Speech by the Governor of the State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, at the World Press Conference on the one year anniversary of his government held at the state exco chamber on Wednesday November 24, 2011(http://www.osundefender.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Aregbesola-1-150x150.jpg)
Gentlemen of the Press,
I welcome you most heartily to this press conference this evening.
As you will recall, I took the reins of government on November 27 last year.
This will be exactly one year on Sunday.
It is my intention therefore to tell my story and make the world to know what has transpired since then.
I considered it a great privilege to serve as the governor of Osun State for the past one year.
The challenges are great but I am overwhelmed by the support I have received from the entire people of the state.
The journey began with my victory at the Court of Appeal in Ibadan on November 26, 2010 when courageous and God fearing judges upheld my appeal and threw out the impostors and usurpers who have been in government immorally for three and a half years.
On my inauguration, I dedicated myself to redeeming our land and uplifting our people.
I was able to attract to myself a group of equally dedicated people with whom I have been running the affairs of the state. With the help and goodwill of the Almighty, I have been able to provide leadership for our people and steered the ship of state on the voyage of success.
The first and invaluable consequence of our coming to power is the wind of peace and tranquility that has blown over the state.
The siege on our people was lifted.
People are treated with dignity and respect for their person and they can now afford to sleep with both eyes closed.
There are no more indiscriminate arrests and detention.
Opposition members are no longer targeted for assassination and those forced on involuntary exile are returning home.
The environment for development which had been denied in the past has been restored and people are now voluntarily committing their creative energy to the development of the state.
However, we realised that we must mentally position our people for development.
Physical emancipation is easy, but mental emancipation requires some efforts.
This is why on assumption of office, one of the projects we embarked upon was ethical revolution and re-branding of our state as Ipinle Omoluabi, the state of the virtuous.
A positive projection of the identity of the citizens and conscious stamping in their hearts of the idea of a virtuous person will certainly change their perception from what they have been made to become to who they really are and position them for virtuous deeds.
We have therefore been able to create a distinct identity for the state providing it a flag, crest and slogan.
Our major challenge on coming into office was the debt burden left by the immediate past administration.
Shortly before its departure, it took a loan of almost N19 billion and entered into some other commitments which forced the state to be paying back about N800 million every month.
We are however able to re engineer the finances of the state and as at today, our monthly debt obligation is less than N100 million.
Agriculture, for us, is the foundation of our economy since our people are predominantly farmers.
Our policy therefore is to develop agriculture, especially food production, without necessarily neglecting cash crops.
We have acquired and distributed 30,000 hectares of land to farmers.
We have also established Osun Rural Enterprise and Agriculture Programme (OREAP) for job creation and poverty alleviation.
Agriculture inputs such as fertilizers, improved seedlings, chemicals and herbicides and extension services have been given to farmers in the state. Credit facilities have also been extended to agric cooperatives and groups.
Indeed, we are integrating a large part of our development programme into agriculture.
For instance, the railways project is meant to facilitate the movement of goods and persons between Osun and Lagos primarily; it is also to aid the movement of agriculture products to Lagos, in order to tap into the daily N3.5 billion food market in the megacity.
During my trip to China, I was able to obtain commitment from Chinese firms on agriculture development and setting up agro-allied industries.
The second plank of our economic development programme is tourism.
As you aware, Osun has great tourism potentials.
At the last count, 63 tourist destinations have been identified in this state, which include the Osun grove which is a UNESCO Heritage Site, Oranmiyan Staff and Erin-Ijesa Waterfall.
We have therefore set up the O'Tour to maximize the tourism potentials in the state.
It is our understanding that economic empowerment must go hand in hand with political empowerment if the later is to be of any effect.
Therefore, on assumption of office, one of our priorities was to provide jobs for our people.
In less than 100 days, we were able to create 20,000 jobs through the Osun Youth Empowerment Scheme (OYES).
This is an inclusive policy in which no discrimination was made for the selection of beneficiaries, whether on political, ideological or religious grounds.
Even the families of our ardent critics benefited from the scheme.
We have since taken OYES to the next stage.
About 5,000 members of the corps have been assimilated into the teaching cadre.
Also, through the OYES'TECH, we are training and empowering, at the start, about 5,000 youths on information technology.
Our goal is to reach zero per cent unemployment in the state and we will achieve it! Twenty thousand youths is our ultimate target.
Before we came into office, the people of the state were being ravaged by flood.
Several parts of the state, including Osogbo were subject to the pounding of the elements with catastrophic consequences, and especially last year when many lives were lost and invaluable property destroyed.
We are however able to arrest this development.
One of our earlier tasks was to commit N187.5 million to canal dredging and flood control in Osogbo.
In spite of heavier rainfall recorded this year in our region. I am happy that no flooding incident or loss of lives was recorded.
We have since committed substantial sums of money to the dredging and channelization of Esinminrin/Agbara River in Ile-Ife, Oke-Moro in Ikire, Oora stream in Ilesa, canals and water ways in Ikirun, Ode Omu, Iwo and Iragbiji among others.
It is a programme that will be carried out in all parts of the state in our effort to permanently put flooding in check.
Flood control is just one aspect of our environmental beautification programme.
Upon discovering the dirty nature of our environment, we established the O'Clean and put in place a 90-day environmental emergency.
You will all notice that our environment is cleaner.
We can only do more on this.
An Urban Renewal Committee composed of seasoned academics and competent professionals are also working assiduously to develop a modern urban outlook for our numerous towns and cities.
We are irrevocably committed to this.
We held an education summit immediately we assumed office where stakeholders made far reaching recommendations which we have been implementing.
We are revolutionizing public schools by giving them modern buildings, equipments and tools.
Our model primary schools are under construction and this will be extended to all parts of the state.
The school system is being reorganized into elementary, middle and high schools.
The elementary schools will be for primary one to three; the junior schools are for primary four to middle secondary three while the high schools are for senior secondary one to three.
We are working to procure and distribute 150,000 laptops to students in the state.
We are also beginning free food distribution for pupils in public primary schools.
Work has commenced on the Ede Waterworks to increase its capacity from the present 20 per cent of its installed capacity which has been the ultimate capacity in the last 20 years to 50 per cent.
This will be completed by the end of December this year.
This would boost the provision of portable water to the 20 local governments the waterworks serves.
By January 2012, the second phase of the rehabilitation work will commence which will bring the waterworks to full capacity.
We have also awarded over N1 billion contracts for the rehabilitation of roads in all towns in the six administrative zones of the state.
However, as part of our urban renewal policy, we are in negotiation with Messers Julius Berger Construction Company and such other reputable road construction companies on a massive construction of roads in all the local governments in the state.
I must not fail to mention our labour relations policy.
For the first time, workers in the state were given 13th month salary in December/January.
We increased the monthly pension from N30 million to N250 million.
We were also the first to offer workers N19,001 minimum wage.
We are committed to the development and welfare of workers and will always seek their best interest.
We cannot possibly recount all the programmes we have recorded in the past year for reason of time and space.
Some of them are already manifest and being enjoyed by our people.
Some others are still in their gestation period.
We can only assure you that soonest they will be impacting the citizens.
More importantly, what we have been doing is to lay a very solid foundation for governance and development in a way that will guarantee the prosperity and happiness of our people.
I thank you for your attention.
Osun Defender