Education, as they say, is the bedrock of any nation. This axiom has gained traction in the modest efforts of Governor Rauf Aregbesola of the State of Osun. In all ramifications, the state towers over others in addressing the educational needs of its people.
This is in spite the fact that Osun ranks 34th among the 36 states of the Federation on the revenue allocation table. Ogbeni reasons that “the only way to conquer and banish abject poverty from humanity is through conscious education of the mind towards productive engagement, which in turn will trigger creativity and productivity that will meet the basic needs of man”. This is more so with the recent United Nations Educational, Scientific, Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) report which says 10.5 million Nigerian children have no access to basic education.
If there is any sector Aregbesola holds tenaciously dear to his heart since his assumption of office, it is the education sector and its composite development such that it would meet the yearnings of, and be accessible to every inhabitant of the state.
Interestingly, his effort has yielded tremendous result with the renovation of dilapidated schools structures and building of model schools to replace the decrepit ones. Since then, pupils and parents alike have been applauding the governor.
The governor has committed billions of naira into the elementary and middle school buildings, which will each accommodate 900 pupils. The high school buildings will have capacity for 3,000 pupils. The state has almost delivered 100 of such buildings at the elementary, 50 at the middle, and 20 at the High school levels – making a total of 170 in all – in his first term in office.
The Middle Level is from Primary Four to Junior Secondary School 3 (JSS 111) (now classified as Grades 5 to 9), for pupils aged between 10 and 14. At the High School Level, the age range is between 15 and 17 years for Senior Secondary School I-III pupils, to be known as Grades 10-12. The schools have been designed so that residents, groups, organisations, or individuals, religions or interest would not suffer as a result of the school reform.
The reforms are aimed at meeting UNESCO’s standard for compulsory education by 2030 and to eliminate excruciating poverty.
Apart from building structures, the Governor has employed some 3,000 women who have been cooking for the elementary school feeding programme. This is in addition to the programme boosting the production capacities of farmers and suppliers of farm produce, as well as poultry farmers and cattle rearers to supply the food for the menu. The pupils eat eggs, chickens, fish and red meat to enable them meet nutritional requirements for mental development.
In addition to the free education policy of the state government where the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) and the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB ) are paid for, Governor Aregbesola has established Omoluabi Garment Factory in the state which caters for school uniform needs of the pupils across the state. With this, parents who would have otherwise bothered themselves about school uniforms for their wards have swiftly enrolled them in schools across the state without buying uniform for them since it has been provided for by government.
For his noble strides and enduring legacy in the education sector, Aregbesola was honoured by the Yoruba Education Trust Fund, (YETFUND), two months ago, as the best governor of the year in the Southwest – nay Nigeria – who has dedicated the largest chunk of his budgetary allocation to the promotion and development of education for actual growth of the Yoruba people in particular, in so short a time.
The group singled out the award winning Opon Imo (Tablet of Knowledge) as the basis for the award. The technology wonder is in a class of its own. The tablet is preloaded with 17 subjects examined in the West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examinations (WASSCE) in forms of lesson notes, textbooks, mostly provided by publishers and master teachers’ input. Content verifiers, who happened to be some of the local teachers, were also made to verify lesson notes on each subject. Besides, seven extra-curricular subjects, such as Sexuality Education, Civic Education, Yoruba History, Ifa Traditional Religion, Computer Education and Entrepreneurship Education, and 12,000 Yoruba Proverbs were also included.
The device also allows pupils to assess themselves through the e-testing platform with which they can solve 10 years of past questions for the examinations conducted by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) and WAEC. Audio tutorials further aid students through virtual study plan.
The state saved a whopping N8.4 billion for hard copy textbook as just N200 million was spent to purchase the 56 e-books on Opon-Imo with 150,000 user licences from a major educational publishing company from the country.
As it is structured, the Opon-Imo ensures that each pupil has an e-textbook, not only in all the subjects he is taking, but also on every subject offered at secondary level. This, in itself, is legendary and revolutionary!
A report in October by the African Health, Human and Social Development Information Service, Africa Coalition on Maternal Newborn and Child Health and Pan African Campaign against Forced Marriage of Under-age Children gives credit to the state.
“Among the 36 states in Nigeria four states – Osun, Lagos, Imo, Enugu – feature in the all-best categories for all indicators: highest girl-child education, highest female literacy, lowest adolescent girl ‘marriages’ and lowest underage birth rates”.
There is no gain saying that it is on the basis of Aregbesola’s commitment to educational development that school enrolment has increased and students have recorded improved performance in both WASSCE and JAMB.
However, it is clear that there is a lot more to be done with the poor WAEC results released a few days ago that falls short of UNESCO standard.
The council withheld results of 38,260 candidates, representing 12.88 per cent, over alleged examination malpractice and sundry issues. Yet, for anyone to gain admission into the tertiary institution in the country, you must obtain at least five credits, including English Language and Mathematics in WASSCE or Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (SSCE) conducted by the examination body.
The situation in the nation’s basic education system, as well as tertiary institutions calls for national emergency or requires a call to emulate Governor Aregbesola who has devoted a huge chunk of the state’s resource for educational development of Osun people. We await such a time in Nigeria when the plight of the electorate form the fulcrum of governance, as witnessed in the state of Osun.
•Ikhide writes from Lagos.
THE NATION

