Osun State government has reiterated its total commitment to the upliftment and betterment of the people of the state. Immediate past Commissioner of Integration and Special Duties, Barrister. Ajibola Bashiru made this assurance while answering questions from newsmen in Osogbo yesterday.
The former commissioner said the state government had taken some steps towards the provision of infrastructural facilities since inception and government would not relent in its efforts to continue making people happy.
Ajibola, who informed that Governor Rauf Aregbesola’s led administration has awarded the road from Ola-Iya to Ita-Olokan in Osogbo, said government did not take any issue that has to do with roads in the state with levity. Speaking on the development of farmers in the state, the politician said the state government, through the QUIP, has expended N5 billion for the development of farmers across the state.
He however, charged residents of the state to continue to show support and understanding to Aregbesola’s administration.
VANGUARD

Pictures of the Governor State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola signing a condolence register in honour of the Late Yeye Oodua, Chief (Mrs.) Hannah Idowu Awolowo at Awolowo Country Home, Ikenne, Ogun State on Sunday 20/09/2015

Governor State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola signing a condolence register in honour of the Late Yeye Oodua, Chief (Mrs.) Hannah Idowu Awolowo at Awolowo Country Home, Ikenne, Ogun State on Sunday 20/09/2015

Governor State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola(right); Lagos State Governor, Mr. Akinwumi Ambode(2nd right), National Leader All Progressive Congress (APC), Senator Bola Ahamed Tinubu(left), Oyo State Governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi(3rd left), Rev. Mrs Tola Oyediran(2nd left) and Professor Kayode Oyediran (3rd right) during a condolence visit in honour of the Late Yeye Oodua, Chief (Mrs.) Hannah Idowu Awolowo at Awolowo Country Home, Ikenne, Ogun State on Sunday 20/09/2015

Governor State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola(3rd left); National Leader All Progressive Congress (APC), Senator Bola Ahamed Tinubu(2nd right),former Governor Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi(left), National Publicity Secretary, All Progressive Congress (APC), Alhaji Lai Muhammed(2nd lefta), Dr. Mrs. Tokunbo Awolowo Dosumu(right) and others during a condolence visit in honour of the Late Yeye Oodua, Chief (Mrs.) Hannah Idowu Awolowo at Awolowo Country Home, Ikenne, Ogun State on Sunday 20/09/2015

From left- Governor State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola; Lagos State Governor, Mr. Akinwumi Ambode, National Leader All Progressive Congress (APC), Senator Bola Ahamed Tinubu and National Publicity Secretary, All Progressive Congress (APC), Alhaji Lai Muhammed during a condolence visit in honour of the Late Yeye Oodua, Chief (Mrs.) Hannah Idowu Awolowo at Awolowo Country Home, Ikenne, Ogun State on Sunday 20/09/2015

…provides free train again

The Government of the state of Osun on Sunday asked eid-il-kabir holiday makers to use the opportunities offered by their homecoming to measure the magnitude of the development works going on in the state as against the campaigns of calumny which the opponents of the government have embarked on.

This was just as the government announced that it has concluded  arrangements to provide free Eid-el-Kabir  train services for its citizens‎ in continuation of its commitment to making life more meaningful for the people of the state.

A statement by the Director, Bureau of Communication and Strategy, Office of the Governor, Mr.Semiu Okanlawon, on Sunday, said the free train service would be offered between Tuesday and Wednesday.

It explained that the train would, by 11.00 A.M on Tuesday the 22nd and Wednesday, 23rd of this month convey people from Lagos to Osogbo.

He pointed out that the return journey to Lagos from Osogbo will be on Sunday the 27th by 11 A.M.

The Bureau emphasised that the gesture by the Aregbesola-led administration is aimed at facilitating a stress-free homecoming for the people during the festival.

He noted that the state government had, since 2011, been making such similar arrangements for people of the state, to travel home during festive seasons.

