The Governor of Osun, Rauf Aregbesola, has received a warm applause for being forthright on the implementation of policies designed to revamp the agriculture sector in the state.
 

 
The praise was coming from members of the Osun state chapter of Cassava Growers Association of Nigeria, while they presented their position paper to the State House of Assembly Committee on Agriculture.
The association commended the state for being the bulwark of support to the needs of farmers in the state since assumption of office.
Presenting the paper, the Chairman of the Association, Dr David Ogunsade, described agriculture as the only surviving alternative to dearth of revenue from crude oil production in the country.
He stressed the need for more support from governments, stakeholders and other interested groups to enhance agricultural productivity, capacity, as well improve on the youth’s endorsement and participation in farming.
Ogunsade said government must provide the enabling environment that would further enhance micro-credit facilities to farmers most especially the peasant farmers in the country.
He however saluted Governor Aregbesola’s administration for establishing what he described as a robust and mutually beneficial partnership with the association which according to him, had re-positioned the agricultural sector in the state.
Furthermore, he stated that the government of Osun had done well in boosting the welfare and morale of farmers through its prompt interventions as part of efforts to realising the state’s potentials in agriculture.

Calling for modern agricultural practices to improve on the agricultural productivity in the state, Ogunsade said no effort must be spared by all at building a capacity that would encourage farming through the provision of ultra-modern facilities to farmers.
According to him, for rapid growth in the sector, modern agricultural practices must be encouraged while interest-free loans must be introduced to farmers.
He implored the state not to relent on its goal at turning the state to food basket of the nation.
“Our moribund agricultural infrastructures like cassava processing industry, cocoa processing industry, palm oil production industry among others, must be resuscitated so as to meet the needs of the people and help the state to be self-sufficient in food production.
“We want our Governor to do more in reviving all the cassava processing industries across the state so as to further increase on our cassava production capacity,” he added.
In response, Chairman of the Osun State House committee on Agriculture and Food Security, Mr Gbadebo Abdullahi, said government would continue to support the association in realizing its goals.
He then urged the farmers to always fulfil their obligation by refunding all credit facilities provided by government in order to enable others to benefit.
Abdullahi also tasked the farmers to seek other avenues to improve on their production and quality.
He assured them that the government would do its bit and they should also do theirs while maintaining unity.
Another member of the committee, Mr Israel Aloba, in support, called on the members of the association to cooperate with relevant agencies in the realisation of their dreams, saying this would help fast track their job and make the state the hub of cassava production in the country.

The Sport Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN), Osun state chapter, has inducted the Governor of Osun, Rauf Aregbesola as the first Grand Patron of the association in the state.
The Governor, while giving his acceptance speech, said that he was honoured being installed as the first grand patron of the association.
Aregbesola tasked the journalists to be more active in sports reportage by asking questions when necessary.
Aregbesola said the honour and investiture was more of an assignment and said he was willing to take up the position and challenges attached.
“I am willing to be the grand patron of your association, though the economic situation now in the country is not palatable, I will play my part to support the association.
“Count me as a worthy member of the association because I will do everything I can to support you.” he said
See photos below
 

 

 
 

 
 

The general belief that people suffering from mental imbalance cannot be completely healed has been proved to be a fallacy with the complete cure and rehabilitation of over 160 vagrant psychotics under the O’Rehab scheme. YEJIDE GBENGA-OGUNDARE writes on the life at the rehabilitation centre in Ilobu, Osun State and the new life of inmates that graduate after being cured.
 

 
A popular mentally imbalanced man known as Baba Sogo in Ile Ife had been on the streets due to psychotic disorder for 30 years before he was taken off the streets for treatment and rehabilitation. Today, he has been integrated into the society and is living a new life.
On the night of December 24, 2016, the governor of the Osun State, Rauf Aregbesola on his way from the Iwude festival in Ilesa, noticed a young woman who had mental disorder and a broken leg and had been roaming the streets at Isona community. He instructed that she be taken her off the streets that night and given proper care.
Today, the lady had regained her senses. And though she’s still on admission at LAUTECH Teaching Hospital in Osogbo, she conversed intelligently with Nigerian Tribune and the search for her family is on so she can be handed over to them after rehabilitation to prevent a relapse.
 
