Mr. Peter Babalola, the Chairman, Osun Local Government Service Commission (LGSC), said the commission would not witch-hunt any local government worker.
Babalola gave the assurance in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Osogbo. “The commission was put in place to ensure that workers at the local government level perform optimally at the grassroots. It is also the priority of the commission to boost the morale of staff by maintaining periodical relevant training. The commission is not out to goad, witch-hunt or sack workers, but to instill discipline where necessary to make the local government service a professional calling,’’ Babalola said.
He said that the success of any government would be determined by the readiness of its workforce to turn policies into reality. Babalola said that the commission would accord priority to the welfare of its workers, adding that this would boost productivity. He said his desire was to encourage workers to add value to their qualifications, especially by undertaking professional courses that would assist them in “climbing the ladder of success.’’
Babalola who was the Chief of Staff to former Gov. Olagunsoye Oyinlola was appointed the commission’s chairman by Gov. Rauf Aregbesola on Oct. 5.
NAN

Sola Fasure, a public Affairs analyst, is of the opinion that the opposition from the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) to the restructuring of schools by the Osun State Government is misguided… 
On Wednesday October 9, I was at the Heathrow Airport in London enroute Columbia, South Carolina in the United States to attend a three-day Christian conference, 2013 Word Explosion. While whiling away time, waiting for my flight, I decided to quickly catch up with home news. But lo and behold, it was major news on an online medium that the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) had attacked Governor Rauf Aregbesola and accused him of working to Islamise the State of Osun, through the reclassification of schools going on in the state. The National General Secretary of CAN, Rev Musa Asake, was reported to have ordered Governor Aregbesola to reverse the policy or he would face legal action from CAN. By the time I powered my phone to receive updates on Osun from Google alert, all the news media already had the story as major news item.
By Thursday, it has been localised. The state chairman of CAN issued a seven day ultimatum to the governor to reverse the policy of ‘changing of single sex schools to co-educational schools in order to preserve the religion of each school or face the appropriate actions of the religious body.’ CAN had since declared war on the state government. Now, I have always had issues with CAN. I think it was in 1987 or thereabout. I was living in Ibadan then and we were directed, through our various churches, to report at Saint James Cathedral in Ibadan on a Saturday morning. I joined other faithful in an interdenominational service of songs, a short prayer and some incoherent information on a looming clash with Moslems in the city and the need to be vigilant and stand for our faith.
I left the venue, a bit puzzled, not quite knowing the purpose of the assembly. I later went to the University of Ibadan to read political science where I got it. CAN had held a political rally and had used the congregation as the bargaining chip. It would not have mattered if the military had stormed the venue and mowed us down. It rather would have strengthened CAN leaders’ position of playing the victim card.
Many years later, as a columnist, I have had to decry CAN’s position on the ethno-religious violence in the North in which the body in a thinly veiled threat of reprisal asked Christians to defend themselves with arms. This is nothing but incitement to go to war. I was scandalised. How could Christians be asked to carry guns and be shooting other people in self defence? I became convinced then that the body had lost it. I just shuddered at the consideration of a Christian standing before the throne of judgement and being asked by God to defend the spilling of blood. A Christian should minister life and not death. That is why Christ died and our primary purpose as his disciples.
But no one should be deceived by CAN; it is a political body. It is largely a body of self seeking, egoistic, attention seeking clerics who are out of tune with the bible and God’s instruction on how to relate in the secular world. They come across as Simon Peter wielding the sword and cutting off the ear of Malchus, the High Priest’s servant, in the failed bid to decapitate him. For them, response to any challenge must be carnal. But this is a clear repudiation of biblical injunction that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. The tendency to ‘fight’ for our faith and defend our God is a pitiable manifestation of weakness and lack of faith. God said he will defend us and fight our battles. I still don’t get the idea of Christian leaders thinking they can fight with secular weapon and win. Any God that needs humans to fight for him is weak and is not a God in the true sense. Have you not heard that Jehovah is a Man of War? He can and will fight His battles.