While wishing eid-il-kabir holiday makers successful journey back home, the statement urged them to take advantage of their homecoming to have a feel of the ongoing developments of the state.

“We encourage holiday makers to use this opportunity to update themselves about the developments that are taking place in the state as against the persistent negative media campaigns by our traducers. This is one of those opportunities they have to see things directly in order to be guided by future campaigns of calumny which our political opponents are committed to.” the statement concluded.

Governor of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, has described the translation of the matriarch of the Awolowo family, Chief Mrs. Hannah Idowu Dideola Awolowo, as the end of an era.

Aregbesola, in a statement by the Director, Bureau of Communication and Strategy, Office of the Governor, Mr. Semiu Okanlawon, said joined the progressive family in mourning the glorious exit of a matriarch.

He described Mama Awolowo as a solid pillar beside the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo when he was alive.

According to the Governor, Mama stood by her husband during his lifetime and even after his demise.

He stated that the Awo Matriarch worked tirelessly to ensure the Awolowo political dynasty remains united.

The statement quoted Aregbesola as saying, “we join the entire progressive family, Awo political movement as well as the whole Yoruba race in mourning as well as celebrating the glorious translation.

“They set examples for politicians when they were here with us. The couple typified the best of what politicians should strive to be in their families in our society.

“We believe there will be a celestial celebration of reunion of a couple that exemplified harmony and true wedlock.

“There is no doubt that she was a jewel of inestimable value as Papa described her.

“She demonstrated this by standing behind her husband during his political trial. She never wavered for once during Papa’s incarceration. Rather she was committed to upholding what Papa stood for.

“Even in death Mama remained a rallying point for the Awolowo political dynasty until her last breath on earth.

“To the best of my knowledge, Mama was an ideal wife, a loving mother, an astute woman and committed political leader.

“Her death certainly has left empty the socio-political house of the Yoruba race and the Awolowo dynasty.

“On behalf of myself, the government and people of Osun, I commiserate with the Awolowo Family, the governnent of Ogun State, the entire Yoruba race both at home and in diaspora and Nigerians in general.