62-year-old Fatunmise (last name withheld), a graduate of political science with second class upper was retrieved from the streets of Ile Ife in August 2012, after being psychotic for 11 years. He was admitted to the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital under the O Rehab scheme and discharged in March 2013 after which he was re-united with his family.
64 years old Madam Funmilayo (last name withheld), was equally psychotic for seven years after being deported from the United States of America. She was a common feature along Okefia in Osogbo where she was retrieved and treated at the General Hospital, Asubiaro on November 7, 2013 and discharged in May 2014.
These are few of the over 160 pyschotic vagrants that were given a new lease of life by the O’Rehab Scheme, an initiative of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, the governor of the state of Osun.
 
The scheme started in November 2011 as a project under the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Special needs under the supervision of Comrade Biyi Odunlade.
The team works in professional partnership with a special psychotic treatment foundation – Care and Foundation for Mentally Ill Persons (Caremi foundation), founded by Professor Rogers Makanjuola, though funding for O Rehab is solely by the state government.
According to Odunlade, some of the destitute are repatriated mainly from Lagos and other states as 90 per cent of psychotic patients treated under the scheme were dumped in the state or they trekked down from other states, adding that treatment takes an average of six weeks before rehabilitation and reintegration into the society while they still undergo medical checkups for a while to forestall a relapse.
“When we are informed that there’s a case somewhere, we go and take the person off the streets after which they are taken for treatment in the hospital then sent to the rehabilitation center to acquire vocational training and given startup capital before reintegration into the society through their families.
“The government spends between N250, 000 to N300, 000 for the treatment of individual patients and an additional N100, 000 to N200, 000 when they are graduating from the rehab center as startup capital,” Odunlade stated.
He however confirmed that there are rare cases of relapse after treatment, adding that the rate is not up to one per cent of patients treated under the scheme, stating that only three of the over 160 people treated experienced relapse which were triggered by further emotional trauma after they were handed over to their families. The three cases he said include that of a 35-year-old female civil servant named Biodun that was rehabilitated by the scheme after suffering mental breakdown for seven years and handed over to her brother in 2015; she suffered a relapse and was taken back for treatment.
Another case is that of 39 years old Kikelomo, an unemployed Ordinary National Diploma certificate holder that was picked in Osogbo after five years on the streets and handed over to her mother but was taken back after relapse and Sakirat, a 32-year-old tailor that was psychotic for nine years before being handed over to her mother and is presently being monitored by the scheme after a relapse.
The Ilobu rehab center of the scheme trains healed patients on diverse vocational skills like soap making, bead making, tailoring, hair dressing and various crafts after they would have been treated at one of the five hospitals used by the scheme; Ladoke Akintola University of Technology teaching hospital, Obafemi Awolowo University teaching hospital, Yaba Psychiatric Hospital, Aro Psychiatric Hospital in Abeokuta and Government Hospital, Asubiaro, depending on the nature of the psychiatric disorder .
Odunlade, however, stressed that most mentally imbalanced people are merely suffering from a form of trauma and most times only require love, attention and counseling with medication and supervision, adding that chaining them or beating them as is done in traditional healing homes will only aggravate their situation.
A relative of one of the rehabilitated patients who spoke to Nigerian Tribune on the condition of anonymity stated that her brother’s case was immediately taken over before his condition worsened.
“We do not have a history of mental disorder in my family, but on January 14, 2016, we learnt Abayomi who works for the government mentally broke down while at work but luckily for us, his colleagues quickly called operators of the scheme and he was taken from work to OAU. He was discharged on February 19, 2016.
“After his discharge, he was handed over to our elder brother and a director in his ministry. He has since gone back to work and has not suffered any disorder or relapse. In fact, we used to monitor him a lot but we were told by the rehab people to treat him like we normally do and we are sure that he is completely okay,” she said.
Speaking further, Odunlade stated that “Our process is hinged on what we call the four Rs: retrieval, rehabilitation, repatriation and re-integration. We have a chain of persons that go to the streets to pickup psychotic vagrants using technical strategies, this is called retrieval. You see, not everyone you see on the streets wearing tattered or dirty clothes are deranged. Our focus is on vagrant psychotics; these are people with schizophrenia, depression or any kind of disorder and distortion in relationship or dressing. These people do not have homes; they just go about and constitute diverse forms of threat to humanity. So we go after them and pick them up then decide which hospital best suits their needs out of the hospitals we partner with – LAUTECH, OAU, Yaba, Aro and our state hospital in Osogbo where we employed a consultant psychiatrist specifically for the scheme to set up a psychiatric clinic in the hospital.
“The next thing is treatment which we call rehabilitation. During treatment, we start looking for family members of the affected patient, we call this home tracing because when they are well, we ensure they are handed over to a close family member.
“Aside the case in LAUTECH, we presently have the case of a 29-year-old female lawyer who after law school and service, developed a mental challenge and we picked her up, it was during rehabilitation that we discovered that she is the daughter of a renowned person in the society but we can’t mention names. The father showed up and said it was when her trouble became too enormous and she became a threat to them that he abandoned her to her helpless mother who took her to churches where she was chained and which aggravated her condition. The moment you manacle, chain or beat someone with disorders as is done in traditional healing homes, their situation becomes worse.”
Odunlade, however, cited some of the challenges of the scheme. According to him, “We have different kinds of constraints. The programme started from a point of disbelief with people expressing doubt that anyone could be completely healed. The second challenge is stigmatisation. This stigmatisation and disbelief have pervaded the system and is a problem but there’s a need to re-orientate people about this. The third challenge which affects every aspect of the programme is paucity of funds. To treat an average person costs the government between N250, 000 to N300, 000 and can be more. If the government uses this to treat one person, you can multiply it by how many people we have treated to know how much has been pumped into this setup over time and no hospital admits any psychotic patient without down payment or discharges them without full payment.”

