The governor of the State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola on Friday urged the National Council on Information to give thoughts to how governments at different levels can tap into the vast potentials of social media and Information Communications Technology to enhance accountability and transparency in governance.
Governor Aregbesola made this charge while declaring open the 44th National Council on Information (NCI) at the Women and Children Development Initiative Foundation (WOCDIF) Osogbo.
The governor charged NCI to outline the required steps to be taken in a bid to achieve efficient public information management in Nigeria. According to him, “you may also want to examine the lingering debate on whether social media is a public utility requiring government regulation.
“All of these are very important when you consider the huge damage that shoddy and inexpert handling of public information can cause at different areas in a country.” The governor pointed out.
He revealed that Osun in the last three years of his administration has witnessed the enduring benefits of good governance, adding that people-driven and people-focused policies of the government benefit substantially from the huge capacities of social media.
“We have healthy interactions and useable inputs from many of the citizens who have access to the different social sites. We are encouraging a culture of full and informed participation in governance through effective information management.
“Our unshaking commitment to the principles of accountability and transparency made us explore every opportunity that enables us to carry our people along as we work to transform their lives.” He stressed.
He noted that the new online platform his government launched recently is another means through which it seeks to deepen public engagement and popularise the Osun brand in the widening Nigerian online space.
The governor who showed the audience a documentary on the innovative learning device from the state Opon Imo said the device is a demonstration of his governments belief in the use of ICT to enhanc all facets of human life including education.  He said with the introduction of Opon Imo alone his government has beaten down the cost of and access to quality education in the state.
Aregbesola recieved repeated applauses as he reeled out the landmark achievement s of his government in less than three years.
On Social media Maku said that it has immense capacities for personalised content generation, and has very minimal barriers, including costs, information and opinion dissemination.
The Osun Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Hon. Sunday Akere in his welcome address said that Aregbesola since inception of office has employed the most effective Communication strategy to re-awaken the people and renew their sense of belonging by rebranding the state.
Akere revealed that the Osun governor knowing the essence of state owned medium, threw everything into re-making the state broadcasting outfits by setting up panel to set in motion new path for growth and development for Osun State Broadcasting Corporation (OSBC) and other government owned stations.
According to him, ” our governor knows the essence of a state owned medium, thus his approval of funds for the purchase of exotic broadcast equipment for OSBC, mass training for all categories of staff for the first time in the state.
“We have a dedicated functional website where all relevant information can be found, we are still counting as various efforts are to ensure that all that should make information available to the people about the state and administration are done.” The Commissioner pointed out.

The Minister of Information, Labaran Maku has called on Nigerians to “be alive to their corporate social responsibility to defend the agenda of the Nations democracy.”
He said this during a courtesy visit to Governor Rauf Aregbesola in Osogbo, the Osun state capital, where he is attending 44th edition of the National Council on Information themed “Social Media and Public Information Management”.
The Minister also said that Nigeria’s development and democracy can only be sustained when everyone decides to play a positive part devoid of selfish motive.
While highlighting some of the Federal Government’s efforts, he mentioned that the transformation agenda of the Goodluck Jonathan-led administration is visible in the power sector which the government is trying to commercialise in a bid to ensure Nigerians get stable power supply.
However, Governor Aregbesola stressed that recognising the significance of security to development should be the priority of the federal government for sustenance of the nation.
CHANNELSTV

The health management programmes of the present administration is indeed laudable. It is indeed a milestone.The idea of revamping nine hospitals in Ile-Ife, Ilesa, Ikirun, Osogbo, Ede, Iwo, Ikire and Ila-Orangun, is indeed novel and unprecedented and is worthy of emulation.
Apart from the physical infrastructure like Out Patient Department (OPD), mortuary, doctors’ quarters, roads and block fencing, there are plans to equip these hospitals to bring them to standards that are internationally-acceptable worldwide, and also to supply them with drugs.
Apart from all these, starting from the State Hospital, Iwo, the state government has been organising free surgical operations to remove hernia and other body lumps for all citizens in the state and indeed, the populace have really gained from these surgeries, as both the young, old and even babies have successfully being operated on across the nine state hospitals in the state.
The government even went ahead to organise free eye surgeries and distribution of eye glasses, which attracted MTN Foundation attention.
When the health of a people is secure, then there is tendency that the people would work well and be creative.
Kudos must go to the indefatigable Commissioner of Health, Dr. (Mrs.) Temitope Ilori, who has aligned herself with the aspirations of the state government in the provision of free health to its citizenry.
