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A community leader in Iwo Local Government Area of Osun state, Niyi Oriolowo, has charged the people of the town to be calm and remain peaceful ahead of the September 22 governorship election in the state.

Oriolowo who hailed the contributions of the Oluwo of Iwo, Oba Olawale Akanbi Telu to the peace reigning in the town, stressed the need for the monarch to ensure that all Iwo indigenes embrace peace during the poll.

The community leader, who spoke in Iwo at the Fidau organised for the late Ekerin Oluwo, Chief Bayo Aremu, said the people of Iwo should unite together and forget their individual differences in the interest of the community. He said the community needs the presence of the state and federal government to develop to the satisfaction of its founders.

According to him, “the people of Iwo are known for peace and tolerance and these attributes must be demonstrated in the forthcoming governorship election.”
Oriolowo also charged traditional rulers and religious leaders in all the three Local Government Areas that make up Iwo land to preach peace and tolerance to their subjects and followers ahead of the poll. He stressed the need for love to dwell among the people irrespective of political or religious differences, saying, “we can only achieve in Iwo land if we love ourselves and allow peace to reign in our midst.”

Also, he called on the Oluwo of Iwo, Oba Akanbi to continue with his initiatives aimed at uniting all the indigenes of the town both at home and in the Diaspora.

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Chairman of Ejigbo Local Government Council Development Area, LCDA, Mr. Monsuru Bello, has said the LCDA is working towards economic transformation of the area. He said this at the council’s first Ejigbo Business Summit tagged Corporate Governance: Road Map to Shared Prosperity in Ejigbo LCDA.
 
According to Bello, “this event is expected to focus primarily on corporate governance with emphasis on creating an environment conducive for business owners and develop-ment of small, medium and large business ventures as key drivers of economic growth and wealth creation.
 
“It will transform the lives of the people of our community and also reinforce a cordial and mutually-beneficial relationship between our government and the organised private sector, which will move Ejigbo closer to the vision of becoming Lagos economic and financial hub.”
 
To achieve this, according to Professor of Political Economy and Management, Pat Utomi, stressed that the local government was the most important level of government, because it is closer to the people. He urged corporate organisations to focus on future profits and partner with the local government.
 
“The oil of local government is the output of businesses, because when business is performing tops, it pays more taxes and the more taxes it pays will help the local government to provide more services to facilitate better performing businesses,” Utomi added.

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Omowaye

State of Osun has taken refuge in technology to nip potential farmers/herders clash that has claimed millions of lives in some parts of the country in the bud.
Commissioner for Innovation, Science and Technology, Oluremi Omowaye, who spoke in an interview with The Nationin Lagos, said the government has put in place an inquiry call centre and invested heavily in unmanned aerial vehicles that would gather data and relay same to the centre which would be analysed for action.
 

 
According to Omowaye, the response of the Governor Rauf Aregbesola’s government to the menace of herder/farmers incessant clashes was to think out of the box for a technological solution that would allow seamless flow of information about the movement of livestocks and their owners across the state.
He said: “We needed to set up an inquiry call centre and we needed a short code so that it will be easy for people to reach us.  We approached the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) which granted us the code after detailed presentation by our team.
“This technology will be deployed this week using unmanned aerial vehicles that would interface with the call centre. We want a scenario whereby all livestock in Osun would have a unique individual identity so that when a livestock strays into your farm, all you need to do is text the first three digits to the short code issued by the NCC and once you do that you will get a response from the call centre to check the owner.

