Nigerian Juju Musician, Chief Commander Ebenezer Obey-Fabiyi presented a CD Album titled:- *Aregbesola: Agent of Change* to the Governor, State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola to Support his Re-Election Campaign in Ilesa, State of Osun on Thursday

The ancient town of Iwo stood still for several hours on Friday as members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Iwo gathered with one voice to endorse the governor, State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, for second term.
The playing ground of DC Elementary School, Araromi, venue for the programme, was filled to capacity, as members and followers of the party in their several thousands gathered to express their appreciation to the governor.
Speaking at the event, the Ekerin of Iwoland, Otunba Bayo Aremu, said that Aregbesola’s achievement in the last three and a half years is unprecedented and enough to earn him second term.

He said: “Aregbesola’s government is incomparable. No administration in the history of Osun has performed as much as he has done, as he has transformed not only Iwoland, but the whole of Osun.
“For Aregesola to pick the Secretary to the State Government, the Commissioner for Women and Children Affairs among others from our land shows that he is a man that loves our dear town so much and he should be supported to rule beyond 2014.
“I have been out of Iwo for many years, but I have decided to come back home having heard of the wonderful transformation that the state is witnessing under Ogbeni Aregbesola”, Aremu said.
Also speaking, the Secretary to the State government, Alhaji Moshood Adeoti, urged the people of Iwo and entire state to continue to support the government and the party, saying that, it is only the APC that can move the state and the country forward. Adeoti said: “Look at our roads, look at the new schools he is building, a lot of our jobless youths are now employed as a result of the OYES scheme put in place by our governor and he is feeding our elementary school pupils everyday.” He subsequently moved a motion for the adoption of Aregbesola for second term and was seconded by Alhaji Liadi Ganiyu with a loud applause from the teeming supporters of the party.

In his response, Aregbesola expressed his appreciation, as Iwo was the second town after Modakeke to openly adopt him for a second term in office.
While promising his continued delivery of good governance to the people of Iwo and the entire state, the governor announced that the road from Papa boundary to Iwo will be constructed anytime from now.

Aregbesola said: “We promised and we are fulfilling our promises because we are not like the people who ruled the state for seven and a half years before us without anything to show for it.
“At a time in this state, they were the occupants of the three tiers of government: the Federal, State and Local governments and they couldn’t do anything positive for the state. They should be ashamed. “We should all begin to tell ourselves that it is only the APC that can deliver good governance in the country; we should not leave the campaign to politicians alone”, he noted.
The state helmsman urged the people to ensure that they keep their voters’ card intact, so as to be able to exercise their right as voters.
OSUN DEFENDER

PHOTOS from the Turning of Sod Ceremony for the Construction of Ultra Modern Central Abattoir in
Osogbo, State of Osun on Wednesday 15-04-2014

From left, Governor State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola; Managing
Director, Hanfriqul Nigeria Limited, Alhaji Kolawole Aresa and Commissioner
for Agriculture and Food Security, Mr Wale Adedoyin, during the Turning of
Sod Ceremony for the Construction of Ultra Modern Central Abattoir in
Osogbo, State of Osun on Wednesday 15-04-2014

Governor State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola (2nd left) laying foundation
for the Construction of an Ultra Modern Central Abattoir in Osogbo, State
of Osun on Wednesday 15-04-2014. With him are, his Deputy, Mrs Titi
Laoye-Tomori (3rd left); Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Security, Mr
Wale Adedoyin (4th left); Managing Director, Hanfriqul Nigeria Limited,
Alhaji Kolawole Aresa (left); Sub-Consultant, Hanfriqul Nigeria Limited, Mr
Dapo Ademosu (5th left) and others.

Governor State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola (left) laying foundation for
the Construction of an Ultra Modern Central Abattoir in Osogbo, State of
Osun on Wednesday 15-04-2014. With him are, his Deputy, Mrs Titi Laoye-Tomori
(2nd left); Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Security, Mr Wale
Adedoyin (3rd left); Sub-Consultant, Hanfriqul Nigeria Limited, Mr Dapo
Ademosu (4th left) and others.

