The Nation Newspaper

Tag: AREGBESOLA

  • ARG lauds cordial relationship between Aregbesola, labour

    The Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG) in Osun State has lauded the cordial relationship between the Governor Rauf Aregbesola administration and labour unions.

    After its monthly meeting in Osogbo, the state capital, at the weekend, ARG said the labour unions’ support for the government showed that the governor was performing.

    In a statement by its Publicity Secretary, Mr. Kola Olabisi, ARG said with the cordial relationship between labour and the government, the state will continue to witness unprecedented development.

    The group pledged its support for the Aregbesola administration, adding that it has positively touched all sectors within its short time in office.

    It said: “While some governors were booed during the May Day celebration, Aregbesola’s popularity soared because of his people-oriented programmes, which transcend the boundaries of partisan politics.

    “We hail the government for attaining this rare feat in labour relations and urge labour leaders to be wary of disgruntled and selfish politicians, whose stock in trade is to destroy any working arrangement.”

  • Osun cleaner under Aregbesola

    SIR: As a resident of Osun, there is a noticeable difference in the condition of environment under the current government of Governor Rauf Aregbesola compared to what obtained under the Olagunsoye Oyinlola-led administration.

    In the last two and half years that Aregbesola has been in the saddle, much material and human resources have been invested in improving the state of the environment and sanitation. One recalls with relish that immediately after the governor was sworn in, he declared a state-wide 90-day emergency on environmental sanitation and waste management. This was to clear the Augean stable of a filthy and unhealthy environment that he met on the ground.

    Today, all markets across the state are cleaned every Thursday while general sanitation is held twice monthly. Street sweepers and highway managers have now become regular phenomena on our roads. This is complemented by the selfless efforts of the O’YES sanitation czars who are youth volunteers who joyfully render community development service while they are engaged as part of the O’YES scheme. In order to ensure a purposeful implementation of this environmental renewal programme, the government has encouraged the private sector participation (PSP). The PSP operators, working in tandem with the government, manage the many highway managers and the numerous refuse trucks that were purchased by the government. This, expectedly, has provided employment opportunity to many otherwise unemployed citizens of the state.

    The effort of the government to fight filth and dirt and thereby build a clean and healthy environment has, no doubt, yielded a positive return. The environmental sanitation drive as well as the distribution of treated mosquito nets to pregnant women, the young and the aged have helped in reducing the people’s exposure to the common tropical killer disease – malaria.

    Two programmes of the government, however, deserve special commendation – flood control and the beautification and upgrading of roads. Every citizen of Osun will recall the massive devastation that flood wrecked on many parts of the state during the raining season in 2010. However, the Aregbesola administration, in the last two years, has made sustained efforts to turn the situation around. In different parts of the state, extensive work has been on-going towards the dredging and de-silting of major rivers, canals and streams in the state. This timely intervention has brought great relief to the people of the state. It was something akin to a miracle when last year, despite the unprecedented national outlook of the cases of flooding, the State of Osun was spared. Thus, in addition to the prevention of damage to social and physical infrastructure, our people were spared the health hazards that usually come with floods.

    It is, therefore, a thing of joy that the Aregbesola administration recently scaled up the O’Clean Programme to O’Clean Plus. If the achievements of the O’Clean programmes are anything to go by, one can only foretell that O’Clean Plus will signal a better deal for our people.

    • Idowu Ajani,

    Osogbo, Osun State

  • Aregbesola calls for cooperation

    Aregbesola calls for cooperation

    Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola has appealed to workers to cooperate with his administration to make their present and future better.

    Addressing the workers at this year’s May Day celebration at the football field of the Technical College, Osogbo yesterday, Aregbesola urged the workers not to allow themselves to be misled by “charlatans.”

    He assured them of his concern for their welfare at all time, saying they are assets to his administration.

    The governor said the programmes and policies of his government are geared towards raising the quality of lives of citizens.

    The governor pleaded with workers to be part of the new vision aimed at turning around the fortune of the state.

    NLC Chairman Jelili Adesiyan said the labour leadership is calling on the Federal Government to address unemployment, insecurity and corruption.

  • Aregbesola: Raising the bar in governance

    Aregbesola: Raising the bar in governance

    As the 2014 gubernatorial election draws closer in Osun State, the signs are that it will not be business as usual for political gladiators jostling for the gubernatorial seat currently occupied by the incumbent governor Rauf Aregbesola. Not only has the governor shown that he is a leader that makes things happen, he also discovers resources in places one thought were barren.

