VOL. 9. NO.090 NNNNN5050505050TUESDAY, JULY 29, 2014

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Front Page Comment

- See StoryOn Page 2

Who KilledChief Bola Ige,former Attorney-

General andMinister of

Justice? IGE

•The governor, State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola (on top of a jeep), acknowledging cheers from his admirers and supporters at Ife-Odan, State of Osun, during his visit to the town last Friday.

APC Blasts Omisore Over Non-appearance At Governorship Debate

Osun August 9 Governorship Election:

- Pg 2

Osun Students, YouthsRoar Supports ForAregbesola’s Re-election

- Pg 3

Omisore Takes DeliveryOf Another N1bn ElectionFund From Abuja- Pg 9

Osun Election: Omisore,Akinbade, AkinwusiShun GovernorshipDebateOsun APC WarnsPresident JonathanAgainst SponsoringBloodbath - Pg 3

Muazu’s PA, INEC StaffFingered In Plans To RigOsun Gov Election - Pg 9

In what manner dowe accommodatewhat ought to be thebackbone of democ-racy the ‘social con-tract’ in the age ofwhat is now known as“infrastructure of thestomach”? The ques-tion is crucial now.The concept of a so-cial contract should be

THE SOCIAL CONTRACT the engine room of

a democratic process.The social contract laysout the obligations ofthose who commandthe executive to thosewho elected them intooffice

in the first place.

There ought to be nocontradiction incomplimenting infrastruc-ture of the stomach (theimmediate quick-fix) withthe long term du

ties and com-mitments inherentin a social con-tract. In just a fewweeks down theroad, the issueof“stomach infra-structure” as op-posed to or in re-lation to the obli-gation

Continue on pg5

2OSUN DEFENDER Tuesday, July 29, 2014 News

By ISMAEEL UTHMAN

Osun Election: Omisore, Akinbade, Akinwusi Shun Governorship Debate

THE governorship candidates of the Peoples DemocraticParty (PDP), the Labour Party (LP) and the SocialDemocratic Party (SDP) Iyiola Omisore, Fatai

Akinbade and Segun Akinwusi respectively failed to ap-pear at a governorship debate organized by the Interna-tional Republican Institute, on Saturday.

Osun Govt Allocates Lands To MDSShop Owners

GOVERNOR of theState of Osun,Ogbeni Rauf

Aregbesola, has distributedletters to occupants of landallotted to shop owners ofthe old MDS road, whoseshops were separated as aresult of the roadrehabilitation work in thearea.

The land, located at Ido-Osun besides the new AjeMarket, has space for over1,500 shops, which has beenlaid out for the displaced shopowners to occupy.

Speaking during thepresentation of the letters tothe excited shop owners,Aregbesola stated that about1,333 letters have beenprepared for the shop owners.

He said despite thedetermination of the present

administration to develop majortowns in the state, governmentdoes not want to causehardship on the people.

He said the developmentaldrive of his administration isto make life easier for thepeople of the state and not toinflict pains on the masses.

Aregbesola explained thatthe state government willcontinue to provide all socialamenities that will make lifeeasier and comfortable such asbanks, petrol station, policestation at the place.

The State Commissioner forLands, Physical Planning andUrban Development, ArchitectMuyiwa Ige, stated that over1,500 spaces for shops, whichthe layout has been done areavailable to be allotted to theshop owners.

He said the shop owners canstart work as soon as possible,as everything has been madeavailable for the smooth take-off of the market.

Of the 20 candidates con-testing the August 9, 2014governorship election in thestate, only Governor RaufAregbesola, who is the can-didate of the All ProgressivesCongress (APC) and theUnity Party of Nigeria can-didate, Mr Ibrahim Adeoti,participated in the debate.

The debate, according tothe organisers, was to affordthe gubernatorial candidatesthe opportunity to presenttheir manifestoes to thepeople and guide the elec-torate on their choice ofchoosing a candidate on theelection day.

Aregbesola was the firstcandidate to appear at theprogramme, while Adeoti,the UPN candidate, joinedfew minutes after.

Answering questionsfrom the moderator on hisachievements and manifes-

toes, Aregbesola said his ad-ministration has, no doubt,developed the State of Osuneconomically andinfrastructurally and that hehas been able to reducepoverty and hunger to thebarest minimum in the state.

He added that his variousintervention programmeslike the OYES, O’REAP,O’MEAL, O’Schools, mas-sive road constructions,building of markets, empow-erment of cooperative soci-eties among others, have al-leviated poverty and hungeramong the people of thestate.

When asked on the con-troversies surrounding hiseducation programmes,Aregbesola stated that therevolution in the educationsector was the result of theEducation Summit organizedby his government some

weeks into the administra-tion to address the fallenstandard of education in thestate.

According to Aregbesola,the education sector was ina state of comatose to theextent that only three percent of pupils that wrotetheir O’ level results werebeing matriculated to tertiaryinstitutions in Nigeria, add-ing that the school struc-tures were majorly dilapi-dated and the environmentwas equally not conducivefor learning.

Aregbesola stressed thathe genuinely has passion forthe promotion of functionaleducation; he could not doanything less than to call onstakeholders in the educa-tion sector to advise his gov-ernment on how to revampthe education sector andmake it a shining star thatwould guarantee successfulfuture for the pupils of pub-lic schools.

He maintained that theimplementation of the Edu-cation Summit recommenda-tions was the constructionof model schools across thestate, the distribution ofOpon Imo, the distribution ofthe free uniforms, the feed-ing of elementary schoolpupils among other interven-tions in the education sec-tor.

The governor maintainedthat the interventions haveincreased the number of en-rolment of pupils in the el-ementary0 0schools; it has improved theperformance of pupils intheir O’ Level examinationsand while also reducing theburden of financing educa-tion on the part of the par-ents.

On the issue of hijab,Aregbesola stated that hisadministration has not givenany directive on the compul-sory use of hijab in the pub-lic schools, just as he dis-missed the insinuation thatthere were popular protestsagainst the use of hijab.

Aregbesola declared thathe is not an extremist as somepeople are badly portrayinghim, saying: “I chose to be adevout Muslim and I amhappy to be that. If somepeople are criticizing and at-tacking me for being a de-vout Muslim, then I acceptit.

“My wife does not usehijab, neither my daughter.How would I make compul-sory, the use of hijab, whenmy own immediate familymembers are not using it? Tosay that is mischievous.

“I appointed 32 Perma-nent Secretaries; only eightof them are Muslims. I ap-pointed 38 members into theState Executive Council,only 12 of them are Muslims.How am I an Islamic funda-mentalist? I’m a seriousMuslim and I stand by that!”

Condemning the ascrip-tion of ‘State Boys’ as politi-cal thugs, Aregbesola said:“State boys are the youthsof my party. The constitu-tions of my party and that ofNigeria allow them. They do

not in any way represent vio-lence. They are the vibrant,committed and energeticyouths of the party.

“I am a peace-loving per-son and a strong advocateof democracy. I know thatdemocracy can only thrivein a peaceful society. So, Iwill not engage nor encour-age anybody in violence.

“Those who fought us onthe way to power are ben-efiting from us. That is acompliment. We are not vin-dictive; we are not wickedpeople. Life, to me, is toosimple and at the same timerisky for us to engage invendetta.

“By this time in 2007, op-position could not movefreely in the state. My lifewas being threatened then,likewise that of my partymembers. I was chased outof Osun and I was declaredpersonal non granta in thestate a week to the election.I came to vote on electionday.

“But because we do notrevenge, that is why we areenjoying peace in Osun to-day. Some people wanted torevenge, but we called onthe police to curtail the situ-ation. We have been able toexcuse violence in our statebecause of our persistentcampaign against violentpolitics.”

Dismissing the false re-ports by the PDP that theFederal Government hadawarded the dualisation ofOsogbo to Kwara Stateboundary road, Aregbesolachallenged anybody thathas evidence and the docu-ment of the contract topresent it to the public.

Aregbesola said: “Nocontract was awarded for thedualisation of Old Garage,Osogbo to Ila-Odo, KwaraState Boundary road by anygovernment before we cameinto power. I challenge any-body that has anything tothe contrary to present thecontract papers.

“What the Federal Min-istry of Works did before thedualisation of the road wasspot-patching. It was ourown decision to modernise

the state and Osogbo in par-ticular through dualisation,urban renewal, street lightsand others. The Old Garageto Ila-Odo is an inter-FederalGovernment road.

“No government at-tempted to dualise the roadand I challenge anybody tocome up with an estimate ofthe contract that put the costat N8 billion. Sammya, thecontractor, is financing thecontract; we are only guar-anteeing him the payment.Our flexible financing wascopied by the Federal Gov-ernment on Lagos- Ibadan Ex-pressway. We are not com-parable to any of the PDPgovernments at all.”

Aregbesola disclosed thathis administration has paidJune and July salaries for theworkers in the state, whenthe Federal Government hasnot even released the Juneallocation to the state, say-ing that his government ismore committed to improvingthe welfare of the people ofthe state.

The governor said: “Iwant to assure our peoplethat their welfare is our fo-cus and priority. They are thebasis for our policies andprogrammes. That is why myslogan is ‘Power is Respon-sibility. Power is commitmentto constructing good roads,building good schools, pro-moting healthy living and soon.

“We are committed to you;we believe in you and to-gether we can guarantee thefuture of our children. Thatis why we are seeking yoursupport for a second term. Ibelieve you will not spare meyour votes in the coming elec-tion. We are passionateabout your welfare and thedevelopment of the state.

“Osun will be a model andcentral for African society bythe time we complete the sec-ond term. Our second termwill set Osun the best statein Nigeria. Thank you all.”

Adeoti, the UPN candi-date commended Aregbesolafor what he described as un-deniable development of thestate, even as he said he hasreservations for some of theprogrammes of the governor.

APC Blasts Omisore Over Non-appearance At Governorship DebateTHE State of Osun chapter of the All Progressives

Congress (APC) has responded to the reason givenby the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship

candidate, Senator Iyiola Omisore, for not participatingin the American-sponsored pre-governorship electiondebate in Osun last Saturday, describing it as ‘the wisdomof a fool’.

Omisore had reportedlyclaimed that he wassupposedly superior toGovernor Rauf Aregbesola,which made it a match‘between two unequalparties’, and inferred thatthe ‘weaker of the twoparties may resort tophysical assault andharassment’.

According to the party’sspokesman, Barrister KunleOyatomi, “it is dishearteningthat this remark came afterthe event at whichAregbesola was majesticand at home with facts andfigures on how hisadministration hadprudently managed theeconomy of the state.

“Omisore sounded meanand shallow when he triedto denigrate Aregbesola’sacademic qualification thatthe governor ‘presentedO’Level (certificate) toINEC’. Again, that’s thewisdom of a fool; but for thefoolishness embeded in thatpiece of information is thatOmisore’s current certificatepresented to INEC was acourt affidavit in place of hisprimary and secondaryschool certificates.

The APC thereforechallenged Omisore toproduce his certificates fromSt John’s Grammar School,Ile Ife and The Polytechnic,

Owo, Ondo State.“What moral authority

then has a man, who tilltoday, presents courtaffidavit to show that hewent to primary andsecondary schools, todenigrate another person,who he said presented his

O’Level certificate to INEC.The party stressed

further that Omisore hadmissed his greatest chanceto convince the world thathe is mentally andintellectually mature

enough to handle difficultsituations under pressure ina robust and critical debate.

“The truth of the matteris that, like all inadequatepersonalities, Omisore wasand continues to be afraidof confronting Aregbesolawho can expose his lies with

incontrovertible facts.“That was why he ran

away from the debate -simplicita!

“His claim to superiorityis empty. A so-called Ph.Dholder, who is afraid toconfront an O’Levelopponent in a debate, is amoron,” the APC said.

By KEMI AKINPELU

3 News OSUN DEFENDER Tuesday, July 26, 2014

•(L-R) Oyo State Governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi; State of Osun Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola; President,Oranmiyan Worldwide, Prince Felix Awofisayo and Parents Teacher Association (PTA) Chairman in the state, DrAdemola Ekundayo, during the Award Presentation and the Inauguration of Public Schools Parents/TeachersAssociation (PTA) Executives, Osun Chapter and endorsement of Governor Aregbesola for second term in office inOsogbo recently. Photo: GBENGA ADENIYI.

By KAZEEM MOHAMMEDOsun APC Warns President Jonathan Against Sponsoring Bloodbath

THE State of Osun chapter of the All ProgressivesCongress (APC) has warned President GoodluckJonathan to desist from moves to sponsor bloodbath

through the August 9, 2014 governorship election in thestate, as it is battle-ready to resist such move.

At a press conferenceaddressed by the Acting StateChairman of the party, ElderAdelowo Adebiyi, the partysaid it has been reliablyinformed by inside sources inthe Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) of the plan of massarrest and possibleassassination of topgovernment officials consideredto be loyal to APC and partyelders, who are said to be onthe hit-list of the PDP, sayingGovernor Rauf Aregbesola istop on the list.

He specifically called on the

President to caution theMinister of Police Affairs, MrJelili Adesiyan, and hisDefence counterpart, MusiliuObanikoro, who are said to bepart of the plot, saying theplots have shown that thesecurity apparatus is beingplanned to be put to illegal andunconstitutional use againstthe people of the state.

Among the plots, Adelowosaid, was the invasion ofsoldiers and security forces, aswell as a militia force inmilitary camouflage, whowould be armed for war about

a week to the election in thestate to intimidate citizens.

The party chairman alsoalleged that explosives andincendiaries have been amassedby the PDP for use before,during and after the election, aspart of a reign of terror tosilence the people, if there isany widespread protest againstany rigged election.

He said: “As commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces ofthe Federal Republic of Nigeria,there is practically no way thesecurity apparatus under thecharge of these ministers canundertake such a majoroperation without, at least, theknowledge of Mr President,which makes the presidencyimplicitly involved.

“Our first instinct was todisbelieve this possibility, but

on second thought, we realisedthat the entire exercise is beingstage-managed by the PDP insupport of Mr President’ssecond term ambition.

