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    Wednesday, November 27, 2013

    Aregbesola's Three Years In the Saddle

    Yinka Kolawole assesses the administration of Mr. Rauf Aregbesola in Osun State, three years after assuming office and concludes that the face of politics in the state may have changed for good.
    When Mr. Rauf Aregbesola was declared the governor of Osun State, expectation was high. The people hoped for rapid development. This was not just because he had assured the people that his government would unlock the latent potential of the state and its people; it is also because he had been critical of the ousted former governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola.
    As the years pass, the people were ready to take him to accountability and obviously, successes have been recorded in different sectors of the state. A close look at the administration's style reveals that some drastic steps were taken to solve some problems that confronted the state in time past.

    A case in point is the transformation that has been witnessed in the area of education in the last few years. Prior to the coming of the Aregbesola administration, the reformation of the education sector was considered a tall dream as public education was badly managed. Students, especially those in primary schools were un-catered for; they were roughly dressed and mal-nourished. School buildings were in dilapidated state, students’ performances both at the internal and external examinations were generally poor.  In the higher institutions, tuition fees in the state-owned tertiary institutions were beyond the reach of most Osun indigenes.

    Piqued by the backwardness in the sector, an education summit was convened in to critically examine the problems hampering progress in the sector with a view to proffering workable solutions and the communiqué of the summit, which contained recommendations on the way forward, became the blueprint for the development of the sector.

    First, two pairs of unified school uniforms was provided for each of the 750,000 pupils in all the public primary and secondary schools across the state to boost the morale of the students and further promote unity among public schools. This was at whopping cost of N800million. It is in addition to the N1.8billion injected for the running of basic education in the state, including the provision of examination and running grants, as well as education instructional materials for public schools.

    The school uniform project also created jobs for no fewer than 3,000 tailors who were contracted by the government to sew the new uniforms made of Adire batik. The material itself was chosen to empower the artisans and Adire makers in the state and as well make the state a reference point for its creativity.

    The state is also committing the sum of N30billion to give a new lease to the structures and classrooms where pupils study, in line with the recommendations of the summit. Under the arrangement, the state government is constructing 170 new model schools across the state to replace the dilapidated buildings and with state of the art facilities.
    Twenty of the schools are for students in the Senior Secondary Schools, SSS1 to SSS3, when completed, each is expected to conveniently accommodate 3,000 students on the basis of 40 per class.

    Each of the structures, expected to come with an examination hall that can comfortably seat 1,500 students and two e-libraries; one for sciences and the other for arts and social sciences would cost N700 million, according to the government. Many of these school buildings have since been completed and commissioned.

    For Junior Schools, from Primary five to Junior Secondary School three (JSS3), 50 of them would be constructed, each accommodating 1, 250 students while the elementary schools, primaries one to four, which would be 100 pieces across the state, would conveniently accommodate 900 pupils.

    To further stimulate the interest of students to learning, the government recently replaced books with a computer tablets invented for that purpose. The equipment, designed in form of an iPad called 'Opon Imo,' contains the entire senior school syllabus, including Yoruba traditions, past questions of the West African Examination Council (WAEC), National Examination Council (NECO) and Joint Administration and Matriculation Board (JAMB) for 10 years. All these are aimed at turning learning into playing in schools and at homes.

    Part of the efforts at encouraging enrolment of children in public schools is the rejuvenation of the school feeding programme, tagged O’MEAL. The action has reportedly increased the enrolment figure in public primary schools by 40 per cent in the last session, with further increase envisaged in future because in order to sustain the programme, government also said it was committing N3billion annually for its implementation.
    Government also increased the running and examination grants per student in public secondary schools to N150 and N400 making a total of N550 against the N150 made available by the last administration in the state and N400 per pupil in primary schools, saying it was investing about N500 million annually for the scheme.

    The government intervened in the school fees paid by students in all the five state-owned tertiary institutions by reducing the fees payable. For those at the polytechnic and College of Technology, the fee was reduced from N42,000 to N25,000, while those in the state university was slashed from N205,000 for Law and Medical Students to N100,000. Sciences was reduced from N155,000 to N75,000 while Social Sciences and Art now pay N75,000 as against N130,000.