“May her soul in eternal bliss with the Lord. “

On Wednesday, the leadership of workers’ unions and Osun government signed an MoU, putting the hues and cries about salaries of workers in Osun to rest. I dont want to write on the aspect of the fact that the quagmire that orchestrated the salary issues is not limited to Osun. I also don’t want to write that that is why all the states in the country but a few took the bailout fund aimed at settling the salary issue.
This piece is targeted at ‘speaking at’ the clauses in the document that various representatives of workers in the state and government agreed to go by.
The document, titled MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING (MOU) BETWEEN THE STATE GOVERNMENT OF OSUN AND THE COMMITTEE INAUGURATED ON DISBURSEMENT OF BAILOUT LOAN has two main clauses; vis: . Disbursement of Bailout Loan and 2. Subsequent Payment of Salaries.
Basically what both parties agreed upon is that government should systematically disburse the bailout loan to cover the payment of outstanding salaries. See details below.
However, the most interesting aspect of the agreement kind of tries to answer the question- “what next after now?”. How would government be able to pay workers’ salaries after the bailout fund had been exhausted. This question is necessary particularly because everybody, including Government and Labour now recognize “that current national challenge resulting from dwindling Federation Revenue will continue to affect the payment of salaries, wages, pension, etc, and critical expenditures of Government”. This realisation comes within the precinct of the fact that Osun would be left will a net of less than a billion Naira every month after deductions- including the bailout related ones.
Consequently, Osun workers, according to the MoU, have agreed “to work with government to increase the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) so as to increase the available revenue to be apportioned towards salaries, wages, pensions and other critical expenditures of Government” like infrastructure development, security, general welfare among others.
Immediate in this regard is that every adult in the state must now critically and effectively get involved in the development of our state by paying the minimum tax of N4,500 every year. And this is where this foregoing gets interesting.
In recent times, it has gotten crystal clear that some elements have vowed to be tireless in their plots of destruction. While the salary/bailout negotiation was underway some days ago, the undermining of the PDP was cristal clear. They engaged their various hands including some unsuspecting citizens of the state. They overwhelmed the social media and a number of their supporting newspapers and Omisore’s radio station in Ife to spin ridiculous lies. When they saw that their devilish wish failed, they resorted to physical assault. They mingled with some labour on Tuesday in Abere, asking that the meeting that was to usher in the Labour/government MoU that was signed today be disrupted.
The meeting was going on in Abere on Tuesday when they mingled with some unsuspecting union representatives to disrupt the negotiation meeting in Abere. But their plot failed. The genuine workers realized their evil plot and ‘the chaff was winnowed from the wheat’. The PDP agents then got angry that they have been discovered, believing that the media gave them in. So they started beating up media guys around, destroying their equipment. The matter is currently being handled at the police headquarters in Osogbo. They could not disrupt the meeting yesterday. So agreements were reached and subsequently signed today.
As the matter is now, one can simply pre-empt these harm of a group called PDP in Osun. They would be mapping out another sort of platform to disrupt the state. The immediate one now is that government has introduced an unbearable tax regime.
Hence, it is important to let the public know that the minimum tax (N4,500 per annum) is not unbearable, looking at it from the minimum affordability standard of life of the people.
Virtually every household in Osun today has at least a telephone set. The least amount of call credit that such household purchases to make phonecalls in a month is not less than four hundred Naira (N400). So, such household would have spent four thousand, eight hundred Naira (N4,800) between January and December. Hence it would be mischievous that Omisore’s PDP now describe the minimum tax of three hundred and seventy-two Naira (N372 per month) that the patriotic Osun people would invariably be paying per month for further development of roads, schools, other infrastructure as well as general development of the state as “huge”.
Osun workers and the entire good people of the state have now come to realise that the cries of the Omisore/PDP wailers are only meant to cause chaos. Even their friends now know that they are worst than a honest enemy.
Their antecedents would always reveal their plots anytime in time. They have pretended to love the masses during last governorship election, so they roamed markets during electioneering campaigns. After election where are they? Now they cried more than the bereaved as though they loved Osun workers. In actual fact they wished they could get what they lost last year August 9 through chaos. Nay!
Have you heard the latest spins of their lies? They said the Osun deputy governor ‘WAS’ dead.
Excerpts of the MoU
Subsequent Payment of Salaries
(I) Government and Labour recognized that the current national challenge resulting from dwindling Federation Revenue will continue to affect the payment of salaries, wages, pension, etc, and critical expenditures of Government,
(II) The Government and Labour agreed that whatsoever is available as net revenues accruing from Federation Accounts and Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) will be apportioned in such a way as to take care of wages, salaries, pensions and other critical expenditures required to run the machinery of government;
(III) The Labour agreed to work with government to increase the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) so as to increase the available revenue to be apportioned towards salaries ,wages, pensions and other critical expenditures of Government; and
(IV) That the agreement in B(I) above be experimented for a period of three (3) months in the first instance and be reviewed thereafter in line with financial reality on ground.
(V) That a standing Committee of Labour and Government representative be put in place immediately to ensure transparent implementation of B (II&III) above.

Adebayo Rasheed Mabayoje

The Governor of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola has named an Acting Chief Medical Director for the Ladoke Akintola University Teaching Hospital, LAUTECH, Osogbo. He is Prof Akeem Olawale Lasisi.

A statement by the Director, Bureau of Communication and Strategy in the Office of the Governor, Mr. Semiu Okanlawon, said the appointment takes effect immediately.

A 1990 graduate of the Obafemi Awolowo University Ile Ife, Prof Lasisi, after his mandatory national youth service at the Comprehensive Health Centre, Guma, Benue State between 1991 and 1992, worked at the General Hospital, Ilesha between 1992 and 1993.

He started residency training in Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery at the University College Hospital, Ibadan in December 1993 and became a Fellow of the West African College of Surgeons in Medical College of Nigeria in May 2002.