“What surprises us themost, is that contrary to MrPresident’s ascertion that hispresidential ambition was notworth the blood of anyNigerian citizen, the blood ofthe Yoruba nation is alreadybeing spilled for the purposeof making his ambition a realityin 2015.

“PDP, with impunity gotaway with murder to seizeEkiti State through a fradulentelectoral process. They arenow being encouraged to plana massacre in Osun and a veryloud conspiratorial silence iscoming from the Presidencythat wants us to believe that it

does not accept blood-lettingof any Nigerian citizen for hispresidential ambition.

“Mr President, if there is ariver of Yoruba blood spilledin Osun to make PDP win, willyou renounce your ambitionfor a second term or joyfullyannounce your determinationto contest in 2015?

“We are battle-ready todefend the rights of our people.Osun is not Ekiti and if whatwas done on Ekiti is tried inOsun, it would be resisted. Wedon’t have guns, but we arebattle-ready.

“If soldiers and police mustcome for the election, theymust come with their I.D cardsand chest tags for properidentification to avoid fakesoldiers and police officers,because we know the PDP isscheming to bring fake police,”he reiterated.

Adelowo also expressedconcern by what he called thecomplicity of the INEC in therigging plan, requesting thepresident to restore theconfidence of the electoral body

by instructing the commissionto use the “Card Reader” toensure that the voting processis clinically rig-proofed and theelectoral process is notmanipulated.

He also asked the Presidentto give the country and theworld guarantee that he istotally committed to a free, fair,peaceful and unmanipulatedelectoral process in Osun.

Among those that have beenmarked for either arrest orassassination, according toAdelowo, are the firstExecutive Governor of thestate, Alhaji Isiaka Adeleke;Speaker of the state parliament,Honourable Najeem Salaam;Secretary to the StateGovernment, Alhaji MoshoodAdeoti; Adelowo himself; theAPC Secretary, PrinceGboyega Famodun; AlhajiFatai Diekola, Dr PeterBabalola, Chief KunleOdeyemi, Senator BayoSalami, Mr Ayo Afolabi, SookoAdeleke Adewoyin and PrinceFelix Awofisayo among manyothers.

Aregbesola Receives AwardOn Good Governance

By SOLA JACOBS

THE sterling performance of the governor of the State ofOsun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, has been described asa worthy contribution towards the sustenance and pro-

motion of democracy in tjhe country.ing Nigerian leaders to give goodgovernance and outstandingleadership to Nigerians, with aview to sustaining developmentin the country, said the admin-istration of GovernorAregbesola has impacted mean-ingfully on the life of the peopleof the state.

He thereafter urged thepeople of the state to supportthe present administration inthe forthcoming August 9, 2014gubernatorial election in thestate to be able to complete allongoing projects in the state.

Responding, GovernorAregbesola appreciated the clubfor the award, describing it as amorale boost to his administra-tion.

Represented by his deputy,Otunba (Mrs.) Titilayo Laoye-Tomori, Aregbesola said bril-liant ideas of his administrationhas repositioned the state as ahaven of economic develop-ment.

He said his administrationwill not rest on its oars until theglory of the state is restored asthe cradle of human race.

Also present at the awardpresentation were the Etsu ofKwali and Chairman of theBoard of Trustees of BOSSFriendship Club in Nigeria,Alhaji (Dr.) Shaba AuduNizazu, Chief of Staff to theGovernor, Alhaji GboyegaOyetola, and Special Adviser tothe Governor on Youths, Sportsand Special Needs, ComradeBiyi Odunlade among others.

Osun Students, Youths Roar Supports For Aregbesola’s Re-electionBy ISMAEEL UTHMAN

THE campaign for the re-election of Governor RaufAregbesola has received a boost from some youthsand students in the state-owned tertiary institutions.

Some youths and studentsunder the aegis of YouthReformation Group, throngedmajor streets in Osogbo, in apeaceful match rally to drumsupport for the re-election ofAregbesola.

The excited youths andstudents said there was noalternative to Aregbesola, addingthat they are direct beneficiariesof his unusual programmes.

Chairman of the coalition,Comrade Abiola Oludele, in aninterview with our reporter,stated that Aregbesola’sintervention in the educationsector, among other areas ofdevelopment, convinced themto embrace his second termambition and work for his re-election.

According to Oludele, theyouths and students in the stateare benefiting from the OsunYouths Empowerment Scheme(OYES), O’Meal, reduction inthe tuition fees of the tertiaryinstitutions, increment ofbursary allowance from N3,000to N10,000 and the constructionof modern schools for theElementary, Middle and HighSchools.

Oludele recalled thateducation was commercialisedby the Peoples DemocraticParty-led (PDP) administration,which he said victimised studentsactivities at their variouscampuses and proscribed theirunions for challenging itsobnoxious education policies.

He said: “Aregbesola has beenthe most tolerant governor sofar to the students and youths inthe state. He continues to listenand engage us without attackingor victimizing us like the formerPDP government. He has indeed

treated the student movementlike a true alumnus.

“Aregbesola has clearlyshown a difference from

previous governments. He hasbeen unusual and extraordinary.“We know that even the peaceand tranquility that we haveenjoyed since Aregbesola cameon board is expensive and rareto come by.

“The other parties andcandidates in the coming election

have bad history and nothingfruitful can come out of theirBethlehem, needless to say thatthey have failed to come outwith clear programmes oneducation and some othersignificant sectors.

“Osun people alreadypersonalise honour. We don’t

need barons and barbarians tobestow it on us. So far, so good;Osun youths and students appealto all voters to listen only tothe voice of reason. The voiceroars in a massive tone thatAregbesola is still the answer; noroom for usurpers and rogues,”he stressed

Again, PDP Thugs On Rampage•Go Wild In Ilesa As FG Despatches JTFTHE State of Osun Chapter of the All Progressives Con

gress (APC) has alerted members of the public in thestate of a grand plan by the the presidency to despatch a

contingent of a Joint Task Force (JTF) to the state.According to the party, the

duty of the task force is to iden-tify residences of the leaders ofAPC on the hit list of PDP witha view to arresting them on theeve of the forthcoming gover-norship election and possibly as-sassinate some in order to createan intense atmosphere of fear andscare off as many voters as pos-sible from participating in the elec-tion.

“The APC wants the world toknow that we are not second-guessing the presidency becauseour sources are authentic.

“Come August 9, the PDP willbegin the process of virtually de-stroying Nigeria, starting fromOsun.

“Once again, we want the presi-dency to think twice before plung-ing into this dangerous enterprise,because it will significantlydestabilise Nigeria, and more im-portantly truncate democracy.

‘With the introduction of theJoint Task Force into Osun, theFederal Government is putting theState of Osun on a war footing.

“Let the Nigerians, who lovethis country prevail on the presi-dency that this is not a war thatthe Federal Government can win.It is supposed to be an election ina state that has the reputation of

being one of the most peaceful inthe country.

“The necessity for this irratio-nal deployment of JTF does notexist in Osun, except for the rabidand unbridled ambition of PDP tocapture Nigeria, even if it costlives,” the party stressed.

In another development, somePDP thugs went wild again in Ilesaon Friday, burning billboards of the

APC governorship candidate,Governor Rauf Aregbesola andshooting sporadically, causing resi-dents to flee in different directions.

During the melee, a youngman, Mr Tolu Adeosun, did thenaming ceremony of his firstborn on Thursday was gunneddown in front of his house onFriday while returning the gen-erator he hired for the namingceremony of his child, by thugsled by Ibukun Fadipe a.k.a. OmoOloka, a PDP chieftain.

Reacting to they recent de-

velopment, the APC condemnedin the strongest term the recourseto violence by some desperatepoliticians in the PDP in Osun,who have been boasting publiclyto use every means, including ‘fed-eral might’ that can only beauthorised by the presidency toattempt to remove the APC frompower in the state.

The APC therefore, warnedthat “those who start violence andwar usually get consumed by it.

“Jonathan owes his office todemocratic elections without vio-lence. He therefore, cannot keepit through undemocratic means,”the party observed.

District Governor of BOSSFriendship Club in Nigeria,Kwali, Abuja, Dr. EdetEkpeyong, stated this whiledecorating Governor Aregbesolawith an award on good gover-nance in 2013 as the “All-Round Best Performed Gover-nor in the South-West Nigeria.”

Dr. Ekpeyong, who said theaward was aimed at encourag-

Osun Alerts Public On Illegal Demolition ExerciseBy SHINA ABUBAKAR

STATE Government of Osun has alerted members of thepublic of plans by some unscrupulous people to go roundmajor cities in the state marking buildings for demolition

in a bid to incite the populace against the government.A statement signed by the

State Commissioner for Informa-tion and Strategy, Mr SundayAkere, disclosed that the stategovernment is not embarking onany kind of demolition and it isnot sending its officials on suchassignment.

He urged residents to questionanyone that inscribe any markof demolition on their buildingsand report such person to thepolice for proper action.

Similarly, the commissionerrefuted claims by members of theopposition party, particularly,the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) that the state governmenthas concluded plans to introducea new tax regime if re-elected intooffice.

Akere said government hasnot in any way thought of in-troducing any tax regime nor in-tend to increase its usual tax levyas claimed by the PDP, saying

the claim is a figment of thePDP’s imagination.

“It has come to the notice ofthe state government that thePDP, in a leaflet it is distribut-ing, claimed that Governor RaufAregbesola is planning to intro-duce a new tax regime on opera-tors of private schools. Thisclaim is fictitious and a figmentof the author’s imagination.

The PDP is totally at losswith the reality on ground, itsproblem is lack of ideas and won-dering how the present adminis-tration raised its internal revenuefrom a mere N300 million, whenthe party was in power, toN1.5billion within three years,hence its attempt to incite the

populace against the APC-ledadministration,” the Commis-sioner stated.

He then called on the mem-bers of the public to ignore theclaim by the PDP, describing itas a rumour and a hint that thePDP is at a loss with realities ofgovernance, hence its resort todeceiving the populace in thestate.

Akere challenged the PDP andits candidate to make its cam-paign issue-based, rather thanplaying dirty politics by play-ing with the people’s intelli-gence, which has been theirtrademark since it commencedits so-called campaigns in thestate.

4 OSUN DEFENDER Tuesday, July 29, 2014News

Eid- Mubarak: Osun Indigenes Laud Aregbesola’s Free TrainBy KEHINDE AYANTUNJI•Passengers Undergo Security Checks

INDIGENES of the State of Osun residing in Lagos havecommended Governor Rauf Aregbesola for sustaining thefree train service for the indigenes of the state residing in

Lagos and Ogun states.

The beneficiaries, whoarrived Osogbo terminal onSaturday night with excitementalmost rolled out drums and becampaigning for the re-electionof the governor.

Adediran Ibraheem , a teacherin Lagos, said in the last threeand a half years, he and hisfamily members have beencoming home during festiveperiods with the free-trainservice, saying many have

doubted the ability of thegovernor to sustain the serviceup till date.

He described the service as arelief to thousands of Osunindigenes and urged the peopleof the state to re-elect thegovernor for a second term inoffice.

Also, Mr HakeemOlaosebiakn, a businessman inLagos, described Aregbesola asa blessing to the state.

“I stay in Lagos,; my familyis in Osogbo, while two of mychildren are beneficiaries ofAregbesola’s free education atthe elementary level. They eatnutritious meals in schools andin the last three years, this ishow I have been enjoying thefree train services. Aregbesolais a blessing to my family, weare praying for him and we arecoming home to vote for himagain.”

To ease the transport burdenof Osun indigenes who wish tocelebrate this year ’s Eid-Mubarak with their familymembers and relatives at home,

the state government provided10 coaches of train from Lagosto Osogbo.

The fully-loaded traindeparted from Nigeria RailwayCorporation Terminal, Iddo,Lagos by 2.00pm on Saturdayand picked passengers fromAgege, Oshodi, Ikeja, Ijoko,Abeokuta, Ibadan to Osogbo,State of Osun capital.

The train was billed to movein the morning but suffereddelay as a result of the strictsecurity checks and themonthly sanitation exercise inLagos, which was responsiblefor the late arrival of the

passengers at Ido terminal.As early as 6.00am, the

terminal platforms were underlock and key, which was unusualand when the NRC officialswere contacted, it was disclosedthat there was an instruction notto allow the passengers to theplatform “for security reasons”.

Immediately after thesanitation exercise, a combinedpolice team from Iddo Divisionand Anti-Bomb Unit arrived theterminal and subjectedpassengers to security searchwith bomb detectors.

The police officers declinedcomment on the rationale behindthe sudden security checks,which, according to the regularpassengers, was unprecedentedin the terminal since the stategovernment has been providingthe free train service.

Findings from a top policeofficer from the Iddo Terminus,who pleaded anonymity, saidthe screening of passengers andluggage was in connection withthe forthcoming Osungovernorship election.

When contacted, the State of

Osun Commissioner forCommerce and Industry, MrIsmaila Alagbada, who spokethrough the Director, Commerceand Investment Promotion,Mrs Kehinde Odediran, said thestate government was inagreement with the securitychecks.

According to Odediran: “Wehave no problem with thesecurity checks. It is in ourinterest, considering thesecurity challenges in thecountry. It is our responsibilityto protect the lives and propertyof our passengers. The screeningis very important to us for thesafety of our passengers.”

She described GovernorAregbesola as the man of thepeople, who always worktirelessly to ease the burden ofthe masses, adding that the stategovernment will continue tosustain the free train duringfestive periods.

Odediran however,cautioned the beneficiaries toconduct themselves peacefullyduring and after the Sallahcelebration.

The 1000-seaters capacitytrain is billed to return to Lagosfrom Osogbo on today.

Osun Berates SSS Over Clampdown On Research Firm

Ife-North Political Office HoldersDistribute Free Uniforms ToPublic School Pupils

By FRANCIS EZEDIUNO

AS part of the policy of revamping the public educationsector of the State of Osun by the administration ofOgbeni Rauf Aregbesola, political office holders from

Ife North Local Government Council Area of the state havecommenced free distribution of school uniforms to pupils of 52elementary and 12 middle schools.