“From the call centre too, the owner would be called. Aside that, we are also going to use it for other services such as ambulance services because in the call centre, you have the security operatives too so, we thank the NCC for quick response.
‘’I know the NCC is trying to establish a call centre at in Osun so we have an agreement that when they come up with their own, we will.’’
On supportive infrastructure on which the technology would ride, he said the state is one of the leading states in the federation in terms of the providing infrastructure.
He said:  “Osun is one of the leading infrastructure states in Nigeria. Governor Aregbesola has opened up a lot of roads, health and educational infrastructure. The government is even working in the area of electricity since it is the major challenge IT has. We are working on boosting power generation in the state but one thing that is unfortunate is that companies do not pay tax.
“There is no government that can function well without paying tax. What is coming from Abuja cannot pay salaries so we enjoin the companies to cooperate with the state government and pay tax. I am sure with the level of investment in infrastructure so far, Osun is the place to be for investors, both local and foreign.
“We are deploying IT solutions to ease tax collection but no matter the solution you deploy, computer is garbage; garbage out, if they do not cooperate, it won’t work. But we have deployed a lot of solutions that will enhance tax collection. There is always this allegation of multiple taxation by state governments too. We have also deployed solution that would end the regime of multiple taxation in the state.”
On the monthly internally generated revenue (IGR) of the state, he said it is less than N1billion while the wage bill for both employees of the state and local governments is above N5billion, stressing that a lot needed to be done in the area of increasing the state’s IGR so that the monthly wait for Abuja would become a thing of the past.
On the state of the art infrastructure put in place in the state, he said: “What Governor Aregbesola has done Osun is a world-class design, world class standard. The government encourages that the two ducts were built so that not only fibre optics would fly. The government is also thinking of building an industrial park so that the infrastructure would not be scattered all over the state. We are working on the industrial park. We are also talking to some Chinese investors for the industrial park and in the park, there will be a segment for IICT park,” Omowaye said.

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NGO1-888

United States of America-based non-governmental organisation (NGO), DuniaFore Foundation, has screened the popular Afrocentric movie, Black Panther, to children of traditionalists in Osogbo, Osun State capital.
 

 
 
The screening was part of the grand finale of the NGO’s annual month-long programme, tagged: Asalaye Academy, an initiative that enriches traditionalist children with academics while emphasising Pan-African awareness and pride in African culture.
The NGO’s founder, Dr Nzinga Olabisi Metzger, who is an African-America anthropologist with Sierra Leonean origin, told reporters her passion for the emancipation of the African traditional religion made her to set up the annual academy, which holds in classrooms provided by the Araba Awo of Osogbo, Chief Ifayemi Elebuibon.
The Asalaye Academy project, according to Dr Metzger, seeks to give a sense of belonging to children of traditional worshippers, who are condemned to the curriculum of Western education, which centres only on Islam and Christianity.
The academy, in the past four weeks, has trained 125 children, aged seven to 17 in Osogbo.

It has been feeding them, providing instructional materials and tutoring them in courses geared towards re-awakening the consciousness of traditionalist values in the religion.
It has also been motivating the children to pursue their futuristic dreams without minding the social stigma on them.
Dr Metzger said: “There is a kind of societal colouration to being a traditionalist. We have discovered that the normal school curriculum in Nigeria does not create a space for the traditional religion to be learnt as we have in the two religions brought by missionaries to Nigeria.
“We are also trying to establish the Pan-Africanism in the values of the traditional religion on them in a bid to change the idea of backwardness and illiteracy associated with the traditional religion and its worshipers. The curriculum also opens the children’s minds to the history of their continent, fusing it with the current trends in the global space.
“So far, some of the students have the full knowledge of the African continent, the countries, cultures and tradition. They have also been taught how to become self-reliant pan-Africanists.
“What has excited me more in all of these is the ability of those participants who have been able to learn more and become better traditionalists and contributors to their society.”

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Aregbesola

Governor, State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola has called on the Federal Government and stakeholders in Nigeria to decentralize the Nigeria Police Force in order to enhance growth and productivity in the country.
 

 
Governor Aregbesola made the call in Osogbo at the weekend when he met with the leaders and members of the Police Community Relations Committee (PCRC) in the South West zone who visited him at Government House.
He noted that the present Police system in Nigeria would never create room for civilization which would enhance growth and productivity in Nigeria.
He stated that in all Federations such as we have in Nigeria, there is none that has centralized police system that Nigeria currently practiced.
“The Nigerian Police as it is already currently overburdened with task of keeping the Federal laws. Therefore any other assignment from the States is just a further burden.
“Let us be sincere with ourselves, there is no way a single man can sit somewhere and effectively control 36 police commands in a way that will bring about effective policing in all the commands.
“Why must each Commissioner of Police in the states take order from the Inspector General when we have the zonal police, which at present is just there as retirement forum. What is the work of the zonal Police now? Nothing.
“For effective policing, you must restructure the Police. The way to go is for the state to have its police.
“There is the question of where will the state get the money to fund the police. It is a good question but that cannot be a reason not to have an effective policing system in the country. The judiciary is a federated system. My high court here in Osun is a federated unit of the Nigerian judiciary system. It draws its funding from the Federation account and in that account, judiciary money is a first line charge. If the state judiciary can be funded from the federation account, state police can also be so funded.
“Nigeria has a federation account and the state police fund should be first line charge too on that account as the state judiciary commissions are funded.”
The governor pointed out that restructuring the Nigerian Police will bring civilization which, he said, was only possible where peace and security existed.

