Category: News
NANS Press Release On OSUN gubernatorial elections.
“Just Before The People Of Osun Decides” By Comrade Yinka Gbadebo, National President, National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS.
Gentle Men of the Press,
Our organization considers it sacrosanct, germane and imperative to address the world today to objectively express and confidently make our position known in respect of the fast-approaching governorship election in Osun State, South Western, Nigeria.
As an ideologically based organization, rooted, grounded and cerebral, we viewed it as a matter of necessity to place on records, for the sake of history and posterity that our members in Osun, the land of living spring, know where we stand before they decide.
Without any iota of doubt and without equivocation, the National Association of Nigerian Students wishes to state categorically that we are for free, fair and credible elections as a panacea to sustaining and deepening our democratic experience across Nigeria and particularly now that the people of Osun go to the poll to pick the governor of their choice.
As one of the formidable foot soldiers who fought against the tyrannical and despotic regimes the military represents alongside other pro-democracy platforms, that led to the restoration of democracy to Nigeria, it is important we let the whole world know we are against any attempt to circumvent the tenets of democracy as far as the August 9th governorship election in Osun State is concerned.
Greatest Nigerian Students! We urge those of you that domicile in Osun to troop out on August 9th and vote for any candidate of your choice having in mind that the exercise has implications for the future well-being of our people. As such, it should be approached with all the seriousness it deserves.
We urge you to vote rightly! Vote for character! Vote your best personality! Vote for integrity! Vote for tradition! Cast your vote for virtue! Use your vote to uphold the sanctity of the ballot box! Vote for competence. Reject acts that work to make students gangsters.
Fellow Nigerian Students, once again, we wish to say that our stand on the Osun State governorship poll is that, it should be free, fair and creditably conducted. We say to no rigging, violence, intimidation, harassment and disenfranchisement of eligible voters.
Further more, while we support the move of the Federal Government to mobilize security men to all the nooks and crannies of Osun in order to ensure that the election is free and fair, we wish to state without any fear or favor that the security situation in Osun State, as we speak, does not warrant mobilizing the men of the Nigerian Army for election purposes instead of its constitutional role of maintaining and securing the country from any form of external aggression. Election is a civil matter, and our position is that it should be treated by people with civil minds.
Be that as it may, may we state that as the most informed and radical youth movement in Nigeria, we shall ensure that the electoral brouhaha that lead to the collapse of first, second and third Republics is avoided in Nigeria starting fromOsun State Governorship Election.
Lastly, we urge Nigerian Students of Osun State origin, to vote for the candidate that values education! Education is a right and not a privilege. We implore you to Vote for the candidate who will truthfully give you access to quality and affordable education! We beg of you not to sell your vote.
The only panacea for development in a complex nation like Nigeria is to have characters embedded with virtues, integrity and as Plato opined, philosophical skills, at the corridor of power.
Therefore, we urge Osun Students and all voters to think wisely before they cast their votes.
Long Live Osun State
Long Live Nigeria
Long Live NANS
Yinka Gbadebo, National President, National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS.
Osun State governor, Rauf Aregbesola, has stated the resolve of his administration to transform the agricultural sector in the state.
The objective of the policy, the governor noted, is to turn the state into a veritable agricultural state, while also revolutionising the status of farmers.
Speaking in Ede during the official launch of the Farmers Input and Credit Support Program, the governor disclosed that plans have been finalised to help each farmer in the state with farm inputs to the tune of one N150, 000 annually.
He remarked that the process of transforming the agricultural sector started with the identification of farmers and evaluation of the farmland through the Geographic Information System (GIS), an arrangement which enumerated 50,000 farmers in the state and detailed their form of farming and what their requirements are.
According to the governor, after the identification, evaluation and registration processes, each of the farmers would be given a Wema Bank Credit Card, which would enable them go to any Farmers’ Input Supply and Service Company (FISCO) centre, which are available at every farm settlement in the state and collect their inputs for free.
