of the economic situation in the state. When he came into power no banks open in the state between 2008 and 2009. The armed robbery operation in the state was guerrilla like.
Armed robbers operate in broad daylight with explosives and grenades. The chopper can monitor from the area view. Osun is the only state in Nigeria that has 25 armoured tanks. The governor has been saying it at every forum that the helicopter was bought for surveillance. Since he came into power the state has known peace. Governor Aregbesola is a product of popular struggle, we the comrades in the Osun Progressive Left believes that nobody should usurp power through the back door as the opposition is doing. They will be charged for treason because they want to take power by office.
We therefore advised that the police should be on the lookout for those promoting anarchy in the state. They are vilifying the governor because of his political sagacity and ingenuity in governance.
Governor Aregbesola remains a credible and transparent man who is also a lover of his people.          Nigerians should also bear in mind that, at the inception of his administration, Aregbesola’s ‘Freedom for all; Life more abundant’ Integral Policy thrust was clear: banishment of hunger, poverty and unemployment. Others were promotion of functional education, healthy living, communal peace and harmony. So far, his word has been his bond.
There has also been argument that the governor is reckless in his spending?
If Aregbesola was “reckless” by increasing primary school funding grants from N7.4million to N424m a year while Secondary School Basic funding grants rose from N171m to N427m a year, then, he was ‘reckless’ indeed. If the governor was reckless by giving free school uniforms to no fewer than 750,000 pupils and students, with over 3000 tailors trained and empowered to sow school uniforms, then recklessness had better be redefined! If the construction of 74 Primary Health Centres and rehabilitation of 9 hospitals and 12 Comprehensive Health Centres is termed “recklessness”, then, Aregbesola had better continue to be ‘reckless’.
Comrade Adebisi

As part of efforts to generate employment for the people of Osun state, a private tourism investor, Chief Margaret Bolanle Fabiyi, is to collaborate with the Osun state government to develop a world-class tourism resort in Ikirun.
The project, when completed will serve as a one-stop shop for leisure, hospitality, entertainment, shopping, conference and tours and that it will cost billions of naira.
Speaking to journalists in Lagos, Chief Margaret Bolanle Fabiyi, popularly called Webisco, stated that the resort, when completed, apart from being one of the best in Nigeria would also have agricultural component to grow agricultural tourism and residential houses.
The project, she added, would also create room for service providers, a hospital, school, jetty, helipad and filling station among other facilities.
Fabiyi also added that the project would generate revenue for the state as well as address the problem of unemployment by creating jobs for the people of the state in the face of harsh economic situation necessitated by the fall in the global crude oil price at the world market.
She stated that efforts were being made to complete the land acquisition and documentation, adding that the state government should do the needful by showing above average commitment financially and otherwise to birth the resort.
According to her, “We have acquired a 25-square kilometre land in Ikirun, Osun State for the development of a one-stop tourism resort second to none in Nigeria yet. The land was facilitated by His Royal Highness, the Akirun of Ikirun, Oba Rauf Olawale. The resort, when developed will have parks, hospital, school, residential buildings, jetty, filling station, business outlets, conference centre etc. We are working out the modalities and would make an appropriate comment on its update when we have sorted out the grey arrears.”
She said that President Barak Obama would had driven tourism traffic into Nigeria, but that this should not be relied on since it did not happen.
“As we continue to invest our individual efforts in promoting and marketing tourism in our country, we hope that very soon we will begin to reap the dividends. A trip by President Barack Obama, for instance, would drive heavy traffic to this country. Although we will not bank on that, given that his tenure is running fast, we are committed to continuously promoting our country as the home of hospitality in West Africa,” she assured.
Fabiyi disclosed that as part of her effort to open up the country to influx of tourists, a team of travel writers from the United States were expected in the country for the second familiarisation tour that would be organised by her in collaboration with the Federal Government to promote tourism in Nigeria.
“For the FAM Trip, we would get in touch with the facilitators so that we would not be taken unawares when ministers, yet to be appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari, assume duty,” she said.
Webisco, as she is popularly called, stated that she would use WIFWETN, her organisation, to do the needful by liaising with the authorities to ensure that the trip is done to the glory of God and the benefit of every Nigerian.
On the security challenges in the country, she argued that there was no country in the world, be it developed or developing countries without security challenges.
The private investor promised to ensure that the guests are protected during their visit and exposed them only to Nigeria tourism potential, to supply them with limitless information of Nigeria potential, because there was the need to move from tourism potential to prosperity following the fall in the price of oil.
On the Familiarisation Trip (Fam Trip), Fabiyi, said that  because of her background, experience and commitment, she sees  Nigeria’s stabilising democratic governance as good omen to sustain this zeal by organising another Fam Trip.