Home Grown School Feeding and Health Programme (HGSFHP), launched in 13 states as a pilot project in 2005, was designed by the Federal Government to, among other things, address the high rate of out-of-school children. Since then, only Osun State could carry on, writes MOJEED ALABI tweet

In its continued effort to make life meaningful and abundant for the people, the Government of Osun says its free Easter train service will begin on Good Friday.‎
A statement by the Commissioner for Commerce, Cooperatives an Empowerment, Mr. Ismail Jayeoba Alagbada, said the first train would take off from Iddo Terminus in Lagos to Osogbo by 10AM. on Friday.
The service, he added, would allow indigenes and people living in Osun and it’s environs to come home and celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ with their families and loved one. ‎
Alagbada noted that the last round of the trip would be on Easter Monday when passengers would return from Osogbo to Lagos by 11AM.‎
According to him, the gesture is in line with Governor Rauf Aregbesola’s administration initiative to make life better for the people of the state.
He said, “The government of Aregbesola is a people-friendly government, a government totally committed to unlocking the latent potential in our people.
“For the fourth year running, free train ride has become a tradition in the state, particularly during festive periods.
“I want to use this opportunity to urge our people to grab this unique opportunity provided by the governor and join the ride to spend your Easter holiday in Osun where you stand the chance to get closer to the most endowed tourist land in the South West.”
The free train initiative is to convey indigenes of the state from Lagos and some cities in the South- West to and from Osogbo during festive seasons‎

The seal order placed on Oduduwa University, Ipetumodu, Ife, over non-remittance of N173 million income taxes by officials of Osun State Internal Revenue Service has been lifted.
Oduduwa University, Ipetumodu is a private tertiary institution located in Ife North area of the state.
It will be recalled that leader of the government team to the university and Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Revenue, Femi Balogun, said in a statement that “the tax liabilities covered back duty liability from 2006-2011 and the enforcement is the last stage of any tax process which is in line with Section 104 sub section (1) and (2) of personnel income tax act as amended.
“Tax payment is a law and a civic responsibility of all sundries; it is through this effort that government provides massive infrastructural development, security and other amenities. “The Revenue Department will stop at nothing to ensure that every individual performs his civic obligations.”
He advised the university to do the needful by paying up its tax liability to avoid further action of prosecution in a court of law.
However, a senior management staff of the institution who spoke to Daily Independent under anonymity confirmed that the seal order has been lifted following useful discussions with state officials.
Though the source did not disclose details of discussions or amount paid, academic activities have since resumed at the institution.
DAILY INDEPENDENT