He charged the farmers to be prudent in the management of farm inputs collected, as they will not be able to collect more than their farmland size, the governor added that at the end of each farming year, the farmers would either sell their farm produce to designated buyers or dispense with their farm produce .
It is after this has been done, the governor noted, that the farmers will pay the cost of the inputs without any interest charged.
Speaking earlier, the Director, Office of Economic Planning and Partnership, Dr. Charles Akinola, said the program is an indication that the present administration in the State is determined to develop every sector of the economy.
Governor Rauf Aregbesola is the candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC) in the upcoming gubernatorial election in Osun State. On August 9, he will be seeking a new mandate from the people of the state. In this session with journalists, Aregbesola speaks on his preparation for this weekend’s election, raises the alarm over the increasing militarization of the election process and also says he has a record that will guarantee the renewal of his gubernatorial mandate on August 9. Tokunbo Adedoja was there
Heavy security presence in the state
It is not just voting that is democracy. Everything pertaining to the capacity of the people to vote or not to vote and to freely decide what they want must be of interest to all of us. Whenever that right is abrogated, it is a total assault on democracy. And we cannot call that democracy. The fact that they disallowed air of freedom greatly affected the quality of the democracy we are talking about. The militarisation of the state is not one man’s job. We owe it a duty to let the whole world know what is happening here. This is against the right of the Nigerian people.
We’ve all forgotten that we pay the salaries of the security agencies. We don’t pay for them to wear mask in our towns. They should only wear masks when they engage terrorist and if they have to operate in a region where seeing them might compromise their own safety and security. What would they say is the reason for what they are doing now other than threat, shock and awe? So, what this means is that they want to conquer and cow our people, which is a direct assault on democracy. Yes, you ask for what I am doing. I won’t take gun against them but I will not be quiet. I believe that your supporting us to highlight this horrendous bent of the Nigerian federal authority to use all means at its disposal to cow our people must be condemned. We should all talk and condemn it because this is not about Aregbesola alone. You people may not have any press office to work with if this continues. Don’t think it will stop there. By the time they finish with the press, they can say you should not even go and buy yam to eat somewhere. Everything will be affected.
Ekiti election and preparation for August 9
The real issue is not about you as a candidate but the quality of the electoral process. Once the quality is good and high, whatever the people say because they are the ultimate decider of who represents or govern them. A democratic choice is expected to be correct, good and right but it is not always that the choice is good, correct and right. But to answer the question properly, I have prepared so well for the office in a way that going by the normal run, I should not be working as hard as I am working now for re-election. Why we are different from them is that we have always been with the people from day one of our administration.
How many governors walk the streets with their citizens? I have been doing that since the first month in office. How many governors create interactive forum in Nigeria before me? There is none. I was the first governor that devoted close to ten hours of continuous engagement on a quarterly basis with the citizens. The people ask any question in a no holds barred atmosphere. The Ogbeni till day break is a worldwide engagement because we take feedbacks from social media. The gbangba dekun is a monthly community interactive forum where the governor sits with all stakeholders in the community to ask or make inquiries on any issue. This is the picture of direct engagements that we are doing with the people that no government in Nigeria has ever attempted to do.
We also have a carnival like procession in walk to live where we just walk round the communities and it is too engaging and popular because everybody wants to be with the governor. Hardly is there any community in this state that I have not touched personally. In terms of physical and social services, this is the first government that will say that there is no household, be it PDP, APC and others, that our programme has not reached. I feed 300,000 pupils every school day at the cost of N3.6 billion a year, I have been doing it since 2012 and I have spent N7.2 billion on that. You can go to the school by yourself and access what the children are eating to be sure whether it worth what we are saying or not. I can tell you that nobody touches the money except those in charge. Long before we commenced the feeding arrangement, we empowered poultry farmers to produce poultry products so that the chicken and eggs the children consume are all sourced from them. We gave close to N600 million to the poultry farmers and also the fish farmers.