CAN is spiritually weak and that is why it has to resort to political means. Jesus in contrast refused to be drawn into politics. The closest political statement he made was “render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s”. In his dying moments, he had to pray for his traducers. He was never politically confrontational.
God will fight for you, but that is if you are fighting the right battle. God is a just God. In 1975 the then military government took over mission schools and duly compensated the owners. This though did not strike me to be the best judgement. If government wanted schools, it should build its own. However, this is no longer the issue. That the schools now belong to government is a moot point. We are talking of 38 years down the line. Are these people just waking up 38 years after to realise that the schools no longer belong to them?
The consequence of the takeover 38 years ago is that the schools are now ‘public schools’ and not ‘Christian schools’. Their funding, admission, management and staffing have been done by the government since then. Children from Moslem and atheist homes have as much chance and right to be admitted to the schools as much as Christians.
I went to Otapete Methodist Primary School in Ilesa between 1972 and 1978. My desk mates then in primary four and five were the late Simiat Olajuwon and Bilikisu Yesufu, respectively, both Moslems. Simia and I went to Methodist High School while Bili went to St Lawrence’s Grammar School. Of course there were other Muslim colleagues like Nurudeen Siyanbola and Muraina Audu. These are lovely people I still remember with nostalgia. I can remember vividly that it was at Otapete that I was taught about the founding of Islam, the prophet and his wife Khadijat and the Hegira flight from Mecca to Medina. There was no dispute over admitting Muslims or teaching pupils on Islam. One thing is clear: we had good education and I thank God for this.
However, public education has nosedived. Parents have lost confidence in public schools and private schools have emerged to take over the vacuum left. When Governor Rauf Aregbesola came in 2010, it was public knowledge that only five per cent of pupils in SSS3 made the requisite pass in WAEC and NECO examinations of that year to enable them matriculate into higher institutions. It is most appalling therefore that some Christians, notably the Baptists and the leadership of CAN would rather have the schools run down as it is and be content with a false notion of ownership. Governor Aregbesola should be commended for his bold initiative in schools restructuring with new schools, modern infrastructure, school uniforms,Opon Imo, teachers motivation and so on.
What I am looking towards now is a turnaround in the results of pupils in public schools and not bickering over control and other inanities. CAN and the Baptists are fighting an unjust war and it is certain God is not on their side in this. The schools are now public schools and run and maintained with taxpayers’ money. They are no longer Christian schools and not theirs anymore. They should stop living in denial.
DAILY INDEPENDENT

ADDRESS DELIVERED BY THE GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF OSUN, OGBENI RAUF AREGBESOLA, AS THE SPECIAL GUEST OF HONOUR AT THE CONGRESS AND INAUGURATION CEREMONY OF NEW EXECUTIVE OF THE CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA, OSUN BRANCH, HELD AT OS-CAN SECRETARIAT, OWODE-EDE ROAD, ON THURSDAY OCTOBER 17, 2013
Protocols,
EMPOWERED FOR SERVICE
It is my pleasure to be at this special occasion, the Congress and Inauguration Ceremony of the new Executive Council of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), State of Osun Chapter. May I respectfully thank the outgoing leadership of CAN for its service and contributions to our great state. We acknowledge your support. I should also want to express my gratitude to you for the honour of being invited to this ceremony as the Special Guest of Honour.
Today we are gathered here to witness the passing of the baton of responsibility from the council whose tenure has expired to a newly constituted one whose tenure begins today. I congratulate all the members of this new council. I should like to believe that this will be one of the most memorable days of your earthly existence. I say this because nothing compares with the indescribable joy that the call to service inspires in the heart. It is a call to work assiduously to heal the broken-hearted. It is a commission to labour sacrificially for the salvation of the lost. It is a charge to minister hope to the hopeless. Indeed, the call to serve as leaders in the vineyard of the Almighty God is nothing less than an empowerment for sincere service for the continuous wellbeing of people. And it is in the daily fulfilment of the mandate of the ministry to which you are called that you truly experience the joy of service.
