Governor, State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, has said that the survival of children must be of utmost concern to any responsible government. Flagging off the state Integrated Measles Campaign and Maternal Neonatal Child in Osogbo, the state capital, the governor said the joy of any woman was not only to give birth to a baby but to see him or her live and grow up to become somebody in life. Describing measles as a life-threatening disease which kills children at their infancy, he noted that the children of today are the future of the state and the country.
“Measles is a killer disease. And it is the enemy of children.It attacks and kills children at infancy. This government is concerned about the children because they are our tomorrow. As the government, we will do everything humanly possible to protect our children. “And today we are happy that the secret and formidable weapon against this preventable killer disease is the vaccine. It is cheaper for government to control this disease through vaccination than any other means. Our government, therefore, will do everything possible to make the vaccine available for the sole purpose of weaning our children from measles,” Aregbesola said.
Speaking earlier, the Commissioner for Health, Dr. Temitope Ilori, said measles is the highest killer of all vaccine preventive diseases.

The Government of the state of Osun is set to collaborate with a leading network, Civil Society in Malaria, Nutrition and Immunization (ACOMIN) with the aim of preventing, treating of malaria, and promoting immunisation and better nutrition among the people of the state.
Speaking with members of the executive of ACOMIN, a non-governmental organisation, when they paid her an advocacy visit, the state Commissioner for Health, Dr. (Mrs) Temitope Ilori disclosed that her ministry would carry the network along especially in the area of immunization and nutrition.
While emphasizing the need for parents and guardians in the state to ensure that their wards are immunised at government health centres across the state, Dr. Ilori disclosed that health ministry is a multi-sectional sector which should not be left to the ministry alone.
Ilori therefore noted that the door of her ministry is always open to organizations that are ready to collaborate with the government in order to eradicate malaria and other related diseases thus advising parents to cease the opportunity and ensure immunisation of their children.
Speaking earlier, the state Chairman of ACOMIN, Mr. Aremu Akinyele said that the vision of ACOMIN established in March, 2006 with the technical assistance of Federal Ministry of Health is to create a healthy Nigerian society free of preventable and communicable diseases.
Expressing concern over what he described as laxity on the part of most parents to ensure that their wards under five years are immunised, Akinyele maintained that members of the public need to be sensitised on the dangers of eating unbalanced diet.
Akinyele however lauded the gesture of the state government to collaborating with the network pledging that ACOMIN would do all it can to ensure that malaria is reduced to its barest minimum saying that ACOMIN has many experienced professionals to enable it achieve this fit.
GAZELLE NEWS

The Governor, State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola and his Deputy, Mrs Titi Laoye-Tomori, leading other State Executives including his wife, Sherifat and people of Irewole, Isokan and Ayedade Local Governments area of the State, at the 13th edition of Walk to live at Apomu, State of Osun on Saturday 09-11-2013

Contrary to misinformation spewed in the public domain, the missionaries do not own, manage or fund the only girls’ schools in the State. Since the 1975 take-over of the schools by the government, over 100 schools were built by the Baptist Convention without any as a single sex school.
Perhaps, there is the need to pierce the religious mask given to the agitation. In essence, there is an urgent need to appraise the past. What was the state of education as directed by the predecessor of Aregbesola? A cursory check shows that most public schools then were P.T.A-run. It was the parents’ body that employed teachers for the schools, most of whom were secondary school graduates. They were paid N7,000 (seven thousand naira) as salaries and classically called ‘P.T.A-teachers’. Parents provided chairs and tables for their children to use at schools.
Most often, for the lack of security, the pupils carried the chairs on their heads in the morning to their respective schools and to their homes after closing hours in the afternoon. The parents also had certain amounts they contributed to the schools as development fees. The contributions of the then government were one or two blocks of buildings of low standard in each schools and the payment of salaries to a handful of regular staff. Since there was no provision for toilets or latrines, the pupils eased themselves around the school compounds. By the time the government was packing its bag and baggage in 2010, after seven and half years in the saddle, most of the buildings had become dilapidated and the school surroundings were in total shambles.
