Osun defender july 19, 2016 edition

www.osundefender.org TUESDAY, JULY 19, 2016 The three day visit of a delegation comprising representatives of the Federal government to understudy the free school meals feeding programme of the government of the State of Osun is commendable.

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Front Page Comment

FG And The O’Meal Policy

It is an acknowledgement of the brave, pioneering thrust in initiating and implementing such a significant social and economic advance.

Having conceived the programme and successfully implemented it, the Osun initiative is now the template for implementation nationwide. This

will encompass some 24 million pupils nationwide.

The programme is crucial on several fronts.

In the first place it is in the spirit of profound

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VOL. 11. NO.064

Change. It is a programme based on achieving social inclusiveness which will create social solidarity thereby delivering a solid dividend of

democracy. This is important; for since the restoration of democracy in 1999, there is scant evidence of dividend of democracy, let alone a harvest for the people of Nigeria.

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UNESCO Seeks Osun’s Permission To Adopt, Reproduce Opon Imo

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Aregbesola At Imperial College

•Lists Ways Out Of Africa’s Underdevelopment

- See Story On Page 3

•State of Osun Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, (2nd right); Chairman, San Carlos Group Mexico, Mr. Carlos Cabal (left); his wife, Teresa (2nd left) and his daughter, Anamaria (right), during a courtesy visit to the governor, at the Government House, Osogbo, recently.

How Fear Of EFCC Additional Revelations Landed Omisore In Hospital Osun Governor Enjoins Youths To Embrace Farming

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OSUN DEFENDER Tuesday, July 19, 2016

NEWS

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How Fear Of EFCC Additional Revelations Landed Omisore In Hospital •Offers To Name Beneficiaries Of N60bn Budged Padding T

By OUR REPORTER HE fear of more revelations on the alleged past fraudulent activities of the embattled chieftain of the State of Osun chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Iyiola Omisore, if found to have been the reason that landed him on hospital bed, where he was said to be currently answering questions from officers of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Omisore was the Colonel Sambo Dasuki, governorship candidate for the 2014 governorship of the PDP during the 2014 elections in Osun and governorship election in Ekiti states from the arm Osun and he was also the purchase deal.

Chairman, Senate In the course of their Committee on Finance investigation, the and Appropriation operatives of the committee during the commission stumbled on period between 2007 and documents inside 2011.

Omisore’s Abuja home, The EFCC has been showing a N60 billion gathered to be currently “strange” vote in the investigating Omisore budget during the Sixth over N1.310 billion traced Assembly and the receipt to him and three of N2.5 billion for companies, out of the undisclosed reasons.

N4.745 billion allegedly More troubles have disbursed by the Office of now befallen the PDP the former National chieftain, as he has been Security Adviser (ONSA), put under pressure to

name the beneficiaries of the N60 billion “budget padding”.

While investigation was ongoing, OSUN DEFENDER gathered, the PDP chieftain suddenly, according to an impeccable source, requested for medical attention, and was subsequently taken to the EFCC clinic.

Omisore, who was said to be in a stable condition on hospital bed, was reportedly cooperating with the EFCC operative, as he had offered to name the beneficiaries of the N60 billion budget padding.

Omisore was arrested while hiding in his Abuja home on July 3, after three months by the EFCC operatives had been

looking for him.

Meanwhile, fears have also gripped some PDP leaders in Osun who benefitted from N1.310 billion arm deal fund through Omisore.

According to a source within the PDP, some leaders of the party have started designing ways on how to save Omisore, with a view to saving their heads too.

It was gathered that part of the strategies being adopted was to continue solidarising with him, especially in the media, with a view to creating an impression that they are firmly with him.

This strategy, a source said, the Omisore camp believed, would restrain him from mentioning their names, even if eventually succumbed to the EFCC pressure.

Man In Court Over N.5m Theft

By SHINAABUBAKAR NE Adewale Gideon was last Thursday arraigned before an Osogbo Magistrate’s Court for allegedly stealing the sum of N552,750. relation, while the The charge sheet other must reside disclosed that the within the court’s suspect stole the sum of jurisdiction before money, being property adjourning the case for •President Muhammadu Buhari (right) in a handshake with the outgoing Canadian High Commissioner to Nigeria, of one Aworanti further hearing.

Mr Perry John Calderwood during a farewell audience with the President at the State House in Abuja, recently.

Oluwatosin and thereby committed an offence contrary and punishable under section 390(60) of the According to him: beyond the nose, hence Commissioner for

By KEHINDEAYANTUNJI Criminal Code laws of “There is no other means call for the need to Agriculture, Food Security OVERNOR, State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Osun State of Nigeria. to economic prosperity embrace agriculture as and Youth Engagement Aregbesola, has implored youths to embrace According to the in the state, Mr. Wale farming as panacea to the current economic than for us to go back to better alternative. charge sheet, the the drawing board and “Based on this, our Adedoyin, described suspect committed the recession in the country. within the limit of the Aregbesola also called Constitution to revamp map out workable government has decided Aregbesola as the lover of offence sometimes policies that would to deplore everything farmers, adding that the around August 2015 at on Nigerian leaders to agriculture.

Marrytunes Company prioritize agriculture with Aregbesola said: “It is facilitate quick recovery of possible means within current government in the the limit of the state had made a located at Iludun area a view to mitigating the regrettable that over- our agricultural losses.

“We must all see the Constitution to revamp significant landmark in of Osogbo, the State of adverse effects of the dependence on crude oil Osun capital, at about current economic revenues had led us to need to uproot the the dearth in agriculture, the agricultural sector.

2.00pm. with the He reiterated that the downturn and charged this serious economic decadence in agriculture because However, the suspect governments at various mess, just as we all slept and invest hugely in it, emerging economic visit was first of its kind pleaded not guilty to farming in the history of the state, on the same direction. We especially in the face of the situation, the charges preferred levels to expedite policies current economic remains the only describing it as a better against him by the capable of encouraging are all guilty of this situation. surviving mechanism to avenue to engage farmers because we forgot to plan youths on farming. police.

“There is need for every rescue the nation from the on greater agricultural The governor stated for this special economic Defence counsel, serious government to path of possible economic productivity.

Okobe Nagite, urged this while addressing period. We relied heavily Adedoyin, who the court to grant the farmers during an on the income coming encourage youths to gloom and doom.

Aregbesola, who used described agriculture as accused person bail, interactive session with from crude oil, forgetting farming through the the only sustainable the occasion to appeal to provision of necessary saying the suspect had the members of the All that a period like this tools capable of aiding some farmers, who have economic sector in the reliable sureties and Farmers’ Associations at would come at all. would not jump bail if Erimo-Ijesa in Oriade “The free money the activities of the not refunded the loans country, called on all given to them, said his stakeholders to cooperate admitted. from the prospective farmers.

Local Government coming Police prosecutor, Mr Council Area of the state. federation accounts had “Without mincing government would not with the governor in Fagboyinbo Abiodun , Aregbesola, who blocked virtually every words, we have seen the take it easy with whoever promoting agricultural however, did not lamented over the state of government’s face to effects of mono-economy. fails to refund the loans development. oppose the bail the nation’s economy and think beyond the box of We have seen the effects as agreed.

CHANGE OF NAME application, but Earlier, the former economic diversification, of our inability to think implored the court that its adverse effects on the I, formerly known and the current economic general well-being of the PUBLIC NOTICE CHANGE OF NAME the accused’s sureties addressed as described challenges is in no doubt should be verified by people, This is to inform members MAGBAGBEOLA I, formerly known and agriculture as the only the product of our the police. of the public that FOLAKE F U N M I L A Y O addressed as SADIQ BABATUNDE, is the same Magistrate A. realistic alternative to ineptitude to plan for the MAGRET, now wish to OLAYINKA BARAKAT, future. person as ODEDELE Olowolagba later crude oil. be known and addressed now wish to be known FOLAKE NIKE, now wish He said no going back The governor granted the suspect’s as OWOLABI MAGRET and addressed as AZEEZ to be known and addressed bail application in the expressed concern on the in revamping the lost FUNMILAYO. OLAYINKA BARAKAT. as ODEDELE FOLAKE sum of N1 million with mono-economy of the glory in agriculture, All documents with All documents with NIKE. All former documents two sureties in like country, adding that his saying the time has come former name remain former name remain remain valid. Enterprisis valid. The General Public sum, adding that one of government would do for Nigerians to go back valid. The General Public Bank and general public should please take note. the sureties should be everything possible to farm. should please take note. should take note. the suspect’s close

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Osun Governor Enjoins Youths To Embrace Farming

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NEWS

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OSUN DEFENDER Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Aregbesola At Imperial College •Lists Ways Out Of Africa’s Underdevelopment

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between academic output and societal challenges.

There should be workable academic solutions to the challenges of food shortage, housing shortage, unemployment and other ills of our society.

“These ideas should be clear departures from orthodoxies and failed attempts at solving the problems ab initio. In other words, there should be innovation”.

way of bland certificates are issued drive enterprise, but sees HE Governor of the State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf innovative certification as Aregbesola, during the weekend in London has said eliminating malaria and in order to separate the the there is the need to identify the problems of the other common diseases that political and economic elite entitlement to privileges.

According to him: dis-articulation and non-competitiveness in Africa’s debilitate health and reduce from the others. economy in looking at developmental challenges faced productivity in Africa.

The governor described “Universities and research institutions should in the “There is also the urgent the point I made earlier on by the continent. the trend as one of the Aregbesola, in a adding value and transiting need to bring innovation to factors responsible for poor real sense begin to provide idea leadership. statement by the Director secondary producers, tariff agriculture for farm productivity.

Bureau of Communication and non-tariff barriers to produce to be converted Aregbesola stated that Contemporary issues and challenges should be the into secondary products. and Strategy, office of the trade in the continent people who have governor, Semiu should be removed. There For instance, our foods certificates without the focus of research.