    The truth of course is that Aregbesola continues to create opportunities in places where many cannot imagine exist. He takes something average and makes it exceptional. Rather than make excuses, he always finds a way to make things happen by his numerous programmes that have lifted Osun to the best among the states in Nigeria. A state that was noted for poverty and underdevelopment has since climbed the topmost ladder among the states that have reduced poverty among its citizens, coming first in terms of environmental friendliness, and leading among the states that were involved in rural development using the six point integral action plan as compass.

    Former President of America President Bill Clinton once declared in 1983 at his gubernatorial inauguration that “education is the key to our economic revival and our perennial quest for prosperity. We must dedicate more of our limited resources to paying teachers better; expanding educational opportunities in poor and small districts; improving and diversifying vocational and high technology programs…. Without competence in basic skills for our people cannot move on to more advanced achievement.” The governor obviously took the charge to heart when at the inception of his administration, raised primary school basic funding grants from N74 million (spent by the ousted regime for eight years) to N424million a year

    Today, the Aregbesola administration feeds over 250,000 elementary pupils daily with about N400 million monthly. Secondary school funding grants has been raised from N117million to N427 million per year. Thirty percent tuition fees reduction for tertiary institutions were carried out to the appreciation of parents and students, indigene bursary award was raised from N3000 to N10,000. Additionally, 98 UNIOSUN medical students were sponsored to Ukraine, just as 750,000 pupils were kitted with school uniforms free of charge. A number of state of the art elementary, middle and high schools are being built all over the state, in various stages of completion. Tablet of Knowledge (Opon Imo) is on its final practical test in three schools in the state, to be ready for distribution to 150,000 students and teachers in all the senior secondary schools in the state free of charge.

    The implication of these achievements for would be gubernatorial candidates and their political parties is that the benchmarks already set by the incumbent will have to be met and those who aspire to defeat him will not only promise to do what he has done but demonstrate the capacity and record of achievements to surpass him.

    The second huddle that the aspirants will have to clear is ability to create employment opportunity to surpass that of Aregbesola who has now employed over 50,000 youths from the state. Numbered among these are the 20,000 employed within his first 100 days in office. Of the number, 18,000 are now fully engaged. The second batch of 20,000 youths came on board this February, while about 10,000 others were recruited into the state civil service either as teachers, doctors’ engineers and other professionals. Those aspirants must be ready to go beyond rhetoric but meet their promise with action it is then that the people will give them a consideration. It is important to recall that this OYES has earned the state an award by the World Bank which also recommends the scheme to the federal government.

    The third huddle to be scaled by the other gubernatorial gladiators is in the area of agriculture. Governor Aregbesola has shown that the land is fertile enough not only to feed the state but the nation. It is no longer news that the agricultural revolution in the state has started yielding results. The farmers and their friends will forever remain grateful to the governor for providing them with N1billion support for the cooperatives. Indeed, 1,765 hectares were cleared for farmers to make farming easier, 28 cooperative groups were supported to plant 17 kilometres stretch maize, 10,000 capacity cattle ranch were established at Oloba, Iwo and has also been recognized by the World Bank. Bee- farming, the first of its kind is already on at Oyan.

    The farmers that benefited from these projects and assistance will not want to lose the governor that supports them, and the aspirant that will defeat their friend will not only promise but must have been tested and trusted by the people.

    On road infrastructure, the previous government of Oyinlola Olagunsoye built 553 kilometres of roads in 90 months. Governor Aregbesola in 24 months has done 513 kilometres of roads, apart from the 218 kilometres being done by the local government authorities in the state. The people will not compromise on the man that has opened up rural areas and has since received the recognition and backing of the World Bank as the best among the four states under the supervision of the World Bank supported Rural Access Mobility Programme (RAMP).

    In the area of peace and security, it is on record that no security outfit existed until this government came on board. The administration successfully set up the Swift Action Squad (SAS), equipped them with initial five Armoured Patrol Cars and 25 Patrol vans, state-of-the art multi-force, security control centre, mega police stations and community policing network.

    The social ethos of Omoluabi is transforming the state from the violence-prone state in the pre-Aregbesola era to a peaceful one to underscore the fact that the virtuous status of the state is not mere rhetoric but the ideals that has unified groups.