But the odour of the putrid degeneracy in the education then was probably not strong enough to spring the Christian and Muslim communities into the kind of actions they have engaged in recently. Notwithstanding, it is a common knowledge that during that time, while public schools were festering like a sore thumb, the private schools, though very expensive, were blossoming like the fertilized flowers. Thus, the proprietors of these schools then smiled to the banks with their windfalls. Sadly enough, there was no agency or body to supervise and monitor their low quality and poorly paid secondary graduate ‘teachers’ that they exploit to teach the innocent pupils. Therefore, it was a ding dong case of ‘you rub my back and I rub yours’ between the government and the private school owners.
I am sensing, possibly, that the sin of Aregbesola is that he has come with the determination, never seen in any previous government in the state, to salvage the educational system of the State. Initially, it was dismissed as a joke of the political soapbox. But when they started seeing buildings rising up with modern facilities, they became jittery of what would become of the fate of their own private schools. The governor is now seen as a man possessed with a strange spirit that has to be exorcised.
But there are other sins of the governor. He is not just a Muslim but a devoted one in look and nature. His government was the first (and the only one so far) to have declared Hijra as a public holiday for the Muslims. This earned him all sorts of names from a Muslim fundamentalist to a Taliban and Boko Haram. And the Christians declared that he came with the agenda to turn Osun into an Islamic State.
The governor, however, had not finished yet. He further declared a public holiday known as Isese day for the traditional religious practitioners. The Muslims, who had earlier commended him for recognising their “New Year day” pitched an uncommon tent with their Christian counterparts and labelled him a babaalawo (herbalist) and an occultist. In a similar vein, school uniforms distributed freely to students has ELLA (Education and Learning Leading to Accomplishment) as the label of the school uniform; the cry was that the children wearing the clothes would become victims of money rituals.
Equally, Aregbesola remains the only governor to have accorded traditional religion practitioners an equal leverage to operate. (That is understandable in a State that can be rightly described as the cradle of Yoruba race and traditional beliefs.) Today they have more courage to be proud of their chosen faith. Despite the high level of disenchantment and no love lost between the Christians and Muslims, they have always found a common, hypocritical ground when it comes to condemning traditional religion. Meanwhile, the sermon of the governor is that religious tolerance is when a thousand flowers of religions can blossom together. And that the sky is wide enough for the millions of birds to fly together without any clash. No wonder, there has never been a reported case of a religious clash in the State of Osun.
Life can be so ironical when one looks at what a genuine leader has to pass through in bringing a progressive change to his society. As a leader, who is committed to education, Aregbesola sent about 98 medical students to Ukraine to continue their medical programme. These students became victims of the Osun State University, established without any provision for their clinical training. No university was prepared to accept them for the requisite training. Hence, their fate was left hanging until Aregbesola assumed office in 2010. He could have ignored them and denied ever been the cause of their predicament.
Aregbesola, who is called an Islamic fundamentalist, donated millions of Naira to Baptist Convention during its 2013 convention in the State of Osun; gave N10 million to Osun CAN and provided N35 million for the burial of late Prophet Abraham Obadare, the former General Overseer of WOSEM. All spent from the taxes of the hardworking payers.
Each time I reflect on all this, what comes to my mind is the song of the musical maestro, Ebenezer Obey, in his record titled the ‘The Horse, The Man And His Son’. He opines in this record that no matter how wise you are, you can never satisfy human beings. But what is important is that you are serving the good of the generality of your people to the best of your conscientious ability.
What Aregbesola has brought to Osun is a revolution without bloodshed. But what has been realised is that, revolution, whether bloody or non-violent, must have its resisters. The only thing that does not resist itself is change itself. Concluded

Amusan writes from Lagos
PEOPLE’S DAILY

Jefferey Hawkins, Consul-General of the U.S. in Nigeria, on Friday in Osogbo said no fewer than 7,000 Nigerians were studying in various American universities as foreign students.