He joined the Department of Otorhinolaryngology, University of Ibadan as a Lecturer in December 2000 and was promoted to Senior Lecturer in July 2004 and Professor in October 2010.

He has received several travel and research grants including the Faculty of Clinical Science travel grant 2003 and 2005, MacArthur Travel Grant 2006, National Institute of Health Travel grant 2013 and the University of Ibadan MacArthur Foundation Multidisciplinary Team Research Grant in 2008 for the Immunological study of prenatal risk factors of ear infection in first year of life.

He is married to Dr. Mrs Jemilat Lasisi, a fellow of the same College and Lecturer in Physiology/Oral Pathology in the University of Ibadan with 4 children.

Osun State Governor, Rauf Aregbesola and his counterpart in Lagos State, Akinwunmi Ambode, have stressed the need for government at all levels to fashion out pragmatic programmes aimed at empowering women in the country. The duo spoke at the National Women Conference organised by the Committee of Wives of Lagos State Officials, COWLSO, held at the Eko Hotels and Towers, Victoria Island, Lagos, Southwest Nigeria on Friday.
Declaring the conference closed, Aregbesola made case for women to be empowered, stressing that, “women must be empowered; there is no society that shackles more than half of its population that can develop or progress. This must begin with compulsory education of the girl child. I have searched the two religions of Islam and Christianity and I am yet to see anything that stands in the way of women education and empowerment. As this conference comes to a close, one of the messages we will all take away from here is the renewed effort at educating the girl child in the north and women empowerment all over the country,” he said.
He appealed to government at all levels to invigorate efforts in educating the girl child in the North and women empowerment all over the country. The governor, who was represented by his deputy, Mrs Titi Laoye Tomori, said recent studies had shown that women, through their various businesses, had contributed immensely to the employment rate in the nation.
“In recent years, we have had a reversal of roles on the family front in some cases such that a significant number of women are now the breadwinners. Through empowerment, they have been able to sustain businesses and thereby providing for their families, educating their children and building sustainable homes and businesses,” he said.
Speaking, Ambode said his administration would adopt some of the recommendations of the conference which sought to empower women in all ramifications and see how they could be implemented to improve the lives of Lagosians. I am sure the communiqué that has emerged at this conference will encapsulate a blueprint for the economic engagement of our womenfolk, not just in Lagos State but across Nigeria,” Governor Ambode said.
“This conference marks a new beginning for COWLSO. We will remain partners in progress and also welcome your constructive criticisms to help us improve in our duty to deliver good governance to the people of Lagos State. This administration counts on your usual support and co-operation,” he said.
However, Ambode said the state government would consider the possibilities of collaborating with Kebbi State to explore the economic opportunities in the production and distribution of high yield quality rice and other ventures. He recalled that his Kebbi state counterpart, Alhaji Atiku Bagudu, had during the opening ceremony of the conference on Wednesday, sought the cooperation between women in Kebbi and Lagos States in the production of high quality yield rice, saying that it is one area the state will seek to explore.
Chairman of COWLSO, Mrs. Bolanle Ambode, said the three-day conference discussed series of issues among which was the devastating consequences of divorce on the health and wellbeing of women and children, adding that 80-90 per cent of primary care visits to doctors were due to preventable illnesses, while approximately 95 per cent of them were caused by stress. She urged all participants to keep the knowledge gained close to their hearts and deploy it appropriately in future, for maximum advantage.
The 10-point Communiqué of the Conference read by the wife of the Secretary to the Lagos State Government, Professor Ibiyemi Bello, among other things, tasked government at all levels to pay more attention to women empowerment, especially the girl-child.
The highpoint of the ceremony was the presentation of Certificate of Appreciation to four individuals and corporate organisations, including former House Committee Chairman on Diaspora, Abike Dabiri-Erewa; Chairman of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote; Mrs. Anutal Savara and Honeywell Group Nigeria Limited.
THE NEWS NIGERIA