As the search for the abducted Chibok girls assumed an international dimension, the Governor of the State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, has called on the Federal Government for affirmative action against the nation’s immediate neighbouring countries in the search for the missing girls.
Aregbesola made this call in Osogbo on Thursday when women in the state led by the First Lady, Mrs. Sherifat Aregbesola, and the students in the tertiary institutions under the aegis of National Association of Osun State Students (NASS), staged a ‘Free Our Children’ protest to the Governor’s office.
The governor, who said the abduction saga has gone beyond Nigeria’s problem alone, disclosed that Borno State shares border with Cameroun, Niger and Chad and that there is probability that the insurgents may be receiving supports from the countries.
He urged President Goodluck Jonathan to call on the African Union to call a meeting, which will mandate these three countries to cooperate with Nigeria in rooting out insurgency in that axis.
He averred that Nigeria should declare war on whichever country that refuses to abide by such resolution and cooperate with it.
He described as terrible the present situation the nation has been thrown by the insurgents saying the abduction of over 273 high school girls is a tragedy of huge proportion.
“The problem is now beyond Nigeria alone. I urge the President to co-opt the nation’s neighbours, particularly Cameroun, Niger and Chad, who share border with Borno State.
“Their cooperation in the search for these girls is essential and if they refuse, Nigeria should call on the AU to mandate them to cooperate with Nigeria, failing which the nation should declare war on any country that refuses to abide by such AU resolution,” Aregbesola said.
He identified mass employment for the youths of the country so as to sap the avenue through which Boko Haram sources for recruitment.
He called on religious organisations to set a day aside to pray for the nation and end it with fasting.
He accordingly commended the efforts of the Joint military task force since the activities of the Boko Haram plunged the country into social crisis, saying the military should however intensify its efforts until the girls are rescued.
Aregbesola continued, “We appeal to religious organisations to set a day aside for prayer for the nation. Muslim should pray on Friday, Christians on Sunday and the traditional religion on Saturday, asking God to help us end this disaster.
“We commend the effort of the military but their efforts will not amount anything until those girls are found and reunited with their people. So we call on the military to intensify its efforts the more.”
Earlier in her address, Mrs. Aregbesola expressed the growing concern of the women of the state over the missing girls.
She noted that of late, women and girls have been targeted victims of various violent crimes ranging from abduction, rape and ritual activities.
“On behalf of all women in the state, we are staging this protest to tell government at all tiers that we have suffered enough.
“We therefore demand the release of our children abducted by the Boko Haram. We also express our concern on the growing violence in the country most of which target women,” Mrs. Aregbesola said

From October 2012 to December 2013 I lived and worked in the State of Osun. When I first got my deployment letter, I was confused. My familiarity with the state was limited to the legal mêlée that (rightfully) “installed” Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola as Governor of the state. Unexpectedly, my time in Osun turned out to be one of the most interesting periods of my life.
Now, it is very easy to see and believe all the positive media hype around the state of Osun. The present administration of the State has recorded commendable progress in the achievement of some of its objectives; agreed. However, I intend to give my opinion from the stand point of an ordinary (former) resident of the state.
Naturally, I am a curious person so one of the things I did so well while in Osun was ask questions. I constantly engaged Civil Servants, Business men, Market women, Teachers and Students of the state at every given opportunity. A lot seemed to be going on in the state, I needed to understand everything.
I prefer to start from the beginning; the O’schools, O’Meals, OÚniforms, O’calisthenics  (yes, O’calisthenics) you see is not random. The Ogbeni administration is strictly guided by a 6 point integral action plan. This plan is itemised below:

1. Banish Hunger
2. Banish Poverty
3. Banish Unemployment
4. Promote Healthy Living
5. Promote Functional Education
6.  Promote Communal Peace and Progress

Since assumption of office in November 2010, the Six Point Integral Action Plan has formed the foundation of the initiatives and programs of the present state government of Osun.
 
Again, the semi- political critic in me was hardly satisfied with this; until I discovered that the State Government has also set up an agency called the Bureau of Social Services (BOSS). BOSS is in charge of ensuring that the people of the state actually receive maximum social benefits from all the policies and programs of the State Government.
 
After this discovery things got really interesting for me and my semi-political critic. I totally endorse any initiative that promotes communal impact assessment and fiscal discipline in public administration.
 
