The InfoStride Forum

During the celebration of the 20th Anniversary of the state in the last few weeks` The Governor of Osun State Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola commended the activities of the founding fathers of the state; People that fought relentlessly for the actualization of Project Osun, in 1991 when the dreams come reality. The Governor also commended the efforts of the past administrations in particular those ones that progressively contribute meaningfully to the developments of the state like the notable administration of Gen. Leo Ajiborisa rtd; who started. the project Osun from the scratch as a Sole Administrator, also Col. Theophilus Bamigboye who added some fragrances to the making of the state and host of others at the level of the military regimes.

When the state was a decade old, under the administration of Chief Abdulkareem Adebisi Akande; the Osun Project witnessed tremendous developments especially discipline, human capital development and indeed locality empowerment by engaging local labourers directly for many state projects which had positive ripples effect on the economy of the state.The state won a giant disgraceful battle when the administration of Baba Akande put up a befitting edifice as the State Secretariat and Governor's office named after the Cicero of Esa Oke; Chief Bola Ige for central coordination of the state activities. The regime of Baba Akande was able to achieve this giant feat because of his genuine progressive thought through the thick & thin despite all odds. Despite that our dear state needed that project that time, some disgruntled elements still did not understand its conceptualization.

Naturally however, the state also had its own share of dark cloud; when bad governance, intimidation, maiming, killings, broad daylight corruption, victimization, fabricated lies and so on were order of the day, all boarder around a stolen mandate on which the Governor had some reservations during the celebration of the state at 20; though he has left those issues to "The Truth & Reconciliation Commission" which he set up shortly after his inauguration to resolve, the commission submitted its report last week.

The Governor however was very happy for the fortune of the state despite those dark days because at the significant year of 20, the state is under the administration of another progressive. To the best of my knowledge, Aregbesola has a very good understanding of the problems at hand in the state and better understanding of the solutions to the problems.

This administration has built a technical basic foundations that will be strong enough to hold any structure you might want to put on it for it will very wrong for any Structural Engineer to be mounting structures on a collapsed structure. Osun State was in a collapsed state when Aregbesola came on board but out genuineness of not building something on nothing, an "i don't care" characters of some elements, the governor took his time to pack the rumbles of the collapsed building aside, dig deep into the foundation structure to ascertain the true picture of it & dot all the necessary I s to make the foundation strong enough for the upcoming magnificent mansion of developments that is coming up.

For explanation purposes,i will itemize some of the foundation features as follows;

(1) As a Governor that knows what he really wants, he knows that he needed like-minds to work with at the level of legislature, he made himself available for a state wide issue based campaign day & night to convince the electorates to vote for the like-minds presented by our great party ACN for him to actualize his pact with the people of the state during the 2011 general elections. A feat which he achieved with the help of the electorates because of their belief in his ability to make the desirable changes.

(2) As part of his foundation laying strategies, Ogbeni Aregbesola discovered that our society has lost the moral values hence he saw it as a point of duty to instill the principle of virtuousness into the state citizens by launching a new CREST, LOGO, & SLOGAN with a new state tag called "IPINLE OMOLUABI" this feature alone resuscitate the instinct of discipline of being a Virtue that was hidden within us to exhibit attitudinal change towards our lives, works, environments, governments and everything around us. With this value reorientation, every individual in the society is cautious of his or her actions in order to reflect the true Omoluabi we claim to be; especially it made us to realize that making Osun a better place is a duty that we all owe.

(3) In furtherance of digging deep into the foundation structure to ascertain the level of things, the government as a matter of urgency organized an education summit in February this year, to identify the remote & immediate causes of education crisis in the state and proffer solutions to same.The summit that was themed "RESOLVING THE EDUCATION CRISIS IN OSUN STATE; BRIDGING ANALYSIS & IMPLEMENTATION GAPS" attracted best brains around including "KONGI" himself and host of others to identify, analyze and proffer way forward to the education problems of the state. The summit was a huge success as its aim was achieved and well documented for policy makings & executions gradually.

(4) In stepping up his solid foundations, the governor came up with customized projects that will enhance the productivity his administration like; O'YES, O'REAP, O'FEST, O'CLEAN, O'QIIP, O'TOURS etc.

