This year’s Basic Education  Certificate Examination (BECE) has commenced on Wednesday 22nd June, 2016 for all eligible  Students across the State of Osun.

This was contained in a press statement signed by the Permanent  Secretary ,Ministry Of Education, Science and Technology, Mr Festus Olajide.

While wishing all eligible  candidate success in their  examination, the release also enjoined  Zonal and Local Inspectors  of Education to ensure proper monitoring  and smooth  conduct of the examinationin their respective areas.

The release  also  added that  year 2016 BECE Examination would  last for Two(2)Weeks and come to an end on 4th July, 2016

Osun State Chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) yesterday filed a stay of execution on the June 3 judgment of an Osogbo High Court allowing Muslim students in all state public schools to wear Hijab.
 

 
 
This was disclosed in Osogbo on Wednesday, June 22, 2016 by the state CAN Chairman, Rev. Elisha Ogundiya during a solidarity visit to the state CAN headquarters by South-West leaders of association.
CAN representatives from Ogun, Oyo, Ekiti and Ondo states stormed the state expressing their support for the state Christians on the issue of controversial Hijab judgment delivered by Justice Saka Oyejide Falolo and their readiness to fight against any form of Islamisation agenda by Governor Rauf Aregbesola.
In his address, the Secretary of South-West CAN who spoke on behalf of the association’s Zonal Chairman, Archbishop Magnus Atilade, Rev. Alfred Aro warned that any attempt by Muslim students to wear Hijab to schools after the appeal has been filed would mean that CAN too would ensure that all forms of garments are worn to schools in the state.
He noted that Falola’s judgment negated the spirit of secularism of the nation “and it violates the religious rights of the original owner of the missionary schools as agreed upon when the schools were taken over by the then government of Oyo State in 1975”.
The Zonal CAN also expressed their concern on ban of morning devotions and assemblies in schools in some states in the country, saying the action must be rescinded.
“We note with dismay despite several appeals as a law abiding association, the ban on morning devotions and assemblies in some schools in Nigeria especially South-West Nigeria based on flimsy reason on insecurity.
“Now that President Muhammadu Buhari had confirmed the end to insurgency, we urge all states to unban the unfair decision within the next one month. CAN urges all its members to write to their state governors immediately. Failure to rescind the ban, we implore CAN in the states concerned to take appropriate actions”
Besides, the association condemned the ban of Religions Knowledge and History in schools saying it was a ploy by government to use it as an attack on other religions. “Such approach does not allow for moral training, upbringing and character moulding in our children who are leaders of tomorrow”.
The representative of the outgoing National CAN President, Pastor Ayo Oritjafor, Ven. Nelson Fadoju who is also the association’s Director of Planning, Research and Statistics urged thanked the state Christians for their unity in the face of oppression and for standing solidly behind their leaders in the state.
Despite the heavy security presence of the police and other security agencies around the premises of the meeting, CAN leaders from across the state’s 30 local governments and Ife-East Area Office, Modakeke attended the parley.

The Vice chancellor of University of Ilorin, Professor Abdulganiyu Ambali has blamed the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Osun state chapter, for the recent religious crisis in the state which attracted nationwide attention, by resorting to “self help”and instigated students of Iwo Baptist High school to wear choir attire to school to counter the muslim students who wear Hijab as a result of a court judgement, instead of appealing the judgement in court. Professor Ambali who said this in his address delivered at the opening ceremony of the conference on Law and Religion held on Wednesday in the university auditorium warned that it is unacceptable to use antics of religion to violate the law.
 

 
 
The international conference was jointly organised by the faculty of law and the department of religion of the university of Ilorin with the support of international Centre for Law and Religion studies,Brigham Young university,USA,National Inter-Religions council (NIREC)among others. According to the Vice Chancellor,”‎Rather than appeal the judgement and use the law,the Christian Association of Nigeria (Osun state chapter) resorted to self help saying Muslim girls cannot wear hijab in public/christian schools.CAN directed pupils to go to school in their choir gowns and thereby violate the approved school uniforms” “There was tension that has now simmered as harmonious co-existence and healthy ‎development became threatened by the antics of using
 
Religion to violate law when law was seen to be consistent with religion. “He added. “However,when religion appears to be a tool in the hands of lawless men,harmonious co-existence is undermined and development is compromised”he stressed.
 