Hawkins who said this when he visited Gov. Rauf Aregbesola of Osun also commended him for making education a priority.
We are in Osun to see and feel the culture and tourism of the state, as well as to understand the heritage, belief system and culture of the people of the South-West.
We appreciate the beautiful scenery and ambience of the Osun Grove, and we hope to repeat this (visit) yearly,” Hawkins said.
The Consul-General, who particularly lauded Aregbesola for his reforms in education, observed that with what was on ground in the state, the governor was a lover of education.
He said the governor had proved that education was a major sector in national and human development by re-structuring the sector in line with best practices in the world.
Hawkins, who said more than 7,000 Nigerian students were in different American universities, said the figure was the highest from the African continent.
This figure is higher than that of any country on the African continent. This shows how governments in this country take education very serious,” he added.
Responding, Aregbesola said his administration would continue to give education the priority it deserved, adding that he had learnt so much from the U.S. example.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Hawkins was in company of some U.S. Consulate officials during the visit to the state for its art and cultural attractions.
BUSINESS DAY 

Resumption to schools for the new term by students and teachers in Osun State witnessed some form of uproars from a section of missionaries in the state, who accused government of illegally taking over their schools; disrupting the order with which they were being run, and that as a result also affecting negatively the future of their students.
It took days before normalcy could return to some of these schools especially in Osogbo, Ilesa, Iwo,Ile- Ife, among major towns in the state.
The Baptist Convention in particular, had cried foul, saying the government’s decision to turn single- sex schools to mixed-sex, especially in Iwo, and the Baptist Girls High School, Osogbo, now Osogbo Baptist High School, could neither be in the interest of the school nor that of the church.
Their grouses, apart from the takeover and merger, had also included the reclassification of school system in the state, which unlike the usual primary and secondary school classifications, now has elementary, middle and high school classification systems.
The classification, according to the state government, was not an after-thought, but part of the recommendations of a three-day education summit of stakeholders and experts in the global education system under the chairmanship of the Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, who gathered in the state in 2011 to rebuild the state’s hitherto collapsing education sector.
According to the state’s Deputy Governor and Supervising Commissioner for Education, Mrs. Titi Laoye-Tomori, the classification took into cognitisants the ages and mental response capacities of the pupils, which she claimed led to the three groups of ages six-nine, 10-14 and 15-17 for the elementary, middle and high school category, respectively.
With the new categorisation, Mrs. Laoye-Tomori noted that not only the academic needs of the pupils had been taken into considerations but also their extra-curricular activities, including the infrastructural facilities in those schools.
She noted that the experts’ research activities had revealed that pupils in the ages between six and nine behave similarly and respond to lessons the same way and so could be better handled in the same environment and by the same categories of teachers, who she said deserve special form of on-the-job trainings.
As regards the alleged abrupt merger of schools, the deputy governor explained that Osun State, with just a little above three million people had too many mush room schools with dilapidated infrastructure and unevenly distributed teachers.
She said the situation was worse in the rural areas where less than six teachers attend to more than 300 pupils while in some communities, there were more than 18 teachers attending to less than 60 pupils. She decried the overcrowded classrooms and dearth of teaching and learning facilities leading to more students sitting on bare floors to receive lessons.
To address the inequalities and the decay in the infrastructure, the deputy governor explained that the state was not buoyant enough to keep “too many substandard school structures” scattered all over the state, and therefore, developed the more expansive state-of-the-art model structures that could accommodate more students and provide enabling environment for adequate teaching and learning.
However, contrary to the outcry that followed the merger, investigations revealed that from Iwo to Osogbo, Ilesa, Ejigbo, Ede to Ife, among others, both students and teachers, who savour the beauties of the new and improved teaching and learning environment, took a swipe at the old conditions of learning and praised the new administration for what they described as a right step in the education sector for the state.
At the Christ African Church Middle School, Gbodofon, Osogbo, James Adedayo said the experience in his new school could not be compared to where he was studying before, saying the new set of furniture, the provided marker boards, among other basic amenities including toilets, water, have made learning at the  middle school easier than before.
