IN a determination to ensure that no youth is left on the streets of Osun state because of lack of jobs, the government has created another avenue to utilise the creative capacity of youths to enhance the development of the economy.The new initiative is in conjunction with a non-governmental organization (NGO) Generation Enterprise, which seeks to create opportunities for young entrepreneurs who engage in business opportunities within their local environment as means of self-sustenance.
The Director General Office of Economic Planning and Partnership, Dr. Charles Akinola and the Director General, Bureau of Social Services,  Femi Ifaturoti, who spoke on behalf of government at the Osun Youth Empowerment Scheme (OYES) Business Pitch session in Osogbo on Monday said the idea comes in tandem with the Governor Rauf Aregbesola’s determination to ensure that the unemployment rate in the state is reduced to the barest minimum.
The Business pitch session featured 60 Osun Youths employment schemes {OYES} members who specialised in 23 different small scale businesses. Akinola held that the small scale businesses training coordinated by Generation Enterprise Nigeria, a non Governmental Organisation and business incubator, is part of OYES exit programme strategy aimed to empower graduates of the two-year scheme.According to him, “the State government is committed to reducing the rate of unemployment in Osun. That is why it is showing serious concern on graduates of OYES to be employers of labour having gone through a two-year training scheme”.
“Today we have 60 young entrepreneurs who have been successfully trained at the youth entrepreneurship training program organised by Generation Enterprise in collaboration with the OYES. This is another testimony that the state will stop at nothing to ensure that every graduate of the OYES is self-reliant and employers of labour.”
He assured the partnering NGO that Osun government will do everything at its disposal to ensure that the training and the provision of take-off grants and loans to graduates is sustained. Ifaturoti, in his address to the participants, re-assured that the government was still combing the whole world for more opportunities to take youth out of the job markets.
“We have seen that the efforts of this government are yielding fruits in no small dimensions. From a two year programme in OYES, many have developed business initiatives that are making them to stand alone and even become employers of labour. We are not relenting on this as this is the way to go in a country like our where opportunities had eluded the younger generation. Osun will continue its innovative strategies,” Ifaturoti said.
In his address, the Managing Director, Generation Enterprise Nigeria, Bunmi Otegbade noted that the main aim of the scheme is to ensure that graduating members of OYES becomes employers of labour rather than searching for jobs after graduation. He added that the six months training is to prepare the participants on the nitty-gritty of the business for them to be successful when they are on their own. Otegbade revealed that investors who are interested in assisting them are ready to partner with his organisation, which will provide the necessary equipment and capital needed by the graduates for their businesses.
“The first phase of this programme started in December last year. The successes of this batch will determine when the next sets of participants will commence their training. Presently we have trained them for over 6 months and we have given them a token as a seed for them to start something, what we are now doing is to get investors who will assist in funds for the graduates to expand their businesses”, Otegbade stressed
GUARDIAN

