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  • Aregbesola, Mimiko, Falana, others attend Ofeimun’s 70th birthday lecture

    Aregbesola, Mimiko, Falana, others attend Ofeimun’s 70th birthday lecture

    Nigeria’s Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, human rights lawyer, Femi Falana and former governor of Ondo State, Olusegun Mimiko on Monday in Lagos attended the 70th birthday lecture in honour renowned poet and author, Odia Ofeimun.

     

    Aregbesola who chaired the conference held at the University of Lagos with the theme, “Taking Nigeria Seriously in speech said that intellectuals, writers and poets at the best of times are not well materially endowed as a result of the economic dependent category they belong to, and as such the gathering cannot but stimulate cogitation on the plight of writers, poets and intellectuals in a challenging economy. ‘’

    Aregbesola noted that contrary to popular assumption, that Nigeria was not rich, although has huge untapped potential to be among the richest in the world, the poverty evidently has been the result of its burgeoning non-qualitative and non-productive population, which regrettably and ironically has impacted badly on writers who devote their lifetime chronicling the challenges of the nation and working hard on how to overcome them.

    Also speaking at the event, former Ondo State governor noted that the unemployment situation in the country ”speaks to the poor state of the economy”.

    “Again, you don’t need to tell anybody that the economy in Nigeria has failed,” he said. “The level of failure of our economy is on the streets.”

    Mr Mimiko said that irrespective of what the Nigerian bureau of statistics says about unemployment, if everything is factored into the mix, graduate unemployment should be “more than eighty per cent.”

    “That’s why there is cultism, there is violence,” the former governor said.

    “The young ones have no Biodun Jeyifos, no G.G Daras, there is no Osofisan to look up to. They only look up to Marley… Marley Naira or whatever.”

    An excited Ofeimun in his appreciation remarks thanked the dignitaries and guests for attending the epoch-making event.

    https://www.instagram.com/p/B91BO_SDcXr/

     

     

     

    “I am happy that all of you are here to see me at 70.I am glad to be here at 70.I always wish to be an old man. They told my mother when I was young that I won’t last long. She was so frightened. She spent her moments trying to get a second son. It became my responsibility to try to be something bigger that one son could have been”.

    Reputed literary scholar, Biodun Jeyifo, Popular veteran actress, Taiwo Ajayi Lycett also graced the occasion.

     

  • Aregbesola, Agbakoba, others for Odia Ofeimun at 70

    Aregbesola, Agbakoba, others for Odia Ofeimun at 70

    The Odia Ofeimun at 70 Committee is pleased to announce activities to mark the 70th Birthday Celebrations of Odia Ofeimun, a most distinguished and remarkable Nigerian, which will occur on Monday, March 16, 2020.

    In this regard, the Committee is hosting the Taking Nigeria Seriously: A Conference in Honour of Odia Ofeimun, which would hold at the Julius Berger Hall of the University of Lagos campus on March 16 and 17. The celebration will end with a Special Dinner in honour of the celebrant on the evening of March 17 at the Hall of the University of Lagos Guest House.

    The Odia Ofeimun at 70 conference will be a gathering of intellectuals, scholars and academics from within Nigeria, Africa and as wide as from North America and Europe. The Keynote will be given by Professor Biodun Jeyifo, a reputed literary scholar and globally recognised cultural theorist, who until recently was with Harvard University in the United States of America.

    The Opening Ceremony of the Conference, holding by 10 a.m. on March 16 at the same venue, will be chaired by Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, the Honourable Minister of Interior of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, while the Dinner on March 17 will be chaired by the renowned civil rights activist and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Olisa Agbakoba.

    Ofeimun is a foremost Nigerian poet, journalist, dance-drama producer, critic, columnist and public intellectual. Odia has for more than four decades now, exerted a phenomenal presence in the Nigerian cultural, creative, intellectual and political space. He served as Private Secretary to Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the late Nigerian nationalist and politician between 1978 and 1981; was a member of the editorial board of The Guardian from 1983 to 1988, Chairman of the Editorial Board of The News, Tempo and AM News from 1993 to 1999, and President of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) from 1993 to 1997.