Similarly, at the Baptist High School, where government had recently renovated the dilapidated structures and provided basic needs such as water, the students who are now males and females were seen receiving the new set of furniture of plastic chair and lockers as they beam with smiles.
The atmosphere in Ejigbo was not different as students relived their experiences of the new atmosphere where investigations revealed that the state’s policies of free school uniforms, books and the distribution of “Opon Imo,” otherwise known as tablet of knowledge had erased the hitherto sense of inferiority complex, inequalities and oppression among students and thereby enhanced friendship.
Some of the teachers who spoke to National Mirror including Mrs. Modupe Daniel at the Christ African Church Middle School, Osogbo and Mrs. Fasilat Ajiboye of Saint Michael Elementary School, also in Osogbo, commended the state government for making teaching a worthwhile experience for them.
While the students of the recently inaugurated Salvation Army Middle School, Alekuwodo, Osogbo could not hide their check about the serenity, beauty and facilities at the remodelled school, the experience at some of the elementary schools visited where pupils were served free meals, revealed the readiness and eagerness of pupils to learn.
According to Mrs. Ajiboye, who teaches Grade II pupils, no single day passes without new students approaching the school for enrolment. She added that classes were usually filled to the brim whenever free eggs are being served with rice, and this was corroborated by one of the caterers, Mrs. Eyinade Adebisi, who added that as one of the 3,007 caterers employed by the state, the experience has been more than awesome.
When she was asked about some of the challenges raised by critics of the new school systems such as distance and the fear of sustainability, among others, the deputy governor explained that all the issues raised had been addressed by the government including relevant legislations by the legislative arm of the government which would make their reverse a near impossible step to take.
She also added that the issue of distance was already taken care of as the new high schools would have hostel facilities with free school buses distributed around the states to run the routes.
“One thing we must understand is that this administration does not just dabble into any project except it has been properly fathomed with adequate researches and findings done and the merits and demerits appraised.
So, like all our projects, the education sector has witnessed a big turnaround with a large chunk of our income being invested in it because the governor knows very well that no state can grow beyond the capacity of its schools.” Continued, Laoye-Tomori said, “This administration has employed more than 14,000 teachers since assumption and more would still be employed.
The governor has vowed not to stop until students of Osun State can compete favourably with their counterparts in the developed countries. But the beauty of government’s efforts so far is that we are already seeing the results with enrolment increasing by the day.”
Corroborating the deputy governor, Chairman, Osun School Infrastructure Development Committee, Otunba Lai Oyeduntan, explained that each of the elementary schools would accommodate about 900 pupils and are being located in the neighbourhoods to address the fear of distance.
He said a total of 37 model structures were already being built across the nine federal constituencies in the state and would be delivered latest this December, after which the next phase would commence.
He said the methods of building the infrastructure, which he noted included the use of the traditional sands and blocks for the high school, the composite brick method for the middle schools and dry construction method involving light framed metals for the elementary schools, have taken into cognisance the end users and their needs. He therefore called on all the people of the state to support and cooperate with the Aregbesola’s administration so as to jointly move Osun State to the next level.
NATIONAL MIRROR

 
Governor, State of Osun, Mr Rauf Aregbesola has reiterated his administration’s commitment to ensure steady communal peace as an antidote to boost the economic development of the state, thereby making it the  commercial nerve centre of the South-West.
He emphasised that for any development agenda to sail through, communal peace, which is a necessary condition must be given utmost priority.
Aregbesola  stated this at the fourth in the series of the open forum tagged: Gbangba Dekun, where government meets with the people to account for its stewardship, as well as get feedback from them.
He said it was  paramount for people and communities in the state to coexist peacefully and harmoniously, stressing that only the cooperation of the entire people of the state could guarantee peace which is a precondition for growth and development.
Aregbesola, who stated that peace was the sixth integral action plan of his administration affirmed that  he would pursue a peaceful agenda for the state, where lives and property would be fully protected.