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Rt.-Hon.-Najeem-Salaam-Speaker-Osun-House-of-Assembly

The State of Osun House of Assembly has said that it would continue to focus on its primary assignment, with a view to delivering on its legislative mandate within the remaining period of the current Assembly.
 

 
The speaker of the state parliament, Dr. Najeem Salaam made the remark on Monday while presiding over the plenary of the Assembly at the state House of Assembly complex Osogbo.
At the plenary presided over by the speaker, two items were deliberated upon as contained in the order paper for the day.
The first was the State of Osun Asset Management Agency Establishment Bill 2018 on which the House dissolved into the committee of the whole for further consideration.
Clauses 10-17 of the Bill were debated as the lawmakers engaged in deliberations with expresion of varied opinion while the Clauses were subjected to scrutiny.
The outcome was later reported as corrections and amendments made at the committee level were read out with unanimous decision on what was agreed upon to form part of the Bill.
However, the other item was the report of findings of the House committee on Judiciary, Human right, Justice Public Petition and Legal matters on administration of criminal Justice Bill 2018.
The report as submitted by the committee chairman Hon. Osuolale Bello from Ifelodun State constituency was debated on the floor after which the House suspended further deliberation pending the time the model used by the committee would be made available.
Addressing the plenary, the Speaker commended the committee for a job well done. He stressed the need to move faster in the business of the legislation and stating that the Assembly would focus on its primary assignment assuring that the parliament would delivered on its mandate to the good people of the state.
The speaker, Dr. Salaam also expressed His gratitude to those who keep faith with him during the just concluded All Progressives Congress Governorship Primary Election in the state.
According to him, “my gratitude goes to you all for keeping faith with our bond as one people with common destiny in the last few years, three years to be precise in the life of this Sixth Assembly. I am most grateful to God that makes our relationship uniquely defined”.
He appreciated those who stood by him while the battle lasted, while also thanked those who expressed their democratic right differently.
He then urged his colleagues to focus on their primary assignment to whom they are elected to do and be diligent in their legislative business.
He said “I will like to say that this parliament must strive to deliver on its mandate because in the next few months, this assembly would be winding up and posterity will surely judge us, using our productivity and delivery”.
He advised the parliament to set their binocular lens to all areas of their oversight functions and set up feedback mechanism on laws they have pass and structures they had consented to with a view to ensuring that their labour is not in vain.

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state-of-osun

Local Government workers in the State of Osun have been charged to reciprocate the good gesture of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola-led administration in the state sequel to the unconditional approval of outstanding promotion and conversion exercises.
 

 
The Chairman, Local Government Service Commission gave the charge recently through the Coordinating Director of the commission, Lekan Babalola while presenting Promotion letters to officers in various departments of the Local Government councils.
According to him, the governor deserves commendations on this giant stride particularly on the welfare of workers, tasking the council workers in the state to understand the plight of the government, as the government is committed and sincere to pay all backlog of salary and pension arrears.
Barrister Babalola who was accompanied by some principal officers of the commission, including, Mrs M.O Irelewuyi, Director of Promotion, Appointment and Discipline and Alhaji Buraimoh, Director of Finance and Establishment assured the council workers a hitch free conversion exercise as experienced during the just concluded promotion exercise.
He added that those who sat for ASCON last January would also have the opportunity to attend the exercise.
Reacting, the Nigeria Labour Congress Chairman, Comrade Jacob Adekomi who is also a Local Government worker, while receiving his promotion letters appreciates the Governor of the state and the management team of the commission for the gesture.
While charging the staffers, Engineer Jacob Adeyeye, the State President of Nigerian Union of Local Government Employees in the state pleaded for more commitments to duties by council workers, saying indolence must not be tolerated in any form in the service.
Also, the beneficiaries of the exercise pleaded with the state Government to backup the promotion with the necessary finances it deserves in time so as to cushion the effects of the current economic hardship.