OYES; Osun Youth Empowerment Scheme had since been talk of town and a project of emulation because of its huge success the scheme is the empowerment of 20,000 youths from the labour market and change them from dependent to an independent status, a project delivered within 100 days in office as promised by the governor since 2007 electioneering campaign.

OREAP; Osun Rural Enterprise and Agricultural Programme is a project that was established to provide financial & materials facilities for resuscitation of Agricultural projects in large scale through the empowerment of various farm settlements and farmers' cooperative societies to make food abundantly available  for local assumption to feed our neighbouring states hereby improving the government's purse.

OCLEAN; Osun Clean is a project that was inaugurated to sensitize our people on how important our environment is, why it should be kept clean all the time, dredging of water ways & river courses , constant weeding of our surroundings to reduce the menace of cholera, mosquito bites hence reducing malaria infections in order to promote healthy living. The 90 days environmental sanitation emergency that was declared by government under the project has been a huge success because of its glaring results.

OFEST; Osun Festival is a programme put up by the state government to upgrade the popular Osun Festival to meet international standard in real sense.One can attest to this through the face lift of Osun Groove by creating a decent & orderly parking spaces, a decent pathway to the shrine and the rehabilitation of the road leading to the groove and the whole face lifting is continuous one.

OQIIP; Osun Quick Impact Intervention Programme is a programme going by its name being used to quickly finance agriculture in all facets to boost food production in a quick and short term arrangements. The government under this programme has supervised cultivation of arable lands in rural areas that its result will be out by next harvest.

OTOURS; Osun Tourism is put together to identify the various tourism centres within the state and come up with their rehabilitation to enhance their full potential of becoming a major source of income to the state as it is known that tourism is the major source of income of many countries in the world, a feat which the OTOURS team is working assiduously to achieve.

(5) As part of strong foundation strategies and knowing fully well that the state will need positive external influence to be economic viable, the governor had at different times embarked on overseas trips to sign memorandum of understandings in the area of education, industrialization, agriculture and so on for the developments of the state.

(6) The government has called for Pre Qualifications exercise and Registration as contractors in the state to have a standard contractors database  to ensure quality jobs are being executed for the state at all sectors and also restructuring of relevant ministries and agencies of government to suit the modern day request and reality on ground.

(7) Above all; as we know that we are now in the computer age and ICT is the real thing in the world now. The opportunity of ICT is what everyone is tapping now through out the world because of the unlimited opportunities that is abound in it. Our state is not lagging behind at all in the area because the Governor, haven realized this point appointed a committed and an idealistic man to man his ICT sector in person of Comrade Aderemi Ojikutu. Ojikutu and his team of ICT intellectuals, haven realized the important & potential of the sector, the damages done to it by the past administration ;have been working round the clock to resuscitate it in collaboration with some private sectors hence they have come up with a phenomenon tagged "DIGITAL CLOUD" . Digital Cloud is a phenomenon to "encloud" the whole state with digital internet access from the state capital territory to the remotest part of the state hence making the service available to all the citizens of the state especially the potential investors at a minimal price and also for other economic purposes to create a middle class economy that had never been in the state. This is just one of many ICT initiatives that are being considered for implementation by Mr. Ojikutu and his team hence creating the most needed solid foundation for the success of the administration of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola.

(8) Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola  has constituted a formidable and innovative executive council members that will together with him steer the ship of Ipinle Omoluabi to a joyful shore.Some of the best brains around have been challenged by the governor to come up with creative ideas that will improve tremendously, the status of the state at level of various ministries in their capacities as either a Commissioner or Special Adviser. Also the governor has reiterated his commitment to welcome constructive criticism and progressive ideas; as the state belongs to us all, we should strive to make it better irrespective of our religion, tribe or political affiliations.

To rap it up dear readers, you will all agree with me that Ogbeni Aregbesola had laid a solid foundations for the success of his administration and for the developments of the state in a passionate way. It will take a very high intellectual capability to comprehend the developments model and strategies being adopted by Aregbesola, hence we all need to be patient enough and support him especially with encouragements & prayers so that we will all be part of the success story because the "bring him down syndrome" will lead us no "good" where.

OSUN A DARA OOOO;

By Comrade Adeboye Adebayo of Aregbesola Fans Club.

Osun Defender