State of Osun House of Assembly has commended Chairman, Special Committee on Fire Safety Matters, Hon. Oguntola Mudashiru Toogun for the zeal and commitment he puts into place while discharging his duty as both the chairman of Fire Safety Matters as well as Peaceful Coexistence between Fulani/ Bororo and Crop Farmers in the State.
The Chairman, House Committee on Finance and Appropriation, Hon. Kamil Oyedele gave the commendation while the Committee on Fire Safety Matters gave the report of their activities to the house.
Hon. Oyedele, Hon. Ajibola, Hon. Oyedele and Hon. Adeyemi expressed their satisfaction with the awareness on Fire Safety consciousness and low level of loss in the State through fire outbreak. They explained that they don’t expect anything less from him since he is a goal getter.
They therefore promised to look into the challenges of the Fire Service with a view to holistically look into it for more better results.
Also speaking, Permanent Secretaries, Ministries of Finance, Budget and Economic Planning, and Public Service Office, Mrs Adebimpe Ogunlumade, Messrs Segun Olorunsogo and Leye Aina respectively urged the house to look into their challenges especially their allowances and Fire fighting equipments for improved results.
Earlier, the Chairman, Special Committee on Fire Safety Matters, Hon. Oguntola Mudashiru Toogun thanked the Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola for the opportunity given to him to Chair the Committee and the State House of Assembly for the cooperation with the Committee.
Hon. Toogun however, urged the house to urgently look into the need of Fire Service for optimum results.
Present were Coordinating Director, Ministry of Information, Home Affairs, Tourism and Culture, Mrs Femi Webster – Esho and other members of the Committee on Fire Safety Matters.
The Executive governor of the state of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola is a man determined to push through the agenda of his government.
This desire to leave a mark on the sands of time has been the driving force that has seen this hard worker take on tasks and projects that others have thought impossible to achieve.
Driven only by an unquenchable passion to make the lives of the ordinary people better, this man barely takes a break on the job.
We looked at what a typical day around him looks like.
See photos below
Early riser: Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola is up bright and early with a smile as always to face the business of governing the state
Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola still wears what is now a trademark smile even after hours on the job. Oyo state governor, Sen Abiola Ajimobi is seen in his company
Burning the night candle: Rauf Aregbesola attends personally to emails and social media. Talk about being tech savvy.
After a long but what has been routine of a day, Mr Governor retires to catch some shut eyes and reset for a new day.
The World Bank has commended the Osun State Government for ensuring that all projects of the agency are monitored and implemented properly.
Task Team Leader, World Bank Abuja, Prof. Foluso Okunmadewa, gave the commendation in Osogbo at the mid-term review for YESSO/CSDP implementation in Osun State.
According to him, the relationship between the bank and the state government has been cordial and has brought fulfilment to the two of them.
The essence of the field visit by representatives of the World Bank is to assess the level of implementation by the agencies concerned and to identify constraints to its success.
Prof. Okunmadewa, who hinted that a formal national session to assess the progressnation nationwide would be done early in March, stressed that the state technical sessions was to mediate on things that will improve the project.
Speaking with newsmen, the Coordinator of the Youth Employment and Social Support Operation (YESSO) in Osun State, Mr. Femi Ifaturoti, represented by the head of operations, Mr. Sola Adetoye, noted that 540 communities in 18 local government areas of the state have so far been registered in the programme with over 1,000 poor youths benefitting.
The Government of Osun on Sunday warned against setting up of illegal healing and rehabilitation homes in any part of the state.
Government’s statement came on the heels of the discovery of an illegal rehabilitation home along the Iwo-Osogbo Road, on Thursday.
The statement signed by the Director, Bureau of Communication and Strategy, Office of the Governor, Mr. Semiu Okanlawon, said with government’s investment in a care centre for people with mental challenge, no one has reason to patronize unqualified homes for mental illness.
The statement said, “The attention of the Government of Osun has been drawn to the existence of an uncertified rehabilitation home where about two dozens of mentally challenged persons have been discovered.
“The discovery was made off the Iwo-Osogbo Road on Thursday, February 23rd, 2017.
“Preliminary investigations have indicated that the person who claims to be in charge of this rehabilitation home; the entire environments of the location and other relevant factors have shown that this is unacceptable.”
The statement explained that the Government has moved fast to evacuate the emaciated mentally challenged persons who were found to be in different deplorable states of health to its facilities at the state hospital and rehabilitation home while the State Police Command continues with its full investigations.
The statement added, “This is therefore to state categorically that the Government of Osun will not permit the setting up and running of rehabilitation homes in any part of the state.