The Vice chancellor therefore canvassed that religion and law should be managed well as recipes for development. Professor Ambali therefore urged nigerians to stay away from religious crisis in any form because it compromised development. He noted that this became necessary because,”our country is still yet to recover from the scars of lawless people who claim religion and perpetrate atrocities of monumental proportion in the north eastern part of the country as a result of which development in the region has been driven back several years”

Osun Divisional Conference of Obas has lauded Governor Rauf Aregbesola for his frantic efforts towards overcoming the economic challenges facing the nation vis-à-vis the State of Osun.
 

 
 
In a communiqué issued at the end of its first quarterly meeting held at the Aragberi of Iragberi’s Palace, the conference admonished the entire people of the state to exercise patience and perseverance in this trying times, expressing the hope that all will soon be well.
The communiqué which was jointly signed by the Orangun of Ila, Oba Wahab Oyedotun and the Aragbiji of Iragbiji, Oba Adul-Rasheed Ayotunde Olabomi who are the Chairman and Secretary of Osun Divisional Conference of Obas respectively called on all able-bodied residents of the state to take advantage of the raining season by embarking on
farming to ensure mass food production.
The conference warned those who are in the habit of adorning themselves with beaded crowns, walking sticks and other paraphernalia of traditional rulers to desist from such acts, challenging the law enforcement agencies to enforce compliance with extant laws on this.
In their bid to ensure adequate security of lives and property, the royal fathers admonished the entire people of the state to be constantly vigilant and report all suspicious movements in their areas to law enforcement agencies and their respective traditional rulers.

Poor Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola! It seems the Osun State Governor can never put a foot right in the eyes of the powerful Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) whose control of the Nigerian media is hard, if not impossible, to match. His crime, as he himself aptly put it the other day in response to the gratuitous attacks he has been subjected to of recent, seems to be that he insists on being a good Muslim.
 

 
 
Not too long ago he was called all manner of names for daring to declare the first day in the Islamic calendar a public holiday in his state whose Muslim population is probably the majority. For his critics it didn’t matter that the Solar calendar from which Christmas and New Year celebrations derived is not universal. It also did not seem to matter that the declaration deprived non-Muslims of nothing.
Gratuitous as those attacks were, however, they were still understandable; as governor, the buck for any administrative order stopped on his table.
The same cannot be said of the most recent attacks he has been subjected to over the ruling on June 3 by an Osun State High Court in Osogbo in favour allowing female Muslim students to wear Hijab in all public primary and secondary schools in the state.
Justice Jide Falola’s ruling on Hijab was not the first. The first was nearly two years ago in October 2014 when Justice Modupe Onyeabor dismissed a similar suit filed in May 2013 against the Lagos State Government by two 12-year old girls under the aegis of the Muslim Students Society of Nigeria, Lagos State Area Unit, over the government’s ban on Hijab.