     

    Ofeimun’s Hornbill House of Culture represents a platform, which he has continued to use to execute his multi-dimensional activities including writing, dance-drama production, book publishing, cultural promotion and political interventions. He has close to forty (40) published books to his name; they include volumes of poetry, collections of critical essays, anthologies of cultural and political interventions, and compilations of journalistic writings. In 2010, Odia Ofeimun won the Fonlon Nichols award for excellence in writing and human rights activism. He is an exemplary man in many respects and his contributions to Nigeria letters and ideas as well as public life make him richly deserving of such an honour.

     

  • Osun: Oyetola reverses Aregbesola’s education policies

    The Osun State Government has reversed former Governor Rauf Aregbesola’s contentious education policies by reversing the extant 4-5-3-4 policy to the 6-3-3-4 system.

    The government also set aside the single uniform regime which was in operation during Aregbesola’s tenure.

    But the government retained ‘Opon Imo,’ otherwise known as ‘Tablet of Knowledge.’

    This was announced at a joint press conference by Commissioners for Information and Civic Orientation, and Education, Mrs. Funke Egbemode and Mr. Olayinka Oladoyin Folorunsho respectively, on behalf of the Government after the State Executive Council meeting, held on Monday 2nd March 2020.

    Egbemode said the decision was reached after an exhaustive deliberation on the report of the Education Panel set up by the Governor to review some of the extant education practices and policies.

    She said that the Council unanimously agreed on the ten issues raised in the report and accepted the recommendations.

    “The Council approved the recommendations to revert to the 6-3-34 structure in keeping with the provision of National Policy on Education as this will entail adequate physical and instructional facilities at all levels; adequate provision in quantity and quality of well-motivated teachers at all levels”, Egbemode reported.

    She further stated that “the Council agreed that the state government will do well to allow every school return to its old established and recognised public uniform.

    “The Council observed that the Omoluabi Education Services Limited is not performing the duties, roles and obligations expected and it was approved that the operation of Omoluabi Education Services Limited be wound up since it has not been fulfilling the mandates for which it was established.

    “It was also agreed that Early Childhood Care Development Education (ECCDE) in line with the practice in the 35 other states in Nigeria be restored,” Mrs. Egbemode added.

    Other decisions reached were the reversal of schools to their former status, whereby only single sex identified with those school names should be admitted while students already affected by the name change should be issued letter of attestation by the ministry of education and male students who are currently in SS1 and SS2 in schools established for female learners only should be relocated immediately and vice-versa.

    It was stated that the Council also approved the reversal of ‘High School’ to the old nomenclature ‘Grammar School’.

    Similarly, the Council also approved the need for government to strengthen the technical and vocational education/training by upgrading structure and facilities of government Technical Colleges for effective service delivery, while Opon-Imo otherwise known as tablet of knowledge will be retained and restructured to serve the purpose it was meant for.

    Moderating the briefing, the Chief Press Secretary to Governor Adegboyega Oyetola, Mr Ismail Omipidan, noted that the speculations about the policy being a jab at the former administration was not correct, stating that the new policies are the government’s response to the yearnings of the people which the governor holds sacred.

  • Just in: Senate summons Aregbesola over FG’s visa on arrival policy

    The Senate on Tuesday summoned the Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbosola, to appear before it with the Comptroller General of the Nigerian Immigration Service, Muhammed Babandede.

    Aregbesola and Babandede are to brief the Senate on Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters on latest visa on arrival policy for Africans visiting Nigeria by the Federal Government announced by President Muhammadu Buhari in Egypt.

    The invitation of the Minister followed a point of order raised by the Senator representing Ekiti North Senatorial District, Olubunmi Adetunmbi.

    Adetunmbi had drawn the attention of the Senate to the fact that the executive did not seek necessary amendments to extant laws by the National Assembly before the policy became operational.

    Buhari had in his speech during the Aswan Forum on peace and sustainable development in Egypt, said that African passport holders can apply for a visa upon arrival in the country, in a move aimed at encouraging free circulation of people on the continent.

    “We in Nigeria have already taken the strategic decision to bring down barriers that have hindered the free movement of our people within the continent by introducing the issuance of visa at the point of entry into Nigeria to all persons holding passports of African countries with effect from January 2020,” Buhari said.

    “We should furthermore promote free trade within and amongst Africa and Africans especially now that we have launched the African Free Trade Area Agreement,” he added.