She stated that this time, about 10 travel writers from the US were planning to come to Nigeria as soon as she and her team were ready, adding that the visit by the writers was expected to  last for 12 days.
She informed that the planned visit by the writers was in partnership with VALinc PR, to compliment what Nigeria tourism writers had been doing and to create a window and a sustainable gateway for the world to see and appreciate our potential.
According to her, “The trip is a deliberate effort to expose top media outlets to travel, vacation and cultural opportunities here and to create a rich itinerary and present to the Americans a balanced package of our endowments. They would like to experience firsthand the old traditional Nigeria, visit local producers of food, art, fashion, culinary, nightlife, entertainment, tourist sites, beaches and historical monuments.”
She continued, “The trip, all other things being equal, will be reciprocated by us, and would also involve a US road show, meetings with appropriate media and business leaders in target areas such as Harlem and Brooklyn in New York, Atlanta Georgia, Washington DC, Chicago, Illinois etc.”
DAILY INDEPENDENT

WAHEED Lawal, a comrade and known activist in Osun has over two decades of pro-democracy activism in the South-West state. He could go on and on to reel out the nitty-gritty of the various pro-democracy and human rights struggles in the recent history of Nigeria, especially as they were organised in the state.
“We know when to organise our people to defend their rights and protect democracy and demand for good governance,” says Lawal in a chat with our correspondent during a recent visit to his office on Station Road, Osogbo, Osun State.
“But in spite of your claim to being a frontline member of the pro-democracy groups in the state, the CSCEO (Coalition of Civil Society for the Emancipation of Osun) appears to have taken the shine off you,” the reporter queried.
The reporter’s observation seemingly drew Lawal’s anger. Looking straight into the reporter’s eyes, he queried: “Who are the people behind the group you just mentioned? They are nothing but a hired group of misguided youths sponsored to blackmail the government of the day.
“You media people in Lagos, Ibadan or Abuja or those reading the newspapers may take the noise they make seriously, but the few people that call themselves the coalition have no relevance here because they have never been known to lead any good cause for our people here.
“Their sudden emergence is attributable to the determination of the opposition elements against the government of the day to ensure the government achieves nothing.”
The conversation between Lawal and our correspondent took place against the background of incessant allegations against the government of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola. At the begining of July this year, the CSCEO began to send press releases to media houses detailing various allegations against the governor.
Apart from accusing the governor of embarking on too many projects which, in its own conclusion, have led the state into many months of unpaid salaries, the coalition has accused the governor and his party of intolerance, alleging that some of the opponents of the governor have come under attacks in recent times.
“But that is part of the blackmail. Call a dog a bad name in order to hang it,” said Semiu Okanlawon, spokesman of the Aregbesola government.
“They make outlandish and outrageous claims and allegations. Why not just ask for one proof of these allegations? For instance, how do you accuse a governor whose works already delivered far outweighs the resources available to him within the same period? How do you see a governor whose initiatives in the areas of employment, security, education infrastructure, poverty reduction and others keep earning him local and international recognitions? Those are the achievements those few bellyaching individuals seek to divert attention away from. But they cannot succeed in that.”
The group had claimed responsibility for the July 6 protests in Osogbo, the state capital, purportedly in support of a judge in the state, Justice Folahanmi Oloyede, who wrote a petition against the governor and also in solidarity with the unpaid workers of Osun. But the government says the wage crisis in the state, like in many other sates of the federation, has only been turned into an opportunity by the opposition to pillory the Aregbesola government, having failed in all the legally acceptable means to get the mandate of the people of the state.
The government described the coalition as “a gang of misguided and disgruntled individuals who are just being sponsored by many of those who lost in the August 9, 2014 election in the state.
“They are no more than errand boys of Iyiola Omisore of PDP, Niyi Owolade of Accord Party and Segun Akinwusi of Social Democratic Party. It is an emergency group put together to give voice to the opposition’s joint battle against this government.
“All they do is to send out false information in press releases everyday to confuse people and misinform the general public. The last of its release was that there was danger to the life of the petitioner judge, Folahanmi Oloyede,” Okanlawon said.
In a release signed by its media coordinator, Seun Adeoye, on July 4, the CSCEO, which though was less than one week old, had claimed responsibility for the protests in Osogbo.
A part of the release had stated: “For your information, CSCEO is just a week old today. We have no allegiance to any political party in opposition to Osun State Government or financiers as being wrongly insinuated by the ruling APC regime. Rather, we are together as men and women previously slumbering but have all been woken up by the realization of the doldrums in which we now find ourselves as a result of the recklessness, cluelessness and wanton disregard for time-tested principles of public management and international best practices of those who we have trusted with our collective destiny in the last four years.”