How will you react to the opposition to the state’s school merger and reclassification policies?
Well, we cannot discuss the merger of schools and reclassification policies without giving the details of the background to the major reforms and policies in the state’s education sector. When our administration came on board in 2010, what we met on ground was terrible and disgusting.
There was no data about the schools, infrastructure was nothing to write home about as classrooms were already caving in, and staff welfare or training was not in place. As at that time statistics revealed that only three per cent of our secondary school leavers were admissible to higher institutions.
That informed the government’s decision to hold an all-inclusive education summit, which took place precisely in February 2011, and was chaired by the Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka. So, the reclassification is meant to actualise all the reforms. That is the answer in a nutshell.
However, for adequate understanding of the whole arrangement, we have reclassified the school system into three basic structures; the elementary, middle and high schools structures in accordance with the age group of the children which were classified as age six to nine; 10 to 14 and 15 to17 in that categories.
The reclassification involves the various components of the reforms we are carrying out for each of the categories in connection with the ages and mental capability, as well as the needs of the students.
To start with, in the elementary school the pupils are children in their formative stage of their lives. I want to emphasise here that whatever one puts in the foundation of a house determines what the future of that house would look like.
But there had been school feeding project before this administration came on board.
Of course, the free meal project was originally introduced to the State of Osun through the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) Act of 2004.
The Federal Government started the pilot project in 13 states including our state in May 2006, and they advanced the funding expecting that all states of the federation should feed their primary school pupils at least once a day.
When we assumed offices in 2010, what we found out the kids were being fed with was not attractive to us, it was not even attractive to the children themselves.
Apart from the cocoa drink which was very good, the foods weren’t rich enough and to address that, we asked nutritionists and dieticians for professional recommendations for foods that will be ideal for children in their formative years.
That was meant to address the stunted growth we observed among the children especially those in the rural areas. And indeed, the recommended foods were those with carbohydrates, protein and fruits on daily basis.
The programme was originally tagged “Osun Home Grown Feeding Programme” but when we came on board we rebranded it and named it Osun Elementary School Feeding and Health Programme (O’Meal). Apart from feeding the children, we also deworm them and that is done every six months.
The statics as at the end of last session in July shows that on a weekly basis, we slaughter 15,000 fresh chicken, 7,800 crates of eggs, 400 tons of fresh fish and we also slaughter 35 heads of cattle for them.
The cost implication for this new session is not yet ready, but I am sure it must have increased because the reports have always shown tremendous increase in school enrollment.
So, we spent N14.9 billion on the school feeding project on a daily basis, and as at last school year we have spent N3.6 billion yearly.
What have been the effects of this investment on the school enrolment and the academic growth of the children?
UNESCO’s report of January 2012 indicated that Osun State was the second state in the South-West geo-political zone of the federation with the highest number of out-of-school children.
You can believe that Lagos, Ogun, Ondo and Ekiti States were clearly ahead of Osun State.
But today, with the report of the National Bureau of Statistics released on July 8, last year, the State of Osun has the highest figure of primary school enrollment.
And today our pupils are very attentive in class, they grow better and absenteeism has reduced to almost zero as against what we used to have before. Now, they anxiously await their meal.
When we started this programme on April 30, 2012, towards the end of the same month, we recorded an increase in enrollment of about 25 per cent because school enrolment increased by 38,000 pupils. We started with 155,318 pupils and by ending of May we already had 194,258 pupils on enrollment.
So, without this programme we would have lost 38,000 pupils who would never have been able to go to school.
But couldn’t the reforms be achieved without the reclassification and merger of schools?
The reclassification is in the best practice of the global standard. That is the way it is done where we copied our education system from. There is a big advantage in putting children in the same age brackets together in the same learning environment and this is the opinion of psychologists.
We have 1,738 elementary schools scattered all over the state whereas the population of the state is less than four million. However, most of these schools we have uneven distribution of teachers and facilities.
In some schools we have less than 30 pupils with 18 teachers, while in some we have more than 500 pupils with about six teachers. Now, the reclassification programme of the government is meant to address all such issues with the distribution of these model schools across all the local government areas.
For instance, before we came on board some schools were only collecting N200 per month as grant, but we have increased that to N400 per pupil per month and this runs into several millions of naira instead of about N25 million the previous administration was spending on school allocation.
So, as at July, last year we have spent about N856, 800,000 per year as school grants to our schools. Most of the school uniforms adopted by the government as observed are already fading, while there is controversy surrounding the school merger policy.
How is the government resolving all these?
We are already resolving that, and we are happy that our people are actually realising the fact that our efforts are aimed at reforming the ailing education sector.
You know it is natural for people to resist change especially changes that have not been experienced in the past and in a society where politicians don’t cultivate the habit of fulfilling political promises and where they are used to policy summersault. But, I want to assure you that is not going to be the case here.
There has been complaint about the uniformity in the uniforms as critics are insisting that it is difficult to differentiate the pupils from one school to another. What do you think about this?
Like I have mentioned, my prayer is that we progress in life. This state is moving forward and it is the same practice of uniformity in school uniforms that is being practiced abroad.
Through the badges and berets we can identify and differentiate the pupils and their schools. Let me say this, when we were young, all the Anglican schools used to have the same school uniforms all over the country and they were called Ionian colleges.
We will soon get used to it. In the United Kingdom (UK), it doesn’t matter whether your child is in London or Edinburgh, you can enter a shop and pick up his or her uniform.
But some of the uniforms are already fading, thus suggesting that the quality is poor?
We have noticed some of these things and more importantly especially that of the middle schools. We are working to change it. Meanwhile, what was initially provided was distributed freely but what we have done now is to engage about 10,000 of our youths, through the Omoluabi Garment Factory, which was set up in Abeere, by this administration as part of its employment creation programme.
TELEGRAPH