The only people we buy from now are the cattle rearers. We have the second batch of O’Yes cadets, the first batch of 20,000 has gone, the second batch of 20,000 is on and they are from homes. They work two or three days a week and they have the entire days of the week left for them to see what they can do with their hands and earn a living because they are taught entrepreneurial training but they earn N10,000 monthly as cadets. On this scheme alone, this administration has spent N9 billion. I tell people what this type of scheme means for national government. You have in that scheme a directly injected N9 billion to the economy that has no means of going out because a man earning N10,000, unless you promised to double his investment, he has no business travelling to Ibadan with that N10,000. If it’s not going to yield anything more, he won’t go to Ibadan. Every bit of the money is better spent here.
Every O ‘Yes cadet has a smart card and the issue of anyone handling or tampering with their money does not arise. We are one of the few governments that develop a meaningful programme for elderly citizen’s care. We are not into a blanket social welfare scheme for the elderly, we have a package that did an extensive survey of citizens that are 65 years and above, we have them in our database. We now identified those among them that are without any support that is the first time any government will so do in Nigeria. We identified 1,800 of such people state wide. The selection was purely based on their conditions, no primordial sentiment. We didn’t do the selection anyway, Professor Ogunbameru of OAU administered everything, gave us the list and the addresses. We have been giving them N10, 000 monthly since 2012.
Still along that line, before now the only usage of ambulances here is to carry dead bodies, whereas it is not meant only to carry dead bodies but the conception of it is simply as a morgue vehicle. We have ambulance points everywhere in the state now working 24 hours. We just launched debit card with cash between N100,000 to N150,000 with which they (farmers) buy their farm inputs by their doorsteps. They will buy on guaranteed credit and will pay back with either their commodity or they sell and pay back. I look at my engagement with the people, the products of my government which has not left any home unaffected positively, and I said if election is about acceptance, popularity and impact you have made on the people, we are waiting for what the dictate of democracy would be. In a credible, transparent, free and fair election, Rauf Aregbesola does not have any worry at all about what people will say about his administration.
His relationship with critical voting blocs
I will answer in this form: most people don’t even know how to assess relationships. They assess it from the complaint they get from dissatisfied section of a critical lot. It cannot be. It is impossible for humans to exist without conflict. The Yoruba has an idiomatic way of expressing it, they said teeth and tongue fights but they are always still together. A sociologist or human scientist would not therefore base his assessment of any sector on when there is disagreement. Let us look at what we have done and then situate our relationship within it, though some people for whatever reason does not just like you.
I was telling someone that what should concern you is not those who are opposed to you, especially as it gets to the run-up to the election. When you are still far from it, you may be bothered so that you can make it up. But when no matter what you do, that is their attitude, you just stay put. From the newspapers, there are not less than 20 parties seeking power, democratically. If you have 60 per cent, which does not mean you don’t have opposition. The 40 per cent who doesn’t want to see you and may cut your head if you are careless not only vote against you. If you have 60 per cent, you are home and dry.
In a struggle with other stakeholders, six is a good number. What we are doing is to ensure that each of these critical sectors don’t have any basis at all to be opposed to us. Let us start with the students. We met a condition when we came in that students were given a bursary of N3, 000 and they won’t even get the bursary on time and it was full of scam. They brought it to me to sign and I said why do I have to sign N3,000 for anybody? It’s best if we don’t give this bursary or we give it meaningfully. We raised the bursary to N10, 000 flat. For medical and law students N20, 000, while our indigenes in Law School get N100, 000. The school authorities give the money to students in their system. I don’t see how such students will hate us in the majority, I can’t see it. Whoever now hates us has something else against us not for the fact that we have not done the needful. The increase wasn’t solicited; we did it out of our own understanding of the reality of what the students are going through.
