In order to improve environmental sustainability, Osun State government has distributed 2.5 million trees to be planted across its 30 local government councils.
The state Governor, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola, said this at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, on Tuesday, when his administration inaugurated the tree planting initiative.
At the ceremony, Aregbesola also bagged gold awards from the university’s Institute of Ecology and Environmental Studies, National Park Services, Abuja, and Environmental Health Officers Registration Council of Nigeria, Abuja.
Aregbesola, who said an additional five million trees would be distributed across the states for planting, added that the initial two trees were raised by the state government.
Source: http://www.punchng.com/news/osun-distributes-2-5-million-trees/

I HAVE lived through several administrations since the creation of OsunState and none has had the sort of visible impact that this man has had in so short a time.
Perhaps what makes the difference is that no governor before him has approached the issue of the environment from a deliberate policy perspective as he is doing. He has developed a coherent policy on the environment, with a focus on health, which he has been implementing since he took office.
Previously the situation in Osun was characterised by heaps of refuse everywhere, resulting from people uncaringly dumping waste in any open spaces they deemed suitable for that purpose – on roadsides and road median, in streams and rivers and just about anywhere. Another prominent feature of the landscape was the ubiquitous markets that opportunistically sprang up everywhere, with their enormous capacity for generating garbage. It needs little emphasis that we have had to live with the resultant untoward health implication, and we actually lived through the flooding consequent upon silting and blocking of waterways by refuse. Flood-occasioned destruction of lives and properties is one of my most enduring recollections of the reign of the last administration in the state.
Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, on assumption of office, declared a state of emergency in environmental sanitation, with his O’Clean programme aimed at ridding our environment of filth and getting the people to have a change of attitude in the way they treat the environment. The 90-day emergency period saw a mandatory weekly sanitation exercise in Osun and the weekly cleaning of markets and places of work. This is strengthened by the daily street cleaning exercise by the O’YES volunteers.
Obviously, ridding the streets of garbage heaps requires a waste management policy. The government of Ogbeni  Aregbesola is no less impressive in this area. Besides getting the people to clean up and gather their refuse, collection and clearing of rubbish have been a fruitful partnership between government and private waste collectors who charge fees, but go into the inner streets where government trucks cannot reach. And there is the fee-free government alternative, but which requires taking one’s refuse to designated collection points for onward evacuation to landfill sites for processing. The green-painted garbage trucks – and I’ve seen scores of them – with their peculiar honk are now a part of our daily morning traffic in Osun. The waste management is aimed at achieving an integrated system that will comprise transfer-loading-stations in all the local government areas of the state, from where the refuse would then be carted away to the central landfill site. Recycling facilities that are still under construction are a component of the system. These facilities, meant to enable the re-use of plastic waste, are to be complemented by a buyback scheme for plastic waste for a more effective control of the hazards constituted by plastic bottles and pure water sachets.
The environment policy includes the comprehensive dredging and de-silting of the quite numerous streams and rivers across Osun to make for free-flow of water. Anybody who is well familiar with the landscape in Osun State would understand what it means to take up the dredging and de-silting of its extensive network of streams, rivers and tributaries. Yet, this is precisely what Ogbeni Aregbesola’s government has been doing, and is still doing, even now, because the dredging and de-silting are still ongoing. The exercise has covered streams and rivers extending over large areas, including Ipetu-Ijesa, Ife Ilesa, Ejigbo, Iragbiji, Ode-Omu, Iwo, Ila-Orangun, and Osogbo, the state capital. In Osogbo alone, more than 15 rivers, streams and canals are being dredged and de-silted.
The effect of all these dredging and de-silting activities has been the safety of the lives and properties of the people of Osun from the devastation of flooding that was their lot under the immediate past administration in the state. It is on record that there has been more rain since Governor Aregbesola came into office yet there has been no flood, especially in Osogbo, unlike the tragedy that flooding has wreaked in neighbouring states in the South West.
Ogbeni Aregbesola’s environmental policy also covers urban development and beautification. Here, indiscriminate market activities are being discouraged, while ultra-modern market complexes are being constructed around the state. Notable among these are Dagbolu, Aiyegbaju and Aje markets, which are all in various stages of completion.
The beautification project involves the development and modernisation of strategic public spaces for public use in a manner that enhances the landscape architecture of our cities. The HassanOladokunPark at Gbongan Junction and the FreedomPark at Old Garage Roundabout stand out in this regard. The beautification also involves a massive tree planting exercise, for which some 2.5 million seedlings of different tree species have been purchased. The trees are intended to line the major roads right from the OyoState border into the heart of the major cities in Osun, including the state capital, Osogbo. The trees will not only serve as beautifiers, they will also serve as checks to erosion as well as help to limit the negative impact of stormy winds, not to mention their roles in reducing greenhouse gas emission.
In only two years, Ogbeni Aregbesola’s environmental management is already a legacy that will be better appreciated.
Mr. ALABI OYELEKE, a commentator on national  issues, wrote from Osogbo, Osun State.
– See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/04/osuns-changing-environment/#sthash.5bj6jRKC.dpuf
Source: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/04/osuns-changing-environment/

