No fewer than 147,000 children of school age have been enrolled in public elementary schools in the state of Osun this current 2013/2014 academic session.
Governor Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola made this known at the weekend in Lagos while speaking after being conferred with a Special Award as a Man Making a Difference(M.A.D) in the 2013 GAME Award for his outstanding contributions to educational development in the state.
The Governor said the state was ranked second state with highest number of out of school children in the federation but today stands as best in elementary school enrolment in the South West following the introduction of these education oriented programmes and increase in the state government’s investment in education.
Mr. Aregbesola, who said coming 34th among the thirty-six states of the federation in terms of federal allocation did not deter his administration from fulfilling his electioneering campaign promises to the people of the state, said actualization of his six point integral action plan have positively impacted on lives of people of the state.
Governor Aregbesola said tackling youth unemployment in the state was part of what attracted him into government and prompted him to give employment to 20,000 youths within his 100 days in office through the Osun Youths Empowerment Scheme (OYES) and other youth employment driven programmes like O’REAP, O-HUB, O-FISH among others.
The Governor thereafter called on Nigerian youths to work hard towards the actualization of their dreams and aspirations for life to positively transform the nation saying the future belongs to those who plan for it today and work hard towards the actualization of their dreams.
OSUN DEFENDER

Aregbesola made the promise in Ile-Ife during the inauguration of Oranmiyan Security Tower and Complex.
He also called for the engagement of competent security personnel to work at the security tower and complex.
He said that competent personnel, who would not abandon their duty posts, would be engaged to tackle the rising menace of armed robbers and hoodlums in the town.
Aregbesola said that Ile-Ife had been constantly under the siege of armed robbers and hoodlums due to the heavy concentration of banks and other financial institutions in the town.
He, however, said that the tower would facilitate efforts to monitor all the nooks and crannies of Ile-Ife, while enhancing the safety of the town.
He said that the security tower and complex would boost economic activities in Ile-Ife, particularly in the Lagere neighbourhood where the tower was sited.
Earlier, the Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuwade, who was represented by Oba Samuel Omisakin, the Obalufe of Iremo, Ile-Ife, commended Aregbesola for executing several development projects in the state.
Sijuwade said that the governor had considered it expedient to initiate plans and strategies to tackle the security challenges facing the people of Ile-Ife and Osun in general.
He urged the citizens of the state to support the efforts of the Aregbesola-administration to take the state to greater heights.
(NAN)

Photos from the induction of Governor Aregbesola into the Hall of Fame for Africa Digital Awards, at Sheraton hotel Lagos on Sunday 8/12/2013

Professional Telecommunication Engineer, Corporate, Entrepreneur and
Business Management Trainer, Engineer [Dr] Ernest Ndukwe (right) ,
during the induction of Governor Aregbesola into the Hall of Fame for
Africa Digital Awards, at Sheraton hotel Lagos on Sunday 8/12/2013

Governor State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola [3rd Left]; Chief Executive
Officer of Computer Warehouse group [CEO] Mr. Austin Okere [2nd Left];
Former National President of the Association Telecommunication Companies of
Nigeria [ATCON]; Engr. [Dr] Emmanuel Ekuwem [Left] Coordinators Mr. Tayo
Adewusi [2rd Right] and Professional Telecommunication Engineer, Corporate,
Entrepreneur and Business Management Trainer, Engineer [Dr] Ernest
Ndukwe [right], during the induction of Governor Aregbesola into the
Hall of Fame for Africa Digital Awards, at Sheraton hotel Lagos on
Sunday 8/12/2013

Governor State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola presenting Award to the
President of the Nigeria Internet Group [NIG] Engineer. Bayo Banjo,
during the induction of Governor Aregbesola into the Hall of Fame for
Africa Digital Awards, at Sheraton hotel Lagos on Sunday 8/12/2013