“Too often, we see a gap Okanlawon, was quoted as has to be creative ways of have remained the same requisite skills cannot from time immemorial. speaking at ýthe launch of doing this.

“Nutritionists and food Africa Business Club of the “It is disheartening that Imperial College Business more economic interaction scientists should find better School, Imperial College is done informally than is uses for our crops. For London. done formally because of instance, coconut in some He lamented that Africa tariff and non-tariff parts of the world has is the least economically hindrances. become big business, with integrated region in the cosmetics, “One other factor is non- candies, world. competitiveness in Africa’s medicine and animal feeds The governor held that economy.

A 2015 providing an industry that Africa as the least competitiveness report by is geometrically bigger integrated continent is best the World Bank laments than the old practice of just illustrated in the pattern of that Africa’s economy is the cracking the hard shell and trade within the continent least competitive globally eating the nut”. according to the Economic and has remained in the He held that education in Commission for Africa same position for 15 years” Africa has not been an (ECA), in a 2015 report the governor emphasised. engine of development, •Senator Oluremi Tinubu (3rd right) in a group photograph with some All Progressives where only14 per cent of He averred that even in rather, it is a system of Congress (APC) lawmakers during their courtesy visit to Senator Tinubu recently.

Africa’s total trade is within agriculture which is the social stratification where the continent. main occupation in Africa, He said: the implication of this was that the productivity has been very remaining 86 per cent is low.

Aregbesola said, while with other regions.

Aregbesola noted that in Nigeria and much of Africa are leading producers of contrast, North America’s internal trading stood at 61 cassava, the traditional shows that the petitioner Justice Folahanmi and the

By ISMAEEL UTHMAN per cent, EU 62 per cent yield per hectare has been who is a serving judicial OCSC led by Alhaji while Central America 45 around 10 tonnes while ARELY a year after writing a 32-page petition officer failed to conduct Waheed Lawal to both per cent, stating that the global average in 2010 was against Governor Rauf Aregbesola, Justice herself in such a manner defend their cases before reason, according to UN put at 12.5 tonnes, India’s Oloyede Folahanmi of Ikire High Court has to preserve the dignity of the panel.

Conference on Trade and average yield in the same been dismissed by the National Judicial Council. her office and the OSUN DEFENDER Development (UNCTAD), year was 34.8 tonnes per Coalition impartiality and gathered that the NJC met The NJC, after its Societies is that Africa produces hectare. investigation, said Justice (OCSC) wrote a letter to independence of the on Thursday and Friday He stated that if Africa Oloyede was guilty of the NJC, calling for the judiciary. primary products and to consider several imports finished products can double her food output judicial ”The petition allegations of judicial misconduct, investigation of Justice which the continent does from cultivating the same hence she should not Oloyede on the petition. contained statement misconduct by Oloyede, land size as she currently continue to sit on the The OCSC in the letter calculated to incite the Justice not produce.

Mohammed dated June 25, 2015 said residents of the state Yunusa of the Federal The governor does, it is possible to bench henceforth. that Justice Folahanmi’s emphasised that this can be eliminate hunger from the against the state High Court and and an Oloyede had on June effectively addressed with continent, saying this will 19, 2015 sent a petition to action was strange and government and its unnamed judge from switching from being require innovation in crop the Osun State House of unexpected of a judicial elected officers. More Benue State. producers of primary to science, mechanisation, Assembly, calling for the officer who knows the bewildering are the At the end of its secondary goods and improved inputs and impeachment words and language deliberations, the NJC of nitty-gritty of law.

According to the used by the petitioner and decided that Oloyede and adding values, stressing a g r i c u l t u r e Aregbesola and his Justice the brazing manner the two other judges that, adding values creates entrepreneurship. deputy, Otunba (Mrs) Titi coalition, action which caused the petition deserved to be dismissed a value chain that increases “One interesting cause of Laoye-Tomori for alleged Folahanmi’s gross to be circulated to the for the momentum of low productivity is poor f i n a n c i a l constituted acts of gross misconduct and public.” development. health, especially caused by misappropriation. misconduct. misbehaviour that runs He said, “In our own malaria. It has been Based on the letter of The petition generated Sources said the three little way, when our established that malaria controversies within and contrary to the Code of the OCSC, the NJC set up judges were dismissed administration was cuts productivity in Africa out the state, with legal Conduct for Judicial a three-man fact-finding after an exhaustive inaugurated, we made a by as much as 40 per cent. It practitioners, politicians Officers in the country panel to investigate investigation determined policy that all is a major cause of poverty, and civil society groups and required disciplinary Justice Oloyede and make that they were guilty of government’s purchases just as it is also a product of having different views on action. a p p r o p r i a t e various acts of grave It said: “A recommendation. must be made within the poverty. the matter. misconduct. subterranean look at the state, except where it is The panel summoned But the Osun Civil The sources said “There should be an contents of the petition absolutely necessary to do Justice Yunusa had the otherwise. worst case, with “This created a value numerous petitions chain that raised the “In sections 4, 5, 14, 18 Tinubu as a disgrace to accusing him of receiving economy of our state from of the law quoted above, the Senate and a tar on kickbacks and bribes. He bottom up and empowered of verbal abuse and the image of Nigerian was also accused of HE widespread condemnation of Senator Dino acts people mostly in the sexual threats are taken as women as it portrays writing and delivering Melaye’s verbal assault on Senator Oluremi grassroots, especially which must be women as mere objects of two different judgments Tinubu continued on Friday with All attacks artisans. In a small way, Progressives Congress (APC) women in Osun and prevented against any sexual pleasure and an in one case. that is innovation. If this women APC aspirants demanding his trial for Nigerian, especially anatomical symbol.

It would be recalled women.

“We demand that a that Justice Oloyede had should happen on a larger violating the law on violent acts against persons.

“In section 14, the law public apology be scale, continent wide, been recommended for The women, in a attack and threat to beat where most of government statement jointly signed up Senator Tinubu and states: ‘A person who tendered not only to sanction by the Osun spending is retained by the APC Women impregnate her were causes emotional, verbal Senator Tinubu but to all State House of Assembly indecent, and psychological abuse Nigerian women by in its resolution on the locally, the result would be Leader in Osun State, uncouth, on another commits an Senator Melaye and the Kudirat demeaning, humiliating, offence and is liable on Senate President who reports of the committee transformational in a very Alhaja Fakokunde and the sexist and criminal,” the conviction to a term of allowed the attack on set up to investigate the short time.

“There have been several Coordinator of APC statement added.

Nigerian women to pass judge’s petition against “It is a clear violation of imprisonment.’” and far-reaching attempts Female Aspirants, Mrs the law which the same The women said without sanctioning Aregbesola.

Oluga, the women Oloyede did not appear although the direct victim Dino on it. at African integration. Taiwo expressed shock that a Senate passed in 2015, to of the “primitive attack” Senator “In the least, Dino before the House These are commendable. senator could reduce the protect our people. of Senator Melaye was Melaye must be committee and her However, rather than geld Senate to a platform of “The provisions of the Senator Tinubu, the entire suspended forthwith, lawyer, Mr Lanre the continent abuse, physical and Violence Against Persons economically, they are verbal assault, sexual Act of 2015 are so clear APC women in Osun preparatory to his Ogunlesi (SAN), insisted considered Melaye’s expulsion. that she would not appear dangerously going towards harassment of a woman that no woman and decent action a collective attack “A criminal indictment the House and people whose people would allow the on women in Nigeria. political integration. and prosecution on this until “Specific attempts interests he ought to heresy of Senator Dino The women also matter must follow forwarded the reply of Melaye to go Aregbesola on her petition should be made, apart from protect. described Senator immediately,” the “Senator Melaye’s unchallenged. to the judge.

Melaye’s attack on Mrs statement added.

NJC Dismisses Justice Oloyede, Finds Her Guilty Of Judicial Misconduct B Osun Petition-writer Judge:

Attack On Senator Tinubu: Osun Women Want Melaye Tried For

Violating Anti-violence Law

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OSUN DEFENDER Tuesday, July 19, 2016

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...Continued from Pg 1 This programme is therefore a fight back.

And an excellent one too! The benefits will be multifaceted. For a start we will have healthier school children; millions of them across the nation. This will make them more retentive in absorbing their studies.

This will help to close the gap of social and economic divides and disadvantages.

For example, a similar programme launched in the UK in 1945, by providing a glass of free milk a day to school pupils in the nation's industrial North East,completely wiped out the Scourge of Rickets, a disease of the Industrial Revolution within one

FG And The O’Meal Policy

generation! In Nigeria there are a myriad of poverty induced diseases which will be tackled with this programme.

Futhermore, there will be an increase in school enrolment. This will help us to achieve one of the United Nations set out Millenium Development Goals. In addition there is a veritable economic gain. To stay the least it will lead to an increase in food production thereby ameliorating poverty in the rural economy. The synergy here is important. Rural employment will increase and there will be an increase in wages. This once again achieves a Millenium Development Goal.

The economic impact of

Interwoven with this is another veritable economic gain. This is that with the stimulated increase in food production exports can now be made from the surplus.

This again will result in gains in terms of increased employment led by the emergence of agro-industrial export oriented industries.

NE cannot but commend the P r e s i d e n t Muhammadu Buhari-led administration for its resoluteness, courage, determination, focus and commitment to winning the war against corruption, which is a canker worm that has ravaged the body and soul of the Nigerian state for decades. One is also happy that despite the campaign of blackmail, calumny and mudslinging against the anti-corruption war, as being one-sided, persecution, witch-hunting, vendetta, stifling of opposition, etc from expected quarters of beneficiaries and associates of corruptly indicted persons, the government has remained focused with the results manifesting on a regular basis.