Speaking at the event, whichcame up at the Market Square,Ipetumodu, the Special Adviserto the Governor on Local Gov-ernment and Chieftainy Affairs;Honourable Bisi Odewumi, re-vealed that the free uniformswere meant for only pupils andstudents, whose uniforms havecompletely worn-out, indigentstudents, whose parents cannotafford the money to purchase theuniforms and also as a supportfor the good things the governoris doing in the state.

Honourable Odewumi urgedteachers to be up and doing, soas to encourage the pupils underthem to compete favourablyamongst themselves.

He revealed that Ife-Northwas the first local governmentcouncil area in the state, whereall the political office holdershave come together to do whatthey were doing, adding that thegesture was also a measure ofpromoting peace and unity andimplementing the six-point in-tegral action plan of the gover-nor.

In his own remark, the law-maker representing Ife NorthState Constituency in the StateHouse of Assembly; HonourableIpoola Binuyo, noted that thedistribution of uniforms was notan inducement, but a gesturefrom the state government, sothat the parents and their chil-dren would know that all gov-ernment projects andprogrammes are conceived andimplemented with the people inmind.

The Apetu of Ipetumodu;Oba James Adedokun Adegoke,who spoke on behalf of all thetraditional rulers in the councilarea, prayed for success andGod’s goodness on all of themfor remembering and carrying theschool children along in their gov-ernment.

He declared that theprogramme was a good one andhe and his brother traditional rul-ers were happy to be alive towitness such.

The leader of the All Progres-

sive Congress (APC) in IfeNorth, Elder Rufus Awotidoye,maintained that there had alwaysbeen peace within the govern-ment and APC.

Awotidoye explained thatsince the APC came into gov-ernment in 2010, numerousprojects had been unveiled forthe people.

He cited drainages, markets,power supply and constructionof 10 Kilometres of roads inAkinlalu, Asipa, Ipetumodu,Yakooyo, Moro and Edunabon,renovation of Ipetumodu TownHall by Senator BabajideOmoworare, road linkingIpetumodu and Ode-Omu, dis-tribution of textbooks and writ-ing materials and O’Meal as sev-eral projects that the people wereenjoying in the local council.

It was also revealed that St.Augustine Elementary School,Ipetumodu would be the firstbeneficiary of the school trans-formation in the council, as con-tractors that would handle theproject are currently on groundand the total cost for providingthe free school uniforms was putat the sum of N2.84 million.

Benefitting schools included;Baptist Day Elementary School,Ipetumodu, AUD ElementarySchool, Edunabon, CAC El-ementary School, Edunabon,CAC Elementary School,Ipetumodu, Christ ElementarySchool 1, Ipetumodu, AUD El-ementary School, Ipetumodu,LA Elementary SchoolsEdunabon, Yakooyo,Ipetumodu and Iwaro, CAC El-ementary School, Moro, SaintAugustine Elementary School,Ipetumodu, Saint John AnglicanElementary School, Asipa, LAElementary School, Asipa, SaintJohn C&S Middle School,Ipetumodu, Saint John Elemen-tary School, Yakooyo, Saint JudeElementary School, Moro, SaintMichael Elementary School,Edunabon, Saint Michael C&S,Edunabon, Saint Peter Elemen-tary School, Edunabon.

State Government of Osun has decried the State SecurityService over illegal invasion of the corporate head office of itsclient TNS-RMS, holding its staffers hostage for seven hoursbefore hounding some officers into detention.

By SHINA ABUBAKAR

The condemnation wasdisclosed by the StateCommissioner for Informationand Strategy, Mr Sunday Akere,while addressing journalists inOsogbo, the state capital, onSunday.

He disclosed that the outfit, aduly-registered research agency,engages in empirical surveysacross the country forgovernment agencies and privateindividuals had been conductingNeeds Assessment PerformanceEvaluation Study (NAPES) forthe Aregbesola administrationperiodically since the advent ofthe administration over threeand a half years ago.

He added that the Aregbesolaadministration took the periodicsurvey seriously and as a matterof duty, since it serves as afeedback mechanism to test theimpact of government policieson the populace.

According to thecommissioner, no reason wasgiven for the clampdown onTNS-RMS, which witnessedprevention of inward andoutward movement of both staffand visitors of the poll researchorganization other than that theSSS operatives, who were saidto be taking any document(including computer systems)that has anything to do with thegovernment of the State of Osun.

Akere wondered why the SSSclamped down on the companythat conducted social survey forthe government barely two weekbefore the gubernatorial electionin the state, describing the actionof the security operatives in thecompany’s Lagos office forabout three days as unwarrantedaggression and violation of the1999 Constitution that allows alllawful pursuits and endeavoursin the Federal Republic ofNigeria.

The commissioner stressedthat the SSS was at liberty to

seek inquiry into whatever theTNS-RMS had been doing andadvise appropriately, but wouldnot accept any act of infringingon its constitutional right as aregistered company in Nigeria.

He said: “What is notacceptable and open toresistance is for the SSS topresent itself as an agency in thefirm grip and manipulativecontrol of the ruling-P e o p l e s D e m o c r a t i cParty (PDP) and a direct threat

to citizens’ liberty and theNigerian nationhood.

“The SSS must be wary ofreturning Nigeria to the ingloriousera ofGeneral Sani Abacha, whenmight was right and the citizensbecame serfs in their ownrepublic.

“The State Security Servicehad before been known as highlyefficient, professional andunbiased security service thatcould hardly be manipulated forpartisan purposes. Emergingtrend now shows that the highly-respected service may be losingits impartiality for an avowedtool of unconstitutionalassignment in flagrant disregard

for the 1999 Constitution andviolation of the inalienable rightsof Nigerian citizens just toprotect the ruling party.”

Akere, while asking for theimmediate release of the arrestedTNS-RMS staff and allow tocontinue the lawful andconstitutional engagementbetween them and governmentof State of Osun without let orhindrance, charged the SSS tojealously guard itsprofessionalism in theperformance of itsconstitutionally assigned role ofsecuring Nigeria withoutsurrendering its awesomecredential to partisanmanipulation.

More Revelations On How PDP ‘ll AttemptRigging Osun Poll - APC

More astonishing revelations have been brought to theattention of the All Progressives Congress as to how thePeoples Democratic Party intends to rig the August 9, 2014governorship election coming up in the State of Osun.

The latest is that the PDPhas penetrated the ranks of theNational Youth Service Corps(NYSC) members pencilleddown by the Independent Na-tional Electoral Commission(INEC) for use as electoral of-ficers.

Investigations by OSUNDEFENDER have revealed thatalready, 70 of them have beencompromised to look the otherway when PDP agents useother people’s voters’ cards tovote during the election.

It will be recalled that theAPC had brought to publicknowledge, the criminal actionsof PDP buying up voters’ cardsfrom unsuspecting members ofthe electorate across the state,which they intend to use for rig-ging purposes during the elec-tion on August 9.

According to credible infor-mation, 96 of the corps mem-bers were invited to a closeddoor meeting with PDP officialslast week, but only 74 attended,during which the corps mem-bers were told to disregard the

difference in facial appearancebetween the voter’s and the pic-ture on the computer record andallow the mercenary voter tocast his/her vote.

However, sensing that thiscould be dangerously problem-atic, one of the corps membersallegedly asked: ‘suppose partyagents discovered and raisedalarm?’

The question to which thePDP officials were reported tohave replied; ‘don’t worry aboutthat, the security people willdeal decisively with any trouble-some agent’.

At that meeting, the PDP dis-tributed N20,000 each to thecorps members and promisedN30,000 more when the nextmeeting holds.

The next meeting, accordingto impeccable sources, will holdin few days in Ile Ife.

It was further revealed thatthe reason Osun PDP is invest-ing on this method is that at theapex of INEC, the party wastold in blunt terms that snatch-ing of ballot boxes and stuffing

them with already thumb-printed ballot-papers would notbe permitted, while INEC hadinsisted that the PDP shouldlook for the voters and makethem vote.

To effect this, the PDP wasreported to have adopted twomethods; beef up the numberof uniformed men from otherstates to 150,000 and spreadthem across the state to voteby force; and produce as manyother mercenary voters as theycan bring to the polling units tocast votes with other people’scards.

The first method was suc-cessfully used in Ekiti in con-junction with preventing mediapresence in several collationcentres, where collation of voteswas allegedly manipulated infavour of the PDP.

In all these, the alleged com-plicity of INEC in corruptingand manipulating the processwas palpable.

The medium observed thatwith this secret let out of thebag, corps members acting aselectoral officers will now comeunder close scrutiny during theelection and party agents andobservers will be further armedwith this information to preventPDP fraud at the polls.

•(R-L) The Speaker, State of Osun House of Assembly, Hon. Najeem Salaam, Governor, State of Osun, Ogbeni RaufAregbesola and the Senator representing Osun West Senatorial District, Alhaji Mudashir Husain, during a prayersession for Governor Aregbesola’s re-election during his visit Ifeodan last Friday.

THE SOCIAL CONTRACTContinued from pg1

of a social contract could be a determin-ing factor in the governorship election in thestate of Osun.

Since infrastructure of the stomach is nowin the lexicon what should be the responseof those who feel obliged to lay the founda-tions for long - term development? In thecase of Osun, the jury is no longer out. Theverdict is clear that the incumbent governorhas spent the past three and a half yearslaying the foundation for sustainable devel-opment.

There ought to be no conflict about defin-ing this as the real reason, the raison d’etrefor being in office. In Aregbesola’scase, hekick-started the process of a social contractin Osunstate from a very low base. He con-tinues to implement the development effortat a time when the fiscal climate is very muchagainst the required cash-flow of the stategovernments.

Nigeria’s quasi-federalism means that thestates cannot exploit, process their own re-sources and use it to develop their states. Itis also a difficult time to operate a develop-ment process when the almighty allocationfrom the center is dwindling all the time. Thisrepresents a multi-dimensional dilemma.Forwithout a sound structure, even the hopeof increasing internally generated revenue(IGR) as a counter-balancing force becomesforlorn.

Nevertheless, in a dicey situationAregbesolahas punched above his weight. He

has in a very tight fiscal environment recre-ated the development framework associatedwith a progressive, social democratic gov-ernment. At every stage, the developmentthrust under Aregbesolahas beeninnovatively integrative. There is a clear fo-cus of achieving a multiplier effect with eachpolicy thrust.

A good example is the school feedingprogramme. This involves feeding 300, 000pupils every school day at the cost of N3.6billion per annum. It is a transparentprogramme since it can be verified simplyby going to the schools themselves. Theprogramme has led to an exponential increasein enrollment figures. The socio-economicbenefit here is seminal.

In addition, a multiplier effect is triggeredoff. Food production has consequentlygoneup in geometric proportion. There is a cleargain as a result in terms of the purchasingpower of the farmers. This is a clear case offinancial employment and poverty allevia-tion mixed up in line with a policy of thrustto construct the foundations for self-sus-taining economic development.

The fiscal injection into the economy ofthe state is for more than can be achieved byany immediate “infrastructure of the stom-ach.” The students consume 15, 000 wholechickens every week and it is served twice.They consume 400 tons of fish every week.35 herds of cattle are also consumed everyweek.

The financial empowerment to poultryand fish farmers is important it means thatthe rural economy is receiving a boost. In

addition, 3, 007 women cook the meals forthe students. They are paid directly throughthe banks and were giving seed capital to start- up. In no way is this initiative any differentfrom the model associated which the founderof modern micro-financeMuhammedYunusused and which won himthe NobelPrize.

The school feeding programme also has alink with the health sector. Hundreds of thou-sands are now receiving proper, healthy, andnutritious meals for the first time. The longterm gains in terms of a healthy mind in ahealthy body will be profound. For a start,there will be less pressure and stress on thealready very much up and against ithealthinfrasructure structure. This is thepolicy thrust that the World Health Organi-zation (WHO), as well as the late highly es-teemed professor OlukoyeRansome-Kutiamongst many others has been advocat-ing for decades.

In fulfillment of the need to cement thesocial contract, the thrust of theAregbesolaprogramme has been to lay thefoundations for self-sustaining development.On the widely copied O’Yesscheme alone,over 40, 000 cadets have been empoweredwith entrepreneurial skills. O’Yeshas changedthe paradigm in a directly injected N9 billionto the economy. Inaddition, a meaningfulprogrammme for elderly citizens’ care has beenput into play.

The most enduring type of “infrastruc-ture of the stomach” translates into the well-worn aphorism of giving a man a hook to fish

with, rather than giving him perennial hand -outs of fish. Aregbesola is in this light pro-viding the hook with which the state willendure in long term sustainability.

Sustainability does not ignore the imme-diate benefit. For example, investments inroads help the trade as well as the limbs andwell-being of the okada rider. Constructingover 200 kilometers of roads in every nookand cranny of the state has led to a positiveflip in the transport sector. Apart from pro-tecting lives, it has increased employmentin that sector since better roads leads to fasterturnaround time.

As with all things Aregbesola, there isalways the synergy lurking there somewhere.200 kilometers of roads constructed underhis watch translates into opening up the ru-ral economy. This means that farm produc-tion will go up, as the farmer can now evacu-ate his or her produce for onward sales inthe urban markets. Again, this is a gain forthe farmers, as well as for theirindividualand collective purchasing power. There hasalso been a profound gain for the ruraleconomy of Osunstate by opening up roadsand linking it with farm gate purchases forthe O’Mealprogramme.

The social contract is well and alive inOsunstate. From a tight economic base, allthe stakeholders have benefitted

Omisore’s Negative Campaign In OsunSENATOR Iyiola

Omisore, thegovernorship candidate

of the Peoples DemocraticParty (PDP) in the August 9,2014 governorship election inOsun State has been going abouthis campaign in the mostnegative way. This could beeither he is not acquainted withthe fine art of mounting thesoap box or he does not believein wooing the electorate whomhe hopes to preside over.