The State of Osun has been in the news for some weeks now over strident protests by some stakeholders against its School Reform and Reclassification programme. At the heart of the crisis is the resistance to the decision of the Governor Rauf Aregbesola-led government to merge some of the public schools  taken over from Christian and Muslim missions in 1975, but which are still bearing the names of their original founders and former owners.
The merger, in some instances, involved the transfer of students in schools taken over from Islamic Missions where a number of students use the Muslim veil, hijab, on their uniforms, to the schools taken over from Christian missions such as the Baptist Church, which still bear the names of those missions. Some Christians, under the aegis of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), took strong exception to the transfer of children wearing the hijab into schools bearing the names of Christian churches.
Some Muslims and other Christians also stridently opposed the transfer because it involved their children walking much longer distances to school. It was also alleged by some Christian missions  that the merger exercise was an attempt to obliterate the Christian background of their former schools. The merger exercise reportedly also transmuted existing single-sex schools into mixed schools, as it took no cognizance of the fact some of the schools had been single-sex schools since inception, several decades ago. Also, schools with population as low as 50 in the state’s less populated areas were merged, for ease of management, with the result that some pupils would now have to walk between two to three kilometres to schools in surrounding villages.
However, the Osun State Government has not only made a strong defence of its school reform exercise, it averred that the schools over which some stakeholders are protesting in the state belong fully to the state government, which has been running them in the last 38 years without any contribution from the protesting missions. The government explained that the schools only bear the names of their Christian and Muslim founders because the state government, over the years, did not change their names out of respect for their founders. The state authorities traced the genesis of its reform initiative to the rot in the education sector of the state at the inception of the Aregbesola administration. The government explained that the governor called an education summit in February 2011, which produced the blueprint for the education reform that the government is now implementing.
The programme provides for the division of the state’s schools into Elementary, Middle and High Schools, and the building of giant High School complexes housing three schools, each having capacity for about 1000 students, for ease of administration in areas that have the required population. Apart from rehabilitating, expanding and furnishing existing schools, some of which have been delivered, the government says it will build 100 more Elementary Schools, 50 Middle Schools and 20 High Schools in this first phase of the reform programme. Already, the government prides itself on providing school uniforms and feeding all its school children from Primaries 1 to 4, who will now be in the Elementary Schools, while Primary 5 and 6 children move to Middle Schools, to join Junior Secondary School (JSS) 1 to 3 students. The objective of this exercise, the government said, is to ensure that no child drops out after having only primary or elementary school education. Each Elementary School child will move to Middle School.
The state also recently launched Opon Imo, a computer tablet with 68 textbooks and past examination questions and answers, which it has started supplying to its High School students. The government attributed the protests in the state to human beings’ normal resistance to change, and the politicization of the matter by its political detractors. For us, the protest over the Osun Education Reform exercise is altogether not an unexpected reaction. It is natural for people and organisations to protest whenever there is a change from the status quo, especially if they feel that their interests are not taken into consideration. Such agitation is normal in a truly democratic society, but the protests must have their limits, if they are not to be counter-productive.
The critical point on this matter is that the schools over which the missions are protesting legally belong to the state government, which can administer them the way it feels will best serve the interest of the children in the state. The missions ceased to exercise control over the schools, and stopped funding them, since 38 years ago when they were taken over by the state government. It is odd for them to insist on taking critical decisions on institutions that they are not funding. Their rights over the schools are limited to the interests of the students, just as that of any other parents in the state.
But then, the legal authority of the government over the schools must be exercised with every due respect for the people, including the schools’ former owners. We enjoin the religious missions and the people of Osun State to support the state government’s intervention efforts in the school system, which have been reported to have improved the performance of the students in the SSCE examinations from 34th in the nation, to 8th. It is good, indeed, that a state is demonstrating serious commitment to the reformation of its schools. This is much more than can be said of most of the states in the country. Let the people and government of Osun, therefore, eschew politicking and cooperate to further improve the school system in the best interest of the state.
TRENDS NIGERIA

The State of Osun has employed 222 secondary school teachers to boost teaching and learning in the state’s East Education District.
Mr Kola Buhari, the Tutor-General of Osun East Education District, made this known on Tuesday in Osogbo during the 2013 budget performance review organised for Ministries, Agencies and Departments (MDAs).
The review was organised by the Osun State House of Assembly’s Committee on Finance and Appropriation.
Buhari said that the teachers’ employment was sequel to a request by the education authorities in the district.
He said that the new teachers received their letter of employment on Monday, adding that they were expected to have reported at their duty post.
“We want to use this opportunity to express our gratitude to our listening governor (Gov. Rauf Aregbesola) for giving the approval for the recruitment.
“The employment will definitely boost our educational activities and facilitate a bright future for our children,’’ he added.
PM NEWS

The State of Osun’s education system will soon be the best in Nigeria when all the state of the art Model Schools under construction are completed. This will consolidate all the efforts of the present administration in ensuring a smooth system of education for all pupils in the state.

The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education Mr. Lawrence Oyeniran disclosed this while answering questions from pressmen in his office on the present state of Education in Osun. Mr. Oyeniran maintained that, the reclassification of schools into elementary, middle and high schools is in tandem with current international trends in the United Kingdom (UK) and United States of America (USA).

He noted that people now understand the reasons for the reclassification and are beginning to appreciate the wisdom behind it. He said though, there were teething challenges at the initial stage of  the implementation, it will soon fizzle out. Mr. Oyeniran stressed that, the available data in schools show that, public school enrollment is on the increase especially with the recently commissioned Salvation Army Middle School in Alekuwodo Osogbo where most parents and students prefer as their first choice based on the educational facilities provided there.

He added that, the Government of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola is very much alive to its responsibilities of providing good governance for the people through proactive measures by creating tablets of knowledge “Opon-Imo” which has made teaching and learning easier for students. He urged the people of the state to continue to give their unalloyed support to the government for the realization of the Six- Points Integral Action Plan, most importantly the provision of qualitative education in the state.

OSUNNEWSPORTAL
 

Attorney General and the Commissioner for Justice, Hon. Wale Afolabi has presented the score sheet for the year 2013 budget to the State of Osun House of Assembly on behalf of his Ministry.