A visit to the state hospitals would confirm this, but with all these done, there is need for the health managers to make judicious and effective use of these equipment that would be installed, be up and doing and shun laziness and ensure prompt service delivery.
Government on its part needs to ensure adequate training and re-training of its health managers. With this, Osun would be the medical centre of Nigeria and this can be achieved.
OSUN DEFENDER

A total of five thousand youth who successfully underwent an intensive training in ICT, Mobile phone and computer repairs and assembling in the Nigerian state of Osun have graduated at a ceremony in the state capital Osogbo.
The ceremony was attended by an array of high profile dignitaries including the Osun State Governor, Chief Engineer Rauf Aregbesola, his deputy, traditional rulers, representatives of labor unions as well as officials of the ruling party in Nigeria.
The training is part of a partnership agreement between Rlg Communications (Nigeria) Ltd and the Osun Youth Empowerment Scheme Technology (OYESTEC), a state sponsored initiative to make the youth economically resourceful.
Under the partnership, RLG Communications is contracted to train 20,000 youth in the Osun state alone on ICT related disciplines such as mobile telephone assembly and repair, computer technologies and entrepreneurial skills, with each training lasting for a 6 month period.
The training took place at 9 centers dotted across the state.
Governor Engineer Rauf Aregbesola who spoke on the topic “marching onto greater heights” justified the institution of the initiative saying he will continue to offer it the needed support until youth unemployment has been eliminated completely or drastically eradicated in his state.
He explained that Ghana’s RLG Communication was selected for the contract in view of its “enormous track record in delivery as well as their capacity” and commended the company for doing good job so far.
The Chairman of Osun State Youth Empowerment Scheme, Price Adefioye and the scheme’s Co-ordinator, Bamboo Bashorun commended the state governor for keeping alive the quest to ensure total economic transformation of the Osun state and its people especially the youth.
The Country Director of Rlg Nigeria, Tosin Illesanmi said work on a multi-purpose ICT Assembly Plant sited in the Osun State was progressing steadily and commended the governor for his immense support for the project which when completed will produce 5,000 mobile phones and 2,000 laptops on daily basis.
“One of the key mandates of RLG was to revolutionize Information and Communications Technology in Africa and create one million jobs for the youth in the world,” said Country Director of RLG for Nigeria, Mr. Tosin Ilesanmi said.
The graduate trainees expressed appreciation to the State Governor and RLG for giving them the opportunity to be trained. They were presented with certificates.
The training program adopts a comprehensive training strategy which is both instructive and participatory. Actual repairs, servicing, maintenance and assembling of mobile phones, computer technologies (desktop and laptop) and other electronic equipment are some of the areas of training.
It is intended to help government to maintain local content creation and ease incidents of youth restiveness in Nigeria, especially in Osun State where the training is taking place.
The aim is to create and empower as many as 20,000 youths, within a period of 24 months that will work in service centers that would be set up in different locations in Osun State.
The centers would be manned by over 1000 of the graduates who would serve as RLG service repair and sales personnel.
GHANA WEB
 

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TODAY, at 11am at Oduduwa hall, Obafemi Awolowo University, State of Osun, the Ooni of Ife, Alayeluwa Oba Okunade Sijuwade, Olubuse II, will lead his illustrious Ile-Ife subjects and all Yorubas in celebrating the heroic valour of the fourth monarch, Oranmiyan, who occupied his throne. The three-day festival will open with a lecture that will put Oranmiyan in perspective before other activities will follow.
With the theme ‘Oranmiyan –What is a Name?’ organisers hope to give historical background to the rise of Oranmiyan and his place in Yorubaland. The lecture will be given by Karunwi III, Oba Adedapo Adewale Tejuoso and chaired by Prof. Wande Abimbola. Osun State Governor, Rauf Aregbesola is special guest of honour.
Consultants to the festival, Flabsy Travel and Tours Ltd, said the festival would serve as source of unity among the Yoruba nation, as her sons and daughters would be drawn from all parts of the world to attend and pay homage to their illustrious ancestor.
Supporting the festival will be Nigerian Bottling Company, makers of Coca Cola Coke; Grand Oak Ltd, makers of Seamans Schnapps, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Vita Foam, WABP Publishers and others.
Also, through Oranmiyan Festival, Lawrence Omidiora and Abiodun Olabampe of Flabsy Travels and Tours Ltd hope to market the historical artifacts associated with the legendary Oranmiyan and Ile-Ife. Such artifacts include Oranmiyan Staff located in his grave site, his sword and calabash of divination, which must confer legitimacy on any would-be Alaafin of Oyo before he takes office, and his shield located at Alasa compound at Iremo, Ife.