That it took over three year’s battle to recover his mandate from the ousted government of Olagunsoye Oyinlola is now history.  Nobody gave Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola the chance of winning the legal battle. Some of his supporters gave up at the eleventh hour while waiting for the final Court of Appeal judgment. It was the longest electoral battle in the history of Nigeria and at the end of the trial, the Electoral Acts were amended in order to reduce the period of electoral litigation to 180days.
The government of Aregbesola from inception promised to be a peculiar administration, and three years later the governor has lived to its promises. The six integral action plans of the government remained the compass that guides the working and actions of the government. The government sets out to battle; Poverty, banish hunger, banish unemployment, restore healthy living, promote functional education, and enhance communal peace and progress.
At the inception, for about eight months, the governor refused to appoint commissioners as it was the custom in all democratic states. This action of Aregbesola did not go down well with the political opposition who took the new government to the cleaner and threatened to take legal action against the governor. But Aregbesola remained unmoved for he has his trick up his sleeve, and when he eventually appointed the commissioners, he told the nation that the state was not financially buoyant to afford the financial implication of political appointees , he averred: “ I used the first eight months to save enough fund for the projects and programmes of the government, our predecessor took a bank loan that grounded the financial wheel of the administration to the tune of 18.6 billion naira to finance stadia projects when we were not hosting any sport competition.
Every effort to renegotiate with the bank where the loan was taken failed until we found another bank that bought over the said debts and granted us a convenient loan to finance our projects.” The judicial panel of enquiry set up to probe the loan found the  Oyinlola guilty over the aforesaid loan. However, the government moved ahead and began the journey of a new state that has since turned around the fortune of the state to the level that the blind could feel the changes and the deaf could see the gigantic development of the state, even the political opponents have been silenced from their initial negative propaganda of non-performance, to the allegation of turning the state into a debtor state. This negative gab has not fit in to the image of the government as quite often, the financial institutions such as Central Bank, Debt Management Office have excluded the state from the list of debtor’ states.
The next issue that surprises the opponents is the employment of 20, 000 youths that were engaged within a hundred days in office by the governor under the OYES-Osun Youths Empowerment Scheme. This singular acts was the first of its kind in Nigeria. The ousted government did not waste time from writing off the scheme as ridiculous and insulting for the state graduates to be engaged in communal work with ordinary 10, 000 naira per months. They accused the government of deceit over the numbers said to have been engaged.  Aregbesola was not bugged by the negative criticism; rather he asked them to verify the actual numbers under the scheme from First Bank who paid the youths monthly. He also replied the opposition by demanding from them what were they able to do for the same youths for a period of 90 months they were in power in the state, if the pain and the anguish of these youths did not touch the opposition, at least, the implication of having army of youths roaming the street without any means of living could trigger high level of crime in the state and the nation as a whole.
While the opposition was criticizing, parents and participating youths were full of praise and appreciation of the government actions of making them bread winners. The critics were still on the same page when the government engaged another batch of 20, 000 youths making it 40, 000 youths that have participated in the scheme so far and many of them apart from being engaged by the government, a large percentage are today trained and empowered to become entrepreneurs and employer of labour.
This OYES scheme has since received the approvals of the World Banks which in turn  sold the good idea to the Federal government and supported the scheme financially, the Federal government has since  kicked off the scheme under the name YESSO. The prophet is said not to enjoy respect at home, the Aregbesola scheme that was ridiculed and disparaged by political opponents is today being celebrated nationwide for embarking on such a noble scheme in reducing the joblessness in our nation among our youths. The Aregbesola government has also got the youths motivated in taking into farming via O’REAP, through training within and outside Nigeria, by also clearing virgin lands for large scale farming, loans schemes and farming equipment as well as fertilizers to boost farming in the state. Consequently the state is gradually becoming the food basket of the South West through massive food production and the vision of kicking out poverty has become a reality and the peace and security is reigning in the state as poverty which Nehru Gandhi said to be” the harbinger of crime” has been conquered.
This effort of the government has made Osun to be voted as second best in poverty index in Nigeria, the Federal office of Statistics has also adjudged it as the best among the states with less percentage of unemployed youths.
State of Osun was another burning issue, a deviation from the commonly use of   “state”. The opposition accused the governor for trying to secede for having the audacity to call State of Osun, the introduction of a state anthem provides the opposition the ground to call the state a rebellious one. But the governor was unbowed, but told those that care to know that “we are charting courses that had never been charted”. The governor declared that the long military rule had mesmerized the nation to the extent that we have forgotten that we are a republic. That the oppression by the military has made some educated ones to have lost the import of Nigeria as a Federal Republic. Aregbesola defended his choice of using “the state of” as constitutional,and  that the constitution did not put any prefix or suffix. He cited section 176 of the 1999 Constitution Federal Republic of Nigeria to draw home his defense. Today, more than eight states in Nigeria have followed his footsteps.
. Opon-Imo tablet of knowledge, an educational iPad that today has earned the state and the governor international award and recognition was born in controversy. When the tablet was launched, the political elite especially the opposition was acidic in their condemnation of the device to them, the governor and his son were merely milking the state of its resources. The tablets cannot be cost effective; the priority of the state ought not to be the tablet. Newspapers columnists added insulting articles upon articles ridiculing the government, but like the Right brothers were disparaged initially but celebrated till date over invention of aircraft, the Opon Imo tablet of knowledge has become an international phenomenal, that has earned one award after the other, the governor himself declared at the launching “with this Opon Imo Africa has come of age”. Indeed, Aregbesola has added his name among the people that contributed to the development of knowledge among mankind.
 DAILY INDEPENDENT