Just recently, news filtered in from the grapevine and has been confirmed by reportage in most of the newspapers that Mr. Olisa Metuh, the erstwhile PDP scribe, who admitted to collecting N400 million of the diverted funds originally meant to fight insurgency from the office of the former National Security Adviser,

Colonel Sambo Dasuki (rtd.), on the instruction of former President Goodluck Jonathan for a job, which cannot be verified, has at last after acting a failed part of his moribund film, in which he vowed not to refund a kobo of the people’s money, which he collected illegally, went on hunger strike and when his

system failed to sustain the hunger because it was alien to it, attempted to eat his confessional paper which he must have mistake for food, attempted intimidating the judiciary by alleging bias after the prosecution has closed its case, when it was his turn to open his defence and then his failing health, all with the purpose of stalling his trial, volunteered to refund the whole sum of money.

This is not to forget that while the whole drama of Metuh entertaining the

Nigerian people and attempting to ridicule and intimidate the security agencies and judiciary lasted, seeing that there was no escape route or tactics that could truncate his trial for corruption, the family quickly waded in and promised to refund the money to save their son, which was commendable, but too late in the day.

But the questions that we asked the family then and which they were and have been unable to provide answers are that, where were they when Metuh was ridiculing the whole country by his theatrics, didn’t they know that they should have called him to order earlier than now by wading in? Well, that is a lesson or is it food for thought to families to learn to bring up their children in the proper and moral ways, lest the family name be subjected to public damage like the Metuhs are

We praise the government of the state of osun led by the indomitable Ogbeni Aregbesola for proving beyond reasonable doubt that it can be done. By doing so, Aregbesola has once again demonstrated that he is the symbol of a positive alternative perspective.

It is worth recalling that a similar programme in

Victory For Anti-corruption War, As Metuh Becomes New Convert

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Brazil consolidated the country into an export oriented power house. The Brazillian programme had a component which provided a glass of milk a day to millions of pupils a day. The milk was Soya derived. Within a few years Brazil was struggling to meet up with $90 billions worth of orders for Soya products a year from China alone. This is the way to go.

the programme will also by stimulating increased production help to cut the nation's food import bill.

This is important in order to redress the nation's balance of payment disequilibrium at a time of declining crude oil prices.

now undergoing of which history is already documenting it for posterity.

But be that as it may, we must commend the officers and men of the anti-graft agency who have been consistent, professional and dogged in the exercise of their responsibility to the Nigerian people by winning a soul, a new convert into the camp of the war against corruption, we say, thanks all.

As Mr. Metuh has voluntarily offered to refund what he vowed that he will only refund over his dead body sometime ago, may we call on the anti-corruption agencies to, apart from collecting the money, ensure that Metuh is prosecuted in line with the Constitution for subjecting us all to this psychological trauma of his embarrassing drama, waste of tax payers’ money for prosecution and to serve as a deterrent to others that it is wrong and criminal to receive public money that is diverted for phoney contracts.

•NELSON EKUJUMI, Lagos.

OSUN DEFENDER Publisher

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FOR THE RECORDS

OSUN DEFENDER Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Speech By The Governor Of The State Of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, At The Launch Of Africa Business Club Of The Imperial College Business School, Imperial College, London, On Saturday July 16, 2016

Protocols, am most pleased to be at this renowned academic institution, the Imperial College, for the launch of Africa Business Club and discuss a matter that is of utmost importance to the African continent. I will therefore like to thank the organisers, the African Business Club of Imperial College Business School, for the privilege of the invitation to this great meeting.

To begin with, Africa is a paradox of sort. Without being immodest, Africans are the remaining real human beings on earth. By this I mean in their essential humanity, having not been so tainted by human progress, which some have argued, quite paradoxically, as being responsible for the continent’s arrested development. However, this is false choice, for to argue like this is to say that being essentially human and being developed are mutually incompatible.

But I digress.

I stated in a recent conference held at Redeemers University, an institution in my home state, Osun, that there are two conceptual Africas. The first is the Africa endowed with humongous human and material resources. The second is the largely underdeveloped Africa that mirrors a continent ravaged by slavery and colonialism, made desolate by wars, hunger, poverty and is the leading global aid recipient region.

Africa is said to be a young population, even with her 1.2 billion people, most of whom are young, with the potential of providing a huge market and a pool from which a vibrant labour force can be derived. These are critical elements of development. This is besides the abundant natural resources that make Africa one of the resource-richest regions of the world.

However, on the converse, while slavery and colonialism ravaged much of the world, including the Americas and Asia, until mid 20th Century, Africa had the worst experience from which she is yet to recover. Beyond language, no other part of the world still carries the scaring imprimatur of colonialism the way Africa does. While colonialism was an episode in Asia and the Americas, it was an epoch in Africa and has largely determined the trajectory of the continent since. This tragic phenomenon has been well documented as neo-colonialism.

Again, while the continent never fully recovered from its own internal combustion from inter-ethnic conflicts of the pre-colonial era, Africa’s conflagration has been accentuated by artificial partitioning by European powers in the late 19th Century. Even with independence, Africa has not had much peace, as it became the battle ground in proxy wars between the superpowers until the end of the Cold War. Africa is still a hotbed of armed conflicts in the post Cold War era, with the continent deeply enmeshed in religious and civil wars. According to the National Interest, ‘In 2014, Africa experienced more than half of worldwide conflict incidents, despite having only about 16 percent of the world population. This is a slightly larger share of the world’s conflicts than even during the chaotic years of the post-Cold War 1990s’.

All these have arrested or slowed development in Africa and the statistics are not flattering. According to the World Bank estimate of GDP per capita in 2015, the average for sub-Saharan Africa is $1,571.3 compared to Middle East and North Africa’s $7,342.3, or EU’s $31,843.2, North America’s

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switching from being producers of primary to secondary goods and adding values. Adding values creates a value chain that increases the momentum of development.

In our own little way, when our administration was inaugurated, we made a policy that all government’s purchases must be made within the state, except where it is absolutely necessary to do otherwise. This created a value chain that raised the economy of our state from bottom up and empowered people mostly in the grassroots, especially artisans. In a small way, that is innovation. If this should happen on a larger scale, continent wide, where most of government spending is retained locally, the result would be transformational in a very short time.

HERE have been several and farreaching attempts at African integration.

These are commendable. However, rather than geld the continent economically, they are dangerously going towards political integration. Specific attempts should be made, apart from the point I made earlier on adding value and transiting secondary producers, tariff and non tariff barriers to trade in the continent should be removed. There has to be a creative ways of doing this. It is disheartening that more economic interaction is done informally than is done formally because of tariff and nontariff hindrances.

One other factor is noncompetitiveness in Africa’s economy. A 2015 competitiveness report by the World Bank laments that Africa’s economy is the least competitive globally and has remained in the same position for 15 years. The various causes of these include absence of innovation and poor productivity. I believe these two are mutually reinforcing.

Even in agriculture which is the main occupation in Africa, productivity has been very low. While Nigeria and much of Africa are leading producers of cassava for instance, the traditional yield per hectare has been around 10 tonnes while global average in 2010 was put at 12.5 tonnes. However, India’s average yield in 2010 was 34.8 tonnes per hectares. If Africa can double her food output from cultivating the same land size as she currently does, it is possible to eliminate hunger from the continent. But this will require innovation in crop science, mechanisation, improved inputs and agriculture entrepreneurship. The knowledge base has to be widened and scientific findings have to be brought to (and applied by) the farmers.

Regrettably, much of agriculture practices in Africa are still primitive.

One interesting cause of low productivity is poor health, especially caused by malaria. It has been established that malaria cuts productivity in Africa by as much as 40 per cent. It is a major cause of poverty, just as it is also a product of poverty.

There should be an innovative way of eliminating malaria and other common diseases that debilitate health and reduce productivity in Africa.

Simultaneous antimalaria treatment of all persons and destruction of vectors in a continent wide exercise have become necessary; a clear departure from the old practice of haphazard treatment that consistently generate drug resistant strains of the notorious plasmodium falciparum.

There is also the urgent need to bring •Continued on page 15

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•AREGBESOLA monstrous $54,580 and even the world’s average of $9995.6. Even the $1,571.3 average figure would appear deceptive if we consider that Seychelles, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and Botswana recorded $25,439.92, $19,818.11, $17,053.47 and $16,578.59 respectively, with most countries in the bottom half recording less than $1,000 and those at the rock bottom registering less than $400.

By the account of the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Africa led the global begging troupe with a total aid outflow to Africa in 2013 at $46 billion, only followed by Asia in a distant second with $25 billion. From these grim statistics emerged the fact that one in two persons in Africa is poor. That is even on the average; it is worse in some places.

But we don’t need academic statistics to know that there is poverty, ignorance and diseases in Africa.

Of course, we should by now be tired of asking the paradoxical question or wonderment on why Africa should be so blessed and the people are so poor. I believe that our meeting here should be part of the solution to unravelling this mystery. This is why the theme of our engagement here, ‘Using innovation to reengineer Africa’s development – moving from talk to action’ is most apt.

This speech is not a review of the challenges of development in Africa; it catches only the highlights. We might as well look into the most salient issues and see how we can bring innovation to address them.

Innovation is an important driver of growth and development. The economic, political, social and even entertainment leadership of the OECD countries in the world is as a result of their leadership in innovation. We see this in the creation and diffusion of new products, processes and methods. Their firms invest as much in the knowledge-based assets that drive innovation, such as software, databases, research and

development, firm-specific skills and organisational capital.

The third edition of the Oslo Manual (OECD and Eurostat, 2005) defines innovation as the implementation of a new or significantly improved product (good or service) or process, a new marketing method, or a new organisational method in business practices, workplace organisation or external relations. An innovation must have novelty. This novelty can be to the firm, to the market or to the world.

Sometimes, it can be a combination of some or all. Inventions like electricity, automobile, computer and, lately, applications, fit this bill.

NDEED, it will take an innovation to solve any problem. It stands against reason that a problem can be solved by repeating an approach, instrument and idea that hitherto failed, as we are always tempted to do. It is innovation, the bringing of something new into a situation, that brings change. In other words, change is innovation. Therefore, if you want to change a situation, bring innovation.