There was clamour for reduction of fees; we reduced the fees from a huge amount to something that is comparably affordable. Also, we have been investing in developing the institutions much more than any administration has done in the history of this state. Yes, we are having some challenges with the lecturers but it’s not peculiar to us but you just have to bear it. For Okada riders, they have no problem with us. They may want us to do things for them as we have done to some other groups, but it not as if they said compared to others, these are the problems. The roads here are appreciated even by those who used legs. Has any government succeeded in constructing 200 kilometres of roads in all nooks and crannies of the state? There is no part of this state that we have not constructed a new road and it’s not just any road but roads with concrete drainage, with stone base and thick asphaltic cover and above all when I get to campaign grounds, I say our roads have tribal marks. In all general roads, we have roads with marks. Before our advent, the civil servants never knew that salary could be paid before the end of the month.
For seven and half year, salaries were never paid here before the end of the month. But from when I assumed office, we changed that. Before the year ended when I assumed office, I paid 10 per cent of their basic as 13th month salary and paid December salary before the end of the year, the civil servants were dazed. Since that day up until December 2013, I pay salary on or before the 25th of every month. But as from January 2014, we ran into trouble which we explained to everybody six months before then. In July 2013, the Federal Government began a squeeze that they themselves know that nobody believed them. They said 400,000 barrel of crude oil is being stolen every day. We didn’t know problem was coming. Instead of collecting N4.6 billion, they gave this government N2.6 billion, 40 per cent slashed. We thought it will be temporary because after that month, they said the stolen crude had reduced to 200,000 barrel per day. When the oil being lost reduced, would you still expect a 40 per cent cut? From that July to now, the maximum allocation this state has ever received is N3.2 billion which was in November 2013.
I am not making up anything, simply saying the truth. Now ask me how was I able to pay up until December 2013? My people are called Osomalo. They are very deft in the management of money and I took this from them. I had been saving through the Omoluwabi Conservation Fund in which 10 per cent of all allocation must just go and rest. So, I had money in reserve, which was a build-up for my refusal to form cabinet for 10 months, I had the money. Whereas my income fell to N2.6billion at the lowest and N3.4billion at the highest for a month, my statutory expenditures which are expenditures that I have no control on once we have agreed on it, for instance salary, pension and they are N3.6 billion every month, I have no power over it.
I can’t say no, I am not paying. Between July and December, I augmented my income with N5.4billion. All in the hope that this thing will go, it didn’t go. It has not gone as we speak, it is even worse. Our teachers in the state are now very well motivated such that you cannot distinguished between them and bank workers. When you see a teacher in Osun before you know. They are so depressed, unmotivated and absence of facilities. Our teachers now appear corporate and well-motivated. It is not that there won’t be some of them who for whatever reason don’t like us but they are in the minority. Don’t buy the talk that you hear that teachers don’t like him, I don’t believe that. We do independent, scientific opinion poll does not support all these talks. You need to see how people respond to us everywhere, people just swarm around me. I have never been in a place where my presence does not generate euphoria.
You don’t get such reception if people have problem with you. I don’t really believe I have any problem with any critical sector. There is nothing that they have done to deride us. There is no household in this state that does not feel our impact. We are talking about how to make education the central focus of our administration because I am no longer thinking of now but we want to create a new sets of Nigerians on which a new society would be born and we can’t do it on what is there now. Mine is the first government in Nigeria to give free uniform to all students.
PDP allegation against Opon Imo (e-tablet)
The first government that will say that you don’t need to buy textbooks for your children in the high school, Opon Imo and it’s targeted at 150,000 students. One of the attractions is that it reduces the cost of book. With that number and with what it cost us to procure the e-book, N200m for 53 books. If you divide N200 million by 53, you will get the cost of per book on that basis. If you now divide the outcome with 150,000, do you know that the cost of the book will be N2? Opon Imo should be celebrated by all because it reduces the capital outlay on books. Tell me any government anywhere in the world that can provide eight textbooks free of charge to students. How many parents can buy all books required by their children, but we have changed this by putting into the hands of all our students in high school a library of 53 textbooks. Our students here keep it with them, go home with them, and sleep with them for as long as they are in school. That was why I said that we have saved our state N8 billion to procure these books for the students. Immediately they heard that I said we have saved the state of N8 billion naira, they said Aregbesola has stolen N8 billion. That was the genesis of the money they said my son took from Opon Imo. Let’s asked them where the N8 billion is.