First, he started hiscampaign by pretending to bepopulist by eating two cornswith both hands at the sametime, thereby giving theimpression of a greedy person;he wore Ankara blouse over alace trouser (in a mockinggesture of the poor) therebypresenting himself as a personof low birth and breeding.When this did not work, thenhe changed tactics.

Now, he has been goinground telling lies andintimidating the people. He hasnever proposed any agenda ofgovernance. Rather, all hekeeps telling people is that hewould reverse all the policiesof Governor Rauf Aregbesolaon education. He kept referringto Osun indigenes that have

returned home to help in thedevelopment of their state as‘foreigners’. He has beenbandying words like ‘capitalflight’ without explaining whathe meant (obviously, he doesnot know the meaning).

He does not know and doesnot care to know about thepolicy of backward integrationin the state that mandatescontractors and governmentofficials to maximise items

purchases in the markets in thestate and it is only where thisis not available that othermarkets can be considered.

He also is not aware of the10-kilometre roads constructedin each local government andhandled exclusively by localcontractors.

He has also beenconstituting nuisanceeverywhere he goes tocampaign. His convoy woulddeliberately block the roads and

force other motorists to queuebehind them for hours, in orderto give the impression that theyare all together. This infuriatesthem to no end. Then his scantycrowd at the Gbongan Roadcampaign office will take overthe entire express road, stallingtraffic on the ever busy road,in gross act of lawlessness.

On the contrary, the AllProgressive Congress (APC)secretariat on the other side of

the road, though with biggercrowd, conducts its affairs withdiscretion, with its crowdtucked neatly into the belly ofits wide compound.

While the state governormoves quietly, without sirenand not disturbing anyone,Omisore’s convoy movesabout the state menacingly,driving other road users out ofthe road with his thugs hangingprecariously on tailboards, carbumpers and car roofs, with

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doors open, wielding variouscudgels and whips, creating anatmosphere of terror andinsecurity, making citizens andother road users to scamper forsafety.

The worst part is that hekeeps threatening everycommunity he goes tocampaign that he would floodtheir communities with soldiersand arrest their leaders andopposition figures few daysbefore the election. I thoughthe could not do this but I washorrified to hear him on tapethreatening the people ofIfewara that he would flood thecommunity with Hausasoldiers who would not hear asingle Yoruba word.

He has never articulated anypolicy on education,healthcare, job creation,agriculture, infrastructure, ruraldevelopment and roadconstruction. How on earthdoes he hope to win?Distributing kerosene and othersubversive gifts a few daysbefore the election will simplynot cut it. He does not knowthat he is being tolerated andAugust 9 would be hisJudgement Day.

•MICHAEL OGUNDELE,Osogbo, State of Osun.

6 OSUN DEFENDER Tuesday, July 29, 2014

PoliticsOSUN DEFENDER Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Ilesa Mega Rally: Its Beauties, WondersAs the eighth in the series of mega rallies of the ruling All Progressives Congress in

the State of Osun unfolded in Ilesa, an ancient town which engendered the governorsome six decades ago, the events translated into a rousing reunion with his kith andkin. More than that, the fold of the progressives swelled in numerical strength, as manyof the hitherto stalwarts of the opposition party and their teeming supporters dumpedtheir old political camp to openly declare for the party to beat. With this recent develop-ment, the reigning party in the state is gaining more in numerical strength. As democ-racy is a game of majority, it becomes more obvious that the party is far better posi-tioned than any of its co-contenders to poll a convincing majority in the Gubernatorialelection holding in less than two weeks’ time. NIYI OLASINDE was on hand to cap-ture how events played out at the big meet. The distinct beauties and wonders whichgave intricate quality to the convergence are here chronicled.

Aregbesola On The March Again

•A mammoth crowd at the Aregbesola re-election mega rally in Ilesa last Tuesday. INSET: (L-R) First civilian governor of Osun, Senator Isiaka Adeleke; Ogun State governor,Senator Ibikunle Amosun; Governor Aregbesola; his wife, Sherifat and member, House of Representatives, representing Irewole/Ayedaade/Isokan Federal Constituency,Honourable Ayo Omidiran, during Aregbesola’s re-election Campaign in Ijesa-South Federal Constituency, Ilesa, State of Osun, recently.

7 OSUN DEFENDER Tuesday, July 29, 2014

•Traditional rulers in the council area. (R-L) the Apetu of Ipetumodu, the Salu ofEdunabon, the Alakinla of Akinlalu and another guest Oba on the occasion.

•Bales of school uniforms ready for distribution to elementary and middle school pupils on the occasion.

Distribution Of Free Uniforms By Political Office Holders To Pupils Of ElementaryAnd Middle Schools In Ipetumodu Town In Ife-North Local Government CouncilArea Of The State Of Osun, Recently.

•Special Adviser to the State of Osun governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola on Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Hon. Bisi Odewumi, handing out bags of free schooluniform to a teacher.

•Odewumi and Honourable Ipoola Binuyo, representing Ife-North State Constituencyin Osun State House of Assembly at the event.

PHOTOTALK

8 OSUN DEFENDER Tuesday, July 29, 2014 PHOTOTALKFaces At A Prayer Session Organised For The Re-election Of State Of Osun Governor, OgbeniRauf Aregbesola, At Ife-Odan, Last Friday.

•

•Governor Aregbesola (on top of a vehicle) acknowledging cheers from the ecstatic people of Ife-Odan.

•Governor Aregbesola, addressing some traditional rulers gathered at the Adimula of Ife-Odan’s Palace.

•(L-R) The Adimula of Ife-Odan, Oba Adeyemi Emmanuel Morontade; Governor, State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, Speaker, State of Osun House of Assembly, Hon.Najeem Salam and the Senator representing Osun-West Senatorial District, Alhaji Mudashir Husain, during a prayer session for Governor Aregbesola’s re-election during hisvisit to the town last Friday.

9 OSUN DEFENDER Tuesday, July 29, 2014PHOTOTALK

•Governor Aregbesola (right with mic), addressing his supporters at Ife-Odan during his visit to the town.

Faces At A Prayer Session Organised For The Re-election Of State Of Osun Governor,Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, At Ife-Odan, Last Friday.

NEWS

Omisore Takes Delivery Of Another N1bn Election Fund From AbujaFRESH information creeping into our news

desk indicated that the governorshipcandidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)

in the State of Osun, Senator Iyiola Omisore, last week,took delivery of another N1billion ‘gift’ to prosecute theAugust 9 governorship election.

It was gathered that theN1billion was specificallygiven to Omisore by thePDP headquarters in Abujato distribute to potentialvoters on the election day.

Investigation furtherindicated that the moneywas sourced by all the PDPgovernors at the promptingof Alhaji Adamu Muazu.

A source closed to theOsun State secretariat of thePDP in Osogbo however,disclosed that theappropriate person to keepthe money caused schismbetween the candidate,Omisore, and the partychairman, Alhaji GaniOlaoluwa, who wasallegedly slapped by thecandidate when he insistedin keeping the first trancheof the money (N1billion), aforthnight ago.

Olaoluwa, it was furthergathered, has conceded thecustody of the freshN1billion to Omisore, inorder not to rock the boat.

The disbursement of theelection fund solely by thecandidate is however saidnot to go down well with

some elders and leaders ofthe PDP in the state who arequestioning the rationale

behind such dictatorialapproach to party affair byOmisore.

Meanwhile, the candidateof the party, leaders andfollowers of Omisore havebeen saying categoricallythat whether the electoratevote or not, the PDP

candidate would be‘cleared’ by a specialarrangement from INECheadquarters in Abuja.

Anytime he went forcampaign, he asked fornames and identities ofAPC leaders in such ward

or local government, sayingthat he has a workingarrangement with Alhaji JeliliAdesiyan, Police AffairsMinister and MusiliuObanikoro, Junior DefenceMinister, to flood Osun withsoldiers and police officersduring the elections.

Omisore was said to havebeen boasting ceaselesslythat some of them (APCchieftains) will not bearound on the election dayas the soldiers will be thereand the police to keep themin detention till after theelection.

Muazu’s PA, INEC Staff Fingered In Plans To Rig Osun Gov Election

THE leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) is hell-bent in rigging the August 9governorship election in favour of its

candidate, Senator Iyiola Omisore, bydisenfranchising majority of All ProgressivesCongress (APC) supporters and members.

Investigation showedthat the rigging of theelection is normallyeffected at theIndependent NationalElectoral Commission

(INEC) headquarters inAbuja by an InformationTechnology staff (deputyhead of ICT) who goes bythe name Tunde.

It was gathered that Tundewho works in conjunction withone Akin who is the PersonalAssistant to the NationalChairman of the PDP, AlhajiAdamu Muazu, have

professional capacity to hack

into INEC data base where they

will remove the names of some

eligible voters especially in

more than 75 per cent of the

wards in of the State of Osun.

OSUN DEFENDER

investigation showed that the

National Chairman of INEC,

Professor Attahiru Jega, was not

in the know of the shady

arrangement to rig the Osun

election.

This is the basis of the

bravado being exhibited by the

PDP governorship candidate,

Senator Iyiola Omisore, that he

would win the election, come

what may.

Osun APC Congratulates Muslims

ALL Progressives Congress in the State ofOsun has congratulated muslims for thesuccessful month-long fasting and devotion to the

will of Allah which ended Sunday.

The period which haselevated the spiritualconsciousness of muslimswill lead them to take theright decisions on matterswhich affect their faith andtheir lives in an environmentthat is constantlythreatened by thugs,rapists, assassins andmischievous politicians.

At least, those who havebeen faithful in theirdevotion during thisRamadan will come withclear conscience to sort outthe evil from the good when

they take a critical decisionon August 9 whether or notcriminals should CAPTUREpower in Osun, or Allah’sgrace that rained on the Statesince Nov. 2010 shouldcontinue.

The Ramadan came just ingood time to assist not onlymuslims but every adherentof faiths in Osun toconsciously resist evilwhich desperate politiciansthat have gone mad forpower pose to the progressalready made since 2010.

Citizens of Osun,whether muslims,christians or traditionalreligionists have a duty tostand up to evil as aunited people, and to usethe very high ideals oftheir faiths to prevent thegoodness of Allah, theAlmighty God, andEledumare from beingdestroyed on August 9,by the combined forces ofevil characters in ourcountry and state that arealready amassing inOsun, preparatory toAugust 9.

Ramadan, in thecollective spirit ofgoodness, has preparedall citizens of Osun thatthe big decision before

them is whether or not they willbow their heads to terror andallow criminals, who ourpeople call ‘Ojelus’ to come topower and destroy our ethos,pillage our collectivepatrimony and ruin the futureof our children that has sinceNovember 2010 beenmeticulously charted by theAregbesola administration.

With our faiths intact, ourconscience renewed, and ourresolve strengthened throughfasting and prayer by allreligions, the citizenry of Osunwill proceed together, with Godon their side, to effect thevictory of good over evil.

Happy Eid-el-Fitr.

By MUTIYAT GANIYU

10 OSUN DEFENDER Tuesday, July 29, 2014PHOTOTALK

•(L-R) Chief of Staff to State of Osun Governor, Alhaji Gboyega Oyetola; State of Osun Head of Service, Mr Sunday Owoeye and state Commissioner for Agriculture and FoodSecurity, Prince Wale Adedoyin, at the programme

•A cross section of public school pupils and others during the programme.

Commissioning Of Local Authority (L.A) Elementary School At Imo, Ilesa, State OfOsun By Governor Rauf Aregbesola Recently. Photo: GBENGA ADENIYI.

•(L-R) Deputy Governor, State of Osun, Otuba (Mrs) Grace Titi Laoye-Tomori; Governor Rauf Aregbesola and Honourable Timothy Owoeye.

•The back-view of the newly-commissioned L.A School building.

11 OSUN DEFENDER Tuesday, July 29, 2014 MAGAZINE

Ilesa Mega Rally: Its Beauties, Wonders

Contiuned from page 6

Contiuned on page 12

•

NOW, the die is almost cast. In barely a week and a half to this time,the State of Osun shall be approaching the polls to elect a governor tosteer the ship for a four-year term ending in 2018. In pursuance of this,lots of things are happening as build-up to the d-day. We find out thatin the camp of the opposition, unbecoming and unsavoury events,which constitute sad indices to what to expect on the Election Dayhave begun to unfold. In the last OSUN DEFENDER Magazine edi-tion, much was discussed on the outlawry displayed by the PeoplesDemocratic Party (PDP) during the penultimate week. As at the timeof filing that report, little did we know that the party had almost beentorn apart over the sharing formula for a lodgment of largesse whichcame from their “almighty father” in Abuja. The entire events, as itunfolded, happened as expected. A political party which has as itsstock-in-trade the capture of “empires” and the sharing of bootieswould never have anything to offer other than strife, scuffles and boutsof pandemonium. The show of shame degenerated to the extent thatthe so-called standard bearer of the party in the forthcoming electionlanded a dirty slap on the face of the state chairman of the party! Thatslap is the most deserving bang of the year. Why? Like EmperorNebuchadnezzar boasted over Babylon as his handiwork in ancienttimes, Omisore could brag over Olaoluwa’s chairmanship of the partyas his singular creation. The entire episode unfolded even before thelast edition hit the newsstand.

In the last edition, we diagnosed the many incurable diseases andinfirmities with which that party of conservatives is afflicted. Part ofthe diagnosed ailments identified is the fact that only one person,simply for the sake of his ill-acquired affluence had pocketed thehierarchy of leadership and procedures of the party. To the bargain, allknown and acceptable standards and procedures which form the hall-mark of democracy had been thrown to the winds. Like Esau, in theBible, the rank and file of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in theState of Osun has sold their collective birthright for a meal of pottage;yet they remain famished! They will never be fed.