To put it simply, BOSS monitors and evaluates all projects the administration embarks upon, the Bureau is also charged with assessing the performance of State Commissioners and heads of MDAs in their implementation of the 6-Point Integral Action Plan. The citizens of the state are also a part of this “Monitoring” as BOSS encourages individuals to report any perceived abnormalities in the way projects and programs are being carried out.
Personally, I am very interested in education so “Promoting Functional Education” caught my attention very quickly.
It is said that within one month of this administration, a physical inspection and baseline assessment of the educational sector was conducted. The outcome of that exercise was quite discomforting. An Education Summit was then put together which was chaired by renowned Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka.
Underpaid and unmotivated teachers, crowded classrooms, undernourished children, poor quality of instruction and learning environment, unavailability of learning materials and an inadequate academic curriculum were some of the issues discovered.
 
The Education Summit made some recommendations for the reformation of the educational sector and these recommendations were immediately adopted by the state government.
The theme for the reformation is “Complete Child, Complete Youth, Complete Citizen” as the state government utilizes an “Integrative approach” in implementing these recommendations.
 

1. O’Meals – This is an Elementary School Feeding and Health Program where 3,007 food vendors/cooks were trained and are currently employed to serve midday balanced diet meals to pupils of classes 1, 2, 3 and 4 in all Primary Schools in the State.
2. O’Schools – Building proper physical structures for schools to replace dilapidated buildings. This massive physical infrastructural exercise is within the framework of the school reclassification system. There are ongoing plans to build 100 elementary schools, 50 middle schools and 26 high school models.
3. Opon Imo – A learning device in form of an electronic tablet that contains all the textbooks in the learning curriculum of High Schools.
4. O’Calisthenics – A child needs proper social balance to function effectively, this policy is a co-curricular activity that pupils in schools across the state participate in as part of physical education drills.
5. Vocational and Entrepreneurial Education – There are various initiatives in place to provide these trainings especially outside the formal school walls.

 
Osun School Reclassification  
I will attempt to explain this as succinctly as possible.
 
In Nigeria, we are used to a 6-3-3-4 system of Education; so is Osun trying to do something different?
 
Practically, there has been no fundamental alteration to the 6-3-3-4 scheme; what Osun has done is a grouping of the 12 years of primary and secondary education before the 4 years of tertiary education.
 
The reason for this is quite simple; it was discovered that a lot of pupils drop out of school immediately after primary 6 so the plan is to provide a scheme that encourages “continuous education”. The last two years of junior secondary school have been extracted to form a ‘middle school Cadre’ so what you have presently in Osun are; Elementary Schools (Ages 6-9, Grades 1-4), Middle Schools (Ages 10-14, Grades 5-9) and High Schools (Ages 15-17, Grades 10-12). This makes transition to secondary school easy and automatic for Elementary school pupils. The objective is that no pupil will exit education at grade 6 and that all will proceed to complete and graduate from the Middle school at grade 9 thereby making BECE (Basic Education Certificate Examination) the least certificate for any school leaver in the state. Students in Osun still spend 12 years on basic education as stipulated by the National Policy on Education and are taught the same curriculum as students elsewhere in Nigeria.
 
In addition to the above mentioned, various Teacher training programs are being run in the state to better equip the teachers.
 
For me, results are very important. Has this reform of the educational sector recorded any wins? Yes. In 2010 Osun was placed 34th amongst 36 states in the performance rankings of the West African School Certificate Examinations (WASCE) and by 2012 placed 8th.
 
Interestingly seventeen-year-old Folafoluwa Oginni a product of the State of Osun public Education System  emerged the overall best pupil in the May/June 2012 West African Senior School Certificate Examination. She scored A1 in all her subjects with a cumulative score of 653.9318 and is presently a holder of the WAEC’s national distinction/merit award.
 
Another area worthy of mention is the general infrastructural development in the state. All through my time in Osun, the state was filled with ongoing construction. Sometimes, this was really annoying. From heavy traffic to my favourite supermarket getting shut down because illegal structures were being demolished; but I have chosen to appreciate the bigger picture here.
 
There’s a multiplier upshot that can be deduced from this; for instance to modernise the food production chain an infrastructural upgrade is extremely necessary. Without good roads even agricultural developments will stall. From moving raw materials to evacuation of produced goods a farmer needs good road networking.
 
