The groups had enthroned the Freedom Square, Osogbo for the public lecture and sensitisation rally on women participation in politics where they declare that Aregbesola remains the best to be on the seat of government since the creation of the state in 1991.
They maintained that Argbesola’s administration is the best government in the history of the state that has given women more prominence.
The groups consist market women association, artisans, women professional bodies, local government women leaders and 332 wards’ women leaders of All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state, among others.
The APC, Osun State, interim women leader, Kudirat Fakokunde, while addressing the participants, said the women across the state are behind the second term ambition of the governor in recognition of his brilliant performance.
Fakokunde said the women have benefited immensely from the present administration through different schemes, which include, Osun School Feeding and Health Programme (O Meals), OYES and welfare package from the venerable elderly women, which is unprecedented.
She added that through the health programme of Aregbesola, the women can now born and live in Osun with the qualitative health care delivery. She added that Osun has the lowest maternal death rate in Nigeria.
The state APC women leader assured the governor of the continuous support of the women group before and after the 2014 governorship election.
The Commissioner for Women and Children Affairs, Folake Adegboyega, urged women to unite and speak with one voice during the 2014 electioneering exercise.
She stressed the need for the women to occupy the deserved position in the society especially politics, adding that the essence of women in development programmes cannot over emphasised.
While noting that women has the right to participate actively in politics like their men folk, Adegboyega said there cannot be growth in politics without women, adding that participation of women in politics is necessary and good for development.
DAILY INDEPENDENT
The Managing Director, Odu’a Investment Company Limited, Mr. Adebayo Jimoh, says an Osun-Odu’a Farmers Academy has been established to teach the youth good agricultural practices in order to boost food security.
Jimoh said this on Thursday at the graduation of 410 trainees of the academy, which is located in Ede, Osun State.
According to him, the academy will stimulate youth interest in agriculture to ensure that there are replacements for the ageing farmers.
He said it was worrisome that ageing farmers were the only set of people left on the farms to produce food for the teeming population of Nigeria.
But he said that with the academy, which the company established in 2009 and now being operated in collaboration with the Osun State Government, there would be opportunities for the youth to learn modern agricultural practices, which would boost food production.
He said, “You will agree with me that the 21st Century agriculture is being challenged to produce and deliver high quality, nutritious, affordable food to a growing population while sharing limited land and other resources with all other human needs and activities.
“The Nigerian farmers across the country are also getting old (with an average of 60 years of age) hence the need for the training of young skilled farmers to continue in this vital profession, providing food security and caring for our agricultural lands and their surrounding ecosystems.
“Odu’a Investment is happy to partner with the state to provide the highest level of qualitative and modern training for new and emerging commercial farmers in viable food commodities with a view to sustaining food security in Nigeria.”
Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State said that his administration’s involvement of youths in agricultural enterprises was a way of tackling the menace of youth unemployment.
Aregbesola explained that the programme was borne out of the administration’s commitment to equip the youth and enhance their capacity to earn decent and virtuous living.
He said, “What we are witnessing today is the culmination of our administration’s resolve to equip our youths with requisite skills that will enable them to contribute adequately to agricultural production, even as they legitimately earn a decent living.
“The practical training in modern farming techniques would have broadened the horizons of the participants and added depth to their managerial abilities as well as strengthened them to creatively address societal challenges through agricultural endeavours.”
PUNCH
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.
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,
4. Hon Samson Fafiyebi
5. Hon Ademola Ajiboye
6. Mrs Latifat Giwa; a Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Education.
7. Mrs Esho Williams,
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.
BIOREPORTS
It is curious that the benefits of Osun Free School Feeding Programme, O’Meal, is being appreciated and found fit for adoption in strange quarters, England.
“A healthy hot meal gives children the ability to concentrate and do well in the classroom” All pupils at infant schools in England have been getting free school lunches from September, Lib Dem leader and Deputy PM Nick Clegg has announced. The change – for children in reception, year one and year two – will save parents about £400 a year per child.
Targeting infants would ensure “every child gets the chance in life they deserve”, teach healthy eating habits and boost attainment, Mr Clegg said. Money is being provided for Wales, Scotland and N Ireland to do likewise.
Supporters argued that children with a regular healthy meal were more likely to be able to concentrate, get better academic results and were less likely to be obese. It’s a public health approach, covering everyone for the long-term benefit.
A similar project saw free fruit being given to the infant years, with its advocates saying that the gains from this measure would be felt decades in the future. Now Nick Clegg’s announcement will see free meals offered as the recipe for better results. It concluded that packed lunches were nearly always less nutritious than a cooked meal, and that giving all children free lunches would raise academic standards.
“We will start with infant school pupils because teaching healthy habits young, and boosting attainment early, will bring the biggest benefits. “Universal free school meals will help give every child the chance in life that they deserve, building a stronger economy and fairer society.” Ministers are determined to make a series of gestures designed to alleviate the squeeze many families are feeling”
“The news will no doubt be welcomed by disadvantaged students and their parents at a time when family budgets are being stretched to the limit,” said Martin Doel, chief executive of the Association of Colleges.
Asked if it was fair to provide free schools lunches for the children of all irrespective of wealth, Mr Clegg said: “We believe that where we can find the money, even in these difficult times, we need to really invest that money in giving all children regardless of their family background the very best possible start in life.”