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state-of-osun

The state of Osun has been ranked second lowest state in Nigeria in underemployment, unemployment and inflation rate.
According to a report released by the Financial Derivatives Company tagged ‘How the States Performed in 2017’, Osun has 19.0 per cent underemployment and unemployment, and 16.37 per cent inflation rate to come second to Taraba which has 13.4 and 16.18 per cent respectively.
 

 
In the measured “Misery Index” of the report obtained recently, Osun came second best with 35.36 per cent against 36.94 and 48.33 per cent of Ogun and Lagos state respectively.
Osun was also reported as the 5th state with lowest accruable revenue from Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC).
Despite the position of the state in the FAAC, Osun is not part of the states with highest salary arrears, as shown in the ‘Delinquent States’ section of ‘How States Performed’ in the report.
Summarily, Osun was ranked the second less miserable and poverty-ridden state in 2017.
It would be recalled that the Managing Director of the FDC, Bismark Rewane had few months ago presented the report to the public.
Rewane said in one of the top three economic analysts in Nigeria, Osun had the lowest net FAAC allocation but was not delinquent in the payment of salary arrears.
Commenting on the report, the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr Adelani Baderinwa attributed the positive ranking of the state to Governor Rauf Aregbesola’s ingenuity in addressing the financial crisis of the state.
Baderinwa said the report was a sincere, professional and realistic assessment of economic activities and development in the state in terms of income and expenditure and how it positively affects the people in general.

According to Baderinwa, Osun could not have been rated less going by the prudence and judicious management of the little resources accruable to the state by Aregbesola, who has demonstrated to be a good and focused manager of resources.
Baderinwa maintained that the projects, programmes and policies being executed by Aregbesola have no doubt developed the economy of the state, improve the wellbeing of the people and guarantee security of life and properties.
He said: “The FDC report is a welcome development; it actually reflects the social and economic development in the state. This type of report is coming for the fourth time in six months from veritable and independent sources – the first from the United Nations (UN) Multi-Dimensional Poverty Index 2016, second from the National Bureau of Statistics, the Renaissance Capital, a leading emerging markets investment bank in Africa and now the FDC Misery Index 2017.
“We make bold to say that all the three reports, the last of which is that of the FDC, confirmed Aregbesola’s ingenuity, vision and ceaseless efforts in transforming the State of Osun to an Eldorado, socially, economically and in terms of infrastructure.
“Programmes like Osun Youth Empowerment Scheme (OYES) which provides regular resources for 40,000 youths, Osun Free School Feeding progamme named ‘O MEAL’ which employs over 3334 women who prepare meals for the school children, Osun Rural Enterprise and Agricultural Program (ORAEP), designed to empower the farmers have contributed immensely to the development of the state.”
Baderinwa said Osun economy will in no time receive boost when the $30.5million contract won by the Osun RLG/Adulawo Technology Company for the supply of Terrestrial Broadcast Set Top Boxes flows into the market.

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What i offer to you therefore can be termed, Government Unusual – a Government totally committed to unlocking the latent potentials of our people
These were the words Aregbesola used in his booklet, ‘MY PACT with the people of the state of osun,’ which contained his ‘’Six–Point Integral Action Plan’’ which was presented to the people of Osun during his electioneering campaign in year 2007.
 
 
 
‘’Promote Functional Education” is the fifth action plan in this document with the vision to ‘’eradicate the frustration of youths caused by education that does not lead to employment.’’

As at November, 2010 when Aregbesola retrieved his mandate to govern the state of Osun, the situation in the Education Sector of Osun was marked with poor, dysfunctional, appalling, learning and teaching infrastructure across the State, non availability of adequate instructional materials, low morale of teachers, roughly dressed and malnourished pupils, poor monitoring and evaluation, low quality and dysfunctional Basic and Senior Secondary Education.
All of these were crowned with very poor performance of students in internal and external examinations.
 In order to address the challenges, an Education Summit was held in February, 2011.
A blueprint for the Education Sector was produced from, which radical and comprehensive policies and programmes were designed.
Government has since been implementing the blueprint.
 The modern, state of the art, world class infrastructure built by Aregbesola for the Elementary, Middle and High Schools have been applauded and commended by all commentators including even his detractors, as bold, unprecedented efforts to move education in Osun from darkness to light.
Not being able to defend the neglect and incompetence demonstrated in the seven years before Aregbesola, the detractors have continued to attempt to deceive and hoodwink the society by deliberately parading and spreading false, unsubstantiated, information that is not backed up by any credible evidence.
To ensure the truth is told and records are straightened for all to know, so that the public will no longer be misled by the shameless, who have no inhibitions in deliberately spreading falsehood, the Ministry of Education applied to West African Examinations Council to officially furnish us with performance results from 2006 to 2017 in the West African Senior School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE).