Within 24 months 513 km of high quality roads were constructed. I concede to the fact that some of the completed roads in Osun at present were commenced by the previous administration.
 
The Osun State government also directed all the local governments within the state to embark upon the construction of quality 10km roads in their domain and at the time I left Osun work had commenced on these local government roads; by now I expect a higher percentage of completion.
One construction that actually excites me is the commencement of the construction of Gbongan – Akioda trumpet exchange. This is expected to provide uninterruptible link with Ibadan – Ilesa expressway for traffic turning into Osogbo and those from Osogbo turning towards Ife thereby eradicating traffic interception at the junction.
Chief Adebisi Akande (Governor of Osun May 1999 to May 2003) describes the ongoing infrastructural developments in the state of Osun as a “Miracle’. From my interactions with the citizens of the state; most see it as a miracle too and reasonably have a few concerns. How is the government financing these projects? Can Osun afford all these? How much time does Ogbeni need to complete these projects? Does he actually have this time?
During my stay in Osun; I became au fait with so many other interesting initiatives such as the O’YES – Osun Youth Empowerment Scheme, AGBA OSUN – Where the elderly are given periodic stipends and the monthly WALK-TO-LIVE program.
What I saw, heard and experienced portrays an administration that is determined to deliver on its manifesto; though far from perfect, the State of Osun seems to be headed in the right direction.

Photos of School Buses to be Launched and Presented to School Students soon

Not less than 5, 000 teachers and students are expected at the grand finale of a debate on the topic:

“Leadership and Good Governance organised by Omoluabi Support Group and Oranmiyan Worldwide, two nongovernmental organisations based in Osun state. The debate which is for secondary school students is part of activities marking 57th birthday of Osun state governor.

According to one of the coordinators of the group, Comrade Dele Ogunsakin, the programme will hold on Tuesday, May 13th 2014 at the Centre for Black Culture and International Understanding, Osogbo.
Addressing a press conference on behalf of the organisers of the event in Osogbo recently, Barrister Kayode Tinubu and Comrade Dele Ogunsakin said that whoever emerges champion will spend a day with the governor on the 25th of May as a mark of honour to serve as motivation for the school children.
Tinubu said “all High Schools in the state had began the debate at the local government level and subsequent winners will engage one another in an interesting debate at the senatorial level while the winners in each of senatorial district will also compete to pick the champion.”
NATIONAL MIRROR

The Osun Government on Wednesday said it had employed 19 magistrates and plans to construct two new prisons as part of efforts to enhance access to justice.
Mr Wale Afolabi, the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Osogbo.
He said the lock-up prisons would be built in Osogbo and Iwo Local Governments to decongest the two main prisons in Ilesa and Ile-Ife built over 30 years ago.
By the time these prisons are built, they will decongest the main prisons, make transportation of suspects to the court more faster and easier and also improve on our criminal justice system.
This present administration inherited 18 magistrates but we discovered this was not enough and government employed additional 19 magistrates, making them 37. “This is to ensure speedy dispensation of justice in the state,” he said.
The attorney general also said that 17 lawyers were recruited as public prosecutors for efficient prosecution of criminal cases. Afolabi said the state House of Assembly is currently reviewing existing laws in the state to ensure that they conform to the present realities.
On alternative dispute resolution, the attorney general said the government had revived the Public Defender and Citizens Rights Department, and mediation centers, to assist indigent people to get access to justice. We discovered that many people are very poor in the state to employ the services of a lawyer to handle their cases.
And as a result of this, when the present administration came into power, the department of public defender and citizen rights in the Ministry of Justice was revived to help the citizens. “Lawyers in these centres are government employees and they render their services free of charge to the citizens.”
DAILY INDEPENDENT

The Osun State Government  has approved N275.7 million  for the  payment of  backlog of bursary in the 2012/2013 academic year, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports

Mrs Mulikat Bello, the Special Adviser to the  Governor on Higher Education,  disclosed this on Tuesday while speaking with newsmen in Osogbo.

Bello said: “A total sum of  N226.1 million had so far  been disbursed to 20,774 final year students from 56 tertiary institutions.

‘’The tertiary institutions included  the Nigerian Law Schools,18 universities,13 polytechnics and colleges of technology,14 colleges of education and three colleges of  health technology.

‘’Other schools that were taken care of included colleges of  agriculture, a school of  nursing, school of hygiene, school of surveying and co-operative college.’’