THISDAY
The August 9 governorship election in Osun State is a tougher test for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) than Ekiti State. Allow me to explain. Ekiti, for all you care, has always been a “swing state” – to borrow the American term used for states that are not “safe” for any party. In 1999, we need to recall, Ekiti was the only state in the South-West that produced a PDP senator. When Segun Oni (then PDP) was declared winner of the 2007 governorship election, Ekiti House of Assembly was evenly split between the PDP and the Action Congress (AC, now All Progressives Congress, APC). And maybe we should remember also that the courts played a key role in settling close political battles in the state.
Nevertheless, we were shocked by Mr. Ayo Fayose’s victory over Dr. Kayode Fayemi in the June 21, 2014 poll. We were shocked primarily because we made many weak assumptions. We assumed that the APC was fully in charge of the South-West, minus Ondo State, and Ekiti was just there for the taking. We assumed that since Fayemi was generally acknowledged as having done well, his performance would get him the vital votes. We assumed that put on a scale, Fayemi would always outweigh Fayose on several indices: panache, vision and accomplishments. We were surprised, I mean shocked, by the outcome. But a careful diagnosis of the Ekiti condition would reveal that there was a complex interplay of local dynamics. Analysts should be wiser now.
Osun offers a different proposition altogether. Having won Ekiti, PDP now has the burden of proving that its victory was not a fluke. Many have attributed PDP’s victory to the popularity of Fayose, and not because of PDP. Is Iyiola Omisore the Osun version of Fayose? It does not appear so. That is the first challenge for PDP. The second challenge is: the surprise factor in Ekiti has now put APC on notice – to be fully prepared, to go the extra mile, to pull all the stops, to stop at nothing. If APC was complacent in Ekiti, it would not be in Osun. The third challenge, I should think, is that in the media arena, APC has scored bigger points. PDP now has to prove, yet again, that media opinion is irrelevant on Election Day. APC had the media on June 21 but it counted for nothing at the end of the day.
Interestingly, I have heard a lot of people argue that the Osun poll is key to the re-election bid of President Goodluck Jonathan. If the PDP takes over Osun, the calculation goes, then Jonathan will have a foothold in the South-West and that would be critical in the 2015 elections. Given that Jonathan did not win Osun in 2011, I would not see August 9 as a referendum on his bid. I would also not see this as a major determinant of where the South-West will go in 2015. A victory for the PDP will certainly boost Jonathan’s chances, but I don’t think a loss will damage him beyond repairs. In simpler terms, I would say we should continue to treat August 9 as a governorship, not a presidential, election.
No matter what we say, the Ekiti election has taught Nigerian politicians some lessons. One key lesson is: never take the votes of the people for granted. Don’t assume they will always vote for you. This thing has been on for a while, but we ignored it. In 1999, the Alliance for Democracy (AD, which is essentially the party that transformed to Action Congress, then to ACN and now APC) swept the South-West polls. AD was the party where the mainstream South-West nestled. By 2003, the game had changed, perhaps with President Olusegun Obasanjo (PDP) in power, but AD assumed it would always win. However, we were shocked as PDP won Ekiti, Oyo, Osun, Ogun and Ondo States, leaving only Lagos for AD.
Even though we cried out then that the elections were rigged (I was one of those who believed strongly that PDP rigged massively in the South-West), I would say, with the benefit of hindsight, that maybe the rigging was not as terrible as we thought. Fayose probably genuinely swept out Chief Niyi Adebayo in Ekiti State; Chief Bisi Akande probably lost in Osun because of his long battle with civil servants, especially teachers; Chief Lam Adesina lost in Oyo probably because of poor performance and a falling-out with the power brokers; Chief Adebayo Adefarati was probably outfoxed in Ondo by Chief Segun Agagu; and Chief Segun Osoba lost probably because Obasanjo was too strong for him. I am ready to use “probably” today because I am beginning to view the South-West voters differently – after the Ekiti shock. In 2003, I was not that lenient with the PDP.