On the note of the foregoing, we sound the note of caution on theears of those who have ears in our state not to fall victim of the deceitof the party. I well understand that I am in the midst of the wise. We arecautioned not to be entrapped into the enticements coming from thepeople who have been afflicted by same syndrome of misfortune. Inthe midst of their misfortune, they exercise rabid desperation to clutchpower by all means and at all costs. They are determined to stop atnothing. First, cash gift was the decoy. Next, it was expired rice. Some-time later, it was ritual crash helmet. At a later date, it was one accursed“Egbe Omo Ilu” contraption. Today, the bait in vogue is the massivedistribution of adulterated kerosene. The motive behind this revisitingof kerosene formula is to eliminate voters through the conflagrationeffect its household use may produce. Since they have lost out in theirbid to disenfranchise voters through massive purchase of PermanentVoters’ Cards (PVCs); they have contrived another quick and massivemeans of extirpation. We warn our people not to honour these cursedGreek gifts. They all are a grand design to lure the people and misguidethem to embrace the wrong electoral choice. We are a wise race.Beware of those who are all-out to deceive you with meal tickets thatwill never translate into putting food on your table. Few words aresufficient for the wise.

TWO weeks ago, the campaign train of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesolastormed the ancient town of Ilesa on the routine campaign mega rallypackaged into this season. The significance of the rally, exemplified inits beauties and wonders are the themes which this edition of reportssets out to dissect. The mega rally, apart from the unusual mammothcrowd it drew unto itself, unraveled the wonders of massive unexpecteddefections. Few days after the rally at Ilesa, another giant in the campof the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), a former senator represent-ing Osun Central Senatorial District at the National Assembly, ChiefFelix Kola Ogunwale (a.k.a. Jumokol) also took the bull by the horns ashe led his teeming supporters to join the All Progressives Congress(APC). What made this political giant to call it quits with his old party?The answer is not far-fetched: No fine politician of virtuous extractionwill find it comfortable to remain in that devil’s enclave.

Since the coming on board of the Aregbesola administration in theState of Osun, there has been several batches of defection from theparty into none other party than the All Progressives Congress (APC).If there is still anyone left in doubt over the reason for this massivedefection, let such one be pleased to be informed that the defectorsfound their new party to be better by far! They made timely discoverythat there is nothing good the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) canoffer anyone. To the society, all they have had to offer all this while ismisrule, corruption, retrogression and systemic failure.

Since this season of mega rallies started, there has been recordedseries of such similar defection. I could remember that it was recordedat Iwo, Ila-Orangun, Ede, Ikire and Ilesa. At other political ralliesoutside the mega rallies, defection has occurred into the All ProgressivesCongress (APC) on more than three occasions. Instances of this latter

case are those involving two big shots – Adeleke and Ogunwale.What do we make out of this analysis? The scriptural injunction

that says a house which divides against itself shall not stand communi-cates an eternal truth. It is a truth for all generations. The PeoplesDemocratic Party (PDP) is a collapsed structure as far as the State ofOsun is concerned. The emergence of the worst human species as itsgovernorship candidate in the next election came as the most terriblecatastrophe that nailed the coffin for the party.

Now, we need explanations on how a party that is deserted andforlorn intends to win an election against that which has a majority ofthe people on its side. The fact is that Peoples Democratic Party’s(PDP) stock-in-trade is electoral fraud and manipulation. Considerhow Omisore brags about, exuding confidence of victory! See Fayosegallivanting about, parading himself a tactician. I remember that at hisflag presentation ceremony in Ado-Ekiti prior to the June 21 election,a number of their party leaders referred to him as an expert in sup-planting. They kept saying that as he did it successfully in 2003; so hewas set to do it again!

Now that he has done it, we can be sure that it was done through thesame way he did it in 2003. It was done through some form of manipu-lation. But we are sure that whatever forms the manipulation took, itwill not work here in Osun. It is a slap on our face that these electoralrobbers are globetrotting; swaggering about with an air of impunity.They are so lawless, so unruly. It’s quite saddening and unfortunate.

As the Osun Gubernatorial election draws near, we are confidentthat their devices will fail. The threat of huge presence of securitypersonnel is in vain. So far as the fortification is not intended to divertthe will of the people, all is well. But if indications point to it that theyare here to aid and abet rigging, fraud and manipulation, then, thingsmust definitely fall apart.

ANOTHER milestone was reached penultimate Tuesday. The weatherwas cool and clement, reminiscent of Providence smiling on the sec-ond term bid of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola; as the governor’s campaigntrain moved to Ilesa, the headquarters of Ijesa South Federal Constitu-ency, to keep appointment with destiny as the eighth in the series ofmega rallies packaged to hold round the nine federal constituencies ofthe state settled on the ancient town. The federal constituency com-prises four local government council areas, namely Ilesa West, IlesaEast, Atakunmosa West and Atakunmosa East local councils. With theearlier campaigns held at Ile-Ife and Ibokun, it is the last of the threefederal constituencies in the Osun East (Ife / Ijesa) Senatorial Districtof the state to be so covered by the campaign rally.

The mega rally at Ilesa was true to its rightful description in allramifications, as it turned out to be a homecoming indeed for theincumbent governor of the state, Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola, atthe instance of whose re-election the rally was convened. OgbeniAregbesola hailed from the Ogbon Arogbo Quarters of the ancienttown of Ilesa. By this fact, he is from the Ilesa East Local GovernmentCouncil Area of the state. The fact remains therefore that it wasnormal and deserving that his own people troop out to accord him arallying welcome; not only for the fact that he is their kith and kin, butbecause he took time out, daring the limitations imposed by paucity offunds to cater for the people of his place of birth in the areas ofprovision of amenities and infrastructure and rendering of quality ser-vice. For the first time in a long period, the Ijesas had a genuine feel ofa government at work.

The town was already set for the event of the day. As early as thedawn of the day, people could be seen rushing up and down, obviouslyto get themselves adequately prepared for the big gathering. It was as ifOgbeni paved the way purposely for that particular event. The net-work of roads which he labored to put in place, which was commis-sioned sometime early this year; got its test-running as it came into fulluse on that occasion. This is not to say that the roads had not been inuse since date of official commissioning. As a matter of fact, they hadbeen in use like others in their category upon completion, prior totheir date of commissioning! The mammoth crowd of the day, coupledwith what the degree of attendant gridlock on such occasion wouldhave been justified the paving of such type and quality of roads.

All the way from Osunjela, the Ijesa border-end with Osogbo, thestate capital territory; through all the communities which adorn theway to Ilesa, people trooped out in droves to await the governor andhis train and give cheers of compliments and goodwill to them as theyrode to Ilesa. The turnout on the streets of Ilesa was simply terrific.Right from the city entrance at Omi-Aladiye down to the city-centreat Ereja Square, the crowd was tumultuous. The big roundabout in frontof Aafin Adimula, where the cenotaph of Owa Ajibogun stands tallbecame a stadium where spectators had converged to play audience toone of the series of matches in the then ongoing 2014 FIFA World Cuptournament. Simply put, the crowd was rousing!

At the palace of the monarch, the paramount ruler of Ijesaland,Owa Obokun of Ijesaland, the crowd was amazing. Right inside thepalace square, all available spaces, the runway and car parks inclusive,played host to hordes of people who had converged to bid welcome to

the governor of the state. It would not be an overstatement to call it atriumphant entry. Candidly, it relived the experience of a similar entrymade into Jerusalem over two-thousand years ago by Jesus Christ. Thedegree of similarity was increased with the presence of brooms – anextraction from fronds of the Palm Tree. So, we would be right if theday is tagged a Palm Tuesday.

As is his usual practice, Governor Aregbesola was on a traditionalhomage-paying visit to the Owa Obokun of Ijesaland, Oba GabrielAdekunle Aromolaran. In addition, the purpose of the visit was toofficially intimate the monarch and a galaxy of others in attendancewith his second term bid, the raison d’être for the day’s rally and toreceive blessings from the monarchs before proceeding to the venue.The monarch was on hand to receive the governor. In attendance athis palace were other Obas in Ijesa South Federal Constituency, Owa-in-Council, Lojas, village heads and all royalties.

On the side of the governor, membership of his team was impres-sive. Governor Aregbesola was accompanied by his counterpart fromOgun State, who had come to solidarize with him, His Excellency,Senator Ibikunle Amosun. Others are selected members of the Execu-tive Council of the State of Osun, selected honourable members of theState House of Assembly, some members of the hierarchy of the StateExecutive of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and other eminentpersonalities.

In his introductory speech at the event, Governor Aregbesola ap-preciated the auspicious roles played by the traditional fathers in ensur-ing that peace reigned in their domains. He expressed the high value heplaced on their support, guidance and contributions to his administra-tion all this while. He enumerated the achievements of his administra-tion in the area; placing it all on the enabling environment they con-tributed to provide. The governor then promised that all that had beenseen during his first tenure would be miniature, compared with greaterlaudable programmes and projects which he still had in stock if giventhe mandate to serve for another term in office. He concluded bysoliciting the assistance of the royal fathers in maintaining peacefulconduct, enforcement of law and order before, during and after theGubernatorial Election that was fast approaching.

In his response on behalf of all other royal fathers, the Owa Obokunapplauded the giant strides of the administration of Ogbeni Aregbesola,who according to him gad not betrayed the trust and mandate of thepeople. He congratulated the governor on the successful delivery of hispact and wished him success in his bid to return to office. He promisedthe worthy son that he would be supporting him in prayers while thestruggle lasts and prayed that the end will bring joy and satisfaction toall. Prayers were rendered before the campaign train departed thepalace for the venue of the big meet.

It was a big and eventful task for the governor’s campaign train tomove from the palace to the Irojo venue of the campaign. All throughthe way, various thick and shades of crowd that had lined the streetscheered and applauded the governor and his train in various forms.Some sang while many more praised him in many other forms. Amajority of them held brooms in their hands which they brandished tocheer him.

The governor, in response either waved or outstretched his handwith the “V” sign of victory in acknowledgement of praises from thecrowd. It was his usual ride on the mini-luxury bus all the way. Peopleof various ages, cutting across various age groups and classes troopedout to catch a glimpse of him and register their welcome greetings tohim. It was an impressive turnout.

The roads earlier brought under reference were filled with humans.Vehicular movements were held in gridlock. People were sighted onbalconies and battlements of houses. Uncompleted buildings were notspared. Motorists and commercial motorcycle operators; popularlyreferred to as okada riders were thrown into ecstatic mood as they allcaught the mood of the occasion. Disabilities were thrown to the windsas the blind sought to be led; while the crippled begged to be carried towitness the big event.

ALL the way to the spacious and expansive venue of the occasion,Governor Aregbesola rode atop the bus with his Ogun State counter-part, Senator Ibikunle Amosun. The duo thrilled the waiting audiencewith admiration as they approached the entrance of the venue.

There at the venue, another crowd had awaited their arrival. Theevents had already kicked off. Speaker after speaker had taken turns toaddress the surging crowd. All speakers dwelt on the long list of achieve-ments of Ogbeni, with which they convinced the people to poll mas-sively for him in the forthcoming election.

On hand to enliven the occasion were D.J. Bazzman and the Fujimusic maestro, King Wasiu Ayinde Marshall (K1). Some of the speak-ers who mounted the podium prior to the arrival of the governorinclude the state chairman of the National Union of Road TransportWorkers (NURTW), Comrade Lekan Salami, ably represented by Com-rade Adebisi Adebowale, a representative each of the Hausa and Ibo

•(L-R) The governor, State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola; the Owa Obokun of Ijesaland, Oba Adekunle Aromolaran and Ogun State Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun atOwa’s Palace during Governor Aregbesola’s homage payment to Oba Aromolaran on his way to his 2014 re-election mega rally in Ilesa State of Osun, recently.

OSUN DEFENDER Tuesday, July 29, 2014 MAGAZINE 12

Ilesa Mega Rally: Its Beauties, WondersContiuned from page 11

Contiuned on page 13

communities resident in Ilesa and its environs. In their variousspeeches which they spoke in their respective indigenous dialects, theytook turns to rally support for the governor and his re-election, just asthey brought out the all-important benefit of having Aregbesola backin office. In addition, Comrade Adebowale counseled the people not tofear the huge presence of security apparatus on the Election Day.According to him, the presence of soldiers, police and dogs at theelection venue was to prevent the breakdown of law and order.

Next was enlightenment cum entertainment session by the aceactor and television entertainer, Ojo Arowosafe, a.k.a. Fadeyi Oloro.Fadeyi Oloro cautioned the people against selling their voters’ cards.He however implored them to vote with them and do so overwhelm-ingly for Aregbesola, who he saw as the saviour and Messiah of thepeople. The proceedings were intermittently interrupted with musicalinterludes by King Wasiu Ayinde K1.

The programme of events took another positive turn with thearrival in quick succession of Wife the of the Governor, Alhaja SherifatAbidemi Aregbesola, who arrived the scene at 3:15 p.m. and the hus-band, the governor, who stormed the venue with his train at around3:21 p.m. These arrivals set the occasion aglow.

As has earlier been alluded to, the governor arrived in company ofGovernor Amosun of Ogun State. After acknowledgement of cheersfrom the waiting crowd of party members, supporters, party faithful,admirers and sympathizers, the governor and his guest alighted fromthe bus and immediately proceeded to exchange pleasantries with dig-nitaries at the occasion, all of whom had been on ground to welcomehim. Immediately thereafter, the events-proper kicked off.

At exactly 3:37 p.m., the National Anthem and the State of OsunAnthems were sung back-to-back. This was followed with the introduc-tion of guests and dignitaries at the event. Immediately upon his intro-duction, the Ogun State Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun took tothe stage to address the crowd.

Amosun charged the atmosphere with songs like “E di’bo funAregbesola”, “Se e nri’se wa?” and “Dagunro o se e je”. He admiredthe density and quality of the crowd and sued for people’s massivesupport by trooping out on the d-day to perform their civic obligations– that of voting for Aregbesola. He expressed his wish for the governor’soverwhelming victory at the polls. He assured the people that theirvotes would count as the votes cannot be stolen, buttressing it with theYoruba adage that “Omi t’o ba mo n’iwon la a re ila si”. He cautionedthe people to beware of and resist politicians of “stomachstructure”.He pointed it out as a disgraceful trend for our race for governance tobe reduced to distribution of rice and beans. He urged the people to shunand discountenance “amala politics”, which he pointed out as disgraceto our forebears. He acknowledged the fact that Governor Aregbesolais in the front-burner of upholding the philosophies of good gover-nance laid down by the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo.