In looking at Africa’s development challenges, there is the need to identify the persistence of certain issues. The first problem is the disarticulation of Africa’s economy. Africa is the least economically integrated region in the world. This is best illustrated in the pattern of trade within the continent.

According to the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), in a 2015 report, only 14 percent of Africa’s total trade is within the continent. This implies that the remaining 86 per cent is with other regions. In contrast, North America’s internal trading is 61 per cent, EU is 62 per cent while Central America is 45 per cent. The reasons for this, according to United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) is that Africa produces primary products and imports finished products which the continent does not produce.

This can be effectively addressed with

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OSUN DEFENDER Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Infrastructure OSUN DEFENDER Tuesday, July 7, 2016

Aregbesola @ 59:

Celebrating Excellence In Service VI The rains are fully here! On top of it, residents of the State of Osun are currently witnessing resurgence in the construction of massive roads infrastructure.In the spirit of carrying on with the mandate that engendered this series, NIYI OLASINDE rolls out this edition to laud the courage and valiance that went into the ongoing efforts, in spite of the prevailing economic adversities in the land. The ongoing efforts are especially praise-worthy, when they are viewed against the backdrop that they are going to help significantly in checkmating the horrendous effects of water erosion that characterize rainy seasons.

•Governor Rauf Aregbesola distributing instructional materials to State High School pupils in Osogbo sometime ago.

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•Governor Rauf Aregbesola (2nd left) in a discussion with Senator Bayo Salami during an inspection tour of ongoing overhead bridge at NECO area, Osogbo, recently.

Celebrating Excellence In Service VI

•Continued from Tuesday, June 7, 2016.

HERE are many road projects currently going on in the State of Osun. Within the metropolis of Osogbo the state capital alone, practically most of the inner access roads have been reconstructed.

These roads are damn too numerous to mention. Of recent, the East Bypass, stretching from Ido-Osun end, through Ilesa Garage end; bursting out at Ikirun road had its contract work awarded and work has commenced in earnest. This is not to talk of the work that is ongoing at the Old Garage Area of Osogbo, which, apart from being a work of beautification, is intended to make that heart of the city more spacious, healthy and more befitting. The West Bypass, popularly referred to as Ring Road, constructed by the Alliance for Democracy (AD)-led administration in the state had been witnessing a facelift.

Judging from the way things are as at date with regards to road infrastructure in the State of Osun, it is fast becoming easier for any traveller to cover any part of the state with absolute ease within a day.

From Osogbo, the state capital for instance, it is more of a reality than possibility to make it to and fro to any part of the state with all convenience. It is fully appreciated the degree of administrative convenience this development shall contribute to governance and other productive activities in the state. In a nutshell, the first citizen of our dear state, OgbeniAregbesola has actually matched his words with action. Upon his assumption of office, Aregbesola promised to take road infrastructure transformation

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throughout the state as a matter of urgent and utmost priority. At a point in time, he even said that with him on the seat of governance, the State of Osun has been privileged to have Ona Baba Ona, meaning “road that surpasses road”. Today, this promise has nearly completely matured into a fully accomplished mission.

One more point to stress before moving to the next point is the fact that Aregbesola’s antecedents are clearly speaking for him. Readers are here reminded that the same enigma it was who played prominent roles in road transformation in his days as Commissioner for Road Infrastructure in cosmopolitan Lagos State during the tenure of Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as Governor of that state. It is therefore important to draw attention to how important it is to always consider the antecedents of aspirants before entrusting the task of leadership and governance in their hands. Through his this present outing in the State of Osun, Aregbesola has not disappointed the good people of the state who voted massively for him at the Gubernatorial Polls of April 14, 2007. It is certain that entrusting the task into his hands for a repeated term in office shall not be tantamount to disappointing destiny.

This feat has been copiously displayed all over again in the August 9 2014 Gubernatorial Polls which returned the governor into office.

IN like to the foregoing are the efforts so far made by the administration of the day in the area of Environment and Sanitation now beg for our attention and searchlight.

There is no time that OSUN DEFENDER Magazine would write about this sub-sector that the pains and agony of the past years of the massive flooding terrains and their attendant enormous loss of lives and property will not reverberate in our memory. As the years of the immediate past administration in office wore on, the dastardly and horrendous effects of environmental degradation, environmental pollution, water pollution and contamination, indiscriminate waste disposal, water erosion and flooding became more and more devastating.

This became worse and worse to the extent that –practically all places within the state capital – drains and gutters, street/road divides, major streets and junctions; not to talk of banks and beds of rivers, streams and springs became refuse dumping sites in those dark years.

As the years rolled by, the people of the entire state were reeling and languishing under the full negative effects of unkempt environment improper waste disposal and lack of drainage channelization. Of all towns, cities and settlements in the state, Osogbo, the state capital was the worst-0hit by the menace of degradation and flooding and the leftovers of their attendant aftereffects. In those days, OSUN DEFENDER Magazine never relented in drawing attention to many untoward situations which portended threats of grave epidemics and other health hazards for citizens. We used to draw prompt attention to incidences of pollution emanating from hospital mortuary morgues which were inadvertently kept; decomposing animal carcasses and human corpses on our roads;

refuse heaps which constituted eyesore and offensive stenches at vantage places even within the state capital; and the devastation effects of water erosion and flooding on our communities. These did not exclude the devastating effects of wind erosion and rainstorms which annually removed roofs and rafters of residential houses and structures of institutions in the state. In some cases, what we had was a complete pull-down of structures that had been weakened cumulatively due to poor maintenance culture.

Enough talks had been held; while vibrant debates had also been made in the past concerning what horrible fates befell the huge provisions coming from the Federation Accounts to our state in form of Ecological Funds during the Oyinlola years of fiery siege. These enormous sums of funds, cumulatively summing up to several tens of billions of naira were released to states and local government councils as second and third tiers of government respectively to prevent, mitigate and remedy the devastating effects of natural disasters within their territories of governance.

Unfortunately all the monies went elsewhere, suspiciously, into the private coffers of some mighty men in power in those days; and got committed to causes for which they were least intended by the releasing authorities at the federal level of governance.

As clearly demonstrated earlier, the ugly effects of environmental degradation, pollution, indiscriminate waste disposal, water contamination and water erosion/ •Continued on page 10

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PHOTOTALK

OSUN DEFENDER Tuesday, July 19, 2016

State Of Osun Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, In An Interactive Meeting With Farmers On Promotion Of Agricultural Productivity And Involvement Of Youths In Farming, At Erinmo-Ijesa, Oriade Local Government Area, Last Wednesday.

•Governor Rauf Aregbesola, addressing the farmers during the meeting.

•Aregbesola, acknowledging cheers from the farmers.

•(L-R)- The Elerinmo of Erinmo-Ijesa, Oba (Dr) Michael Odunayo Ajayi; Aregbesola; Secretary to the State Government of Osun, Alhaji Moshood Adeoti; State Head of Service, State of Osun, Mr. Sunday Owoeye, and others.

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State Of Osun Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, On An Unscheduled Inspection Tour To The Oba Adesoji Aderemi Overhead Photo: GBENGAADENIYI. Bridge, Along Gbongan-Ibadan Road, NECO Office Area, Osogbo, Last Wednesday.

•State of Osun Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola (right) in a discussion with the Site Engineer, Engineer Yakubu Salaudeen (left) and Technical Office Director, Mr Kingsley Etafor (2nd left) while with them, Secretary to the State Government, Alhaji Moshood Adeoti (2nd right).

•An ongoing drainage at the road.

•The Ongoing overhead bridge.

•Admirers hailing Aregbesola during the inspection tour.

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OSUN DEFENDER Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Celebrating Excellence In Service VI

•An ongoing road rehabilitation work along Ikirun road, Osogbo.

Continued from page 7

flooding became more pronounced as the Oyinlola administration progressed in office. In year 2009, the state and its people reeled helplessly under the destructive yoke of erosion and flooding. The flooding incident of July 10, 2010 was the climax for the state in entirety and for Osogbo in particular. It also sang the NuncDimittis for the Oyinlola administration and that of the local administration in the town. The Ataoja of Osogbo of the tome, Oba IyiolaOyewaleMatanmi II joined his ancestors barely a month after that flood wreckage; precisely on August 5, 2010; while an end came to the seemingly-endless Oyinlola siege barely five months later, precisely on November 27, 2010. Honestly, had an end not come to that administration in our state; what remained of it as at 2010 would have been completely washed away by the rains of 2011 and the supposed Gubernatorial Elections of that same year! By the time of turning around of captivity in November 2010, both threats had their mouths agape; with their venomous fangs outstretched; ready to devour the state and its people; thus bringing the corporate existence of the state into total annihilation and extinction. But God had not designed the state and its people for the gastronomical intents of these devouring spirits.

That is why our salvation came in the fullness of time! Thank God for His saving grace!

NE of the very first areas of priority attention of the Aregbesola administration upon its coming on board the saddle of governance in the State of Osun was the Environment and Sanitation Sub-Sector of our economy. Since that very first effort made by the administration in that direction; it has so far not relented; neither has its strength and means abated. Governor Aregbesola has clearly demonstrated his avowed determination to rid the State of Osun of dirt and filth. Not only that, he has shown that he has all it takes in terms of knowledge and wherewithal to convert our weaknesses into strengths; and convert our threats into opportunities by making the state prosperous – even by turning waste into wealth.

This last feat has been record3ed recently by the administration through the launch of the O’Clean Plus.