“This government will not waiver in its efforts to develop the state and make it one of the commercial centres of the South-West. But one very important catalyst of development is peace and security. This is also why our government makes it its primary duty to provide security, as well as peace and harmony among all people and communities.
“As you know, peace is one of the six integral action plans of our government. Therefore, our cooperation will guarantee our peaceful coexistence. It is through this that development will come,” he said.
In their responses, traditional rulers from the four local governments, Ede North, Ede South, Egbedore and Ejigbo, commended what they described as the uncommon development the state has witnessed since Aregbesola came on board in the last three years.
The Timi of Ede, Oba Munirudeen Adesola Lawal, said if a government has performed then such government deserves a second term, contending that “If a government is a performer, it should be allowed to continue; it should be supported to continue the good work.”
TRIBUNE

Residents of communities cited in hilly areas of Osun State or farming around the hilly  have been admonished to be vigilant and report any strange sound promptly to the government authorities.
The state Commissioner for Environment and Sanitation, Professor (Mrs) Olubukola Oyawoye, who gave the charge in Osogbo said there was the need for communities in hilly terrain to be conscious of unexpected natural occurrence in their domains.
According to her, a deep gouge that recently tore through one of the hills in Olobede village, Ikeji-Ile, in the Oriade Local Government Area of the state, after a volley of strange sounds, calls for vigilance on the part of the people living in the hilly areas and their cooperation with the government.
Prof Oyawoye added that although, the ministry’s  top functionaries have visited the area with a group of scientists, a laboratory examination of water, soil and other specimen taken at the site was being undertaken to be able to decide the causes and proffer solutions to this sudden earth break where it occurred.
The commissioner disclosed that despite this, a much smaller one had reportedly occurred within the same vicinity about 12 years ago, adding that the state would not take chances over this long stretch of water crater, running through one side of the mountain.
While assuring the state indigenes that Governor  Rauf Aregbesola’s government would never delay in taking necessary steps on any issue dealing with security of lives and property of people in Osun, Prof Oyawoye said communities should collaborate with the incumbent administration to preempt natural disaster of any form.
TRIBUNE

Everything is set for this year edition of the popular Osun Music Awards. The event, started in 2008 and aimed at encouraging and celebrating talents both old and young, who have contributed in one way or the other to the music and entertainment sector. Those in Music, Dance, Video, Disc Jockey, Photography, Broadcasting and entertainment generally would be honoured in different categories at the event.
Tentatively, the event is schedule to hold on Nov. 10th, 2013. Nomination has since commenced in the different medium to allow people vote for their choice artistes and other nominees for different category of awards. The event is packed by Muzik Planet Entertainment with full support of Government of the State of Osun and Ministry for Information & Strategy.
 

A month after the Government of Osun school reclassification programme took off, pupils, teachers, and others narrate their experiences.
The reclassification of schools in Osun State has not stopped to generate reactions. Some stakeholders have criticised the new education policy, while others have described it as a right step in the right direction.
In the first category are some politicians and the Christian Association of Nigeria who see the policy as a means of undermining Christianity.  And those in support of the reclassification  have also argued that the step would benefit the pupils who would now learn in a more conducive environment with modern facilities.
However, despite these divergent views, things are gradually taken shape in the various institutions. A visit to some of the schools in Osogbo, the state capital, revealed that pupils, in all grade levels, are gradually integrating into the new system. Some hail the new arrangement, while some others are indifferent. Some others say they miss their friends in the former institutions.
Besides, some parents too express mixed feelings on the issue. As a result of the novel ‘marriages’, some pupils now have to travel some kilometres from their residence to the new schools. They are thus asking the state government to provide free transportation for them.
A 10-year-old Grade 6 pupil of Salvation Army Middle School, Alekuwodo, Abduqudri Abu, says the policy is a good one, because according to him, the school is one of the new ones built by the government, which boasts modern facilities. These include well tiled floors, electricity supply with functional ceiling fans, toilets and water.