As a government with a high sense of responsibility to its people, the State, through its Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare and Special Needs, has put in place a rehabilitation home that meets international standards. Anything short of this standards would therefore not be permitted.”
The Government called on all citizens to take advantage of the existing government facilities for rehabilitation of mentally challenged persons which it said is at very little or no cost to them.
At least, 3,000 tailors and 5,000 market women have benefitted from the State of Osun uniform unification policy since it was introduced in 2012.
This was revealed by the manager of Omoluabi Garments Factory, Osogbo, Mr. Ayobami Fatai. He stated this whilst speaking with journalists over the weekend that Omoluabi Garment Factory is saddled with the local production of Osun School Uniforms while the State of Osun works with the factory to ensure the prices are controlled and affordable.
It was gathered that the factory also act as a hub to train tailors in the state for free. The manager says thousands of residents in the state have passed through the system, learning how to sow, while also earning at the same time.
He further revealed that the factory also partners with the local association of textiles sellers (Egbe Alaso) to supply the uniforms to the market. So far, the factory has partnered with 5,000 of them. With a down payment of 10% of total value of Uniforms to be collected, the textile sellers get the uniforms in bulk and payment is spread throughout the course of selling.
As at February 2017, at least, the sum of N120mn has been made as profits by the textile sellers through the sale of subsidized school uniforms alone.
The programme which is in its 5th year, has so far being subsidized to the tune of N800m, in addition to the initial N900m seed investment by the government into the business to guarantee the production and sale of 750,000 pieces of uniforms which the government distributed to students across the state for free at the inception of the programme.
Omoluabi Garment Factory, reportedly one of the biggest garment factory in West Africa, is a thriving Private Public Business Partnership between the government of the state of Osun and Sam & Sara Garments Limited. The company now produces Uniforms for the Nigerian Military, Guarantee Trust Bank (GTB), Lagos Internal Revenue Service (LIRS), among several others.
Speaking on the unification policy, former Commissioner for Commerce, Co-Op & Empowerment in the state, Mr. Jayeoba Alagbada, said the unification of school uniforms is part of an effort by the State of Osun to create a unique identity for students, promote culture and stimulate the local economy. He stated that the innovation ensures uniformity and engenders a unified sense of belonging among all government owned public primary and secondary school pupils in the state.
No matter your disposition to art, a visit to the Nike art gallery and dye pits in Osogbo is bound to be a breathtaking experience.
We took time to observe the beautiful process of tie and dye making. The amount of concentration, focus and creativity that goes into this craft is simply just amazing.
Every bit of detail is taken into consideration to produce what is an astonishing end product.
see photos below
WHEN Engineer Abdul Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola stormed Osun State to contest for the most exalted political position at the state level- governorship- most skeptics saw him as a jester.
But within a short period of time, the Ibadan Polytechnic-trained Engineer through his political group- “Oranmiyan”- unleashed on the state the greatest political machinery which held the PDP controlled government by the jugular until it wrestled power from it.
During his vociferous electioneering campaign, the Oranmiyan himself did not mince words on his desire to rescue the hapless citizens of Osun state from the firm grip of the then PDP led government’s misrule.
The election which was keenly contested was not without malpractices orchestrated by the incumbent government but Aregbesola being a firm believer in the rule of law and the supremacy of the judiciary to be fair and just headed to the court with a view to getting his mandate.
After several months of legal fireworks, the Court of Appeal, finally declared Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola as the duly elected Governor having scored the highest number of lawful votes in the election.
Moments after his historic swearing in ceremony, the Governor soon settled down to a rigorous work and like a man with the Midas touch, all the hitherto moribund sectors in the State started experiencing positive turnarounds.
It would be placed on record that for the first time in the history of educational development in Nigeria, Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola started the distribution of school uniforms and sandals to students.
Governor Rauf Aregbesola amidst pupils during the distribution of school uniforms and sandals.
As if this is not enough, he also commenced the ‘O’ meal’ scheme in which free nutritional food were distributed to the pupils and students across the length and breadth of the state. And having seen the resultant effect of this laudable programme on the education development in Osun state, the federal government of Nigeria has now embraced and adopted it and it was dubbed the “Homegrown School Feeding” programme.
‘O’ meal’ scheme
With this giant stride achievement, people were of the view that Ogbeni Aregbesola has reached his zenith but to Ijesa born governor, the only reward for success is continuous hard work.
It is against this background that the Osun State government under Ogbeni leadership came out with another master stroke and consequently launched the “Opon Imo” educational scheme where in the students were provided with computer tablet with all subjects there in.