She called on the authorities of 21 higher institutions of learning whose  final year students had not yet received their  2012-2013 bursary award  to submit all required information.

“ Also, the schools should submit the schools’ bank account details and render their previous statement of  payment for the year 2011/2012 bursary awards to the Office of Higher Education, Scholarship and Bursary in the State Ministry of Education,’’  she added.

Addressing a press briefing in Lagos, CODER convener, Ayo Opadokun, frowned at INEC’s volte face on using card reader in Ekiti and Osun states after it has earlier promised to use same for the two elections, as a test run for the 2015 general elections, saying that the decision is ominous considering its implications.
He said that use of card reader is expected to make double/multiple voting and impersonation impossible, because “on the presentation of your voter card, your fingerprint will be tested with the card reader. It will either validate or invalidate your claim of being a genuine voter. This certainly is supposed to be a significant step forward towards achieving credible elections and ensure every vote counts as demanded by Nigerians and the international community inclusive.”
Saying that the nonusage of the card reader in Ekiti and Osun states means that there will be multiple voting and impersonation in several polling units, a scenario he said, will most certainly lead to confusion, accusations and possible violence in various polling centres given the expected effective monitoring and vigilance that contesting political parties would mount in order to defend their votes.
Maintaining that if the INEC fails to use card readers in the June and August elections, it means that the necessary trial runs of the card reader in the elections to test the genuine or the lack of it, the credibility or otherwise, of the machine has again been frustrated.
He said: “If the prospect for testing the card reader to establish the accuracy of the technology, the knowledge and expertise of INEC ad hoc staff, the human users, are postponed until 2015 general elections, it could be imagined that there is an ulterior reasons for such a negative policy. The size of Ekiti and Osun states is small compared to the entire country and those elections are golden opportunities for INEC and the general public to be acquainted with the use of the technology.”
Warning INEC not to allow what happened in 2010 with the Direct Data Capturing, DDC, machines procured for the 2011 elections repeat itself, Opadokun said, “In 2010, INEC requested for and was allocated over N80 billion for the entire process of purchase and production of credible bio-metric voters’ register. Unfortunately, the patriotic warning and appeal from both local and international public that the acquired DDC machines customised for Nigeria should be technically tested for seamless functionality was ignored, the ad hoc staffs of INEC, mostly National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, members were never trained in the usage of the machines and the consequence was failure.”
CODER therefore calls on Nigerians to mount credible campaigns on INEC to use the already purchased card readers to test run the Ekiti and Osun states polls respectively, adding: “This is important so that all stakeholders are equipped with the prior usage and experience of the card reader performance before the nationwide general elections.”
NATIONAL MIRROR

Osun State Commissioner for Commerce, Co-operatives and Empowerment, Ismaila Jayeoba-Alagbada spoke to Seun Akioye on the plans of the government to stimulate commerce by moving goods from Osun to Lagos free of charge