Yet, there is something fundamentally ironic about the call to service. As I am sure you do very well know as spiritual leaders, the road to service – secular or spiritual – is often time rough. It has never been an easy road. Indeed, it can be very rough. Leadership for me is not a platform on which one lives large and enjoys the good things of life. It is a call to service which is never devoid of peculiar challenges. Both in words and deeds, Jesus made it clear that the service of leading people to the brook of salvation would never be smooth and without formidable challenges. What He assures the persevering, committed and faithful workers is victory. This is the source of the confidence that everyone who accepts to lead the flock of God has. They depend immovably on the unfailing grace of God to see them through the rough parts on the path of service.
As you take the truncheon of leadership as executive members of CAN in Osun, I invite you to work responsibly for the wellbeing of the body of Christ and the progress of the state as a whole. As a major stakeholder in the affairs of our beloved state, I invite you to make invaluable contributions to its continuous greatness. As you renew your commitment to the Lord in service, I invite you to make the insightful words of Apostle Paul in his Epistle to the Philippians your watchword. He says to them in Philippians 2 verse 4: ‘Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interest of others’. In all the decisions you will take as Christian leaders in the state, I invite you to do so within a larger framework of the overall good of the vast majority of the people.
You have a great moral responsibility in working untiringly for a sustainable society in Osun. You have to see to it that you give insularity, naked greed, and lack of empathy for non-Christians a wide berth. They are destructive weeds that will lay waste the well-cultivated farmland of development. Your leadership must avoid anything that can cause social disequilibrium in this State. Your actions, words and undertakings as Christian leaders must be to build and lead people to the path of salvation, good neighbourliness and love. Religion in your hand must not be put to negative use. As the Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka, rightly observes, ‘[o]f the various forms of culture, the religious exercises the most powerful, unpredictable influence on human conduct, more potent and domineering, evidently more enduring than secular ideology’. Religion in your hand must therefore be an instrument for the reformation and cultivation of the human mind.
In the same measure, I encourage you to work more closely with our administration. I enjoyed a good working relationship with the old CAN leadership in the state. I will never forget how the leadership was always by my side anytime reactionary forces and agents of destabilisation came up with any mischief; and how with its support, we were able to deflect the fiery arrows of the wicked. For this, I will remain eternally grateful.
I must let you know that, as a democrat, I welcome constructive criticism and healthy engagement. These are critical pillars on which a sound democratic edifice must be built. There is nothing wrong in making useful observations about a policy of government. As major stakeholders, you have the right to call government’s attention to areas you might think require attention.
In recent times, there have been vibrant exchanges between us over the reforms we are carrying out in schools. Let me assure you that these reforms are without malicious intentions. I am quite aware that revolutionary changes of this nature will surely bring some discomfort. The first generation of educated citizens of this country was produced by Christian missions, mostly. You will agree with me however that the state of our schools when our administration came on board on November 27, 2010 was not what you could be proud of anymore. On this, our purpose and goal (to provide education for the total man in spirit, soul and body) are coterminous. We only have differences on the path to take. We can easily maximise our areas of agreement and work closely on our differences in an atmosphere of mutual respect and understanding.
Let us avoid name calling, confrontation and making false and unfounded accusations that are capable dividing our people, creating tension and heating up the polity.
Let me restate it here again that our government will never be found guilty of privileging any group above another. The state belongs to all of us. The mandate I was given applies to all people, all gender and all faiths. I am fully determined to defend this with all that it pleases the good Lord to give me. Government’s programmes will fail where they are meant mainly for a group, rather than for all the people. We will never compromise on our resolve to make Osun a thriving hub of socio-economic development. This is possible when all groups work harmoniously together.
Above all, as people of faith, I covet your prayers. The Apostle Paul enjoins Timothy in 1Timothy 2:1-3: ‘Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour’.
Again, I congratulate you on this occasion of your inauguration. I wish you a successful tenure of office.
I thank you for your assuring audience.