The earlier intervention efforts in the direction of purging the state of dirt, filth and horrible sites kick-started when Governor Aregbesola in February 2011, barely three months into his career

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in the governance of the state, declared a 90-day emergency in the Environment and Sanitation Sub-Sector. Alongside this, the State of Osun Environmental Sanitation Scheme, nicknamed O’Clean was rolled out. Much earlier, as early as the first week of December 2010, call had been made to young, vibrant, unemployed, yet interested residents of the state who were either university graduates or polytechnic Higher National Diploma holders to apply free online for employment into the Osun Youth Employment Scheme, known for short as OYES. The response was impressive, and the strides made so far in that sub-sector is reserved fie another segment of this report. All that needs be said in passing here concerning the OYES programme is that the first major area of its impact; apart from youth empowerment and employment generation has been the area of Environmental Sanitation, beautification, crowd and traffic control, ambulance and rescue operations as well as paramedics. Thus the OYES programme of the Aregbesola administration has impacted well on the health and sanitation needs of residents of the State of Osun; so much that the OYES and the O’Clean intervention efforts have become the envy of other states in the federation, as well as the Federal Government and other interest groups like the international communities and organizations such as the United Nations and its World Bank.

The first 90-day of emergency in the Environment and Sanitation Sub-Sector of the State of Osun having been completed, the sanitation efforts were not given up; neither were they relaxed. Up till the time of filing this report, a mandatory bi-monthly environmental sanitation exercise is being observed throughout the length and breadth of the state; and this has so positively impacted the sanitation and health needs of the state that Osun has become the land of healthy citizens where all threats of deadly epidemics have been made not only to lose their grip but also to disappear for good and all!

Apart from the regular general mandatory bimonthly environmental sanitation exercise being observed throughout the State of Osun, there are other types of similar exercises earmarked for other categories of people on weekly basis. For instance, the civil servants and offices have theirs on Wednesdays; the traders, artisans and shipowners have theirs on Thursdays, while

commercial motorists and motor parks hold theirs on Fridays – all between the hours of 7.00 a.m. and 10.00 a.m. Also, that of bi-monthly general sanitation also holds on second and fourth (last) Saturdays of every month, between the hours of 7.00 a.m. and 10.00 a.m.

Since the rolling out of the sanitation exercises in the State of Osun; the efforts and the O’Clean outfit have so far impacted so positively that asserting that the people have internalized the virtue of cleanliness is stating the obvious. The Government Unusual in its own part has been doing things that are unusual in the usual way!

Vehicles, equipment and waste disposal vans were procured to facilitate the work, while townspeople across the state are made to embrace the practice of dropping their refuse at accredited points and centres in order to make their lifting much easier. Also, Central dumping sites have been so located at town and city outskirts that they could not constitute any threat of pollution to residents Also upon the recent launch of O’Clean Plus, an obvious downward extension of the initiallylaunched broad O’Clean intervention; it is clear that not all the waste materials that are combustible shall be set on fire, as some of them shall be used to generate some alternative sources of energy for household use. This, as said earlier on, is a source of wealth to the State of Osun.

It is highly imperative to point out that the achievements of the incumbent administration in the state in this area have been highly illustrious and impressive. Up till date, the impact of the administration is being felt to the extent that the State of Osun has risen to become the envy of other states in the federation. Any part of the state being visited speaks of changed value system from the ugly horrible sights of the past to a new, wellrebranded land of beauty and high aesthetic value.

This measure is well taken as a means of backward integration; so that through our collective carefulness and vigilance, we can take our destinies into our own hands and forestall the occurrence of avoidable diseases. This trend has been achieved. We shall at this juncture do justice to a careful analysis of the achievements of the Government Unusual of OgbeniRaufAdesojiAregbesola in other remaining sectors and sub-sectors of the life of the state. It is the consummate attainment of this that OSUN

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Celebrating Excellence In Service VI Continued from page 10

DEFENDER Magazine is now committed.

N the area of Women and Children Affairs cum Social Development, the Government Unusual has done so well that we can boldly assert that the best so far has begun to be witnessed in the sub-sector. We place it in record that in recognition of the vital role played in the development and future greatness of our society that OgbeniAregbesola in the presentation of the Appropriation Bill Estimate for the year 2013 before the honourable members of the State of Osun House of Assembly, announced the creation of a new ministry with the branding and nomenclature of Ministry of Children and Women Affairs. The inclusion of children in particular indicates that new imprints are about to be left in the sands of time and governance of the state.

This trend has begun to be set, not only in name but also in action and programmes. We shall make this crystal clear in due course of time.

The role of and commitment of the incumbent administration in and to the issue of women development have been prominently visible since its coming on board the parlances of governance in the state. Various programmes and supportive schemes have been put in place to organize women into groups with a view to training them and empower them so as to enhance their liberation by reducing their overdependence on then male gender. This feat was recorded through a collaborative, coordinated effort between the two tiers of government visibly on ground within the confines of the state, i.e. the State Government and the grassroots administration called the local government.

Various efforts subsist through which the administration of the day has empowered women, housewives in particular. We place on record various training programmes for widows, puddahs and other groups. Also, professional groups like market women have not been ignored in terms of their needs and requirements that could boost their activities, welfare and prosperity.

Also in this regard, we place on record how the administration of OgbeniAregbesola has organized and held for the very first time ever,

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the O’odua World Children’s Day; which was an attempt at the unification of all the Yoruba race scattered all over the place – within Nigeria and yonder, that is, in West Africa, the rest of Africa, Asia, West Indies (the Caribbean), the United States of America, South America and all the rest.

At the programme, we had in attendance contingents from nine good states of the federation, which included the following Yorubaspeaking states of Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Ondo, Ekiti, Kwara, Kogi, Edo and Delta. Added to these is the tenth, which is the host state, the State of Osun.

Going by the information provided above, the programme was a huge success, as it turned out to be not only a convergence for the children and youth but for adults of all classes, cadres, classes and caste. The greatest achievement of all in the intrinsic quality of that programme is the forum it provided for two frontline traditional rulers in Yorubaland, regarded to be at swords drawn since time immemorial, to sit together and relate as offspring of the same forebears and leaders of the single largest ethnic group among the black race. The Aregbesola administration shall eternally win medals for this feat of acting as a unifying force for the Yoruba race. It has this to its eternal credit.

We shall now dwell briefly on the aspect touching on Social Development, Youths and Sports sub-sector of the whole heading under consideration; particularly, in the sphere of social welfare. Much has been achieved by the administration of Ogbeni since its inception over thirty months ago. In April 2011, the Government of the State of Osun under the dynamic leadership of OgbeniRaufAregbesola spearheaded the eviction of the state indigenes that were stacked in the war-ravaged Cote d’Ivoire. The cocoa-rich West African country had been war-ravaged for sometime over the sit-tight syndrome exercised by its past leader, Laurent Gbagbo and his blatant, brazen refusal to honour the collective voice and wish of the citizens who overwhelmingly voted for his opponent, AlhassanQuattara in a free, fair and credible general election.

The evicted indigenes, comprising mainly indigenes of Iwo and Ejigbo local government councils of the state were not just evicted but well

•Some of the Armoured Personnel Carriers acquired by Governor Rauf Aregbesola’s administration.

settled home with donations of money, food items and other materials by the Government of the State. In addition to these good gestures; the respective local government councils complemented by giving their own support too.

These gestures were clear demonstration that the people had a government of their own, which had the disposition to guarantee and protect their welfare, well-being and prosperity.

IMILAR to this was the rescue mission embarked upon by the Government of the State to Bauchi State following the postPresidential Elections violence which erupted there also in April 2011. The mission of the rescue team was to search for, find and evict the state’s indigenes from the state that had suddenly become heated up with violence and pandemonium, following the announcements of the results of the Presidential Elections held nationwide that April 2011. The mission was successful as the state’s indigenes, consisting mainly of residents who took sojourn there and youth corps members on national assignment were evicted home in droves. Regrettably, the State of Osun had its own share of loss of lives which came attendant to the crisis. Two of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members who were killed in the mayhem hailed from the State of Osun. As luck would have it, the duo even hailed from the same town of Gbongan in Ayedaade Local Government Council Area of the state. The way the Government of the State of Osun intervened and identified with the bereaved families, communities and entire people by according the two fallen youths befitting burials and giving support and succor to the families showed a government which places premium on the life, well-being and welfare of its citizens.

OSUN DEFENDER Magazine is of the opinion that the blown on the state would have been deadlier, heavier and more fatal if government intervention had not been forthcoming at all; more so, if it had not been timely enough.

In early October 2011, the State of Osun School of Special Needs, located at Powerline Area of Osogbo, the state capital, received a philanthropist gesture from the government of

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•Adenle Middle School at Ayetoro, Osogbo, built by Governor Rauf Aregbesola’s administration.

Continued from page 11 2011 earmark and actually committed a whooping the state when Pharmacist Israel Oyagbile, sum of Two Billion, Two-Hundred and Fifty-Four representing the State Governor delivered consumables and gift items to the students of the Million, Five-Hundred and Eighty-Five school. The items such donated included bags of Thousand, Four-Hundred and Seventy Naira (N2, rice, clothing materials and jerry cans of vegetable 254,585,470.00) for the sub-sector. This whooping oil. The gesture, it was further revealed, was part sum gives an improvement of 306.15 per cent over of the demonstration of the determination of the the expenditure of year 2010 in the sub-sector.

In pursuance of its determination to provide Government of the State to distribute dividends of democracy evenly throughout the state; class, all parts of the state with good potable water, the effort helps to revive the New Ede Waterheads caste, and state in life notwithstanding.

In a similar vein, local government councils in and make it fully functional in water supply to all the state have been in the business of taking turns parts of the State of Osun started in August 2011. to cater to the social need of the people in their It snowballed into the proposal for the award of domains. Our terrain is replete with examples of its contract to the tune of N417 Million for the these gestures. In a nutshell, our thirty local rehabilitation of the New Ede4 Waterworks with government council areas and the Ife East Area capacity to 100,000 metric tonnes of water per day.