A prominent Ife personage, Chief Bashir Awotorebo, noted that Oranmiyan isn’t a religious deity, but a cultural, war hero, said Ile-Ife is the cultural capital of all Yoruba and that Oranmiyan as legend of Ile-Ife culture, was a man who was always in the forefront of war. He added, “Flabsy is in the right perspective that Oranmiyan should be celebrated. There should be Ife Cultural Week to really bring to the fore the rich culture of Ife”.
THE GUARDIAN

Governor Rauf Aregbesola of the State of Osun has said the ongoing re-classification of schools in the state is to advance the sector, which according to him, had been in a backward state and needed to be revitalized.
Osun had recently restructured education in the state to elementary, middle and high schools obtainable in other climes.
As a result, the governor said there was need for patience and understanding from the people over the ongoing reform.
He said the administration was worried over the state of education when it came to power in November 2010, and it organised an education summit involving the stakeholders in order to chart a way forward.
The governor, who was represented by the deputy governor, Mrs. Titilayo Laoye-Tomori, spoke at the opening of the 2nd session of the 8th Synod of the Diocese of Ife, Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion).
He said the current education policy in place was the aftermath of the stakeholders meeting, stressing that it was meant to give education a face lift.
She said, “We are presently re-classifying our schools. We are doing this to reposition education in the state. We have good intention for our people, especially for our children. We were worried and concerned about the state we met education when we came into the governance of the State in November 2010.
“We called education summit   – we invited stakeholders in education, our people in Diaspora and those that are committed to advancement of education in Nigeria.
“The schools that we met on ground were not the school that we attended. Things had fallen apart in our schools–the buildings had given way to dilapidated structures and the classrooms were nothing to write home about. And we believe that our children should have better education environment that we had when we were children.”
The communiqué issued after the summit, she added,  had been the roadmap for this re-classification.  “In line with best global practices all over the world today, we have three structures in education: we have the elementary school, middle school and high school. That is the way it is done outside the country. It is an attempt to put children that are of the same age group together as a group, to give them what they desire and require and to make them evolve as better citizens and to make them to be better educated, “ she added.
PUNCH

At the debut of Opon Imo – tablet of knowledge – on May 13th this year, Governor Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola knew that it would be celebrated within and outside the shores of Nigeria. But he was unaware that it was going to garner laurels across the globe and in quick succession in torrential rapidity. Apart from being applauded by the World Bank, the Speaker of House of Representatives, Honourable Aminu Tambuwa and the Minister of Finance and coordinating for economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Opo Imo has become a metaphor as an e-learning device of all time.
Ogbeni was right on point when he said: “We are breaking a yoke of nothingness; the yoke of irrelevance that our continent has been under for a long time. Nobody expects anything from our continent but we are sending signals to the world that the Africans have arrived; that we no longer accept the tag of the continent without a future. To me, that is the statement we have made with the launch of this hand held device.
“The idea of an electronic tablet is not our invention and we make no such claims.  But we have made something completely new and there is none like it in the face of the world.  Other tools do not have pre-loaded materials like this; you must get to the internet to upload.  It is a complete system that does not need to interface with others. It was commended by Harvard University. It is the first major learning device for self study.”
Thus a science student, who has interest in literature and does not offer it, can still dip into literature texts at his leisure. In the same way, an arts student can learn about scientific concepts that intrigue him, purely for knowledge sake, while the other modules in the Opon-Imo application are largely worked on by WAEC and JAMB examiners with the Osun State Teaching Service. In other words, the contents are all locally-sourced. Opon Imo, which was made to go through various levels of mechanical stress test, as this can be verified from UNIOSUN ICT Department, is the first of its kind ‘’stand-alone e-learning tool’ in Africa and arguably in the world.
As expected, the news has filtered  in that the esteemed Opon-Imo (Tablet of Knowlegde) won a World Summit Award in the e-Learning and Science Category. The World Summit Award (WSA) is a global initiative for selecting and promoting the world’s best electronic media and applications. It sees the bridging of the digital divide and narrowing of the “Content Gap” as its overall goal and, as of 2006, it involves representatives from 168 countries on each continent.