Oshogbo, capital of Osun State, is the home of Centre for Black Culture and International Understanding, (CBCIU). Located in South-west of Nigeria, 240 kilometres north of Lagos, Osogbo is both a Yoruba city kingdom of over 700,000 people and an important chapter in the history of modern African art.
 

 
To celebrate the 50 years of Oshogbo Art, an exhibition will hold from January 17 through 23, 2017 and will be organised by Centre for Black Culture and International Understanding (CBCIU), Oshogbo. The two oldest cultural icons of Oshogbo, Chiefs Jimoh Buraimoh and Muraina Oyelami, are at the forefront of the exhibition. The exhibition preview will take place on Monday, January 16, 2017. Official opening as well as launching of the journal CBClU in Oshogbo is on Tuesday, January 17, 2017. The exhibition is expected to run from January 17 through 23, 2017.The exhibition is expected to move to Abuja and will take place at Thought Pyramid Art Centre, Abuja. Curator is the Artistic Director, Thought Pyramid Art Centre, Mr. Jeff Ajueshi.
In the 1960s, Osogbo witnessed a series of artistic activities, ranging from painting and sculpture to music and theatre, from painting and sculpture to music and theatre. It attracted international attention and brought Osogbo’s artistic status in Nigeria parallel with that of Paris, France. Since then, Osogbo art has become a trademark, signifying the richness and vitality of Yoruba art and culture, most impressively expressed by the annual Osun-Osogbo. Two different groups of works can be distinguished. There are the paintings, sculptures, beads, and textiles sold locally and internationally, and other works depicting Yoruba deities and festival motifs.

Credit for Osogbo’s artistic renaissance goes to late Suzanne Wenger, Georgina and Ulli Beier for placing Osogbo on the world’s cultural map. They did not just start an arts school or movement, but started engaging the young boys and girls who were in Duro Ladipo Theatre group to do some art works during the long hours between play rehearsals. The experiment succeeded beyond Ulli and Georgina’s wildest imaginations, as it created more art and culture on a global level.
It is for this reason that CBCIU Oshogbo wants to highlight some of the distinctive features of the experiment, whose features contribute to the Osogbo School of Art to the global art community.
Though it would be recalled that there were already contemporary artists trained according to modern art techniques and perspectives in Nigeria, the Oshogbo experiment was the first to have succeeded in encouraging a contemporary modern art that would build on and continue the indigenous art traditions. This is what has made the artists famous throughout the world. The artists themselves were young men with only rudimentary formal western-style education, after which they became artisans, petrol station attendants, etc. All of them were resident in Osogbo, capital of Osun State. Easily, the achievement of Georgia and Ulli was the ability to turn the underprivileged and disadvantaged status of these young men into great assets: no certificates were required of them to join in the experiment.
According to Ulli Bier, “Unlike European art student of comparable age and unlike the art historians, critics and anthropologists who have been looking at their work as ‘Yoruba’ or ‘African’ or ‘Western,’ early prediction that Oshogbo artist would soon run out of steam after their european mentors left Nigeria in December 1966 looks ridiculous”.