BIOREPORTS
Ilesa Students thronged after Governor Aregbesola in appreciation of his good governance in Osun, bringing traffic to a stand still along roads linking Ilesa Grammar School, venue of the interactive forum tagged: Gbangbadekun on Thursday 05-12-2013
Motorists have been advised to cultivate the habit of complying with traffic rules without waiting for law enforcement agents to apprehend them.
Chairman, State of Osun Technical Committee on Federal Road Safety Commission set up by Governor Rauf Aregbesola, Prof. Joseph Fawole gave the advice during a road show embarked upon by the Committee.
While disclosing that the dominant offences for which most of the offenders were apprehended and booked were, failure to use the seat belt and overloading. Professor Fawole lamented that some motorists were caught with right hand drive vehicles which had been banned since 1973.
He then promised that the committee will not relent in its public enlightenment endeavours, until a sound road culture is cultivated as in development societies.
OSUN NEWS
The commissioner for information and strategy, Mr. Sunday Akere has admonished people to live safely and be security conscious of their environment during this festive period.
He said this today in Owode town while on a market rally organized by the ministry of information and strategy, State of Osun. He advised the people to always beware of the happening going on around them and to report any act of unlawfulness to the appropriate authority.
Furthermore, Mr. Akere also encouraged parents to pay more attention to their children. That they should always find the time to know how their children are coping with their studies in their various schools. He said the government has provided the ‘OPON IMO’ tablet to enhance and improve the learning ability of student in public schools; hence parent should try and monitor how their children use these tablets as well as its maintenance.
He also stated that, the people should not see the educational reforms in the state as a means to pride a particular religion over the other, but as a means of strengthening the educational sector in the state of Osun.
OSUN NEWS
The State of Osun under the focus minded leadership of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola has been making efforts to reduce the State’s over reliance on Federal allocation in sustaining the state needs by strategizing to boost Internally Generated Revenue.
The newly appointed acting Chairman, Internal Revenue Service, Mr. Dayo Oyebanji, dropped this hint during a familiarization meeting with the association of Tax Audit Monitoring Agency. The Acting Chairman said that, of all the available means of generating revenue for the state, the one generated internally through the Internal Revenue Service stands out as the only stable means. He further described taxation as an ingredient of development in different parts of the world. Hence the revenue generated from tax is the one used to provide for the needs of the citizenry.
He however, promised to liberate the State of Osun from the bondage of over reliance on Federal allocation by using his vast experience in boosting the Internally Generated Revenue to a satisfactory level. He also appreciated the high turnout of the Tax Audit Monitoring Agency Members to the meeting and urged them to be up and doing in their professional dealings especially in blocking all leakages in the tax system.
Responding, Pastor Olumide Bolorunduro, one of the members of the Tax Audit Monitoring Agency (TAMA) welcomed the Acting Chairman to his new assignment and assured him of their support in achieving the set target goals.
Instructional materials such as exercise books, textbooks for students in the middle school, chalk, first aid kits where among other materials which the state government has put together for distribution to public schools in the state.
Speaking at the event held at the hall of the Local Government Service Commission, government secretariat, Abere, Governor of the state of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola said the gesture is aimed at making the students in the state champions in their rights stressing that the aim of the government is to make Osun students the best in the country.
Aregbesola who said education is what the young ones need to define their position in life without which they cannot be the best in whatever they lay their hands upon advised the students to embrace what he government is doing in the sector as it will make them stand out in future.
He explained that it is the intention of the state to be the best in Nigeria therefore students of the state of Osun should be prepared to assume the position of ambassadors of the state as they are the future of the state.
While urging the students to take full advantage of the intervention of the present administration in the education sector, the Governor said that it will be a failure if the students fail to take full advantage of the opportunities presented to them.
Urging the students to shun acts violence, Ogbeni Aregbesola said the various reforms is aimed at making them have functional educational education which will enable them to be virtuous people stressing that virtuous people commands respect, honour and popularity.
Earlier in a welcome remark, the state Deputy Governor who also doubles as the Commissioner for Education in the state, Mrs Grace Titi Laoye Tomori said the decision to give instructional materials to schools every year is born out of the administration’s policy on education.
While thanking the Governor for sticking to his electioneering promises of providing functional education, Mrs Tomori enjoined teachers of public schools to ensure that the materials are properly utilised for the purpose for which they have been provide and also ensure that they are well taken care of.
Highlights of the occasion was the symbolic distribution of the materials to some students of the public schools who were part of the occasion.
BIOREPORTS
State of Osun athletes have been rewarded for winning medals for the state at the 2012 National Sports Festival – Eko 2012. The event held at the state sports council pavilion had the medalists and their coaches getting cash reward for their performance in various sporting events.
The state governor, Rauf Aregbesola, said the gesture was aimed at encouraging the athletes as well as the state’s resolves to give the athletes’ welfare a priority. “We commend the athletes who are being rewarded for their brilliant exploits and we also ask you to make judicious use of the cash award” he stated in a statement.
“We ask other athletes to take the cue and strive to improve on your performance so that you may also be eligible to benefit in future of the state reward.”
Osun won 2 gold, 1 silver and 7 bronze medals at Eko 2012
News24