In her judgment, Justice Onyeabor said the state’s prohibition of the wearing of Hijab over school uniforms within and outside the premises of public schools was not discriminatory. According to her, the ban did not violate sections 38 and 42 of the 1999 Constitution as claimed by the plaintiffs. They had contended that the ban violated the two sections which gave them the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.
Instead, the judge said, the right they sought violated Section 10 of the Constitution which said “The Government of the Federation or of a State shall not adopt any religion as State Religion.”
In deference to the ruling by the judge the plaintiffs decided to respect the state’s dress code but appeal her judgment. The case has since pended before the Court of Appeal and is likely to go all the way to the Supreme Court.
The contrast between the restrained reaction of the Muslim leadership in Lagos to its loss and the petulance of the Christian leadership at both the state and national level in the Osun case could hardly be sharper. And the extent to which the newspapers have indulged the Christian leadership in their petulance spoke volumes about their fairness, balance and objectivity.
Since the June 3 ruling Aregbesola has been accused of trying to start a “war” – in the words of Vanguard of June 15 – over religious dressing in his state. Several newspapers have carried pictures of some students in their choir and Church attires to their schools when they reopened on June 14 following the “June 12” public holidays.
The prophesy of this fabricated “war” may yet be fulfilled if it all depended on the CAN leadership – and the newspapers.
As the chairman of the state’s chapter of CAN, Elisha Ogundiya, said in a statement on the court ruling, “Christian students in all public schools founded by Christians with the toil and sweat of our forefathers in the faith (will) have no choice but to start wearing garments and vestments as part of their school uniform for the propagation of our faith, given that Justice Saka Oyedije Falola declared the right of female Muslim students to do same, as what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander as well.”
Reverend Musa Asake, CAN’s General Secretary, was even more unequivocal in blaming the governor for creating what he called a “religious crisis” between Muslims and Christians in the state.
“Although they are talking about court judgment,” Asake said, “what I can say is that Aregbesola is responsible for whatever is happening in Osun State. We at the national level are in total support of the decision by the Osun State chapter of CAN that Christian pupils should attend classes in choir gowns, Girls Guide and Boys Scout apparels, including white garments, depending on whatever attire appeals to any Christian parent.”
As Christian leaders, the partisan statements of Ogundiya and Asake are understandable, albeit untenable. Not so, the editorial of the Nigerian Pilot of June 17, which was both untenable and impossible to understand.  The governor, the newspaper said, “should not in his usual demeanour sound as one who shares in ignorance and pretense over a matter that is volatile like the looming religious crisis…It is wrong timing for the world to see him as a religious fundamentalist nursing a hidden agenda TO ISLAMIZE OSUN STATE.” (Emphasis mine).
Any newspaper worth the name should know there is separation of powers between the Judiciary and the Executive arms of government. It should also know that recognising a manifestation of any religion is not the same as adopting it as state religion.
This is what makes it truly baffling that the Osun State governor should be held, not just vicariously, but directly responsible for the ruling of a court. But then, as the man himself said, it seems his crime is that he insists on being a good Muslim.
“Is it,” to use his own words, “a crime that I am a Muslim, is it because I struggle to be a good Muslim that everything I do is being misunderstood? I think I don’t deserve all these lies against me.”
The man has challenged any one with evidence that he ordered the wearing of Hijab to bring it. Not a single one of those calling him names has done so. And it’s unlikely that they ever will.
Aregbesola has done all he can to be a good Muslim, which means being fair to all religious persuasions in the state. Contrary to what his critics say, our Constitution never said Nigeria is a secular state. My Advance English Dictionary defines secular as “of or relating to the doctrine that rejects religion and religious considerations.” The very opening words of our Constitution say we are “…a Sovereign Nation under God.” This is clearly no rejection of religion.
Even Section 10 of the Constitution that the Lagos State High Court Judge cited as her basis of banning Hijab in the state did not reject religion. It only says none should be adopted by the State.
The section may look like a contradiction of Section 38 which gives us the freedom of religion and to manifest it. But it seems contradictory only if we assume recognising any manifestation of a religion amounts to adopting it. This assumption is clearly a fallacy. Otherwise it would mean, for example, the fact that we celebrate Christmas means the country has adopted Christianity as the State religion.
Just like Christmas is a manifestation of Christianity so is Hijab a manifestation of Islam, albeit even more so, because an adult woman is considered naked without it. It is indeed an irony that the Christian leadership should object to a dress considered ideal for Christian women who dedicate themselves to serving God, as reverend sisters do.
Section 38 of our Constitution says we are all entitled to our faiths and to the freedom to “manifest and propagate it…in worship, teaching, practice and observance.”
I find it impossible to understand how my daughters or my wife wearing Hijab in public violates the right of a non-Muslim to manifest his or her own faith. I find it even more impossible to understand how doing so amounts to the country adopting Islam as State Religion.
In any case if anyone felt threatened by female Muslim students wearing Hijab I would have thought the proper thing to do was to go to court and seek redress rather than defy a lawful order issued by a lawful authority.
Aregbesola was not the one who said female students can wear Hijab to school as part of their uniform. It was the courts that did. Those who disagree should go there and test their presumptions of the rights of their children to dress to public schools as they deem fit instead of trying to make a straw man out of Aregbesola, the easier to destroy him.

…..charges Journalists to always cross check facts before rushing to press.
The Government of Osun has described the report in some newspapers that the Chief Judge of Osun, ‎Justice Oyebola Adepele Ojo has granted an Order compelling the state Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola to provide information about the debt profile of the State‎ as totally false.
 