The Commissioner, who was accompanied by the Solicitor General and Permanent Secretary, Mrs. Abiola Adewemimo, political appointees and principal officers in the ministry, stated that, the Ministry has scored 71 percent expenditure and 57.78 percent on recurrent expenditure.

He also claimed that the Rent Tribunal has increased from two (2) to nine (9) making it one tribunal for each constituency to facilitate speedy trial and timely judgment. In addition, eighteen (18) Magistrates were appointed and seventeen state counsel were employed through the Civil Service Commission.

He further stated that the ministry’s library is under rehabilitation with the aim of upgrading it to E-library. This will be ready for commissioning anytime from now.

Chairman House Committee on Budget and Appropriation Hon. Kamil Oyedele commended the Attorney General and his team for the fantastic report and also implored them to improve in their activities.

OSUNNEWSPORTAL

THE Guild of Tourism Journalists of Nigeria (GTJ) has called on the Governor of the State of Osun, Mr Rauf Aregbesola on the Hassan Olajokun Park strategically located at the Gbongan junction, for the benefit of travelers, tourists and motorists.
The members of the association led by its President, Wale Ojo – Lanre, during a tour of the park on Friday, commended Governor Aregbesola for the successful completion of the park located at the critical Gbongan-Osogbo link Road junction along the Ife – Ibadan Expressway which, if in operation, will save a lot of people from being plagued by road stress.
The guild noted that the completion of the park with chalets, conference room, event centre, restaurant, toilets, recreation centre and kids place and many other amenities is a noble idea that would boost the economy of the state by luring travellers on that road to have a break on their journey and spend time, money, know more about the state and relax
The association pointed out: “We are impressed with the rate at which the government concluded the project. Now, you can break your journey instead of giving yourself too much stress on the road. You can relax at the park which has a lot of facilities that tourists and travellers will find suitable for their pleasure.”
It remarked that “The concept of the park is lovely. Corporate organisations can come into the place for retreats and other functions.
The park is not only spacious but well situated. The beauty of the park is that the government made adequate consideration for security and medical needs of the tourists by not only building a police post inside the park but also providing a stand by ambulance bus strategically placed outside the park for emergency usse.
“The association urged other state governors to borrow a leaf from the Governor of Osun State. A traveller going through that road to Abuja or North should have places like the park to relax. It will ease the stress of travel. There should be over five or more of such parks along the way to Abuja. If for any reason the traveller decides to make a stop-over, such traveler will be able to lodge without stress.”
The association however tasked Governor Aregbesola: “We implore the governor to gear up action on the park which is first of its kind in the country. We look forward to the government making the park a Public-Private Partnership venture. We do not want to see that beautiful concept run aground with unnecessary bureaucracy and red tape.
“We want to see it put into use in no distance future because the Christmas Festival is fast approaching. The park should be a beehive of activities, thereby generating income for the state and improving the economy of Gbongan and its environ.
TRIBUNE

Ayedun Sikiru, the State of Osun’s Commissioner for Culture and Tourism, is a chartered transporter and maritime expert. He believes that tourism can boost the state’s economy. In this interview, he explains the government’s efforts to make Osun a tourism haven, among other issues.

 Tax Officers led by the Director, Investigation and Audit, Internal Revenue Service, Mr. Ishola Oludare embarked on a tour of the Osogbo metropolis to meet business men and women with the mission of assessing their tax payments and educating them on the importance of paying tax.

In his address, the Special Assistant to the Governor on Internal Revenue Service, Mr. Femi Balogun, represented by the Director of Investigation and Audit, made it known to the public that, tax payment is everyone’s civil responsibility. He further explained that tax paid is used for the overall development of the state. He then urged the people to desist from any untoward act which will hinder the effective collection of tax but rather become ambassadors themselves seeing the great works and innovations going on in the State.

The tour has been a great success given that all the places visited, the people seemed enthusiastic,  taking time to  respond to the questionnaires given to them. Places covered include business locations along Iwo-Ibadan Road, Alekuwodo, among others.

Association of Dietitians in Nigeria (ADN) have commended the Governor of the State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, for providing free meals to the Students of Primary Schools in the State of Osun.

Mr. Tajudeen Olutope Ahmed on behalf of the Professional Nutritionists and Dietitians in Nigeria disclosed this in a signed statement.

 The Association considered the state of Osun’s policy on providing free meal to pupils and students of primary schools as a most welcome development highlighting how this policy will contribute immensely to the nutritional status of the pupils and consequently increase their intelligence quotient.

 In the statement, the Association pledged to collaborate with the administration in the implementation and sustainability of the O’meal Scheme thereby urging the Governor ensure the necessary structures are in place for continuity of the free school meal programme.