The Osun Civil Societies Coalition (OCSC) has joined the whole world to mourn the passing away of the former South African President, Nelson Mandela, who was known for his tireless campaign against apartheid.

Mandela, according to the coalition, was the first South African black president to unify the country to ensure that an egalitarian society is achieved.
The coalition in a press statement signed by its Publicity Secretary, Comrade Ismaeel Uthman, yesterday, described the late Mandela as an epitome of humility, justice and equality. Uthman said Mandela was an embodiment of selflessness and courage, who has inspired generations on the campaign for human dignity and an egalitarian society.
According to him, Mandela’s death is a great loss to the world, most especially to human rights community, adding that the antiapartheid icon enjoyed universal mourning for his contribution to world peace.
“Mandela demonstrated equality and egalitarianism in his lifetime. He was a hero of all time and he will forever remain a source of inspiration to generations unborn. He was a liberator, who worked tirelessly for the good of Africa as a continent.
“Mandela sacrificed his freedom for, not only South Africans, but the Africans generally. He spent 27 of his useful years in prison to ensure a just and fair society for the blacks, who had been segregated by the apartheid policy”, Uthman stated.
NATIONAL MIRROR

Ajibade Jumoke and Ayodele Abib of Osogbo High School have emerged winners of the maiden SCARF Golden Quiz Competition organized by the wife of the Governor, State of Osun, Mrs. Sherifat Aregbesola.

They went away with a cheque of two hundred thousand naira while a cheque of one hundred thousand naira was also given to the second position, Ede Muslim High School and seventy five thousand was given to the third position. Certificates of excellence were also given to all contestants who participated in the competition.
Speaking at the event held in Osogbo, Mrs. Aregbesola said the event was to further broaden the knowledge of the students and encourage them in their educational endeavours.
“I am optimistic that your presence here today would elicit interest to make you and your colleagues to excel in your education.
“Our participants in today’s program are pioneers in this maiden edition of the Quiz competition, which we have called SCARF Golden Quiz. We have given the name “golden” to this competition because of the objective it is set out to achieve in our students.
This Quiz is to broaden the knowledge of our students and encourage them to aspire for further education.
“When SCARF was conceived about four years ago as a non-profit organization dedicated to rendering care to the less-privileged in our society, indigent students were considered a vital group of people we must reach out to.
Our philosophy of care revolves around positioning the poor and the needy to make positive contributions to the society.
“Practical experience in Nigeria has shown that we have unquantifiable talents among our people which have often been blighted as a result of lack of resources to actualise the talents.
“We therefore resolved in SCARF that we shall devote a portion of our available resources to help promote education among our children.
This is to compliment the intensive award-wining education program being implemented by the administration of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, who believes that education would ensure that our children are made to become complete persons through the concept of the total man.”
NATIONAL MIRROR