Office have always complemented the efforts of It is expected that fresh construction of water the incumbent administration by taking up the channels shall soon begin throughout the state, bull by the horns in arresting the challenges of while rehabilitation of existing burst pipes and taking care of the elderly in the council areas’ damaged ones have also begun in earnest. As at domains. the time of the last election campaigns, the OSUN DEFENDER Magazine tarries here to governor is made fresh promises to the people of document the effort of the administration in Ikire and the entire Irewole, Ayedaade and Isokan putting smiles on the faces of the old and elderly. local government council areasthat the Ikire This initiative in particular is commendable. The Waterworks is included among the numerous care of the elderly in the society is vital; as most water projects in the state earmarked for of those who constitute the class of elderly must rehabilitation, resuscitation and reconstruction. have one time or the other, taken active That promise was on the heels of an earlier one participation in the building of the society. Giving made to a contingent of Ikire indigenes led by back to this class of senior citizens in their declining years cannot constitute giving too much. the reigning monarch of the ancient town, Oba Today, a great number of old and elderly citizens OlatundeFalabi, Olambeloye III, With these in the state; the poor and indigent in particular is moves, it is evident that the coast is clear for receiving monthly stipends from the government effective water supply to the good health and of the day. This care of the old and elderly healthy living of the people of the State of Osun.

There is hardly any other area where the includes the health and medical care, and it goes a long way to reduce unceremonious deaths, administration of OgbeniRaufAdesojiAregbesola has scored its first excellent mark than the Osun dependency and senility of the old.

ATER resources are a vital sub-sector Youth Empowerment Scheme (OYES). This vital in the Regional Planning and and laudableachievement of the Aregbesola Environmental Development Sector of administration is here treated last to detail as a the state’s economy. In the year 2012, the Annual matter of deliberacy. As pointed out in the Capital Expenditure for this sub-sector was Five- appropriate segment of this report in earlier Hundred and Fifty-Five Million, One-Hundred editions, rather than lumping this sub-heading and Six Thousand, Five-Hundred and Ninety- with the broad heading of Industry, Commerce, Five Naira, Twenty-Six Kobo (N555, 106,595.26). Finance and Cooperatives or that of Human In full recognition of the importance of good Resource and Capacity Building; OSUN potable water to forestall and combat outbreak DEFENDER Magazine is singling it out here of ailments, diseases and epidemics, the owing to its all-important nature on the one hand, incumbent administration of and the towering influence it has garnered to itself OgbeniRaufAdesojiAregbesola did in the year all along. We make bold to assert that there is

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nowhere in the federation of Nigeria where one makes mention of OYES and people would not have caught winds of it as a thriving youth empowerment intervention initiative of the State of Osun extraction. The programme has so much touched lives that its fame, credibility and recognition have travelled beyond the shores of our country.

HE Osun Youth Empowerment Scheme (OYES), which was rolled out as a powerful, life-changing initiative of Ogbeni himself, began to see the light of day at the very wake of the administration, precisely in December 2010; and before the first 100 days of the incumbent administration in office, it had begun to record gigantic success. By that initiative, which was obviously an intervention [programme to arrest the spate of poverty and unemployment, 20,000 unemployed youths were productively employed in various fields of specialization in a fell swoop.

This development marked a great feat which has been, and which shall remain difficult, if not impossible to outwit in decades to come. This fact is even truer, more accurate and realistic as processes have been kick-started for the enlistment of another batch of OYES cadets. The enlistment processes is still ongoing due to some hitches encountered at the initial stage of the call for fresh enlistment. However, the organizers are proving to be on top of the situation.

The enlistment of fresh OYES cadets for the 2013/2015 shift, also numbering up to 20,000 shall soon be completed and concluded. By the year 2015, 40,000 youths would have cumulatively been saved from the horrendous fangs of sloth and unemployment, even as it becomes very certain that the youths are being graduated and absorbed into vocations of their choices at the expiry of their two-year mandatory period as corps cadets of the scheme.

The development is made remarkable in many ways. All indications attest to it that it has never been possible anywhere else in this country to absorb that many into the workforce at a go. For the OYES initiative, the payroll bill monthly adds up to a whooping sum of Two-Hundred Million Naira (N200 Million). Yet the Government Unusual of OgbeniRaufAregbesola is unshaken even as the precedence it met on ground was that of a government acquiring loans and overdrafts

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Celebrating Excellence In Service VI Continued from page 12 from commercial banks to pay the salaries and allowances of regular workforce in the public/ civil service employ of the state and even the pension of retirees.

By injecting N200 Million Naira into the economy of the state, via the enlistment of 20,000 youths of the state’s origin, Aregbesola has by this scheme saved more than 20,000 people from above that number of homes from the dastardly negative effects of dehumanization brought about by unemployment and poverty. Also, he has succeeded in mopping up into productive engagements idle hands which hitherto had been the devil’s workshop. Youths who had hitherto been co-opted into odd jobs like thuggery, political brigandage, violence prostitution, drug abuse and other social vices have been provided with more socially acceptable and by far more productive engagements for their respective betterment and for uplifting the status and living standard of the society.

The OYES initiative has contributed in no small measure to the overall welfare, well-being and economic emancipation of the State of Osun. The index of its contribution to the overall prosperity of the state and its entire people is inestimable.

Much is this impact that the programme won the nod and commendation of the United Nations’ International bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), otherwise known as the World Bank. The World Bank team that visited the State of Osun sometime during year 2011 came on assessment tour of the state with particular focus on the OYES programme. It was in token of the World Bank’s appreciation for the scheme that the international (global) finance institution decided to throw its weight behind the programme by assisting the government to expand its scope.

ONE essential feature of the OYES programme is its transitory nature. As at the completion time of the first batch of the scheme, many OYES cadets

•Frontage of Ataoja High School, Osogbo.

graduated to other segments of the civil/public service e.g. teaching, clerical/ administrative cadres, while room is being opened to absorb fresh cadets in replacement. Some of the cadets were even sent abroad to various overseas countries for proper adequate training requisite for their full and functional establishment into their chosen life-long vocations. Few months ago, a graduation ceremony was held for the first set of products of the OYES-tech; the technical/ technological training wing of the broad OYES scheme, who were integrated into the society in various aspects of computer assemblage, repairs, telephone handsets assembly and repairs and the likes.

N the whole, there is hardly any facet of life where the OYES initiative has impacted lives in the state more than Environ mental Sanitation; and Crowd/ Traffic Control.

By OYES initiative, the State of Osun is being rapidly transformed radically decent and beautiful abode, where disasters associated with environmental degradation are fast-becoming things of the past. This implies that the chains of awards, encomiums, recognition and commendation being poured on the governor, in particular, the merit award conferred on him during the penultimate episode of the governor’s audience media chat, tagged “Ogbeni Till Daybreak” by the B Zone of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), where the governor was decorated as the best governor in the area of environment and disaster management in Nigeria for the year 2012 had not been misplaced.

OSUN DEFENDER Magazine accords great recognition for the efforts of OgbeniAregbesola and his indefatigable and irrepressible team. It is on that note that the State of Osun was earmarked to benefit from the World Bank/ Federal Government Youth Empowerment Fund to the tune of N50 Billion. The fact that the World Bank itself has a sub-agency called Youth Empowerment and Social Support Operation (YESSO) complements the ingenuity and creativity

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of OgbeniAregbesola in coming out with the coinage “OYES”.

We have referred to it repeatedly here that recruitment and selection exercise for the next 20,000 cadets into the 2013/2015 batch of the scheme are currently ongoing. It is expected that training and selection processes of the new batch must be completed in due course of time. Already, the first batch of beneficiaries has graduated into jobs, careers and life-long vocations.

On the occasion of first year anniversary of the OYES programme, held precisely on May 5 2012; the scope of the OYES scheme was broadened, as the cadet corps members were divided into various corps, groups, or cadre corps. Thus, the following cadre corps, which had been part of the initial plan of the initiative, became prominently operational. They are: 1.

Public Works 2.

Green Gang 3.

Traffic Marshall 4.

Sanitation Czar 5.

Teachers’ Corps 6.

Sheriff Guard 7.

Paramedics.

DEVELOPMENT into operative cadres did actually expand the initial concept in response to the exigencies of the State of Osun experience.

This new range of additional cadres comprised a new range of products designed to engender entrepreneurship and economic independence in the corps by way of exit strategy; including the OYES-tech (ICT repairs) mentioned above and the e-payment entrepreneurship project. It is hoped that the finances of the scheme would be improved in the future as more and more private businesses and corporate bodies partner with the government. By then, the initial goal of having each corps member possess all the uniforms of the various cadres in order to facilitate rotation of their experience shall be made possible.

We shall endeavor to pick the issues here raised from this point in subsequent editions.

Continued on page 14

NEWS

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OSUN DEFENDER Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Osun Speaker Tasks Schools, Workers, Politicians On Farming S

By KAZEEM MOHAMMED PEAKER, State of Osun House of Assembly, Honourable Najeem Salaam, has tasked public schools, civil servants and politicians in positions of trust to engage in farming, which he described as the alternative to the cash crunch confronting the nation. not gone against farming He also tasked for any class, the lawmakers to encourage opportunity must be the youth in their taken for good and constituencies to take to hunger-free nation. agribusiness and its Salaam also enjoined value chain. the public schools to In a statement by his bring back school farming Press Secretary, Mr. Goke with dual purpose of Butika, Salaam said, it exposing the pupils and has now become students to the value of dangerous for anyone or agriculture and the nation itself to be generating revenue for relying on mono-source of schools respectively. income.

According to him, now He said, once the that agriculture has nation’s constitution has returned to the front

burner, the younger generation should not be left behind.

He recalled that during the late Chief Bola Ige administration as the governor of old Oyo State, school farming was a great deal that enhanced massive production of food, noting that Osun division of the then Oyo State was the highest producer of cassava throughout the country.

The parliamentarian stressed that such a golden era should be brought back.

Salaam further enjoined the civil servants in the state to exploit

farming as an alternate source of income, saying that it was obvious that money generating from oil revenue was no longer coming, while the obligations at all fronts were no longer reducing.