 
Osun Government in a statement signed by the Secretary to the State Government, Alhaji Moshood Adeoti charged journalists to always cross-check facts before going to the press.
Adeoti held that the fact that newspapers could go to press with such falsehood leaves much to be desired, saying it depicts the abysmal level into which journalism has sunk.
He pointed out that the order of Court granted the applicant at the last week Wednesday was the right to put the other party on notice which in this instance, the Governor of the State, and not an order granting the substantive reliefs of the Applicant.
The SSG stressed that a little due diligence by journalists would have revealed to them that the process leading to the report was made “ex-parte”, which means that the other party needs not be put on notice before such application for leave is heard by the court.
‎
He added that a simple inquiry on the proceeding from the Clerk of the Court would have made this fact known to the reporters instead of rushing to the press without adequate understanding.
Statement noted, “The captioned news item in several newspapers including The Vanguard, Nigerian Tribune, The Guardian and The Nation of Thursday, 16 June, 2016 wherein it was reported that the Chief Judge granted an Order of Mandamus compelling the State Governor of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, to provide information about the debt profile of Osun State and its defrayment modality among other orders is patently false.
“It is both sad and disheartening a journalist would go to press with a story without cross-checking the facts. The report referred to above is total falsehood. The applicant in the case is a well-known member of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from Ikeji Arakeji, who served in the last PDP administration in the state.
“The Order of Court granted him is the right to put the other party on notice, in this instance, the Governor of the State of Osun. It is not an order granting the substantive reliefs of the Applicant.
“While we are not surprised by this type of unprofessional Journalism because so many self-styled journalists have taken over the entire media space, what we are particularly miffed about is that some reputable media outfits could publish a story of this nature without getting their facts right”.
Osun Government averred that the journalists in question are obviously acting in cahoots with some unscrupulous individuals to malign the person of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola and by extension the Government of the State of Osun.
It noted that like so many others who have tried to do so in the past, such persons will continue to fail in their dubious enterprise.
 
The statement added that the administration of Aregbesola is a respecter of the Judiciary and as such would not do anything to undermine the judicial process in any way or shy away from defending the acts of government at any point it is called upon to do so.
It called on the management of the relevant newspapers to call the journalists in question to order so that the news organisations would not be subjected to retracting stories at all times.

The Governor of Osun State, Rauf Aregbesola, has denied claims that he is behind the hijab crisis rocking the education sector in the state.
 

 
“Let me say this there is no official pronouncement on hijab. I have not ordered the use of hijab in schools and I challenge them to bring evidence,” Aregbesola said during a roundtable on developing collaborative framework for education organised by the Development and Advancement in Western Nigeria.
“It might interest you that my wife does not use hijab, my daughter does not use hijab. So, I did not order the use of hijab.
“My view on Islam is why I am suffering unmerited persecution. My crime is that I struggle to be a good Muslim and not because I hurt anybody.”
The governor insisted that there was no crisis in the state’s education sector and accused the media of celebrating idiocy by focusing on the decision of some “misguided students” of Baptist High School to wear church garments to school.
He said it was wrong for any religious body to claim the ownership of any public school in the state as government took over the schools about 41 years ago.
The governor also said it was not true that schools founded by Muslim were merged with schools established by Christian missionaries.

He explained that the hijab crisis started in 2012 when four Muslim students were prevented from using hijab after they were transferred to Baptist High School from a school where they were allowed to use hijab.
Meanwhile, some Muslim clerics stormed some public schools in Osogbo on Monday, insisting that female Muslim students should be allowed to wear hijab to the schools in accordance with the judgment of the Osun State High Court.
It was gathered that the clerics went to St. Charles’ High School and Ife Oluwa Middle School early in the morning but the teachers told them it would take a directive from the Ministry of Education for that to happen.
“Some Muslims came this morning and said they wanted to enforce the use of hijab. We explained to them that we will allow our students to wear hijab whenever we get instruction from the state government to do so,” the Principal of St. Charles’ High School, Mr. Anthony Famoriyo, said.
“You know that everything we do in schools follows procedure; what you teach, the way you teach. We are not against any group. We are here to teach our children and that is our mission.”

The Bank of Industry (BoI) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Iwo community in Osun toward boosting local production of fabrics using cotton sourced from local farmers. The Acting Managing Director of the Bank, Mr Waheed Olagunju, and the traditional ruler of Iwo land, Oba Adewale Akanbi, sealed the deal last Saturday

Osun State House of Assembly has said that the recently launched Standardised Weight and Measure by the state government would restore consumer confidence and boost commercial activities in the state.

 

 
In a statement by the Chairman, House Committee on Information and Strategy, Olatunbosun Oyintiloye, the Assembly described the initiative as a right step in the right direction.
According to him, the measure would guarantee fairness and honesty in business transactions in the state and would in turn encourage people from other neighbouring states to want to come to Osun for commercial venture.
It stressed that there is no transaction that can be conducted to the mutual satisfaction of the parties involved unless each is assured that the other is fair and honest.
The Assembly added that the traditional modes of measurements that market operators were used to had encourage cheating, hence, dragging the improvement of the economy, not only in Osun, but also in other parts of the country.
It added that the compliance with the Standardised Weight and Measure would, by extension, boost the Internally Generated Revenue of the state government.
The Assembly said, it would assist the government in its efforts towards making the state a regional hub for trade and commerce.
It also stressed that, apart from its benefit to the economy of the state, the new measure is hygienic-friendly, as it would not allow for exposure of goods to flies and dust.