Governor Amosun pointed out that all the achievements recordedby the administration of Ogbeni Aregbesola since his coming on boardare indices of development which are worth the pursuits for a race tomove forward. Specifically, he cited schools, roads, quality educationand health, care of the old, hospital infrastructure and all the rest asindices of development and good governance. He renewed Aregbesola’scommitment to make his laudable achievements a tip of the iceberg,compared to what he has in stock for his second term in office and withthis; he solicited the people to poll massively for him to ensure thereality of his renewed mandate. He cited the development recorded inthe Yorubaland of the illustrious past and recommended that we shouldkeep the furnace of that tradition burning. He rounded off his speechwith giving references to the old number of late Hubert Ogunde, titled“Yoruba Ro’nu”.

After this eloquent presentation, the Chairman of the AregbesolaSecond Term Campaign Committee for the federal constituency, whodoubles as leader of the State of Osun House of Assembly, HonourableTimothy Owoeye mounted the podium to deliver his welcome address.In his speech, Owoeye commended Governor Aregbesola, who he re-marked that had performed valiantly, and who did not let the Ijesasdown in government. He thanked the people too for keeping faithwith the administration and promised them higher grounds in the nextdispensation – the more reason why they should re-elect Aregbesolafor the second term. He appreciated the waiting crowd for the hugeturnout and the patience exercised. He then rounded off his speechwith the song: “O ti mu wa gbagbe, Ibanuje igba kan…”.

Next to speak was the Interim Chairman of the All ProgressivesCongress (APC) for the State of Osun, Elder Adelowo Adebiyi. Adebiyientered the stage on the note of song of appreciation, as he sang:“Olorun ku ise o e…” a Christian chorus in Ijesa dialect. He thenannounced that the State Headquarters of the Independent NationalElectoral Commission (INEC) had concluded plans that the Perma-nent Voters’ Cards (PVCs) for the newly registered voters would beready for collection on the 26th and 27th of July, and that the distribu-tion would be done on ward basis. He re-emphasized the need for

prospective voters to keep their voters’ cards and not sell of releasethe Personal Identification Number (PIN) on them to unscrupulouspoliticians so as to be able to vote with them.

Elder Adebiyi then cautioned the people not to fear security person-nel on the Election Day. According to him, their huge presence and thedogs they would bring are measures to secure votes and enforce law andorder. He conveyed messages from the leadership of the Christian bodyand the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) that they had notendorsed sentiments in voting; but that voters should exercise cautionto vote for credible and God-fearing leaders, not killers, desperatepoliticians or self-seeking ones. He then presented the candidate ofimpeccable character and pedigree Governor Aregbesola, who the peoplehad already tested and trusted.

There and then, the chairman announced the presence of formerstalwarts of the opposition, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) whowere in attendance at the rally to officially and publicly renounce theirmembership of the fold party and join the train of progress beingchampioned by the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The defectors are the former state Secretary of the Peoples Demo-cratic Party (PDP), Chief Yinka Adeojo, former Chairman of OsogboLocal Government, Alhaji Teslim Igbalaye and former Personal Assis-tant to the erstwhile Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola, Alhaji RasaqOyelami a.k.a. K.K.

Others are the ex-PDP chairman for Odo-Otin Local GovernmentCouncil Area of the state, Honourable Moyinoluwa Ogunwole and Mrs.Kemi Adejare. All these came to the rally to join the membership ofthe All Progressives Congress (APC).

Speaking on behalf of the defectors, Alhaji Rasaq Oyelami rubbishedthe old political party he and his colleagues discarded as brain behind allevil that Nigeria currently experiences. He attributed the dwindlingmonthly revenue allocation accruing to the state to their craft. Heremarked that the PDP comprises a bunch of disgruntled, grandilo-quent and dare-devil politicians, who equate themselves to God; andwho at best should be kept at an arm’s length.

In his analysis, Oyelami cautioned all remaining members in theforceful party called PDP to jettison the party and join hands with theprogressives. He cited the good examples of positive leadership pro-vided by Governor Aregbesola and Chief Adebisi Akande, who hadimpacted positively on the lives of the citizenry. He reasoned that thegood works so far witnessed should automatically qualify Aregbesolafor second term. Finally, he classified their old party as not people-friendly and totally disintegrated and collapsed.

The speech was rounded off with the formal presentation of flag ofthe APC to the new entrants as symbol of their official welcome intothe party. This was performed by the Leader of the party in the state,the governor, Ogbeni Aregbesola, who raised the Christian Hymn: “HaEgbe Mi, E w’asia..” and the chorus: “E ji gbogbo okan t’o sun lo…”which the crowd sang enthusiastically.

In the speech, former governor of the state Senator Isiaka Adelekecommended the governor and noted that since the governor had re-marked at the palace of the monarch that all that he had done was thefoundation of greater things to come, them the people had nothing tofear as the next dispensation would bring more dividends of democracythan the current one. According to him, the governor had raised theedifice of governance to the lintel level; all that remains is for thepeople to do the roofing with their votes on the 9th of August. He thencautioned the people against election fraud. The need for vigilance washammered, as he charged them to protect their votes.

At exactly 4:21 p.m., Governor Aregbesola mounted the rostrum.He entered with two choruses: “Ope l’o ye O” and “Ogo Yi, Oluwa, YeOgo Yi”. The governor prescribed as usual the duties of electorate onthe Election Day. He enunciated his achievements so far and imploredthe people to cast their votes en masse for him so that the good workcould continue. He then stressed the need for peaceful and orderlyconduct on the Election Day.

AT this juncture, OSUN DEFENDER Magazine shall draw excerptsfrom the pact given to the people of the state upon rolling out of theOranmiyan campaign team of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola eight years ago;for the purposes of reference and setting the records straight:

My mission and ambition are to restore to the people, a state ofpeace, opportunity, for progress and room for the pursuit of prosper-ity in our time under a people friendly government.

I give you Six-Point Integral Action Plan, to the intent thatthey constitute my actions of faith concerning which I want to be heldaccountable at any time during my stewardship.

SIX POINT INTEGRAL ACTION PLAN· Banish Poverty· Banish Hunger· Banish Unemployment (Create Work/Wealth)· Restore Healthy Living· Promote Functional Education· Enhance Communal Peace and ProgressBANISH POVERTY

COMMERCEVision: To make Osogbo the second hub in international trade in

goods and commodities in the Southwest.Osun people’s natural affinity for commerce has been dampened

over the years by unfriendly and unfocused economic policies of gov-ernment thereby popularizing poverty among a people, who are natu-rally hardworking, industrious and adventurous.

Our purposeful government of ACN shall revitalize commerce andrestore wealth back to the land through:

· Market friendly policies that will revive the customary com-mercial activities in Osogbo and other towns in Osun.

· Promotion and support of activities focused on wealth pro-motion for our people.

· Transformation of Osogbo into an International marketwhere goods will be procured at prices comparable to any other part ofWest Africa.

FINANCE& ECONOMIC PLANNINGI shall increase the internally generated revenue of the state and

also improve in mileage on every kobo accruing to the state by:· Ensuring real time online access to actual position of the

state finances to prevent misuse and other forms of abuse by receivingagencies.

· Reducing leakages in the tax collection and administrationprocess.

· Running a transparent and accountable government.· Ensuring prudent management of the state’s resources.· Ensuring that the funds of the state are used for develop-

mental purposes.· Create viable Public/Private sector partnerships to jump

start the economy.· Our overall goal is to reduce dependence on federal alloca-

tion as a means of funding the government.BANISH HUNGERFOOD& AGRICULTUREVision: Our government shall banish hunger in Osun and enhance

wealth through massive increase in food production and agriculture.Every farmer shall sell his products and be prosperous. The labour

of the farmer shall no longer be in vain because we shall provideassistance and support to farmers in finding and exploiting profitablemarket for their goods.

We do not presently grow enough food in Osun to feed us round theyear and this should concern a government that cares for its people.

Our government shall support farmers to attain increase in foodproduction, better storage and delivery. We shall provide assistance tofarmers in exploiting profitable markets and market opportunities fortheir products.

To maximize the benefit of resultant massive increase in foodproduction, we shall improve:

· Access roads and general transportation to even the mostremote areas of the state.

· Storage process and capacity.· Processing of agricultural produce.· Rural electricity and water supply.CASH CROPS· Encourage production of cash crops which can enhance

farmer’s income and provide basis for an effective agro-industrial soci-ety in the state of Osun.

· Specified to vigorously develop extensive farming in palmtrees to create a fully integrated oil palm processing industry.

· To target and capture minimum of 10% of the multibillionnaira- per day food market of the neighbouring states.

· Support cooperative efforts by farmers· Be a catalyst to the development and promotion of micro,

small and medium enterprises that will exploit available raw materials.· Set up price support scheme for farmers through commod-

ity exchange board.

BANISH UNEMPLOYMENT (CREATE WORK& WEALTH)No job loss, more jobs.Osun people are peaceful, dignified and hardworking people who

desire and deserve gainful employment for their children and them-selves. Rather than policies that will create employment and wealthfor the people, the policies of the PDP government in place serve toenrich few at the expense of majority of our people.

As part of our GOVERNMENT UNUSUAL programme, I RaufAdesoji Aregbesola make a pact with you good people of theState of Osun, in the presence and by the grace of God Al-mighty that our government shall create immediate employ-ment for 20,000 people within our 100 days in office.

5,000 of these places shall be reserved for those who were re-trenched and are still willing and able to work.

As a people-friendly government, our policies shall help to:· Create economic environment that ensures availability of

jobs for all Osun indigenes.· Establish one LIFE ACADEMY in each of the three Sena-

torial constituencies for the building of life- long skills in out of schools,youngsters as well as adults seeking alternative competencies.

· Promote labour exchange centres to facilitate employmentof graduates from our Life Academies.

CIVIL SERVICE REFORMSThere is the need for a civil service reform that will not lead

to any loss of jobs as I Rauf Aregbesola do not believe in layingpeople off in the name of reforms.

Our reform will make the work environment more conductive,stimulating and development oriented.

Bonuses, incentives and regular awards shall be instituted to pro-mote a culture of excellence in the civil service along with the promptpayment of salaries, allowances, leave bonuses and year-end perfor-mance bonuses.

Promotions and comprehensive salary reviews and increases shallbe regular.

Internal and external training, work exchange programmes andoverseas training shall be actively reinstituted for comprehensive hu-man development in the civil service.

New Tutor General/Permanent Secretary Cadre shall becreated for Teachers in new education districts for better schooladministration.

We shall institute Home Ownership Scheme for public servants andalso support and encourage their backyard food production businessventures.

We shall do a comprehensive review of civil service names andconventions as part of our efforts to create a people- friendly civilservice.

Appropriate nomenclature will enhance accountability and pro-mote public access to the services of the ministry. A citizen with acomplaint of blockage of drainage will find a Ministry of Roads andDrainages easier to identify with than Ministry of Works, a Ministry•First civilian governor, State of Osun, Senator Isiaka Adeleke; Governor Rauf Aregbesola and his Ogun State

counterpart, Senator Ibikunle Amosun (top left), addressing the crowd, during Aregbesola’s re-election campaignmega rally in Ijesa-South Federal Constituency, Ilesa, State of Osun, recently.

13 OSUN DEFENDER Tuesday, July 29, 2014MAGAZINE

Ilesa Mega Rally: Its Beauties, Wonders

Continued from page 12of Human Resources and Development will more appropriately communicate its services than a Ministry of Establish-

ment.

TOURISM

Vision: Tourist’s cradle in Africa

The State of Osun is the cradle of Yoruba people and our rich culture. The opportunities for wealth creation in Osunstate through tourism have been underexploited. We shall:

·Develop State of Osun tourism potentials to its fullest to promote employment and wealth among people of the Stateof Osun.

·Encourage development of Yoruba museum and world heritage centre at Ile-Ife.

·Encourage programmes that nurture and promote arts and talent.

·Enhance the image of traditional rulers and institutions.

·Mobilize our traditional rulers to showcase the state’s tourism potentials to Yorubas in the diaspora (e.g. Brazil, Cubaand West Indies).

ROADS

Vision: Roads to and in all towns and villages in Osun. Road construction and maintenance shall be used to generateemployment for the indigenes of the State of Osun.

·Community based road maintenance units will be established to ensure timely repairs and deduce overall maintenancecosts.

·Development and regular maintenance of urban and rural roads to get top priority.

·Access roads to evacuate agricultural produce shall be constantly improved and expanded.

·Create partnerships with the private sector on road development and provision of infrastructure.

TRANSPORTATION

We shall produce a transport master plan to provide direction for development of the sector.

The safety of the lives of the indigenes of the State of Osun is of great concern to us. We shall:

·Reduce to the barest minimum, road traffic accident within 6 months on all roads starting with Federal roads.

·Create a motorized division of the Osun troopers to patrol roads to prevent accidents on the highways and organizerescue and recovery operations.

INNOVATION

Europe, Japan, Korea, Malaysia and now China have made life for their people permanently comfortable throughinnovation, research and development, thrift and hardwork.

We Africans especially the people of the State of Osun are thrifty (a ki se oni nakuna) and hardworking (ati agbe atonise owo lo ka imele si aida nile Yoruba) but we have been backward in looking forward.

We have not been innovative enough, we have not invested enough in research and we have not developed the fruitsof innovation and research. In other words we remain backward, poor, unscientific and losers (eni igbehin) among the familyof nations.

It is a matter of concern that our leaders do not car or worry enough about these issues.

I care and I’m deeply concerned. As your Governor I will do everything possible to:

·Create awareness and dissatisfaction among all in the State of Osun about our position among the world’s people andthe need to move up the ladder of human ascent and development away from permanent and persistent poverty.

·Ensure that ideas with original creativity are tapped for the enrichment of all.

·Give real importance to education with skills development so that we can make what we need and become morecompetitive in the world as a people by creating more skills development centres in the State of Osun.