You are the Commissioner for Commerce, Industry, Co-operative and Empowerment, that is a lot of sectors put together, how do you manage to oversee all
If you look at the four departments, they are into one because what they want to achieve is to empower our people, industry will employ people, they will earn income and they will be empowered, when you produce, those people that will sell those goods in the market are empowered. When you look at the co-operatives sector, by the time they gather and pull their resources together, they will be able to get more rather than as individuals. They will form a small scale industry, so indirectly they have been empowered and the cardinal aim of this Ministry is to create jobs.
So how much of that has been created?
When you look at commerce, it is germane in any economy. You know this state used to be the second commercial centre after Lagos in the 1960s. That is why you see the likes of Leventis, PZ here. They were here because Osogbo is a major station of Nigeria Railway Corporation so moving their products from Lagos was very easy. People from neighbouring states just come to Osogbo to purchase their goods from all these multinationals. But in the 1980s all these disappeared, our railway system was not working; the infrastructural level at the state was zero, nothing to attract investors. Commercial activities were at zero level, they used to call this state the civil servants’ state.
Now, how do you want to attract people to come and trade here? How do you bring people here? Commerce is all about people. Look at Dubai, what do they have there? Because of the infrastructure in Dubai, people are attracted to that country and it is the same thing Ogbeni is doing in the state of Osun. Shortly after Ogbeni assumed office, he began moving passengers from Lagos to Osogbo during the festive periods. People have lost confidence in the railway system. Soon Ogbeni is going is to start moving goods from Osogbo to Lagos and from Lagos to Osogbo, so that the people can sell at wholesale price and earn their money so they can be encouraged to go back and farm.
Are you saying the ultimate goal of the governor in providing free rail transport is actually commercial?
Yes
How is that possible?
If we see people today with their farm produce, we are ready to transport it to Lagos and we will do it free of charge. We have been doing the publicity but the people don’t have enough to move by rail. Ogbeni is ready; people should be encouraged to go back to the farm because this is more or less an agrarian state. But we have not seen any willing farmer.
Maybe if the farmers are empowered enough to produce larger quantity of farm produce
They have been empowered. From my ministry alone, we have spent almost N800 million to empower co-operative farmers in the state. This is the first time that the money will actually go to the farmers at co-operative level and we have seen the result. This is why when other states are complaining about food shortage, in Osun there is no food shortage. This would be the first time farmers will be encouraged to go back to the farm. Now, I must confess to you, for those farmers producing cocoyam, we have set up an off-taker that will buy directly from the farmer and pay them in cash so the farmers can go back to the farms. We have empowered 332 youths to do this, and we have given them money.
So, where will the off-takers sell the cocoyam, locally or in other states?
What we are interested in is the turnover, our intention is to feed our children with cocoyam so these off-takers will just buy from the farmers and sell to the food vendors. So, the farmers will have the opportunity of having their cash in bulk and be encouraged to go back to farm. The same is for those who are producing maize.  The question of where to sell cannot arise every effort is to stimulate commerce.
There is the concept of life academy, what is it all about?
It is a place where people who want to take up skills can go. You know we have massive youth unemployment in the country and we don’t have qualified people to do these artisans work. Ogbeni is setting up an academy where all these skills will be available, it is a place where a retired permanent secretary can come and take up a skill because when you graduate and set up business, you will not be alone, you will take some people out of the employment market.
In fact by the time this academy comes up, it is going to be like an industrial revolution,  and anytime from now it will be commissioned.
Let us go back to the train ride, how many people have you been able to ferry since the start of the project?
From December 2011, we have ferried 50,000 passengers
What is the idea behind it?
During these festivals, there used to be traffic congestion on the road and people spend days on the road,Ogbeni said this must be reduced drastically. When you look at our integral action plan, you will see majority of our people have lost contact with their home. Anytime they want to come home, they will discover that it is not feasible because of the cost. The governor said he must move his people and I must confess since December 2011, the accident on Lagos –Ibadan Expressway has gone down, we discovered that many people who have not visited their homes in the last ten years are coming home now and they are happy with the development that is going on in the state.
Some people did not believe that concept can happen and continue. Many people have lost confidence in the railway system but that confidence has been restored. When Ogbeni said people should move their goods to Lagos, people were skeptical but when they saw that the train could move people, they changed their minds. So, the confidence is back, the concept is there now, the trains are back, in a day three trains will move. If we are able to rebuild our railway, it will reduce the strain on our roads and make them more durable. That is what they do in developed economies.
Let me also say that those who come home during the festive periods have increased the commercial activities in the state. When they come, they must spend money, instead of buying their rams in Lagos, they buy in Osun. The pure water and drink sellers also benefit because of the large number of people coming in.  All that we are doing is to stimulate commerce, look at the cargo airport that we are building, it is going to be the best in the country because it will have a 3.5 kilometer runway, and this will decongest Lagos, and imagine what would happen when people start to land their cargo here in Osun. The commercial activities in the state are on the increase, we have rebuilt the railway station to be the best in the country, it is the best in the country now.
Moving people from Lagos here must have cost a lot of money, so how much does it cost the state each year transporting the people?
When you look at the cost, it hasn’t been much, even with the publicity. If you look at the initial cost you will not get to where you are going. But I must tell you reasonably it is not much. It is worth it.
How many times does the train move?
We don’t have fixed times it depends on the number of passengers waiting. It can be two times or more.
Now looking at all these laudable projects, where do you see Osun State when all these are done?
By the special Grace of God, by the time they are actualised, Osun State will be the next state after Lagos. I know you will be shocked but look at it this way, we are bounded by six states, Abuja, Oyo, Kogi, Ekiti, Kwara, Ondo. So we are in the centre of activities, Ogbeni’s plan is to make this place a hub of all activities, by that time Osogbo will be the place, everyone would come to.
THE NATION