    Another milestone in the educational sector under the current administration was the scholarship offered to all the 98 medical students of Osun State University (Uniosun) for their clinical courses so as to complete their medical programme in far away Ukraine. The intervention reportedly gulped N146million at the rate of $7,000 per student. It comprises of the cost of training, accommodation and others.  Their parents are only to take care of their feeding.

    These successes in the education sector are attributable to the education summit spearheaded by renowned Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka and other stakeholders in the education sector, which was convened by the current administration shortly after assuming the mantle of leadership on November 27, 2010.

    In the area of security, Osun has attained a peaceful status and with the lowest crime rate because government places premium on security of lives and property because insecurity poses big challenge to direct investment both local and foreign.

    The government had set up dedicated crime response team nicknamed Swift Action Squad (SAS). It is visible in strategic areas in the state as well as identified flash points. They are equipped with five Amoured Personnel Carriers (APCs) and 25 patrol vans for surveillance. Government also constructed two state-of-the-art police stations and multi-force security control centre. While additional 100 patrol vans are to be provided for the SAS and seven more police stations to be built.
    Generally, the state is believed to have shown enough commitment to guaranteeing effective and efficient crime detection, prevention and control.

    In tackling poverty and to provide better living condition for the people, government embarked on some structural empowerment programmes that targeted both the young and old. One of such is 'Agba Osun', put in place as a social security for the old people in the state. There was a comprehensive enumeration and selection of about 1,600 most vulnerable people across the state and they were placed on a monthly stipend of N10, 000 for their upkeep. The concept has helped the vulnerable elders and taken them off the streets.

    Still in the bid to address the problems of poverty, the government has been involved in massive empowerment of youths, which is reflective in the 20, 000 youths employed within the first hundred days of the government in power. Tagged OYES, the youth volunteers were engaged to render community service and placed on a monthly stipends of N10, 000.

    Through this empowerment scheme also, about 5000 youths trained to acquire special ICT skills in the OYESTECH have all graduated with some of them employed by private organisations and others empowered by government through soft loans to start their own business.

    Similarly, the OREAP programme also empowered 600 youths in the government’s agric enterprise academy as well as sponsored 50 youths to Germany to acquire advanced farming skills. While no fewer than 6000 qualified youths have been engaged as teachers in state’s public schools and to provide the school feeding scheme for the elementary school in the state, 3000 caterers prepare the meals for the children.

    The Rauf Aregbesola administration has provided N100m counterpart funding to the UN-Habitat initiative to explore the state’s urban renewal potential. It will focus on rural-urban developmental potential. The partnership is sequel to the collaboration of the state government with UN-Habitat for the preparation of structured plans for nine cities.

    The cities, which include Osogbo, Ife, Ilesa, Ejigbo and Ikire, among others, have been earmarked for urban renewal by the state government.

    The partnership agreement was concluded at the UN-Habitat headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya, during the 24th governing council meeting of the agency. The state’s N100m contribution was fully paid last year by the government.

    For healthcare delivery, the state has introduced and sustained free health service for all age strata across the state. Its planned healthcare facilities are to be located in such a way that the people, either living in rural or urban areas, would have direct access, to them effortlessly.
    Consequently, government planned the location of the facilities in such a way that the sighting of the hospitals, referral hospitals and healthcare clinics fall within reasonable radius to one another across the state.
    Within the years under review, government has built 74 additional primary health centres across the state.

    In the past two years, government has carried out six medical and surgical missions to offer free treatment and surgeries to thousand people. Provisions have been made for over N300m worth of drugs to state hospitals and primary health centres.

    There has been human capacity building in the health sector with about 400 youths engaged as paramedics to join the Osun Ambulance Service Authority. Attention has also been on training and upgrading of cadres of health sector.

    The idea behind this retraining is for the medical personnel to be exposed to latest medical technologies and techniques in various fields of medical practice. Hence, the Osun government has committed N18 million for sponsorship of six medical personnel to the University of Magdenburg Teaching Hospital, Germany for further training.
    Considering the relative security of lives and property guaranteed in the state, investors are now considering Osun as the next destination to be.

    Dagbolu, which is less than five kilometres outside Osogbo, is expected to be a logistic village where various warehouses would be specifically built for relevant investors and manufacturers so that their goods would be sold to the people of the state at the exact prices they are being sold at Oke Arin in Lagos. There are also international markets for ready-made products located in the state to open it up for commerce and industry.
    Perhaps, in three years, Aregbesola has lived up to billings and can as well take his chances in the next election.
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