“Justice is a value that is universally desirable but the rule of law is of vital importance in bringing it about. This underscores the invaluable role of the Judiciary as the champion of the rule of law, as well as the arbiter of justice.”
These were the words of the Governor of Osun State, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, while delivering an address titled “In furtherance of Justice and the rule of law” at the swearing-in ceremony of Justice Oyebola Adepele Ojo as the Chief Judge of the State of Osun in Osogbo yesterday.
Aregbesola noted that the sustenance of justice is a task for all, not for the Judiciary alone; saying justice in a society is also a cumulation of the micro-level activities of all of its members.
‘…we’ve worked on 900 km of roads’
Osun State governor, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola has said about 900 kilometres of both inter and intra-city roads have either been completed or under construction since his administration came on board in the state about two and a half years ago.
Speaking at the flag-off of the construction of 30 kilometre super-highway named Omoluabi Motorway, Aregbesola said that Osun will, within the shortest possible time, boast of the best road network in the Nigeria.
Also flagged off was the construction of the Chief Adebisi Akande Trumpet Interchange Bridge which connects those traveling on the Ibadan-Ile-Ife Expressway with those coming to Osun through Gbongan.
According to him, good roads are critical to the modern state, adding that physical transportation of human and materials is primarily by road in Osun.
Source: http://osbcng.org/2013/06/18/aregbesola-swears-in-first-female-cj-for-osun/

The Omoluabi Garment Factory attracted to the State of Osun through the new public school uniform, introduced by the government, will provide employment for 10,000 people.
Governor Rauf Aregbesola disclosed this in Osogbo, last Wednesday at the public presentation of De Raufs, a volunteer group formed in his honour.
Members of the group cut across people from various walks of life, which include; artisans, farmers, civil society groups, professionals, politicians, business executives among others.
Speakers at the event, including Professor Labo Popoola, Professor Adekunle Oloji, among others, said that all qualities of good governance and accountability have been demonstrated by Aregbesola in the state.
They said, “good leadership and sustainable development in the administration of Governor Aregbesola has transformed the state to an enviable height among comity of states in Nigeria.”
Governor Aregbesola, who was present on the occasion, stated that his government has touched and made remarkable achievements in every sector of governance and the progress being made are not by accident, but it is an avowed commitment to fulfill the vision of becoming an agent of good change.
The governor also thanked the people for supporting the policies and programmes of his government, saying that the support is a major key to achieving the feat his government has recorded.

The State of Osun has recorded another huge success in its development efforts by strengthening its partnership with the United Nation Habitat (UN-HABITAT) in the areas of Cities Prosperity Initiative, Urban Info and Local Urban Observatory Programmes.
This is sequel to the collaboration of the State Government of Osun with the UN-HABITAT for the preparation of Structured Plan for the nine (9) cities identified for the Urban Renewal Project by the Rauf Aregbesola government.
The collaboration was arrived at on Wednesday in a bilateral meeting held with the Osun delegation at the Governing Council 24th meeting at the UN-HABITAT Headquarters, Nairobi, Kenya.
In attendance at the official presentation were Architect Muyiwa Ige, Commissioner for Physical Planning, who also led the Osun delegation comprising Hon. Johnson Ojo, Chairman, House Committee on Lands, Osun House of Assembly; Hon. Jimoh Olayemi; Tpl. Oladejo for Osun; Prof. Oyebanji Oyeyinka (Director, UN-HABITAT) and Dr. Gora Mboup (Chief, Global Urban Observatory Section- UN-HABITAT).
These programmes are necessarily aimed at successfully preparing and implementing the structural plan project currently going on in nine (9) cities in the state.
It will be recalled that the state’s N100million contribution to UNHABITAT was fully paid last year and the plans are expected to be completed by September 2013.
In consonance with these preparations, the UNHABITAT has agreed to give technical support in the area of effective deployment of these tools.
In a couple of weeks, officers of UN-HABITAT would be deployed from its headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya, for UrbanInfo training programme.
The training Programme will address areas like unsuitable urban growth, problems affecting the environment and growing inequalities between rich and poor and serious distortion in the form and functions of cities, among others.
The training Programme will address areas like unsuitable urban growth, problems affecting the environment and growing inequalities between the rich and the poor and serious distortion in the form and functions of cities, land reform, role of urban youth and gender in sustainable urban development, among others.

In the bid to boost food production, the Osun State Government has invested N629.4m in poultry and fish farming.
The Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Security, Mr. Wale Adedoyin, disclosed this during a news conference held at Governor’s Office, Abere, on Thursday.
Adedoyin said the state government invested N339.4m in poultry farming and N253m in fish farming.
He reiterated the commitment of the Rauf Aregbesola administration to making Osun the food basket of the country, stressing that investment in farming held the key to youth employment.
The commissioner said, “Four hundred and sixty-two out-growers’ ponds have been stocked in all the 30 local government councils of the state.
“The scheme promotes catfish production and processing for value addition. Harvesting of 800,000 kilogramme table-size fish from out-growers’ fish ponds have commenced.”
He said the state government had disbursed N339.4m to poultry farmers for the production of broilers, stressing that the initiative would improve the dietary intake of the citizenry.
Adedoyin said, “The objectives of the scheme include empowering poultry producers, enhancing economic status of producers, increasing protein intake in the diet of citizens and creating employment opportunities.
“At the end of the first phase, which ended on November 30, 2012, a total of 258 farms had been stocked with 1,249,728 day-old chicks by the government.”
By Tunde Odesola
Culled from Punch Newspaper