In the same vain, the innovative e-learning devise has also been nominated for the Nigerian Telecom Awards 2013. The Tablet of Knowledge was nominated under the category of African Most Innovative Product of the Year. The award comes up on September 20 at the Tafawa Balewa Square, Onikan, Lagos. Other categories of the awards include African Telecom of the Year; African Telecom Personality of the Year; West Africa Mobile Operator of the Year; Computer Brand of the Year among others. Besides, in the category of ICT State of the Year, Osun also got nominated alongside Ekiti and Bauchi States.
The Opon Imo tablet, which was launched on Monday 13th May, provides three major content categories: e-library, virtual classroom and an integrated test zone. The e-library contains 63 e-books covering 17 academic subjects for examinations conducted by WAEC, NECO and JAMB as well as non-academic subjects such as History of The Yoruba, Sexuality Education, Civic Education, Ifa on ethics and morals, enterprise education as well as hints and tips on passing SSCE.
In the integrated test zone of the device, there are more than 40,000 JAMB and WAEC practice questions and answers dating back to about 10 years and mock tests in more than 51 subject areas, which approximates to 1,220 chapters, with roughly 29,000 questions referencing about 825 images. Other sections of the e-learning device are an average of 16 chapters per subject and 823 chapters in all, with about 900 minutes or 15 hours of audio voice-overs.
The state saved a whopping N8.4 billion from live textbook purchases and instead, just a sum N200 million was spent by the state government for the purchase of the 56 e-books on Opon-Imo with 150,000 user licenses from a major educational publishing company from the country. As it is structured, Opon-Imo ensures that each student 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 revolutionary.
The tablet was distributed free of charge to students of public schools in the Senior Secondary I and II categories in the state. Opon Imo has been commended as one of the veritable tools of advancing and promoting easy learning and democratising education system not only in the state but across the country and beyond wherever it is embraced.
Opon Imo was the crown of the day at the Edo Information Communication Technology, ICT, Day a few weeks ago. The State of Osun’s Director of ICT, Mr. Bambo Bashorun  reeled off the advantages of Opon Imo to the captivated audience that drew applause for the novel initiative of Governor Aregbesola.
As it stands, Opon Imo has come to stay.
DAILY INDEPENDENT

The government of Osun State has vowed to move away from over dependence on oil revenue. To this end, the government has come up with many agricultural programmes to make the agricultural sector not only attractive to the people, but the mainstay of the state’s economy
 
With the volatility of oil prices, if there is one place Nigerians have found unanimity of opinions, it is in the call that the economy should be diversified. And when the call for economic diversification is made, Nigerians believe that the easiest sector is the agricultural sector.
Commentators and stakeholders alike have lamented that the continued neglect of the sector by successive administrations in the country has the tendency of exposing the nation to famine as it is being experienced in some developing nations like Somalia, Niger republic and Sudan.
Experts have equally argued that the dwindling foreign earnings that the country is going through now could have been averted if the sector was given its pride of place. For instance, the huge foreign earnings frittered away in importation of food items could have been conserved and the much needed foreign exchange ploughed in order sectors of the economy.
It is on the backdrop of this that the government of Osun State in the last three years decided to embark on revamping the agricultural sector mainly as a primary source of raw materials, improve food sufficiency and in the process, create employment.
Enumerating his six point integral action plan, the governor of the state, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola promised to use agriculture to banish hunger and poverty in the state.
In recognition of the agrarian nature of Osun State and its enormous potential for employment generation, a deliberate policy for mass food production through the Osun Rural Enterprise and Agricultural Programme, O-REAP, has been designed to enable the ministry give priority attention to agricultural commodity value chain spanning production, processing, storage, preservation and marketing.
The mission of O-REAP is to achieve food security, wealth and job creation, youth empowerment, economic transformation and making the state a hub of agriculture and a centre of commerce in the South-West. The mission is a strategy to capture Lagos market through supply of at least 10% of the estimated daily N3 billion worth of food in the state.
As part of efforts to fulfill its social contract with the people of the state, Governor Rauf Aregbesola put considerable emphasis on hunger and poverty alleviation which is the core value of National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy, NEEDS, and attainment of Millennium Development Goals.
The administration is working round the clock towards the attainment of the objectives of the O-REAP through sustainable implementation strategies to aid the operation of farmers through land acquisition, land clearing and private public partnership, as well as provision of enabling environment for farmers to maximise their potential. O-REAP focuses on different agricultural initiatives which include Osun Broilers Out Growers Production Scheme.
The Beef Chain Development Programme, O-REAP Fish Farm Estates, Osun Fisheries Out-Growers Production Scheme, O-REAP Youth Academy, Agricultural Credit, Farm Service Centers, Provision of storage facilities and seeding production as well as farm settlement scheme are the programmes mapped out under O-REAP.