He said: “We have gotten to a phase in our history that alternate

source of livelihood granted by the constitution has to be taken for good, for our demands are not reducing, while the pay cheque is no longer buoyant.

“So, I suggest we turn to agriculture in order to feed ourselves”, he

added.

Salaam also charged politicians in positions of trust to face the reality of the moment by engaging in large scale farming, saying with the way the economy was skewing, political patronage would soon become a burden instead of shortcut to wealth.

UNESCO Seeks Osun’s Permission To Adopt, Reproduce Opon Imo T Ooni, American Firm Sign MoU To Build $1.4bn Technology Hub In Ife

•President Muhammadu Buahri (right) in a handshake with the outgoing High ComHE United Nations Educational, Scientific and among many other missioner of Canada to Nigeria, His Excellency, Perry J. Calderwood at State House Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has awards.

Abuja, recently. approached the government of the State of Osun seeking to adopt the e-learning device created by the Rauf Aregbesola administration, Opon Imo (Tablet of Knowledge). designed to enhance UNESCO, in a letter students’ access to directed to the Osun knowledge, sexuality Commissioner for education and Education and signed by entrepreneurship, all of He stated that the US- The only challenge is that

By ISMAEEL UTHMAN Professor Hassana which are within the based firm partnership many Nigerian leaders Alidou, Director and scope of UNESCO’s HE Ooni of Ife, Oba Enitan Ogunwusi , has with House of Oduduwa block most of us in the R e p r e s e n t a t i v e , educational programme taken another giant stride aimed at ensuring was fastened to ensure diaspora from UNESCO’s Regional activities in Nigeria.” the rapid development of the cradle of Yoruba the success of the project. contributing to the Office in Abuja, said the development of the The organisation also race through industrialization, infrastructural Oba Ogunwusi said: organisation was pointed out that it will development and agricultural revolution.

“The initiative is an country.” impressed by the partner with Osun, A representative of the Oba Ogunwusi had technological hub worth encouraging one and I Mr. components of the Osun noting that the two weeks to his return $1.4 billion in its first urge the team not to relent. US-based firm, Onitilo, e-learning project. government of Osun will from the United States of phase, is expected to When I visited the USA, I Muyiwa that similar UNESCO also be massive met Nigerians and told disclosed officially America, secured the facilitate initiative helped India to requested permission to acknowledged them that people built of employment of youths in by establishment USA, it did not just generate over eight reproduce and adapt the UNESCO and other users Technology, Media City the ancient town. million employments. educational learning as the major source of the and After the MoU was develop. Just like the USA Agriculture According him, the citizens built America, I resource materials and e-learning resource Incubation Hub in Ile-Ife. signed, the start-up phase am glad that some hub is projected to create contents of Opon-Imo to materials wherever for master-plan would During his visit to USA, they employment for 1000 Nigerians in the diaspora promote its educational Oba Ogunwusi solicited begin with investors from are used. are also keen to the youths in its first phase in support of Africans in London and Asia. programmes in Nigeria.

Ile-Ife and the State of Opon Imo [Tablet of Subsequently, the MoU development of their Osun. diaspora on The organisation the developmental projects in would be presented to mother land. added that it was Knowledge], Onitilo said: “The “I am totally in support fascinated by the three innovative education tool agriculture, tourism and Elliot Jones, representing Maya Angelo Foundation of the project. I have never project will deliver a major content categories by Governor Rauf youth empowerment. modern and progressive started a project without A r e g b e s o l a ’ s The traditional ruler and American investors, of the e-library, the has and the SpringPort according to the Ooni’s completing it and I hope Ile-Ife with a strong real integrated test zone, the administration, estate, technology and several Technological Group had Director, Media and this will be completed virtual class room bagged within the stipulated infrastructure backbone. last Tuesday signed a Public Affairs. containing 63 books international awards.

While signing the MoU, time. We don’t want this It will deliver a masterof The e-learning device Memorandum covering civic education, (MoU) to the Ooni expressed to be a typical project that planned community that Ifa on ethics and morals was selected as the best in Understanding optimism that the project will start and won’t end. will allow residents to build the Technology, among others in Opon- innovative category in the Media their City and would span development We will also be fulfilling increase e-learning and science Imo. Agriculture Incubation across Ile-Ife, State of a larger part of what is productivity.

The United Nation’s category of the United Hub in Ile-Ife. “60 per cent of those Osun, Nigeria and Africa expected of us by making available the required that will be employed are organisation held that the Nations-backed World With the MoU, the at large. land.” concept and educational Summit Awards (WSA), indigenes of the host President of Image community. This is an contents of Opon-Imo is Consulting Group, Mrs in-line with UNESCO’s initiative to develop the Remi Duyile, said the cradle of Yoruba race.” objective to promote open project was part of efforts access to quality Another member of the the state government has to show that Nigerians in team, education in the country.

Victory

By SHINAABUBAKAR diaspora were ready to passed into law the child According to UNESCO Oluwasegun, explained rights group, Movement for Social Justice (MSJ), rights law, its enforcement invest in their country. that the hub would in the letter of request, “as has called on governments at various levels to must not be left for the She explained that her you may be aware, enforce the rights of minors and those with special government alone; the company was convinced transform the ancient city to a world-class place.

UNESCO is a specialised needs, in line with the dictates of the United Nation’s solution must begin from to create the synergy He said: “Our plan is agency of the United charter. the new government policy the individual homes,” the between the Ooni and US- that immediately the Nations with a broad based firm when the The group stated this in is really exposing the statement added. mandate in promoting a statement signed by its monarch visited the students are leaving It also commended United States of America. secondary school, they education, science, Coordinator, Comrade cankerworm, hence, the culture, communication Alabi Sulaiman, and made need for parents to have a government for setting up She said: “As a enroll and grow with rethink. a committee to deal with strategic Public Relations technology. We want our and information. available to OSUN “It is unfortunate that the the issues of child and and Lobbying Firm in the system to be familiar with “The concept and DEFENDER during the rate of neglect of children’s women abuse, calling on USA, we were made to technology and we will be education content of weekend. rights by past stakeholders to cooperate realise that there are lots doing that in recognition Opon-Imo is in-line with According to the UNESCO objective to statement, parents must administrations in the State in the bid to correct the of business opportunities of distinct features and of Osun has degenerated to menace. in Ile-Ife when the Ooni historical figures. promote open access to assist government to realise “We developed it with The statement also urged visited us. We came here scientific information, its vision of protecting the this level currently being exposed by the policy of religious organisations to to verify and confirm. a solution that caters for open educational rights of the children, poor maintenance government.

It is high time Many Nigerians in cooperate with resources and open especially the right to have With the training platform, as well quality education and stop parents worked with government on the issues diaspora are ready to culture. invest in Nigeria, if technological hub, we governments at all levels in of child abuse with a view as open distance child labour. support is given. will be able to advance the order to ensure the to curbing the practise learning.

The statement lamented “We are ready to invest “We acknowledge that the rate at which children’s enforcement of their rights. among families, as well as in Nigerians youth talent. uniqueness of Ile-Ife to a world brand.”

“It is a good thing that within religious groups. the Opon-Imo was hawking is growing, saying

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Domestic Violence:

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Group Charges Govt On Children’s Rights

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FOR THE RECORDS

OSUN DEFENDER Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Speech By The Governor Of The State Of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, At The Launch Of Africa Business Club Of The Imperial College Business School, Imperial College, London, On Saturday July 16, 2016 •Continued from page 5 innovation to agriculture for farm produce to be converted into secondary products. For instance, our foods have remained the same from time immemorial. It is the same type of foods we derive from our crops in the past that we still do now. Nutritionists and food scientists should find better uses for our crops. For instance, coconut in some parts of the world has become big business, with candies, cosmetics, medicine and animal feeds providing an industry that is geometrically bigger than the old practice of just cracking the hard shell and eating the nut.

There should also be specialisation, as way of increasing competitiveness and shore up the volume of trade within the continent. There are some places in Africa, in the eastern and central parts, countries like Zambia, Uganda and Kenya that are good in meat production.

They can and should be made to specialise in producing the meat for the continent. There are other food items in which other countries have comparative advantages.

A system of interdependence should be built around the strengths and needs of the countries of Africa.

The primary engine of development is education. This is where innovation is most needed. A functional system of education that develops and put to use the creativity of the people of Africa is urgently needed. conceive of education as the preparation and development of worthy citizens for the immediate society and the world at large. Education is that infrastructure of the mind that develops our youths to become models of good character, innovation and competence. This is what we call Omoluabi in Yoruba.

Omoluabl is the epitome of virtue. An Omoluabi persona is honest, courageous and rational; one who excels in character, innovation and competence. The educated person is well connected to his or her culture and heritage. Everything he/she does with others, the society, family and friends is driven by the desire to live and demonstrate good deeds. It is only when we interrogate this definition that we can know if we are meeting the objectives of education.

Education in Africa has not been an engine of development, rather, it is a system of social stratification where bland certificates are issued in order to separate the political and economic elites from the others. This is one of the factors responsible for poor productivity. Those who have certificates without the requisite skills cannot drive enterprise. They only see their certification as entitlement to privileges. Education therefore is not harnessing Africa’s brain for her development.

We see, sadly, how Africa’s vast human resources are tapped and brushed by other parts of the world and deployed for their own development. For instance, a report in the late 1980s put the population of Nigerian trained medical doctors in United States to be around 5,000. It should more than that today, if it has not doubled. Invariably, the tendency is for the brightest and the best to be sucked into the Euro-American development vortex, in what has been infamously dubbed ‘brain-drain’.

Africa’s educational and research institutions should be innovative to be able to attract and retain the continent’s best brains.

The universities and research

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254,000 eggs, 35 heads of cattle and 400 tonnes of catfish are purchased weekly from farmers and food vendors. This has kept the farmers in profitable business and even attracted other youths to farming.