“Opon Imo” educational scheme.
Thus, the traditional scenes in which the students move about with lorry loads of text books has become a thing of the past and the wear and tear resultant effect associated with such practices have been completely eliminated.
With ‘Opon imo’ at the students’ possession, all what the students need to do is to click on any subjects he or she desires to read, and pronto, they are there in front of him.
As a good manager of resources who is in tune with the challenges associated with the use of electronic gadget in a country that is bedeviled with epileptic power supply like Nigeria, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola ensured that the revolutionary ‘Opon Imo’ tablet is solar powered with a view to ensuring that the students in the state make use of it optimally.
Thus when the initiative was finally launched in Iloko-Ijesha, it wasn’t without the usual pomp and pageantry which made eminent Nigerians from all walks of life and prominent political functionaries including the then Speaker of the Federal House of Representatives, now Governor of Sokoto state, Aminu Tambuwal, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, APC leader, Chief Bisi Akande, APC National Leader, Senator Ahmed Bola Tinubu, Oyo State Governor, Abiola Ajimobi, Senator Rashidi Adewolu Ladoja who was represented by Chief Segun Oyewole among other dignitaries to identify with such a groundbreaking achievement.
The neglect which the public education experienced under the previous governments in the state which has culminated into the dilapidated structures unfit for animals not to talk of humans and couple with the non-incentives for the teachers resulting into low productive output has led to a drastic reduction of pupil’s enrollment into the state’s public schools.
But in spite of the poor finances currently facing all tiers of governments in Nigeria, Ogbeni Aregbesola, the people’s man refused to be undaunted, instead, he resulted into self sacrifice cutting off the usual office paraphernalia just to ensure that dividends of democracy are delivered to his people.
This executive paraphernalia denial by Ogbeni as his fondly called by his teeming supporters was stemmed from his belief that “education is the best legacy, it kills the blight of illiteracy and ignorant”.
Contrary to the sordid and sorry state of education which Aregbesola met when he was sworn in as the state governor, he has, however, turned the ‘hands of clock around’ by providing a conducive learning environment for pupils in the state of Osun through the erection of ultramodern structures stuffed with up-to-date instructional materials likened to the ones used in the advance countries of the world.
One of the High schools built by Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, Governor, State of Osun.
The new school which is three-in-one is comprised of;
1. The Elementary schools: It ccommodating Primary 1-4 pupils with a student population of 900.
2. The Middle Schools: It houses Primary 5, 6-Junior Secondary School (JSS) 1-3 pupils with 1,500 students capacity.
Elementary school
3. The High School: It is meant for Senior Secondary School (SSS) 1-3 with students population of 3,000. The High Schools, sharing a modern hall of 1,000 sitting capacity for examinations, and other purposes, as well as sports facilities and well equipped laboratories.
Mega Icon Magazine further checks revealed that Governor Aregbesola has built over sixty (60) new schools and renovated forty (40) which are spread and visible across the state.
Middle school.
At this juncture, it is obvious that the Aregbesola led-administration has fulfilled its promise made when its convened an education summit for the state chaired by an icon of literature knowledge in Africa, Professor Wole Soyinka who incidentally is the first black Africa’s first Literature Nobel Laureate.
The summit had four elements for the transformation of the state’s public schools, they include: feeding and health programme, reclassification of the schools into elementary, middle and high schools, infrastructural development, the provision of digital technology to drive education which the state dubbed “Opon-Imo”, which literarily means ‘the tablet of knowledge’ for all students.
State of Osun is now a tourist centre that has continued to attract tourists and “doubting Thomas” due to the world class school facilities provided by Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola.
Presently, his administration has intensified efforts towards increasing capacity building through training and retraining of teachers and exposure to digital teaching techniques.
Following series of appeals by students who are still interested in writing the entrance examination into the four new
government high schools across the state, the Omoluabi Education Services has agreed to conduct another round of examination into grade 10 and 11 of the schools.
According to a statement signed by the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Mr Festus Olajide, the interested students are to obtain the entrance examination forms free of charge from their school of choice.
The Permanent Secretary therefore enjoined the students to fill and return the forms to the schools adding that the date of the examination will be announced later.
The statement also revealed that, the Government High Schools are tuition free.
Infrastructural development has been one of the high points of the Rauf Aregbesola led government in the state of Osun. It is therefore no wondr that the state has been turned into a huge construction site.
The ongoing dualization of the Gbongan-Ibadan single carriageway is a testimony to this fact.