But Amitilu Shittu, Executive Director of the Committee for the Defence and Rights of the People, a popular human rights and pro-democracy organisation in Osun, says the group has chosen very wrong reasons to sell itself to the people.
Shittu said: “If you say you are in opposition here, the people will ask you what you are really out to oppose. This is because opposition must have its logical reason. Do you oppose a government that has provided the kind of infrastructure that Aregbesola has provided in the first four years?
“Do you oppose a government that has provided infrastructure far higher than the resources of the state can afford? Do you just oppose a government when it keeps getting local and international recognitions for its initiatives?”
CSCEO’s allegations against the government are legion. Its Chairman, Sulaiman Adeniyi Alimi, said in one of the many press releases sent out by Adeoye that “all the characteristics of a failed state have been manifesting in this state: hunger; poverty; closed hospitals, schools, government offices and courts; internal displacement of persons and failed and abandoned projects from roads to buildings. Jungle justice in the absence of the judiciary, collapse of public utility, insecurity as burglary and petty stealing pervades the land arising from excruciating hunger and lack.
“This is not about unpaid salaries alone; it is about paucity of managerial skills and high level corruption as exhibited by Aregbesola’s government.”
Comrade Wale Adebisi of the Ola Oni Centre for Good Governance, directly links the activities of the group to the political opponents of Aregbesola.
Adebisi said: “It must interest you that this so-called group emerged after Iyiola Omisore, PDP’s defeated governorship candidate, reached his final bus stop over his election petition at the Supreme Court.
“Before then, there was no group like that. But immediately after the ruling of the Supreme Court which put a final nail on the Coffin of his governorship ambition, they resorted to these illegal means to continue to keep their few followers together as well as attempt to discredit the government.
“It is a project in the hands of the PDP and other allies to bring down the government, and that forms the basis of all these daily accusations against the governor.”
Adebisi says the CSCEO has been sending out wrong information about the state to give it a wrong image. “But they can only do that for a while before the whole world sees through their lies,” he said.
Ademola Yaya, a former Student Union leader and now researcher, who lives in Osogbo, the state capital, in his analysis of the group’s activities, explained that it is merely catching in on the opportunities that media platforms offer to gain attention.
“Before now, real activism involved deep understanding of the issues at stake. Activism involved commitment and not cash and carry pursuits. More importantly, it is the activities you engage in as a group of people fighting the cause of the people that bring you attention from authorities and the people. Now, an unknown group of people can just hide under one name and send out falsehood and the media give them audience,” Yaya said.
Asking the media to wake up to its responsibilities, Yaya said it is not enough for media houses to just take press releases from everyone who has access to the internet without adequate verification of the claims they make and the activities they claim to engage in.
His assertion appeared to corroborate an earlier charge by Comrade Waheed Lawal that most of the claims the so-called coalition sends out should be verified by media houses. “For instance, often times you read about that group claiming to have held press conferences in Osogbo whereas no press conference was held. That is unprofessional and fraudulent,” he said.
Adeoye, the regular issuer of the press statements containing the allegations against Aregbesola says he is not connected in any way to politicians in the state, yet there are those who insist that he is one journalist who has had more than casual relationship with politicians and still enjoys same with some of the leading opposition figures in the state. As a former correspondent in the state, he was was alleged to have taken a stand against the government of former Governor Bisi Akande; a situation that was said to have endeared him to Akande’s political opponents, including Omisore, the then deputy governor.
Adeoye later became two-term chairman of the Nigeria Union of Journalists’ Correspondents’ Chapel in Osun and subsequently won election to become the State Chairman of the NUJ. In all these periods, he was said to have openly identified with Omisore and his political allies.
“Call him a politician and you will not be far from the truth,” says Ibrahim Lawal, a lawyer based in Osogbo, who said he had watched the activities of the group and the involvement of Adeoye.
“I think he uses his pen to arrange imagined atrocities of the Aregbesola administration with a devious view to raising anxiety and causing confusion. That is what they send out every day in the name of press releases. But the people in this state know the truth. There is no coalition anywhere. It is just a camouflage by Adeniyi Sulaiman and Seun Adeoye.”
A quick ride through the state capital gives the impression of a peaceful city. While the effect of unpaid workers’ wages appears to have slowed down business, commercial activities in the state capital do not reflect the topsy-turvy pictures that are being painted.
Bose Ande, an event management consultant in Osogbo says the state remains at peace with itself.
“If you go by the impressions being created in the minds of news readers, you would think the state is upside down. But that only exists in the imagination of those who are doing that for their own reasons.” She said.
Segun AJIBOYE