As I write, the Governor of the state of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola is on his way to United Kingdom with a sole purpose of educating the parliament of the imperialists on how feeding of the elementary school pupils could stimulate economic recovery and push the frontier of agricultural sector, a feat that has never been achieved by any Nigerian leader dead or alive.
This man we are talking about does not parade fleet of degrees, but through self development and the dint of hardwork, he is an institution, and inexhaustible well of knowledge, and the man who sees tomorrow. Hate him, like him, Aregbesola is a living legend, and his intellectual and philosophical approaches to governance is now globally acclaimed.
As an aspirant to the office of the governor, I met Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola in his office at his Osogbo campaign office, sometimes in 2006, and the journalist in me provoked a question on how he intended to facilitate economic recovery for state in line with home grown device, and he came up with ‘open heaven’ approach.
Open Heaven! I was confused, and he rolled out the statistics of men of God, who have taken the world by storm of gospel, whose anointing and ministration can bring as much as half a million people to anywhere they are, noting that majority of them are from Osun, a federating unit in Nigeria.
Aregbesola reasoned that Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye, a proven man of God is from Ifewara, from Ijesha enclave located in Osun, and if the clergy fondly called Daddy GO by his church members could turn Lagos/Ogun state axis to a city that is larger than some local governments in the country, something of that nature could happen in Osun if the state government could tap from his glory at home.
Still finding the corresponding value of the “Open Heaven” approach, the then Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure of Lagos state went further that Prophet Abiara is from Osun, and he commands large congregation of Christ followers wherever he preaches gospel, and creating a ground for him to spread anointing in the state would be a plus for the traffic of people, and he hails from Ijesha stock like Adeboye.
He spoke about the acceptability of Pastor Mattew Ashinmolowo in the Christendom worldwide, and how he has created a prayer city in United Kingdom, noting that the presence of his church in Lagos is a plus to Lagos economy, and that such a man from Ode Omu, state of Osun could draw traffic of people to the state if there is a ground for the convention of his church in his state.
Pastor Kumuyi is from Osun, and the blind know that his church, Deeper Life is a force to reckon with in the Christian denomination in the country, and his presence in the state could draw close to half of a million Christians from all over the country to Osun. He mentioned Life Oasis, Victory Chapel, and others.
He equally mentioned Prophet Fakeye of ‘Ayo ni o’ Cherubium and Sherafum church, Prophet Obadare of Christ Apostolic Church, and others, and he argued that for the fact that majority of them are from Ijesha, it is logical to situate a prayer city in Ijesha axis for the purpose of drawing the men of God home, with a view to replicating what they have done to develop other cities of the world.
So, when his campaign for governorship election thickened, he made the establishment of Open Heaven an issue, and he articulated it very prominently at a governorship debate organized by the Osun state chapter of Nigeria Union of Journalist (NUJ) among other issues.
However, it is surprising now to see the set of cynicists and irritants who first raised hoax that Aregbesola wanted to Islamize Osun, now criticizing the Open Heaven initiative that could turn around the sleeping economy of Ijesa axis to Eldorado. They argued that the thinking was to embezzle funds to be used for the forthcoming election.
Whereas the same set of people had earlier tagged Aregbesola a pagan, a priest of Ogboni confraternity, they even insinuated that he had initiated his first son, Kabiru to the confraternity, and when he declared Hijrah holiday, they said he intended to Islamize the state, and when the traditionalists got their due, they said the man is ‘babaalawo’.
It is quite clear that the former governor of Oyo state, Alao Akala was a failure in all ramifications, a situation that made Abiola Ajimobi’s administration an instant success when he took over the mantle of leadership and began to fix the needful, and one of the guys that managed his government is one Diran Odeyemi, now the spokesman for Mr. Iyiola Omisore, a governorship aspirant of PDP who is at the forefront of antagonizing Aregbesola’s initiatives, to which some have become success story. I pointed to this fact to allow you to connect the nexus of the latter day accountability advocates.
Imagine, if a governorship aspirant cannot decipher a master plan for revenue generation, and unique initiative, what will be his lot if he walks his way to the Government House? He can only see religion, where economy is the issue; he can only see election, where over all interest is a factor, and he can only see locking of the money in a safe, where development is demanded. And that is the man who wants to govern the state. May God deliver Osun and its people from devil and his advocates.
GOKE Butikakuro is a journalists of intercontinental exposure.
OSUN DEFENDER

Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State yesterday called Nigerians to respond to the yearnings of officers and men of the armed forces, saying the families of the departed officers must not be left to suffer.
The governor made this call in an address he delivered at the Armed Forces Remembrance Day celebration held at the Cenotaph site, Ayetoro, Osogbo, the state capital.
Aregbesola said: “Let me mention here again that the Federal Government needs to come up with an effective system that will ensure the successful rehabilitation and easeful reintegration of discharged members of the armed forces to civil society.
“Retirement from this area of service should not serve as the beginning of the erosion of the human dignity of these officers. In the same vein, since there are two sides to a coin, the discharged officers must, as well, make sure that their conducts in retirement do not undermine military honour and integrity.
“They must endeavor to put their specialised skills and training to the service of the society in meaningful ways.
OSUN DEFENDER

Photos from the Armed Forces Remembrance Day Celebration 2014, at Army Cemetery, Osogbo, State of Osun on Wednesday 15-01-2014

Governor State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola (middle); Commander,
Engineer Construction Regiment, Ede, Brigadier-General Gbenga Adeyemi
(left) and Commissioner of Police, Osun Command, Mrs Dorothy Gimba
(right), during the Armed Forces Remembrance Day Celebration 2014, at
Army Cemetery, Osogbo, State of Osun on Wednesday 15-01-2014

Governor State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola (right); Commander,
Engineer Construction Regiment, Ede, Brigadier-General Gbenga Adeyemi
(left) and Commissioner of Police, Osun Command, Mrs Dorothy Gimba (middle), during the Armed Forces Remembrance Day Celebration 2014, at
Army Cemetery, Osogbo, State of Osun on Wednesday 15-01-2014

Governor State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola (2nd right); his
Deputy, Mrs Titi Laoye-Tomori (3rd right); Commander, Engineer
Construction Regiment, Ede, Brigadier-General Gbenga Adeyemi (right);
Commissioner of Police, Osun Command, Mrs Dorothy Gimba (4th right)
and others, during the Armed Forces Remembrance Day Celebration 2014,
at Army Cemetery, Osogbo, State of Osun on Wednesday 15-01-2014