In keeping with the original objective of making the programme home grown, the O’MEALS has an input supply chain that is linked to our various agricultural development projects. Consequently, our Osun Fisheries Out-growers Production Scheme (OFOPS) provide the catfish used for the school feeding programme while Osun Broilers Out-growers Programme (OBOPS) provide part of the chickens.

Another innovation we brought to governance is the engagement of two tranches of 20,000 youths in public works. They were not given permanent employment but engaged as volunteers and given a monthly allowance. They were eventually given soft landing in the various empowerment schemes of the government in agriculture and information communication technology.

In less than two years of taking the youths off the streets, crime rate in the state dropped to rock bottom. It also reflated the local economy since the N200 million monthly allowances given to them percolated into the grassroots. It is government money well spent.

HE programme has since been adopted by the World Bank and introduced nationally in a modified form. Again, the blueprint for national implementation was provided by our administration. It is to be imagined what a programme like this can achieve in a continent-wide basis if most of the unemployed youths are mopped off the streets and put in a place of self development while carrying out public works.

African governments must also introduce innovations into public administration in order to increase their revenue base, reduce the cost of governance and bring effectiveness. A simple policy of e-payment doubled our revenue from N300 million to N600 million, when we directed that all government’s revenues through taxes, fines, levies and dues be paid directly into government accounts in the banks, and not through middlemen or directly to any government agency again.

On a final note, let me say that we don’t have to reinvent the wheel again.

We can take the principles that brought development for others and modify them to our peculiar circumstances and needs in a most innovative way.

Let me conclude on a positive note. In place of Afro-pessimism and Afrocentric inspired optimism, we should develop an Afro-realism with a little optimistic outlook. The democratic ferments in Africa, emanating from increased understanding by people that government, the basis of its composition and by extension, the policies it embarked upon, must be derived from the consent of the people and; secondly, the diffusion of developments in other places continues to put pressure on leaders. This brings a glimmer of hope.

This hope should be watered and nurtured into concrete action that will bear the fruits of the desired development.

There are already surfeits of predictions that Africa has the greatest potential for growth and empirical evidence that she has a very favourable return on investment and may soon overtake Asia.

I thank the Africa Business Club once again for the invitation and wish this association great success in its mission of development for our continent.

I thank you all for your attention.

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•AREGBESOLA institutions should in the real sense begin to provide idea leadership.

Contemporary issues and challenges should be the focus of research. Too often we see a gap between academic output and societal challenges. There should be workable academic solutions to the challenges of food shortage, housing shortage, unemployment and other ills of our society. These ideas should be clear departures from orthodoxies and failed attempts at solving the problems ab initio. In other words, there should be innovation.

We should be worried for instance that there are faculties of agriculture and even specialised universities of agriculture with full complement of professors. This is against the stark reality of hunger and food shortage in the continent. Research should not be for the purpose of obtaining promotion and academic chairs after which the papers begin to gather dust in some shelves. A template should be developed to convert research into practice.

Also, in light of the seminal works of Prof Babatunde Fafunwa, we should also consider the medium of teaching, which has remained the English language, French, Portuguese and possibly Arabic. Our children are not being taught in their mother tongue. The process of translating thought in English to Yoruba or any other indigenous language takes a long time. It takes not less than 25 years to be able to reason in English. Sometimes, some scientific concepts in foreign language are never understood, even when we pass examinations on them with flying colours.

Education received the greatest attention and resources from our administration. One of our first tasks was to convene an education summit, headed by the Nobel Laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka. That summit produced the blueprint of our education reforms. In a state of roughly four million people, we embarked on an ambitious programme of building from scratch 100 elementary

schools, 50 middle schools and 20 high schools. Each of these schools has a capacity for 600 pupils, with the high school being a three in one, each designed and equipped to sustain 1000 pupils. These new public schools soon began to displace private schools.

E provided a stand-alone elearning tablet, which we named ‘Opon Imo’ (tablet of knowledge), for final year students in public schools, in share display of creativity. This tablet contains all the recommended 56 textbooks by the three examination bodies for senior school certificate examinations in Nigeria. It contains also past questions of these bodies, a virtual classroom, extracurricular zone and the themes of Yoruba traditional religion. This tablet was the saving grace in a year when teachers went on strike for eight months and did not prepare the final year students for their examinations.

We also pioneered in a sense, the home grown school feeding programme (OMEALS), in which sumptuous meals are provided for 252,000 elementary school pupils on every school day. We say ‘in a sense’ because the programme had existed in an attenuated form prior to our coming, but our administration gave it a new identity and prominence.

Because of its success in Osun, it has now been nationally adopted by the Federal Government. Earlier in the week, our state organised a national induction for other states understudying the programme, preparatory to implementing it in their own states. I have also been invited to the British Parliament to share our experience with the world.

The interesting aspect of this programme, as it relates with innovation, is that it is integrated with our agriculture policy and local empowerment. Under it, 3000 community based caterers were employed, trained and assisted financially to set up. Also, to be able to feed these pupils, 15,000 whole chickens,

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www.osundefender.org SATURDAY, JULY 19, 2016 RE Nigerians getting the dividends of the muchtouted democracy? Has the humongous money spent on the democracy-project not tilting towards a negative end? The discordant tunes coming out from our politicians both in power and in the opposition only rekindles passion and hatred for each other.

The negative prediction by the United States of America on the breakup of Nigeria in 2015 hangs on our neck like the Sword of Damocles.

With the long military interregnum, one would have expected that our politicians would have learnt lessons in a big way. In spite of the challenges facing our current democratic experience, it is far better and preferable to the Gestapo regime of the military.

The fact that the people can effect a change of government peacefully is a plus for democracy.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had boasted that it will rule the country for 60 years but it could not rule for more than 16 years before it was shoved out of power by the electorate. This simply means, for any bad government, the people have an antidote. The people only need to exercise restraint for the government to show how it can go with its policies, popular or otherwise.

The government of President Muhammad Buhari is doing wonderful things. The government is fighting so many battles at the same time. The economic front is also not helping matters since our major foreign exchange-earner is not giving us the much we desire.

The war against insurgents in the North-East and the militants in the Niger Delta is having its toll on the economy. The Niger-Delta Avengers are destroying the pipelines because they are angry.

But if the question must be asked, would they not be the worst sufferers of their actions? The immediate negative effect of their action is pollution, which affects the aquatic life in the area.

Beyond that, how does destruction of pipelines translate to better life for them? For the purpose of argument, would the damage done not affect them? Even if they succeed to break away from Nigeria, which by the present constitution of the country looks impossible, would they not need huge money to reconstruct the area?

There are real problems on ground which cannot be wished

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Are Our Politicians Learning Any Lessons?

•BUHARI

away. Problems and challenges are parts of human life, however, the way we tackle it makes the difference.

Besides the security challenges, is the parlous state of the economy.

The real incomes of workers have diminished, either through inflation or reduction in take-home pay.

Many states are finding it difficult to pay the salaries of workers.

Ingenious ways are being adopted by states by paying half salary in some cases, only to make work to continue, else workers resort to strikes.

All these are happening at a time, the government is retrieving huge sums of money from certain individuals in the immediate-past administration.

The war against corruption is on full throttle, even though, some critics argue it is sectional and selective.

Let us all agree that it has to start from somewhere, but we must also admit that those who are at the receiving end would want to fight

back. The beneficiaries of the filthy lucre would not want to be exposed just like that, to go about with ignominy.

They would want the world to see it as a political vendetta. But come to think of it, sometimes one wonders how human beings with blood flowing through their veins could loot such a quantum of money, which neither themselves, their families nor their future generations can spend.

OULD it be out of place, if, like some people suggest, that some of these past officials from whom large quatity of money were recovered from be subjected to psychiatric test?

So all these Biblical and Quranic injunctions are not meant for our leaders. They only swear by the Bible and the Quran on the day of their inauguration and it ends there. Where lies the milk of kindness that should flow in the veins of leaders to see that their followers get the dividends of

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democracy?

But for the Buhari government, nobody would have known that besides keeping money in mansions, some leaders in the Goodluck Jonathan government kept money in farmlands in Abuja.

This revelation was made recently by no less a person than the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Honourable Yakubu Dogara.

HAT are the lessons learnt in the fall of the first and second republics? Nothing!

Democracy revolves around the people who are the true masters, however, in our own experiment, the electorate are made to vote, after which they are discarded.

President Buhari should be commended for the actions taken so far, however, the government cannot afford to ignore some comments coming from certain quarters. Enough explanations should be given on certain government actions, which may seem unpleasant. If some sections of the country continuously call for secession or disturb public peace, then the government should look into it critically.

With the fantastic job Buhari is doing, if he is able to manage it to a logical conclusion, our polity would be devoid of political vultures, whose only interest is to milk the country dry.

At this juncture, the Executive needs both the legislature and the judiciary to prosecute the war on corruption. The government cannot afford to have a divided house. God forbids, if this attempt to retrieve public money in private hands fails, then we would be doomed forever.

For the apostles of break Nigeria and the El-dorado would be here, I only have pity for them. We are so intermingled and inter-dependent that we need each other. There is no way the Yoruba would not need to get some goods from the North, petroleum from the East, if Biafra republic comes alive.

All the Igbos in the North and in the West would also need passport and visa to live in the geographical areas other than theirs.

The Hausa/Fulani would also import human capital and other goods from other areas. We can settle our differences and make our diversity to work because it is meant to be our strength rather than weakness.

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OSUN DEFENDER is published by Moremi Publishing House Limited, Promise Point Building, Opposite Guaranty Trust Bank GTB, Gbongan Road, Osogbo, State of Osun. All correspondence to the Managing Editor, KOLA OLABISI, Telephone: 08033927286 (kolaolabisi@yahoo.com); Editor, KAYODE AGBAJE, Telephone: 0803-388-0205, E-mail:

osundefenderbank@gmail.com, kayodeagbaje@yahoo.com. ISSN: 0794-8050.Website: www.osundefender.org.