·In these centres we shall teach Men and Women to think with their hands, sharpen our already proven entrepreneurialskills and stop Nigeria from importing:

TOOTH PICK (IGI OPARUN FUN ITAYIN) FROM CHINA, ORANGE JUICE (OROMBO) FROM KOREA, SHOES (BATA)FROM SPAIN/ ITALY, FAN BELT/ CAR TYRES (RUBBER) FROM JAPAN AND FRANCE.

When I know that these can be easily manufactured here.

I shall turn the State of Osun into a creative agro-industrial zone God willing.

INDUSTRIALISATION

Key to banishing unemployment permanently anywhere is promoting conducive atmosphere for manufacturing andproduction. Our Government shall:

· Develop integrated industrial estates for mini, micro and large manufacturing enterprises in the threesenatorial zones of the State of Osun.

·Provide the estates with infrastructural facilities that reduce the cost of setting up industries (roads, electricity, waterand telecommunications).

·Provide incentives targeted at attracting manufacturers/ investors.

·Develop skilled personnel through our Life Academies, Universities and colleges to service specialized industrial andmanufacturing needs.

RESTORE HEALTHY LIVING

Vision: To work to save our people from all avoidable deaths due to accidents, emergencies, poverty and inadequatehealth facilities.

To achieve this for all and particularly our children and senior citizens, we shall:

·Provide effective and available healthcare for all.

·Provide efficient accident and emergency ambulance service.

·Provide primary health clinics within 10 kilometre radius of every Osun town, with special attention to the needs ofchildren, women and the elderly.

·Provide functional General hospitals within 20 kilometre radius of human habitation.

·Provide referral hospitals within 30 kilometre radius of human settlement.

·Establish free blood pressure checks in conjunction with private organizations at every local government office.

·Undertake special programmes for the upgrading, retraining and working comforts of all health personnel.

·Encourage and nurture alternative medical therapy.

·Free treatment for malaria to children below age 18 and senior citizens (60+).

ENVIRONMENT

Vision: To embrace current scientific methods in controlling the generation of waste and the conversion of waste towealth.

The state of the environment, especially waste generation, management and the embarrassing filth in our communitiesdemand special attention. The CAN government shall:

·Encourage all houses in the State of Osun to have a modern and affordable toilet facility through a special scheme.

·Provide private sector driven waste management and beautification schemes to rid our communities of filth whichthreaten public health.

·Beautification of town centres as a starting point of general urban renewal.

·Work with the private sector to establish appropriate waste-to-wealth projects under a composite waste managementpolicy.

WATER

Vision: Water for all in the state of the living spring.

It is a painful regret that most cities in Osun do not have potable water running at any time and Osun is the state ofthe living spring!!!

Our Government will do everything possible to bring potable water to all parts of the State of Osun and correct thisanomaly.

All abandoned water schemes shall be reactivated and speedily completed.

AFFORDABLE HOUSING

Our ACN Government shall:

·Help Osun indigenes realize their dreams of house ownership or rehabilitation of failing structures through deliberateprogrammes that improve their income earning capacity.

·Support mortgage schemes that make house ownership pocket friendly.

·Actively support research and development on the use of local materials to force down building costs.

ELECTRICITY

Electricity for all shall be the creed of ACN Government in Osun. We shall:

·Ensure that electric energy is available in the state for domestic, commercial and industrial activities.

·We shall endeavour to provide electricity to all villages, hamlets and farm settlements in the state.

·Private sector-led power agencies shall be encouraged to set up energy stations in the state.

SECURITY

Security of lives and properties are of paramount importance to us. Our Government shall:

·Have special programmes for the police and neighbourhood security outfits.

·Provide special allowance to all security agents deployed to Osun State and enhance their operational facilities forefficiency.

·Respond to the operational needs of security agents through provision of mobility, communication gadgets, protectivegears and conducive working environment.

FIRE SERVICES

We shall improve capacity of fire services to respond to emergencies.

•Aregbesola (on top of a bus), acknowledging cheers from public school pupils in Ilesa on his way to the rally.

PHYSICAL WELL-BEING

Our Government will promote physical exercises as a deliberate policy which will form a crucial aspect of our healthy-living programme. This is in keeping with the adage that a sound mind only resides in a sound body.

PROMOTE FUNCTIONAL EDUCATION

Vision: Eradicate the frustration of youths caused by education that does not lead to employment.

To achieve this, the government of AC under Rauf Aregbesola shall:

·Provide free education at all levels in Osun State. Focus on functional education. Education that makes one usefulto himself and society.

·Improve incentives to teachers and work with the NUT to restore the dignity of the teaching profession.

·Restructure administration of school management and create Tutors-General (Permanent Secretary Cadre) from amongHead Teachers in three Educational Districts which we will establish.\

·Fix all collapsed educational infrastructures in all the schools.

·Support with modern teaching aids and well-stocked libraries.

·Ensure cooperation with parents and teachers to improve discipline and morality.

·Introduce non-partisan community-based governing boards for all schools.

·Reduce number of students per classroom immediately.

·Introduce home development plans for teachers who wish to build houses in their home towns, through access to specialmortgage packages.

·Promote mass adult literacy and numeracy programmes.

·Promote and support Special programmes that give special attention to education of girls and women.

·Establish institutions that impart life-long skills for all, in and out of formal schooling.

ON HIGHER EDUCATION AND UNIVERSITY

·I am committed to ensuring that an Osun State University takes off on a sound footing and becomes a first-classinstitution with linkages to renowned universities in the developed world.

·I will make every tertiary institution in Osun State an independent degree-awarding one.

·Encourage use of services of retired, but not tired dons and administrators, from reputable institutions.

ENHANCE COMMUNAL PEACE AND PROGRESS

Vision: To restore the bond of trust between the Governor and the governed.

Over time, people have disconnected from government because those in authority have not shown enough concern abouttheir welfare or actively engaged them in formulating policies that affect them.

Our Government shall restore partnership between government and people through:

SAGES COUNCILS (EGBE AGBA)

Our state is blessed with a large pool of elderly folks who are invariably well educated, have enjoyed successful careers,travelled widely in the world, but are currently reduced to irrelevance in the society.

Our Government will support the formation of non partisan community based sages councils, capable of providingguidance in management, moral and ethical development in our society.

Our Government will seek elderly guidance and advice as inputs to our policy formation and implementation.

Government will support the senior citizens and help in their management of socio-economic problems peculiar to thegroup (pension, health and education).

YOUTHS COUNCIL (EGBE ODO)

People age 30 and below constitute the majority of our population but unfortunately are often frustrated and unfulfilledas a consequence of intolerable social and economic policies.

Our ACN Government shall support the creation of non partisan community based youth councils to provide a platformfor them to articulate and work out solutions to various problems confronting them.

Our Government will encourage cross fertilization of ideas between the Sages and Youth Councils through which publicpolicies would be influenced.

Government will promote sporting activities and creation of physical facilities for sporting and related activities.

We shall reinstate the abandoned ‘boys’ and girls’ clubs’ and name them Omoluabi Boys’ and Girls’ club to performthe roles similar to boys’ and girls’ scouts, boys brigade and more.

JUSTICE SECTOR REFORMS

An attribute of good governance is to promote justice, equity and fair play amongst citizens of the state.

Government of ACN will e3nsure speedy access ti justice try all individuals in Osun State, by reforming the courts systemand procedural rules, introducing alternative dispute resolution (ADR) mechanisms and fee legal services.

To complement these, ACN government shall improve welfare packages of Judicial Officers and upgrade courts withmodern IT and communications facilities.

COMMUNICATION

Our Government will restructure OSBC to:

Ensure its professional are motivated and continuously trained for competency

Provide digital equipment and infrastructure upgrade to conform to international best practices in broadcasting.

Exploit its tourism promotional capacity and capability.

CONSUMER PROTECTION

Consumers deserve to have the best goods and services at the best price and not have to pay more for goods and servi9cesthan their counterparts in other parts of the world.

Our government shall support the establishment of a consumer watch agency and also cooperate with organizations thathave similar objective of protecting our people from unfair business practices.

In all the above and above all these I intend to run a people-friendly government – a Government of the people, bythe people, FOR THE PEOPLE. A GOVERNMENT UNUSUAL in this land.

Infrastructures and facilities for reaching, advising, guiding, warning me will be given constant nurture.

Outside these I have no rigging machinery and will strongly appeal to you all Osun voters to fight and defend your votes.

Do not sell your vote and our future to a moneybag or vote people who do not care enough about our future as I passionatelydo.

I am entering into a pact with each and all of you as you read this that I and my colleagues shall work in all honesty,tirelessly to bring marked improvements to your life.

Apart of this pact you will be able to see that your children are better educated and have jobs; farmers, artisan, tradersare more prosperous, general quality of health has improved and you are no longer afraid to go to the hospital.

Osun will again be producing food enough for its people.

Through my Government Unusual, I shall work with and for you to create wealth through our toil as our fathers andmothers did to make us prosperous until 1962.

Concluded.

OSUN DEFENDER Tuesday, July 29, 2014 14FEATUREOLUSESI ISAAC, just returned from a duty visit to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP),Wadatta

House, Abuja, writes that the misdeeds of the party’s governorship candidate, Iyiola Omisore, in theState of Osun are a characterization of the party longitudinally in terms.

From PDP National Secretariat With AngerTHESE are times which call for increased

vigilance and studied watch, and the timestry the soul of the State of Osun. Reason?

The Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP)governorship candidate in the State, IyiolaOmisore’s re-invigorated multiple missteps thathave received unprecedented public bashing withthe mood of Osun people as that ofbewilderment, should be put at the door step ofthe PDP National Secretariat, Abuja.

Criminality, in expressive form has taken uppermanent residence in the secretariat, just ascriminality has become so sacred: appeasedrather than chided, palliated instead of beingexcoriated, and reduced to the naked applicationof illegalities and absolutism.The PDP staggersfrom the commission of one criminality toanother, and unable to mediate the oft-conflictinginterests of the factions and fractions thatconstitute the party. Charity has ended at homea long time ago.

Foreign diplomats and accredited journalistsincluding the writer, at the Wadatta House, thePDP secretariat had to keep a safe distance fromthe rankles and decay that stirred us in the face.We were not flabbergasted, but we feltexasperated, and angered. Apart from the crassopportunism, arrogance and unbridled hustling,scrambling, shoving, pushing and scampering forsuperfluous show of power at the partysecretariat over the PDP’s federal government’smovement of fifteen billion naira (N15billion)to prosecute the Osun August 9 gubernatorialelection; the picture that struck one’s eyes wasdepressing indeed. The victimization of the weakby the strong. The appalling lack of a sense ofresponsibility. The lack of room for ideals.Noconsideration for morality. No place for humancompassion.No love. No trust. No altruism. Andno self-denial. Everything was sacrificed to asqualid aggressive egotism. Almost every PDPbig wig in sight at both the Waddata House, andLegacy House, the Goodluck Jonathan CampaignHeadquarters, Abuja, is a tax dodger, with shadypast who had made away with staggering sumsof public money, or had cut a widow’s throatand snatched away her handbag. Yet, the bigwigsare the ones who call the shots in governmentcircles.

Such were the bad mannered, gullible, fetidand mercurial characters in the PDP that seekpolitical power at all levels of governance inNigeria by the militarization of the polity tocow the electorate into vegetative submissionto vote for them or their own particularcandidates in elections. It is a combination ofthe weird, the bizarre and the incongruous whenOmisore, the party’s governorship candidateevoked horrendous image of personified terrorin the garb of masked hitmen with rippingmuscles and streaks of ruthlessness and in thebattle gear ostensibly always in a hurry for asinister job,to engage in fisticuff in the least; andare on the prowl, bent on killing in the most, todo the biddings of Omisore, the source of theirblood money.

Watched at close range at Ikirun ThursdayMarket where Omisore had gone on a mini-campaign for elections, each of his henchmenwas issued a gun and bullet proof vest, hoveredaround him.They were not going to war, neitherwere they on the trail of fleeing armed robbers.Omisore was just on his rounds to canvass forthe votes of the people to be governor of Osun.He had no reason to be armed to the teeth otherthan to pre-militarialise the state, punctuate theserenity of Osun and input fears into theelectorate, playing out the rhythms of his partynational secretariat to vote for him, and no oneelse.

Osun is still simmering as it erupted inrupturous frenzy with all attention still rivetedon Omisore. And Osun people are largely inuredby the Bonnie and Clyde larceny in Omisore.Criminologists and readers of detective storiesmay still remember Bonnie and Clyde, thetreacherous, murderous couple that once ruledthe American underworld. They robbed notablebanks, and killed notable opponents. TheOmisore masked hoodlums are as good as thePDP, the party that breeds the barbarians, thearmed bandits. Call in the barbarians and thebarbarians have come in the garb of maskedguards as a prelude to a bloody onslaught againstthe electorate. And Osun dispirited by fear hasbecome a metaphor of horror at this time ofgovernorship election. No thanks to Omisorewho has included the ridiculous among thesublime, put a stamp of legitimacy on theillegitimate, and thumbed up illegalities in the

state.

Juxtaposing the logic of force with the forceof logic, Omisore now throws money in highdenominations at the people and distribute rice,salt and kerosene. It is no charity. He is far frombeing generous, but he is only assuaging hisconscience that sometimes, somewhere he hadblatantly stolen from the public treasury moneythat belonged to the people.But Osun can nolonger be cast in feminine garbs. Osun is no longera defiled woman; the woman as a defiled state.Osun is not crying to be raped by the Omisores,like the cry of Dioki in Camera Laye’s. TheRadiance of the King after she had been rapedby the snakes she kept as pets and protectors.Osun has passed the age when men would wantto rape her. Osun, now perceptive and truculenthas devised a foolproof litmus test of vision,mission and ambition.

From the motley crowd of twenty-three (23)governorship candidates this time around,theOsun voters will cast votes for only one of themwho has a vision, the essential quality. ButOmisore, the only candidate who arms himselfto the teeth has no vision of utilitarian value.The horizon of his vision is merely the distancebetween his nose and his upper lip. And heshould be put away in the slammer, more as hisvision gets stuck in the mud of incompetenceand in the colony of credibility crisis. It is publicknowledge.