Governor State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola (2nd right); his
Deputy, Mrs Titi Laoye-Tomori (left); Commander, Engineer Construction
Regiment, Ede, Brigadier-General Gbenga Adeyemi (right) and Deputy
Commandant and Chairman, Nigerian Legion Osun Chapter, Colonel Alimi
Samotu (2nd left), during the Armed Forces Remembrance Day Celebration
2014, at Army Cemetery, Osogbo, State of Osun on Wednesday 15-01-2014

From left, Deputy Governor State of Osun, Mrs Titi Loaye-Tomori;
Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola; Deputy Commandant and Chairman,
Nigerian Legion Osun Chapter, Colonel Alimi Samotu and Commander,
Engineer Construction Regiment, Ede, Brigadier-General Gbenga Adeyemi,
during the Armed Forces Remembrance Day Celebration 2014, at Army
Cemetery, Osogbo, State of Osun on Wednesday 15-01-2014

Governor State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola laying the wreath
during the Armed Forces Remembrance Day Celebration 2014, at Army
Cemetery, Osogbo, State of Osun on Wednesday 15-01-2014

Current education reforms in the state of Osun has been described as imperative tools for the remedy of various education declines.
Dr Ola Adebogun, visitor and proprietor of Caleb University Lagos stated this during a courtesy call he paid on Governor Rauf Aregbesola at the State House, Osogbo.
Dr. Adebogun said he was in the state to identify with various strides of Governor Aregbesola; aimed at improving the lives of the people, especially in the education sector.
The educationist charged the Osun governor not to be daunted by comments and reactions from the oppositions. He added that the good people of the state are solidly behind. He asked that the reforms should be completed.
The host- Governor Rauf Aregbesola appreciated the educationist for openly identifying with the administration’s strivings towards making the state a better place for the citizenry.
The Osun governor then pledged the administration’s continued commitment towards improving various infrastructures in the state, adding his government is determined to take education in the state to its pride of place.
BIOREPORT

In a bid to banish poverty and hunger in the nooks and crannies of the state, the Governor of the state of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola has approved a 2 -day Sensitization Workshop for relevant stakeholders for the implementation of the Osun / Grooming Assisted Women Empowerment Programme.
This is contained in a statement signed by the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Water Resources, Rural Development and Community Affairs, Engr Adelere Oriolowo.
According to the statement ,the programme will be held between on Wednesday 15th of January to Friday 17th 2014 at G.M.T. Hotels and Event Centre, Osogbo.
He stressed further that the 30 Local Governments and Ife Area Office -Community Development Council are to inform their selected coordinators for the said programme, and to make it a matter of duty.
Engr. Oriolowo then charged all the participants and other relevant bodies to arrive at the venue on time as stipulated in the letter earlier sent to them.
OSUN DEFENDER

The bill, when passed, would raise the number of local government in the state to 57
The members of the Osun State House of Assembly on Monday deferred further consideration of the Local Government Creation and Administration Bill 2013 due to petitions.
The Speaker of the House, Najeem Salaam, disclosed this at the plenary in Osogbo.
Mr. Salaam said the bill would not be considered for second reading for now due to petitions from members of the public on the creation of additional local governments.
Governor Rauf Aregbesola had on December 16, 2013, presented a bill to the House for the creation of additional 27 local government areas in the state.
The bill scaled through its first reading on January 8.
Mr. Salaam said the technicalities and petitions arising from the bill would have to be resolved before considering it for the second reading.
“Due to the technicalities and petitions arising from the bill, it cannot be considered for the second reading for now.
“The second reading of the bill will lead us to presenting it to the committee of the whole House, which will lead to passage of the bill.
“But before that, there are some other assignments which we have to do before the consideration of the bill”, Mr. Salaam said.
The bill, when passed, would raise the number of local governments in the state to 57.
The bills seeking to amend the State University Development Fund and State Independent Electoral Commission were, however, read on the floor of the House.
OSUN DEFENDER