The results, official from WAEC, show that the best performance by students in Osun, for those with five credits including English and Mathematics, in the West African Senior School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE), in the five years before Aregbesola was 15.68 %.
With the focused, deliberate and purposeful intervention of the Government led by Aregbesola in the Education Sector, the State has achieved 284% improvement in the performance of students in same examinations from 15.68% in 2010 to 44.47% in 2017 examinations.
Not good enough yet, but it is a pointer to a better future based on the foundation laid by Aregbesola, which should be allowed to germinate to fruition with continuity, by those who share his vision.
It is a deep understanding of the flaw in the philosophy and foundation of our education that differentiates the government of Aregbesola from many of its predecessors.
For Aregbesola, an educated man must be a true Omoluabi – ‘’Honest, Courageous, Rational.
A cultural icon with Character, truly Yoruba (truly African, fluent in his/her mother tongue), International (comfortable in one or more international languages), Critical and Creative thinking, Knowledge – seeking, Productive, Problem- solving, Respects laws, rules and rights of others, Thrifty and Investing, Collaborative, Time Conscious, Responsible.’’

The vision of Aregbeola’s government is to make our schools, ‘’world class schools’’ that produce confident, matriculate-able students who are first class scholars, cultural icons and models of good character, innovation and competence – the true Omoluabi.
They will compete well with their counterparts anywhere in the world, excel and transform the African society positively.
Aregbesola‘s vision of functional Education that will help every child to find his/her purpose in life as an Omoluabi, irrespective of circumstances of birth is the path from darkness to light for our society.
State Of Osun Education Infrastructure
Radical and comprehensive policies and programmes which have been carried out include:
• Decentralisation of school administration and management through creation of three Education Districts and Establishment of Teachers’ Pension Office (TEPO) for more effective monitoring
These are headed by Tutor Generals/ Permanent Secretaries.
•Further decentralisation by creation of nine Basic Education Zones headed by Head Master Generals/ Permanent Secretaries
• School re-classification into Elementary, Middle and High Schools for improved management efficiency.
• Osun School Feeding and Health Programme (O-Meals); The world acclaimed programme being replicated nationwide.
O-Meals has served more than 300,000,000 meals in the last six years.

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Opon-Imo-students

The State of Osun Commissioner for Education, Mr. Wasiu Omotunde-Young, has said the performance of pupils in the West African Senior School Certificate Examination has improved by 284 per cent.
Omotunde-Young said this at a press conference in Osogbo on Thursday.

He said the state recorded just 15.68 per cent in WASSCE in 2010 just before Governor Rauf Aregbesola assumed office but said the state achieved this feat through the deliberate efforts of his administration to reposition the education sector.
 
 

 
He stated that the administration attached so much importance to the sector while stressing that this was why the administration embarked on massive infrastructural  development in schools across the state and to also reinvigorate the school feeding programme.
He said, “To ensure truth is told and records are straightened for all to know, so that the public will no longer be misled, the Ministry of Education applied to the West Africa Examination Council to officially furnish us with performance results from 2006-2017 in the West African Senior School Certificate Examination.
“The results, official from WAEC , show that the best performance by students in Osun for those with five credits including English and Mathematics in the West African Senior School Certificate Examination in the five years before Aregbesola was 15.68 per cent.
“With the focussed, deliberate and purposeful intervention of the Government led by Aregbesola in the Education Sector, the State has achieved 284 per cent  improvement in the performance of students in same examinations from 15.68 per cent in 2010 to 44.47 per cent  in 2017 examinations.
“Not good enough yet, but it is a pointer to a better future based on the foundation laid by Aregbesola which should beallowed to germinate to fruition with continuity, by those who share his vision.”
The commissioner said that Aregbesola was working to ensure that the sector in the state produced educated persons who were honest, courageous and rational. Such, he said, must be fluent in their mother tongue and at least one international language.
The Aregbesola administration, he said, set up Quality  Assurance  and the Morality  Enforcement  Agency and deployed education marshals which he added had led to a substantial reduction in moral decadence and indiscipline  among pupils.

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