He says, “I am enjoying this school. It is better than my former school. It is good and every school should be like this one.”
A secondary school pupil who was transferred from Fakunle Comprehensive High School to Baptist Girls High School, Afeez Abdukareem, explains that he does not see anything wrong in attending the same school with girls, because that was what obtained from where he was coming from. He, however, says he misses some of his friends in his former school who have been taken to some other places.
Another female student who refused to give her name at the Baptist Girls High School says she feels indifferent about the merger, because according to her, no male colleague can influence her to do anything against her wish.
She tells our correspondent, “It is somewhat strange to see the boys joining us, but here we have been trained not to entertain distractions from the opposite sex. Even at home, my parents have always drummed it into my ears, not to be deceived by the opposite sex. So, personally, there is no problem with me.”
Some parents also air their views. Mr. Ade Adeniyi,  whose children are attending St. Michael’s C&S Elementary School,  wants the Aregbesola administration to provide free buses to transport pupils, stressing that this measure will eliminate the problem of distance which some pupils are facing.
He says, “Though the education policy is good, some things were not considered before  it was introduced. And one of them is the distance. Some pupils now have to travel some kilometres before getting to their new school.  This is an additional burden on the parents’ hard-earned resources.”
Another parent, Mrs. Omolade Oni, says she sees nothing wrong with having boys being taken to girls school, because, according to her, there is no gender that exist only on their own in the society.
She states, “I went to a mixed secondary school, and I never allowed any distraction from either boys or any other area. I don’t think there is a gender that exists alone in the society.”
But  some teachers who were taken to places farther from their former schools lament the merger, saying it was stressful.
The teachers who do not want their names mentioned for fear of possible persecution say they ought to have been consulted before the ‘indiscriminate transfers’ to avoid the problem they are now encountering.
Yet, a national officer of ANCOPSS who is a principal of one of the schools supports the merger. He notes that the policy would afford the government the opportunity to maximise the little resources available. He warns that the policy must be properly implemented to avoid failure.
The state government has however continued to stress that the new education policy is a product of the education summit it organised when it took over the administration of the state.
The Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka,  was one the personalities at the summit . The government says Soyinka gave his nod to the reclassification model.
Under the reclassification of public schools, pupils from age six to nine years are grouped together in elementary schools. Those who are six years old are supposed to be in Grade 1 while the elementary school ends at Grade 4,  after which the pupils proceed to Middle School where they would spend five years from Grade 5 to Grade 9.
At High School, the pupils will spend three years from Grade 10 to Grade 12 after which they would write the final examinations.
The deputy governor, Mrs. Titi Laoye-Tomori, who also oversees the education ministry,  says since the introduction of the new policy,  school enrolment had soared as some parents have begun to withdraw their children from private schools to public schools in the state.
She says, “The implementation of this reform in the reclassified structure of the schools will ensure a total overhauling and the revamping of the educational system.
“These schools are to be neighbourhood schools, not to be too far from area of residence, trade and work place of parents. The middle school will have students in Grades 5-9 classes; age range of 10-14 years are to be sited within maximum of two to three kilometres from where pupils live and the high school will have students in Grades 10-12 classes –  age range of 15-17years.”
Laoye-Tomori adds that the state government has provided a level playing ground in these schools.
“We have provided a level playing ground for our children in the state, irrespective of their family background. The kids see themselves as one. Aside from infrastructure and the feeding programme, government has given free uniforms to students many of who, before now, were badly clad.”
While she argues that it is more economical to cater for 300 pupils in one school than in three schools of 100 pupils each, she hints that the erstwhile school system in the state has schools with as low as 30 pupils as total enrolment in primaries one to six.
She agrees that some classes have more than 40 pupils now because of the ongoing construction of new bigger schools which would replace the dilapidated ones. Laoye-Tomori  also allays  the fear in some quarters that the reclassification would lead to sacking of teachers. She adds that the state government has recruited 14,890 teachers to tackle the shortage of personnel in public schools.
 THE PUNCH