    Today, the aged, especially those who have no relations to cater for them are being taken care of under the administration’s social welfare programme. The critically vulnerable elders, numbering 1600 are on monthly allowance of N10,000. Some are being looked after in the hospitals in the state. Others receive home-based medical care. The mentally challenged are not left out as some of them are now restored back to normal health and returned to their communities. So those who want to serve Aregbesola a quit notice should be reminded about these benchmarks. For no matter the tirade and negative propaganda, issues that benefit the people will be the basis for success at the polls and not cheap lies, diatribes and blackmail. Aregbesola has given the people of Osun the dividends of democracy. It is for his opponents to show their stuff and their antecedent to let the people make their choice. This is the hallmark of democracy.

     

    • Obaditan writes from Osogbo, Osun State

  • Aregbesola urges Fed Govt to activate emergency call centres

    Aregbesola urges Fed Govt to activate emergency call centres

    Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola and the state chapter of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) have urged the media to prevail on the Federal Government to activate the emergency call centres his administration built to rescue people in dire security situations across the state.

    The governor, who made the appeal in Osogbo, the state capital, alleged that the Federal Government was frustrating his administration’s good intention to secure the state with the emergency centres.

    He said: “We have been asking the regulatory body, the National Communication Commission (NCC), since last year, to make us operate the centres to help victims in security situations without any success. The body said we could not operate because it is a federal matter. We also asked them to activate the one the Federal Government built for the state; they refused.

    “Please, help us to beg the Federal Government to do something in the interest of the security of life and property in our state. They should not allow all that we have spent to go down the drain. They should make the one we built or theirs work in the interest of the people. They have a responsibility to the people. Please help us to beg them.”

    The Osun ACN, in a statement by its Director of Publicity, Research and Strategy, Kunle Oyatomi, said the Federal Government should act fast in the interest of the people.

    It urged well-meaning Nigerians to join the appeal to the Federal Government to activate the emergency call centres, adding that the security of life and property as well as hundreds of millions of naira expended on building the facilities must be considered.

    It said: “These call centres could be contacted by any cell phone by just dialing 122 to intimate security forces on emergency situations wherever they occur.

    “We cannot understand why such strategic facilities exist in states and the Federal Government cannot activate them to help manage the parlous security situation in the country. The country’s security situation will improve significantly if the public could access the security personnel through the emergency call centres.”

     

     

     

     

     

  • 45 years for man who stole Aregbesola’s phone

    A State High Court in Osogbo, the Osun State capital, yesterday sentenced a 31-year-old man, Kelvin Igha Igbodalo, to 45 years imprisonment for stealing Governor Rauf Aregbesola’s Sony Ericson mobile phone, impersonation and fraud.

    The convict stole the phone, valued at N50,000, during Aregbesola’s swearing-in ceremony in November, 2010.

    Igbodalo, who was arraigned on a six-count charge of conspiracy, obtaining by false pretence, stealing, impersonation and advance free fraud, pleaded guilty.

    The prosecutor, Mr. Biodun Badiora, said on May 24, 2011, Igbodalo and others, now at large, impersonated the governor and used his phone to defraud the Owa Obokun of Ijesaland, Oba Gabriel Aromolaran, of N500,000.

    Badiora said Igbodalo earlier served a six-year-jail term in Ikoyi for his involvement in a murder.

    He said Igbodalo also defrauded Mr. Shenge Rahman of N200,000.

    The defence counsel, Mr. Amaechi Ngwu, urged the court to be lenient with his client.

    Justice Jide Falola sentenced Igbodalo to 10 years in prison for each of the first three charges and five years each for the last three counts.

    The terms will run concurrently without an option of fine.

    This means Igbodalo will spend 10 years in jail.

  • Senator lauds Aregbesola’s education programme

    Senator lauds Aregbesola’s education programme

    The Senator representing Osun East Senatorial District, Babajide Omoworare, has lauded the education programmes and activities of Osun State Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, saying his foresight is signalling brighter future for the students and the state.

    He spoke while presenting a lecture on the theme: “Youths and culture”, focusing on the relevance and importance of investing in education as the bedrock for development of economy and infrastructure in any nation.

    The lecture, which was part of this year’s annual week of the National Association of Osun State Students (NAOSS), covered the reasons behind the socio-economic and political crises in the country and praised Aregbesola’s efforts in education as the right step to salvage the situation.

    He praised the governor for what he described as an unprecedented all-round development of the state, and noted that his current reform of the education policies and programmes would transform the state for better.

    “Without education, a society cannot advance; productivity will be low and intellectual workforce will be missing. And as important as this sector is to nation building, it will be inadequate without the needed and supportive infrastructure that can give it a real meaning. Without well-equipped, spacious, and serene classrooms, impacting knowledge will simply amount to a difficult task for the tutor.