Ordinarily, the Osun battle between the incumbent governor, APC’s Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola and Omisore should not be difficult to call. Aregbesola is a very popular politician – my kind of politician who is very much in touch with the grassroots. He has come with a lot of governance ideas that have empirically impacted on the state. He is someone with passion and conviction. When he talks, you know he understands what development is all about. When I meet a politician, the first question I try to determine is: does this guy know what he is doing? Aregbesola passes the test. I don’t agree with many of his actions – all this “State of Osun” stuff and his handling of religious sentiments in the state – but on the balance, I believe he is very competent.
However, I also recognise that it is not going to be a walkover for him. He has made a lot of mistakes going into an election period – owing civil servants and pensioners; failing to pay youths engaged under the Youth Empowerment Scheme (YES); owing landlords whose houses were demolished under the urban renewal project; and re-organising schools in a way that has disorganised pupils and their parents. His critics have also accused him of “selling” Osun to Lagos, that the biggest beneficiaries of contracts live in Lagos. But after the Ekiti shocker, Aregbesola has quickly moved to calm tempers. He has cleared salary and pension arrears, and started paying compensation to landlords.
Even though PDP is spending a lot of money, aggressively distributing kerosene and rice ahead of the August 9 poll, Aregbesola still has the edge. Anything else will shock me.
Simon Kolawole
THISDAY
Photos showing Some of the 500 Motorcycles (Okada) bought by Aregbesola’s administration to Support the Okada Riders in Osun at the Nelson Mandela Freedom Park, Osogbo, State of Osun, during the weekend
Some of the 500 Motorcycles (Okada) bought by Aregbesola’s administration to Support the Okada Riders in Osun. Insert: Governor State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola cutting the tape to Commission the Motorcycles, during his Endorsement for Second Term by the Okada Riders, at Nelson Mandela Freedom Park, Osogbo, State of Osun, during the weekend
Some of the 500 Motorcycles (Okada) bought by Aregbesola’s administration to Support the Okada Riders in Osun. Insert: Governor State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola cutting the tape to Commission the Motorcycles, during his Endorsement for Second Term by the Okada Riders, at Nelson Mandela Freedom Park, Osogbo, State of Osun, during the weekend
Governor State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola acknowledging cheers from the Okada Riders, during the Distribution of 500 Motorcycles to Okada Riders in Osun and Endorsement of Aregbesola for Second Term in office at Nelson Mandela Freedom Park, Osogbo, State of Osun, during the weekend
Governor State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola acknowledging cheers from the Okada Riders, during the Distribution of 500 Motorcycles to Okada Riders in Osun and Endorsement of Aregbesola for Second Term in office at Nelson Mandela Freedom Park, Osogbo, State of Osun, during the weekend
Some of the 500 Motorcycles (Okada) bought by Governor Rauf Aregbesola’s administration to Support the Okada Riders in Osun, at Nelson Mandela Freedom Park, Osogbo, State of Osun, during the weekend
There is a town called Asipa in Ife North local government area of Osun state. It is a town founded by a warrior called Fashina. It is historically known as a town of warriors. But last week, Asipa was in the news not because it conquered another town or kingdom like their ancestors did consistently in the days of old. It was because an aspiring warrior met his untimely death testing a bullet-proof charm.