“Our School Reforms and Reclassification exercise has exposed not only the inherited infrastructural decay un-befitting even for animal pets, but also a horrendous moral decadence and delinquency which are the natural offspring of the rot and are capable of derailing our educational transformation, so, they must be checked” –Aregbesola
A 27 man high powered Special Committee on Discipline in Public Schools has been inaugurated; Wednesday to examine the moral decadence in the public schools in Osun.
The step is in a bid to urgently arrest pockets of violence in public schools across the state.
Explaining why such Committee was put together! Governor Rauf Aregbesola said that recent mindless violence in public schools is worrisome and disheartening- considering the priority his administration is giving to education in the state.
He described the recent violence in some schools as a major challenge in the middle and high schools which must be address before it spreads to the elementary schools.
“The situation is so terrible to the extent that there is the need to declare a state of emergency on middle and high school education in the state of Osun if not in Nigeria as a whole.
“Population of the trouble makers may be minute and tinny but such violence is discouraging and capable of derailing the ongoing education transformation in our state”, he explained.
The committee’s terms of reference include unveiling the level of moral decadence and discipline in public schools and recommend appropriately a long term approach to curb the menace.
Aregbesola tasked the committee to dwell as much as possible on the causes of bad habit and gross indiscipline by not sparing any stakeholder in the cause of their investigation- including teachers, principals, Local Inspectors of Education, LIE among others.
Members of the committee were urged to carry out the task with what Aregbesola described as full sense of responsibility; urging them to handle the assignment as a mater of destiny of the Yoruba race and to justify the huge resources invested on education.
“The cankerworm must be flushed out of the education sector because we want to make our state a model. That is why we rebranded it as the state of the virtuous
“The decay in the physical infrastructures of public schools has already spread to the morals of pupils. We must sanitise this”, said Aregbesola.
The Deputy Governor and Commissioner for Education Otunba Grace Titi Laoye-Tomori said it was the reclassification exercise that exposed the indiscipline among the school pupils which was difficult to imagine.
Laoye-Tomori added that the need for the inauguration is in furtherance of the administration’s policy on revamping the decadence in public schools. The committee is put in place with a view to correcting indiscipline in schools.
Acting Chairman of the Committee and Special Adviser to the Governor on Land and Physical Planning, Dr Ayoade Owoade said members of the committee understand the pulse of government, considering where it places education as first priority. He assured the governor of diligent exercise on the assignment.
OTHER MEMBERS OF THE COMMITTEE
1. Mr Sunday Akere, Commissioner for Information and Strategy
2. Prof. Mrs Funmi Tonobi, A Professor of Psychology and former Deputy Vice Chancellor, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife.
3. Hon Jonshon Ojo – Osun Legislature (OSHA)
4. Hon Samson Fafiyebi – Osun Legislature (OSHA)
5. Hon Ademola Ajiboye – Osun Legislature (OSHA)
6. Mrs Esho Williams – Special Adviser For Women Affairs & Social Welfare
7. Mrs Latifat Giwa – a Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Education.
8. Mr Lawrence Oyeniran, Permanent Sectary, Ministry of Education,
9. A representative of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN)
10. A representative of Muslim Communities
11. A representative of Traditional Religion Worshippers
12. Representatives of NUT and ANCOPS
OSUN DEFENDER

Photos from the Governor’s Endorsement for Second Term Running by all the thirty one Local Government Executive Secretaries in the State at Nelson Mandela Freedom Park, Osogbo the State of Osun at the weekend.