Observers and indigenes of the state say the scheme has drastically redefined the sector as farmers now have access to over one thousand, day old; chicks under the Osun Broilers Out-Growers Production Scheme, O-BOPS.
The O-Broiler initiative is yielding positive result due to its linkage to O-meals, a school feeding programme which provides a sustainable market for poultry farmers in the state. O-Fish scheme of the present administration has opened window of opportunity for fish farmers through public private partnership arrangement. Over 800, 000 kilogrammes of cat fish are expected to be produced and processed by over 4, 000 fish farmers yearly in the state.
Also, the administration has designed quick impact intervention programme, the programme which focuses on small holding farmers and micro-credit management for cooperative farmers. The programme has made significant impact as cooperative groups were strengthened and agricultural activities increased substantially in the state.
Within two years, 77 farmers were registered for farmer’s cooperative groups and over one thousand hectares of land were cultivated while over one thousand jobs were created through the intervention.
The state government said that the success recorded under the intervention programme informed the design of Central Bank of Nigeria, commercial banks and agricultural enterprises to support government to enhance production of maize, cassava, rice and vegetables in the state.
Aside from making agriculture a key component of its economy, the administration also believes in the idea of making the sector more attractive to youths. To this end, government has designed school agriculture programme for the training of primary and secondary schools students in the art of farming. To ensure actualisation of the dream, Osun State government has provided schools in the state with necessary inputs for practical training for the production of cassava, maize and coco-yam while about ten schools were assisted on piggery and poultry production.
In its stride to revitalise farm settlement in the state and make the state the food basket of the nation, the administration also focused on farm settlement with a view to reposition the settlement to be in tandem with global practice.
In year 2011, about fifty hectares of virgin forest land were cleared, prepared and allocated to ten farmers free of charge at Mokore farm settlement as part of efforts of the government to enhance productivity of farmers and provide food in abundance for Osun State inhabitants.
In 2012, government extends the gesture to Iwo farm settlement with clearing of one hundred hectares of land to twenty farmers. Government also provided accessible road for the farm settlement so as to link farmers with market.
Other farm settlements that are also enjoying the presence of government include Ago-Owu and Oyere Aborisade farm settlement among others.
Also in its bid to make life more bearable for farmers and to enhance their production, the state government has distributed farm inputs ranging from CP 15 Sprayer, Grammozone and Atrazine to one thousand, eight hundred and thirty farmers in the state.
The beauty of the administration’s agricultural policies and programmes lies in the application of technology into farming through provision of agro chemicals to farmers to encourage massive food production across the state.
The administration is working hard towards reclaiming the old glory of people of South-West, and this is visible also with its efforts in providing free cocoa seedling to cocoa farmers in the state. Over ten million naira was released to cocoa farmers recently to boost cocoa production in the state.
Osun State has enormous agricultural resources that can be optimally exploited to achieve laudable objectives of poverty alleviation and overall economic prosperity for the entire state. The climate of the state is very clement and conducive to the commercial production of eight major categories of agricultural produce which have extensive potential for industrial utilisation.
The agricultural produce includes cereals like maize, roots and tubers, e.g. cassava yam, coco-yam, fruit and vegetable, orange, cashew, mango, tomatoes, etc. With the current stride in the sector, the present administration has opened windows of opportunity for both local and foreign investors to tap into production of farm produce for commercial purposes and industrial use.
Attesting to the state government’s determination to diversify the economy through the agricultural sector, the commissioner for agriculture and food security, Hon. Adewale Richard Adedoyin while speaking with Nigerian Pilot in Osogbo, said government was working round the clock to tap the sector for abundant food production, job and wealth creation.
The commissioner maintained that various intervention programmes of the ministry are yielding positive result towards attainment of the six points integral action plan of the present administration in the state.  Adedoyin noted that the training of some youths in Germany on modern agricultural practice and training of over 900 youths in modern farming techniques under O-REAP programme would not only serve as source of wealth generation but a viable tool for employment generation  in the state.
The commissioner said further that O-Concept as strategy for the revitalisation of agricultural sector in the state was aimed at transforming the state economy.
“Food is life, it is in realisation of this fact that the administration under the leadership of Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola increased budgetary allocation of the sector to over eight billion naira in 2013 fiscal year to cater for various programmes of the ministry to make agriculture more profitable and attractive, as well as a good venture for making food available in the state, with spillover effects in other states of the federation,” the commissioner said.
Richard Akintade – FOCUS