Rasheed Sulaiman, according to reports, had gone to a herbalist to fortify himself for only-God-knows- what. The herbalist gave him a bullet-proof charm. Last Saturday, Sulaiman decided to test the charm that he had spent good money on. He called his cousin, Siji to accompany him to a secluded spot where they would check out the bullet-proof. He gave a gun to Siji, wore the amulet and told his cousin to fire. Siji fired and Sulaiman joined his ancestors. Just like that. By the time those who heard the strange gunshot got to the ‘shooting range’, Sulaiman was long gone, amulet and all. It was a sad day indeed for Siji. Other parents went into panic mode, afraid that their other children may also have gone to procure bullet-repellent and machete-cut-proof amulets.
This therefore is where I will start my prayer for Osun.
Dear Lord, protect our children, especially our young men from fake herbalists and bullet-proof amulets that have no NAFDAC numbers. I do not want to believe that Rasheed Sulaiman bought the amulet that killed him because of August 9 election but God I pray that you lay your hands on the youth of Osun state. May your spirit remind them that this election is only for a few hours and life will go on even if anybody is shot playing thug. God Almighty, remind my brothers that only the living reap the dividends of democracy.
Lord you are omniscient, you know politicians will always give money to some people to put their lives on the line so their own children can reap the bounties of political office. You know what they give is peanuts but because my people are poor they scramble for these crumbs, Tonight as they sleep, in their dreams, please show them the folly of accepting even N100,000 from anybody to go and risk their lives. Show them that the death of even the only child of a family will not stop the swearing-in of the governor of Osun state. Let your spirit constantly remind those who have been brainwashed that this is a do-or-die election that all we need to do is to vote, not die because in vain die those who think their families will be compensated because they chose to play thug.
The federal government has said it will deploy troops that will be armed to the teeth. Most of these men are trained to shoot to kill. Some of them do not know how to shoot legs. They only aim for the head and the chest. May our impressionable people know that even if we sue a soldier for killing one young person, the dead will remain dead. May they know better than to challenge a man carrying AK 47 with a bush amulet.
And Lord, please deal with these fake charm merchants. Most of them are just emergency herbalists trading on the desperation of young people who do not know any better. Please give their customers the wisdom and the presence of mind to test the bullet-proof charms on the heads and chests of the herbalists.
I also need to pray for the candidates in the Osun election. May the Lord guide your steps but need I remind you that only one candidate, only one winner can emerge in this kind of competition? I pray that the Lord will grant the winner the wisdom to rule in grace and the grace for those who do not win to accept the verdict.
Lord, cane anybody from above, on their buttocks who decide to foment trouble during or after this election. If a man offers to serve and the people he wants to serve say they do not want his service, it should not cause fight. If the people make their choice, then that is their choice. Do not allow these politicians to bathe their feet in the blood of the people they promised to serve.
Speaker of Osun State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Najeem Salaam, has charged Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to ensure that the August 9 gubernatorial election in the state is credible, free and fair.
The Speaker appealed to INEC to continue to play the role of unbiased umpire for the purpose of conducting election that would be acceptable to all.Salaam made the call while speaking with newsmen shortly after a visit to the Olusongbe of Songbe, Oba Kamilu Ajadi, in Ejigbo Local Government Area of the state.
Urging INEC to ensure a level praying ground for all the political parties and prompt delivery of both sensitive and nonsensitive voting materials to all polling units on the day of election, Hon. Salaam charged politicians to desist from any act capable of causing violence, before, during and after the election.
He said the governorship election should not be a do-or-die affair, adding that the well-being of the electorate and the peaceful atmosphere in the state after the election should be paramount to all politicians.
Appealing to electorate to go out en-mass on the day of the election and vote, Salam advised them not to sell their voter cards, stressing that their cards remains their power to elect the leader of their choice.
In his remarks, the Olusongbe of Songbe, Oba Ajadi, urged politicians to shun violence during the election, describing the exercise as a marathon race, during which all players should play by the rule of the game.
Less than a week to the election, there are 450,560 Permanent Voters Cards (PVC) representing 32% of the total number of 1,410,684 produced, yet to be collected according to INEC, this is quite disturbing, as the deadline for the collection of the cards is Monday 4th August.