Omisore can not put a wedge to the re-electionof Ogbeni RaufAregbesola, the incumbentgovernor of Osun and gubernatorial candidate ofthe All Progressives Congress (APC) whosepolitical artistry and recorded incredibleachievements with governance, have mesmerizedOmisore and his PDP. Aregbesola, the first superbrat of the contemporary Osun politics, hasbundle of talents, vision and mission; and he isOmisore’s nemesis and nightmare. And as thenemesis goes on vengeance, the meeting betweennemesis and nightmare is nightmarish forOmisore that tosses him about the way gentlebreeze can toss weightless objects such as piecesof paper.

If Aregbesola at his re-election mega rallies isterribly ‘mad’ about his multiple unprecedentedachievements in Osun, it is because, accordingto Aristotle, “no great genius has ever beenwithout some madness.” And his performancesas Osun governor are a statement that where thePDP failed in near eight years, the APC hasexcelled in near four years. Let Omisore begovernor for just six months, every ofAregbesola’s laudable achievements will betouched and turned into dust and ashes andcrumble in Omisore’s hands! And God forbids.Admittedly, without bashfulness, the touch willbe the touch of Satan: the touch of Hell, as Satanaptly puts it in Paradise Lost: “which way I flyis Hell; myself am Hell.”

Concerned always with sending a message ofcriminality, Omisore remains primitivelydominated by primitive greed, primitive hatred,primitive bitterness, primitive resentment, andprimitive crime. His political campaigns for thestate’s driver seat have degenerated into all outconfrontations in Ile-Ife, Iwo, Ilesha and othercities, and towns including Ifewara, Dagbaga andIbokun in the run up to the election. The PDP2007 carnage in Osun that shook the State to itsvery foundation would pale into insignificancewith the PDP 2014 mayhem in the kitty ofOmisore, as his PDP Waddata House and LegacyHouse have promised him politically motivatedharassments, hounds and assassinations to runOsun aground, mar the governorship pollgrandiose and win the state for Omisore, comeAugust 9, 2014.Abraham Lincoln must have beenbaffled at the irrationalities of PDP, and rattledby what could have impelled the PDP to alwayswant to spill the blood of the electorate to cometo power, as he gave his evocative definition ofdemocracy in his Gettysburg Address onNovember 19, 1863, at the Gettysburg battlefield, Pennsylvania, United States in the midstof the stench, blood and carnage associated withCivil War, Battle of Gettysburg. His definitionof democracy as “government of the people bythe people and for the people” was not given ata state dinner or at an inauguration marked bypomp and grandeur.

Omisore’s political rabble-rousing has gainedhim public attention. But, mark you! Whenambition is patently weird, wild and unguided,it often digs the grave for its own burial. “Allmen that are ruined,” reasoned Edmund Burke“are ruined on the side of their naturalpropensities.” It is true, and more true that notall ambitions have redeeming features. Omisoremay be arranging a rendezvous with disaster ashe marches against the changing tides of growthand development of Osun as are presently beingwitnessed and applauded by all.

To Omisore, schools are a haven of dissent,violence and rebellion.All of that, a preserve ofthe idiots were what Omisore learnt in schools.Afterall, “in the first place, God created idiots.This was for practice” in the words of MarkTwain, the great 19th century American writer inhis book, “Following the Equator”. Thenational secretariat of the ruling PDP at thecenter, acting out its scripts in Osun has disgracedthe nation. Politics, supposedly the tool withwhich man orders the society has always beenused by the PDP to reactivate contradictions;and the crippling contradictions engendered bythe poverty of vision of the PDP cannot beresolved in favor of forcing the Osun electorateto vote for the party. It can only be resolved infavour of permitting a free, fair and transparentelection as germane to the growth anddevelopment of democracy in Nigeria.

In his “Post-Ilesa Crisis in Retrospect”

(Osun Defender, Tuesday, 14 August, 2007)Isaac Olusesi writes:”The controversial verdictof the Independent National ElectoralCommission (INEC) on the April 12, 2007governorship election, in concert with the PDPcreated confusion all over the state. The INECdeclaration of falsified result pitched the PDPagainst the rival parties, particularly the ActionCongress (AC) on one hand, and against theelectorate state-wide on the other hand. Bloodyriots spontaneously broke out in Ilesa and theriots spread very fast, and very vast.

“Ever since the INEC announcement of thefalsified election results, Ilesa, the headquartersof Ijesaland and hot bed of Osun politics becamea time bomb, ticking away. Like a scene fromthe Gulf War, staccato of gun shots engulfedIlesa. Over five hundred armed policemen andsoldiers lay tormenting siege to the city andopened fire on anything, anybody in sight. Ilesabecame a theatre of war, and guns of varyingsophistication were used indiscriminately on theresidents.

“In a twinkle of an eye, several innocentcitizens were mowed down by the bullets fromthe rampaging soldiers and policemen, and thestreets of Ilesa became littered with corpses,oozing out hideous, nose-wrenching odours daysafter. Members and supporters of theopposition parties particularly Action Congress(AC) were blown up by bullets, scores of peoplesuffered injuries; and several buildings andvehicles were not spared. They were sprayedwith petrol and set ablaze. Still, severalopposition members were said to have beenabducted to God knows where.

“The fall-out of the Ilesa mayhem is that theentire Ijesaland has been polarized along thePDP-AC lines, with AC having its shouldershigh and above PDP. Aside from the physicalassaults and human assets losses recorded, themayhem left in its wake mental trauma andcreated a permanent suspicion and phobia amongthe residents. Everywhere in Ilesa, the mayhemand its destruction readily evoked near-scenesof the Nigerian Civil War. What was amiss in mylast report on the mayhem was that some prisoninmates of the Ilesa Prison had tried to capitalizeon the political situation to break jail, but forthe eagle eyes of the vigilant prison officials, incontrast to the highly Fakaied police in the state.

“For the survivors, anxiety underlined theirexistence. Anxiety about the whereabouts andsafety of the abducted political soul mates andrelatives. At the Wesley Guild Hospital, Ilesa,they queued up for a chance to find the corpsesof relatives who might have been kept in themortuary. The soldiers, manning the hospitalgate would bark: everybody clear from here! Ifthey no clear, clear them, and a very elderly manwho desperately was looking for the corpse ofhis wife, was truly roughened up.

“The lull in protests and consequently lift ofthe curfew, paradoxically paves way for silentkilling or what a resident would describe as agenocide in many locations in Ilesa and entireIjesaland.The reports of genocide could not beconfirmed, but what is clear is that some, inIlesa identified as “very powerful local PDPchieftains” have embarked on underground fiercecampaigns to have the Owa Obokun of Ijesaland,His Imperial Majesty Dr.AdekunleAromolaranmolested by the government as a prelude to hiseventual dethronement”

Let not Omisore kill himself on the heels ofthe announcement of the August 9, 2014gubernatorial election in Osun as he’s bound tolose out. A word for him. The road of life ispockmarked with pumps, pitfalls and a myriadof unseen hazards. He may still be driving hisluxury cars, using his escorts, masked guardsand sirens. He may keep himself frolicsome, inpampered leisure and provide self withnewspapers, coffee boy, cognac and cigars;obsessing self with free women in town anduntamed appetite for clothes and goldennecklaces, wristwatches and finger rings.Otherwise, life for him after his failedgovernorship ambition in August may be a sirenof silence: dull, drab and dreary.

•OLUSESI is Assistant Director, Directorateof Publicity, Research and Strategy, AllProgressives Congress, State of Osun.

•ADAMU MUAZU: PDP National Chair •GANIYU OLAOLUWA: Osun PDP Chair

15OSUN DEFENDER Tuesday, July 29, 2014

TUESDAY, JULY 29, 2014

www.osundefender.org THE 6TH MOST-VISITED NEWSPAPER WEBSITE IN NIGERIA

By ABIODUN KOMOLAFE “A man shall not beestablished bywickedness: but the rootof the righteous shall notbe moved.” - Proverbs 12:3

I am not a politician but a‘political animal’. I amalso not a card-carrying member of

All Progressives Party (APC) but aRauf Aregbesola’s sympathiser; and anunrepentant one at that! If I amtherefore tagged a politician because ofmy belief in the progressive credentialsof Aregbesola, so be it! In the samevein, if I am labelled an ‘Aregbewrapper’ as a result of my love for thisgreat man of honour, I owe nobody anyapology!

At a time like this, I cannot butremember my days at Ijebu-JesaGrammar School (IJGS), Ijebu-Jesawhen it was all fun traveling to townsand villages especially, within the-thenObokun Local Government CouncilArea of the old Oyo State for sportsand related social activities. I canconfirm that those were relatively goodold days, when towns were towns andschools were schools. At a time like thisas well, one cannot but begin to wonderwhat became of our government that,for close to three decades, residents ofmy council area were at the mercy ofthe state government. No thanks to thebad roads and absence of other socialamenities that were naturally taken forgranted in saner climes.

Specifically, between 1985, when Ileft IJGS and 2010, when Aregbesolawas sworn-in as Osun State governor,schools in the state had becomesomething else and hitherto passableroads had become such death traps thatresidents completely got cut-off fromthe rest of the world. People groanedin the rough of aches and moaned inthe tumble of pains. Hunger begathunger, poverty took the place ofaffluence and it was as if the gods wereangry!

Entered the Rauf Aregbesola-ledadministration on November 27, 2010and the state was again on the path togreatness. Within the first three years inoffice, Aregbesola saw to the trainingand empowerment of over 5,000 youthsin Information Technology through theOsun Youth Empowerment TechnologyScheme (OYESTECH); somethousands of the stand-alone,multimedia, e-learning Opon ImoTablets were distributed to students,while others are expected to benefitfrom the scheme through localproduction by a company already sitedin the state. Within the same period, nofewer than 750,000 pupils and studentswere given free school uniforms, with

over 3000 tailors trained andempowered to sew school uniforms.Primary School Funding Grants alsoincreased from 7.4 million to N424million a year, while Secondary SchoolBasic Funding Grants rose from N171million to N427 million a year.

During the period under review,tuition fees in state-owned tertiaryinstitutions got reduced by close to 30per cent, even as 254,000 elementarystudents were fed daily with nutritiousmeals through government’sO’MEALS scheme, a project that alsoled to the employment, training andempowerment as cooks of 3000people. Since the foodstuffs weresourced and prepared locally, thescheme brought about the annualinjection of N4 billion into the economyof the state. Aregbesola’s era alsowitnessed the inauguration of OmoluabiGarments Factory, as well as OmoluabiConservation Fund into which N4.2

billion reserve has so far been injected.Also worthy of mention is Osun YouthEmpowerment Scheme (OYES), whichhas succeeded in taking off the streetsand engagement of 40,000 unemployedyouths. Efforts to enrol more youths intothe programme is also in top gear. State-of-the-art Police Stations were builtand patrol vehicles, ArmouredPersonnel Carriers and related securityequipment were also donated tosecurity agencies towards theenhancement of security of lives andproperty. What about those ‘Stop! MaP’ara e!’ Aregbesola-constructedroads that adorn the nooks and cranniesof the state, in addition to O’CLEAN’sbi-monthly state-wide environmentalexercise and Agricultural FarmSettlements Project through which1,765 hectares of land were clearedand prepared for farmers?

The state was able to build 74Primary Health Centres and

rehabilitated its nine hospitals and12 Comprehensive HealthCentres, thereby aiding theprovision of sustained free healthservices to all, irrespective of age,gender, political affiliations orreligious inclinations. Through itsfree medical and surgical missionsprogramme, government wasable to provide free treatment and

surgeries to thousands of citizens; and,through its Osun State AmbulanceService Authority, not less than 400youths have been trained asparamedics. 123 kilometres ofwaterways (streams, arteries andcanals) were dredged to keep the stateflood-free for three years and InternallyGenerated Revenue (IGR) increasedfrom N300 million to N1.6 billionwithout any increase in tax payable bycitizens.

In my personal opinion, the educationsector seems to have been the mostblessed. Apart from those education-related dividends, which I haveenumerated above, Government of theState of Osun, under Aregbesola, alsoembarked on the building of no fewerthan 40 Elementary, Model and HighSchools to cater for its ever-increasingpopulation of pupils and students. Somehave been completed and already putto use, while some will be commissionedwithin the next two weeks. This is inaddition to the 20 new sites,, which willalso be opened within the same period.During the period under review, 7,000additional teachers were employed;with all outstanding allowances paid andall entitlements settled.

The governor also graciouslyapproved the creation of fourPermanent Secretary positions (that is,Tutors-General) for the teaching cadre.And, on July 18, over 30 brand newbuses were distributed to all councilareas across the state to conveystudents to their respective schools.Aregbesola,within so short a period oftime in office, has transformed Osuninto an attractive city, a state of aquaticsplendour and a centre of touristattraction offering superb views. A manof poise and panache, this small-in-stature-but-mighty-in-spirit Ilesa-bornpolitician has changed the face of Osuninto a state looking ahead to the future.No doubt about it: Aregbesola is witty,disciplined, teachable, responsible andpassionate about leaving not only Osunbut also the world better than he met it.Little wonder he was described inWikipedia as “the Best Governor OsunState has ever produced since thecreation of the state.” Of course, that’swhy we all want him at Bola Ige Housefor another term of four years!

•Komolafe writes from Ijebu-Jesa, State of Osun.

OSUN DEFENDER is published by Moremi Publishing House Limited, Promise Point Building, Opposite Guaranty Trust Bank GTB, Gbongan Road, Osogbo, State of Osun. Allcorrespondence to the Managing Editor, KOLA OLABISI, Telephone: 08033927286 (kolaolabisi@yahoo.com); Editor, KAYODE AGBAJE, Telephone: 0803-388-0205, E-mail:osundefender@yahoo.com, kayodeagbaje@yahoo.com. ISSN: 0794-8050.Website: www.osundefender.org.

Why AregbesolaDeserves Another Term

•AREGBESOLA