    “Resolving this is what our focused governor has been busy doing since 2010, when he resumed office as the legally elected governor of the state, especially with the building of 50 model elementary schools, 31 middle school and nine high schools within the first phase; the distribution of free uniforms for all pupils of public schools and provision e-learning tablets which contain all the needed textbooks for senior secondary school students in the state and their teachers,” Omoworare explained.

     

     

  • Chairmen endorse Aregbesola for second term

    The Forum of Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) Chairmen in Osun State has endorsed the state Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, for second term in office.

    Also, the 332 ward chairmen of the ACN in the state passed a vote of confidence on his leadership.

    In a communiqué issued after a special meeting of the forum in Osogbo to assess the progress of the Aregbesola’s administration in the last 30 months, the ward chairmen were particularly impressed by the Governor’s efforts at banishing poverty and hunger.

    They also praised him for reducing unemployment, promoting healthy living, communal peace and progress and reforming the educational system.

    The forum mentioned the O’YES, O’REAP, O’MEAL, O SCHOOLS programmes, the O’RENEWAL and the ubiquitous road construction and maintenance projects that are ongoing in the state as proofs that the Governor deserves a second term.

    Aregbesola assured the ward chairmen that more spectacular progress will be evident in the coming months for those who are not blind to see or deaf to hear about the developments in the state.

    He also disclosed that his administration has already committed over N1 billion to farmers in the state to boost agriculture in the state.

    He stated that there is hardly any state in the federation with as low a level of value as Osun that can boast of the kind of achievements the state has recorded under his administration.

    He encouraged the ward chairmen to stand firm and be prepared for harder work to make the state a model in the country.

  • Aregbesola urges Fed Govt to create jobs

    Aregbesola urges Fed Govt to create jobs

    Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola has urged the Federal Government to address unemployment among youths.

    He said the presidency must declare a state of emergency in the labour sector to curb insecurity and terrorism.

    The governor spoke yesterday in his office at Osogbo, the state capital, when the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigeria Baptist Convention, Dr. Supo Ayokunle, and leaders of the church visited him.

    Aregbesola said: “The Federal Government must start on a new paradigm by using the next six months to gradually return to order, law and peace through engagement in public, social and community works.”

    He urged religious leaders to pray for astute, committed and God-fearing leaders, whose policies will take the country out of the doldrums.

    The governor thanked the Nigeria Baptist Convention for economically empowering the state by hosting its annual international convention there.

    President of the Nigeria Baptist Convention Dr. Supo Ayokunle hailed Aregbesola for engaging youths productively through various agricultural programmes.

    He said the governor was concerned about the people’s well-being and described him as a honest, transparent and generous leader, who always stands by the truth.

     

  • Stand up against terrorism, Aregbesola urges Muslims

    Stand up against terrorism, Aregbesola urges Muslims

    Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola has urged Muslims to stand against the notion that Islam is a religion of terror, massive alienation and mindless killings.

    This was the governor’s message to an Islamic organisation, Jama’atu Izalatil-Bid’ah wa Iqamatis-Sunnah, when its representatives visited him yesterday in Osogbo, the state capiital.

    Aregbesola said Islam, by nature, rejects the force, compulsion and violence that some characters are now impugning to it with their behaviour.

    He said the best way to attract people to one’s faith is by good deeds, good character, love and accommodation, rather than by violence and compulsion.

    The governor said it is wrong for anyone to believe that he should punish another person because of a difference in faith, saying such a person is trying to play God, as God alone can reward or punish his creatures.

    He said: “Islam rejects force, compulsion, killing and maiming and violence in all its forms. Islam encourages piety, good relation and nice character, a combination that attracts people to Islam.

    “The absence of these qualities brings hatred and rejection by the society. The message Islam brought to the world is that of peace, love, justice, tolerance and accommodation.

    “So, any form of unilateral killing is wrong. Those who think they can punish others for whatever reason are playing God, because it is only God that rewards and punishes.”

    Aregbesola urged Islamic clerics to preach peace, unity, good neighbourliness, tolerance, accommodation and humanitarian services.

    The leader of the group, Sheikh Abdullahi Bala Lau, praised the governor’s performance in the state, particularly in education and information dissemination.

    He urged the governor to always lead his people with trust and dignity, adding that the group is proud of his achievements.

    Sheik Lau said: “We are highly impressed with your performance. We congratulate you on the physical development, transformation and progress in the state.”

    He advocated religious and ethnic harmony across the country.