There must be coordinated efforts to ensure these cards are collected by or before the deadline to prevent unwholesome usage of the cards by unscrupulous elements who are on the prowl.
We only have 2 days to achieve this feat, it is not an insurmountable challenge.
There’s need for the party chieftains at all levels (State, LG, Wards) and all stakeholders to get involved in mobilizing the registered voters to various INEC offices across the state to collect these outstanding PVCs
Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola will win the August 9 governorship election by 73 per cent, if there is a free and fair election, TSN-RSM, a survey group, has predicted.
The research firm, which is a member of Gallup International, also reported that Aregbesola’s main challenger and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Iyiola Omisore, is behind by 54 points.
However, the survey, which was conducted in Osun State between June and last month, also said that public confidence in the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has dropped by 10 points.
The survey stated: “The APC continues to dominate the political landscape in Osun State, judging by its performance on key indicators evaluated. It scored highest and increased in rating on first mention, sympathy and voting intention.”
It added: “The governor, Rauf Aregbesola, is the candidate of choice by Osun voters with 73 per cent lead over other candidates. This is a clear indication that the choice of Osun voters in the next governorship race is Governor Rauf Aregbesola.”
Omisore polled 19 per cent, representing a two percent decline from the earlier survey.
“The governor remains the main voting choice. Voting choice for Senator Omisore declined by two per cent and seemed not to pose a threat to the incumbent’s chances of re-election as he remains firmly ahead of the race.”
“Not only is the APC the most preferred party in Osun State, it has largely retained this goodwill from way back in the past. It was the party that most people claimed to have voted for in the last election and it is still the party with the highest chances of winning the election again. More importantly, the gap by which it outperforms the opposition, continues to widen and more convincing in the survey.”
In the report, the APC is rated very high as its top-of-mind and awareness increased from 75 per cent to 78 per cent over the two polls, followed by the PDP with 18 per cent, a drop of three per cent from 21 per cent in the first study.
The Labour Party (LP) came third, with a negligible one per cent. Furthermore, the “electorate choice” for the APC is now 70 per cent, boosted by one per cent increment. Nineteen percent indicated that they would vote for the PDP, which represented another three per cent drop. The electorate’s choice for the LP remained one percent.
The report stressed: “While Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola is more known than his party, Senator Iyiola Omisore is less known than his party. The top-of-mind awareness of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola increased to 85 per cent (from 79 per cent), affinity increased from 72 per cent to 74 per cent and chances of being re-elected increased from 71 per cent to 73 per cent.”
“Conversely, it is a tale of decline for the man in the second place, Senator Omisore. For the top-of-mind awareness, the PDP candidate dropped to 13 per cent from 19 per cent, affinity fell to 19 per cent from 21per cent and chances of being elected declined to 19 per cent from 21 per cent.”
The analysis showed that while the affinity of the Osun electorate towards the APC increased by four per cent, the PDP failed to maintain its connection to the people. The positive perception of the APC by Osun voters stood at 83 per cent while on 17 per cent viewed the APC as unfavourable.
According to the polls, 98 per cent of respondents said they would participate in the August 9 election. This suggests that the people are prepared for any eventuality in election.
The survey also showed the strength of the candidates and their parties in the local government areas across the state.
“The repeat of the APC high chance to win in all the local government areas (LGAs) seem to play out again in the next election. The APC is poised to repeat this feat, except in Ife Central and Ife East. The PDP seemed well-positioned to win these two LGAs. The LP’s weakness is imminent across all the LGAs.
“The incumbent’s chances of being reelected remain same across the LGAs, except in Ife Central and Ife East. The incumbent’s chances of re-election remain high and leads his closest rival by a good margin of 54 per cent – an increment of four per cent over the last survey.”
But the voters’ confidence in the INEC dropped to from 57 per cent to 67 per cent.
Statistically, the research firm stated that that “the margin of error for the survey is “plus or minus five per cent, with 95 per cent level of confidence.”
NATION