Governor State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola (4th right); his
Deputy, Mrs Titi Laoye-Tomori (5th right); Chairman, Association of
Local Government Executive Secretaries in Osun, Prince Soji Ajayi (3rd
right); Interim Chairman, All Progressive Congress, Elder Adebiyi
Adelowo (right); Commissioner for Justice, Barrister Wale Afolabi (4th
left) and others, during the Governor’s Endorsement for Second Term
Running by all the thirty one Local Government Executive Secretaries
in the State at Nelson Mandela Freedom Park, Osogbo the State of Osun
at the weekend.

Governor State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola (4th right); his
Deputy, Mrs Titi Laoye-Tomori (5th right); Chairman, Association of
Local Government Executive Secretaries in Osun, Prince Soji Ajayi (3rd
right); Interim Chairman, All Progressive Congress, Elder Adebiyi
Adelowo (right); Executive Secretary, Ilesa West Local Government,
Alhaji Issa Azeez (2nd right) and others, during the Governor’s
Endorsement for Second Term Running by all the thirty one Local
Government Executive Secretaries in the State at Nelson Mandela
Freedom Park, Osogbo the State of Osun at the weekend.

Governor State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola (4th right); his
Deputy, Mrs Titi Laoye-Tomori (5th right); Interim Chairman, All
Progressive Congress, Elder Adebiyi Adelowo (3rd right); Secretary to
the State Government, Alhaji Moshood Adeoti (5th left) and others,
during the Governor’s Endorsement for Second Term Running by all the
thirty one Local Government Executive Secretaries in the State at
Nelson Mandela Freedom Park, Osogbo the State of Osun at the weekend.

Traditional Religious Worshippers in Osun State have warned the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) against attack on the merger and reclassification policy of the government of Osun State.
The worshippers at a press conference addressed yesterday by their President, Chief Idowu Awopetu in Osogbo noted that CAN should be cautioned to desist from action that could derail the laudable programme of government aimed at transforming education to a greater height in the State.
Awopetu said it was wrong for CAN to claim ownership of any public school in the State since it is a matter of public knowledge that since the takeover of ownership of schools by the government in1975, government also took over the responsibility of staffing, administration and provision of infrastructure in the schools.
His words: “We challenge the leadership of CAN to give evidence of contribution of even a kobo for the upkeep of these schools. It is shameless that these elements in the CAN leadership are coming forward to lay claim to the schools that have been left to rot by all before
Governor Aregbesola decided to fulfill his promise of providing qualitative education to all the children of Osun, irrespective of creed or religion”.
“In this regard, we have observed tremendous investment of Aregbesola’s Government in educational infrastructure. Our public schools are now attractive for learning and more students are leaving private schools to be part of the revolution that is taking place in our public schools. Gone is the era where our public schools are not fit for animal husbandry”. He said.
Chief Awopetu expressed shock and dismay that CAN asserted that the reclassification exercise is capable of triggering terrorism in the state saying that the leadership of CAN ought to be mindful of their language especially when such utterances can fan the ember of discord in the state.
He urged security agencies in the state to invite the leadership of CAN with a view to investigating this claim: “In view of the grave implications of the alarmist claim of the CAN Chairman for the immediate security of lives and property in the State, we hereby call
on security operatives to, as a matter of urgency, invite leadership of CAN with a view to investigating this claim and if found to be untrue should henceforth warn them to stop spreading lies that can put this state in turmoil.”
The President insisted that religious tolerance is the hallmark of the Yoruba people saying: “there is hardly any home in Yoruba land, State of Osun inclusive, where you will not find adherents of all the three dominant religion. This, notwithstanding, has not created a wedge between us as a people rather we co-exist peacefully with mutual respect for one another”.
The traditionalists called on citizens of the State to prevail on CAN leadership to maintain peace adding that the state has enjoyed tremendous peace in the last three years of administration of Mr. Rauf Aregbesola.
DAILY TRUST