The exhibition intends to invalidate this misconception and celebrate the artistic movement that has not only remained true to its cultural identity and essence.
From that beginning to the present, almost all the promotion that Osogbo Art has had has been from abroad or by foreigners. True, there has been patronage of them by individual Nigerians and Nigerian Institutions, but home recognition of what the movement stood for, and still represents, has been lacking. Osogbo Art Movement was uniquely Osogbo thing, so much so that the town, in fact, became known as the left bank of Nigeria art in the 1960s.
There are more artists of good quality, old and middle-ged, plying their trade in Oshogbo today than in any other town in Nigeria, Lagos included. By its very success, the Osogbo Art experiment proved that tradition can be modernised from within; that in certain fields of cultural practice no certificates but talent is what matters most. If there had been no Osogbo Art Movement, there probably would not be CBCIU located in Osogbo today, or certainly, it would have been located in another town or country. CBCIU is, in many ways, a product and beneficiary of the movement. Finally, remembering and celebrating Georgina and Ulli Beier and the contributions of he various artists to the global art community will form part of celebrating 50 years of Oshogbo Art Movement.

In line with the six point Integral Action Plan of Governor Rauf Aregbesola, the Osun State government has secured the commitment of a notable German institute to assist the state on improved health care delivery. A team of seasoned German oncologists from the Institute for Operative Medicine of the Otto-yon Guericke-University, Magdeburg, Germany, will be in the Osun state between Feb 1 to Feb 4 2017  to perfect plans on collaborative effort on control, treatment and management of various class of cancer in the state.
 

 
 
The programme will include cancer screening right from Primary Health Centre to Secondary and Tertiary health care system. Cancer is known to be third leading cause of death in this part of the world. The Institute for Operative Medizine of the Otto-yon Guericke-University had acceded to the request of the state government to tackle headlong health challenges posed by cancer related diseases and as well render services on general surgery operation.
According to a letter of acknowledgment signed by the Head of the institute, Prof. Hans Lippert, the institute will also support the state Government fully in cancer preventive awareness.

An All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain in Osun State, Benedict Olugboyega Alabi, has lauded Governor Rauf Aregbesola for building mega schools across the state.

 
Alabi, who is the president of Osun Ajose Foundation, said the schools have always been a source of joy.
 
 
Alabi enjoined the people to join hands with the government to ensure adequate maintenance of the schools.
 
 
He said: “I am convinced that Osun would have become Dubai if Governor Aregbesola has an access to funds as all and sundry can see the wonders he has been performing even with the limited fund available to his administration”

Osun State Deputy Governor Mrs Titilayo Laoye-Tomori has called on journalists to use their profession to sensitise the people.

 
Mrs. Laoye-Tomori spoke when members of the Association of Christian Journalists (ACJ) visited her in Osogbo. She said journalists were in a better position to influence the people, especially youths.
She said youths should be enlightened on how to become entrepreneurs, instead of looking for white collar jobs.
ACJ president Oludayo Ojewole thanked the deputy governor for her support and promised not to let her down.
The high point of the visit was the conferment of the group’s life matron on Mrs. Laoye-Tomori.

In keeping with its promise to continue to invest massively in education, the state of Osun government has begun another round of distribution of the tablet of knowledge famously called IPON IMO.
This effort saw government officials visit the  Agbonran Science High School, Ede, a while back to distribute the tablets to the obviously excited students.
See photos below
 

Vice Principal Agbonran Science High School, Ede, Mr Adesiyan John (right) handing over ‘Opon Imo’ – Tablet of Knowledge to one of his student, Abdullahi Fatimoh (middle) with them is her mother, Mrs Rukayat, during the free distribution of the tablet at the school hall

Vice Principal Agbonran Science High School, Ede, Mr Adesiyan John (right) handing over ‘Opon Imo’ – Tablet of Knowledge to one of his student, Babatunde Morufat (middle). With them is her father, Mr Alade, during the free distribution of the tablet at the school hall