  • Photos: Aregbesola’s former deputy, Titi Laoye-Tomori remarries 79-year-old Osun prince

    Photos: Aregbesola’s former deputy, Titi Laoye-Tomori remarries 79-year-old Osun prince

    The immediate past Deputy Governor of Osun State, Grace Titi Laoye-Tomori has remarried after four children in a previous marriage.

    The woman that Minister for Interior Rauf Aregbesola and her former boss once described as “a woman of extreme value, an achiever per excellence”, got married to Prince Michael Tunde Ponle, industrialist and owner of MicCom Cables & Wires Ltd and the golf resort in Ada, Osun.

    Titi is 70, while Ponnle is 79.

    Ponnle, an engineer first married in 1966 to Comfort Olufunke Ponnle, with whom he combined building the cable business. She died in 2012.

  • Aregbesola promises consolidation of policies, reforms

    The Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, has pledged to continue with the policies and reforms embarked on by his predecessor, Lt.- Gen. Abdulrahman Dambazau (Rtd).

    He said the polices and reforms were in line with the “SET” objectives of President Muhammadu Buhari-led Administration of improving security, economic revitalisation and entrenching transparency (SET) in the conduct of government business.

    A statement on Sunday by Mr Mohammed Manga, Director, Press and Public Relations of the ministry, disclosed that the minister stated this at a reception in honour of Dambazau in Abuja.

    Aregbesola acknowledged that the former Minister has done creditably well, particularly in the area of repositioning the services under the Ministry.

    He said this was through ensuring that the services were given the needed support to aid them in the maintenance of internal security, in line with the mandate of the Ministry.

    Aregbesola added that the former Minister was able to provide the Ministry with a befitting office complex for the Minister.

    He noted that all the reforms and policies that Dambazau initiated while in office were to ensure the provision of internal security for Nigerians.

    The Minister said this would helped in improving the economy and ensuring transparency and good governance for the citizens.

    Aregbesola said the ministry would collaborate with relevant security agencies through the sharing of information with the view to arresting all forms of security threats.

    He observed that there was no meaningful development that would take place without adequate security.

    “Therefore, Nigerians must begin to see security as everyone’s business if only the country is to move to the next level of socio-economic development,” he said.

    The Minister pointed out that corruption was also a cankerworm that Nigerians must fight headlong, as there is no country in the world that can attain meaningful development with corruption.

    “We must together fight this menace and ensure transparency in all our dealings,” he said.

    He emphasised that the issue of Security, Economy and anti-corruption does not begin and end on Buhari’s table alone.

    “It belongs to you, me and all Nigerians, We must all join hands with President Muhammadu Buhari to address these issues, politics and sentiments apart.

    “We must begin to have a rethink that it is a battle that all Nigerians irrespective of their status in the society must together join hands with government to do away with them.

    “We must together join hands as a team to move the country to the next level,” he affirmed.

    Dambazau thanked Buhari for granting him the opportunity to serve, particularly in a Ministry that housed para-military officers.

    He said it accorded him the opportunity as a retired military officer to learn more.

    He dedicated his successes while in office to God, who elevated him to the peak of his career, both in the military and in academics and that it behoves on him now to serve the people.

    The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Interior, Mrs Georgina Ehuriah, in her welcome address eulogised the former Minister.

    She described him as “a workaholic boss” whose innumerable achievements had led to the actualisation of Buhari’s Change Agenda in the sector.

    “These can be seen from the outstanding successes recorded by the Federal Fire Service through the acquisition of firefighting equipment, the Nigeria Prisons Service which culminated in the Nigeria Correctional Service and the Nigeria Immigration Service among others.”

    Ehuriah added that Dambazau’s achievements in the promotion of internal security could not be forgotten in the history of Nigeria too soon.

    “Many a man would have buckled under the pressure of the hydra headed security challenges confronting our beloved country.

    “But you fought like the General that you are and just yesterday, you gave a passionate treatise replete with strategies to be deployed to achieve peace in the North East and Lake Chad area,” she said.

  • Aregbesola once gave me his salary – Senator Abbo

    Senator Elisha Abbo has recounted how the immediate past Governor of Osun State, Rauf Aregbesola gave him his salary in 2012 when he was in need.
    Abbo, who allegedly beat up a woman in a sex toy shop in Abuja recently, was speaking on the floor of the Senate when Aregbesola was being screened for a ministerial appointment.
    According to Abbo, when he contested the Local Government chairmanship election in Adamawa State in 2012, he visited the Government House in Osogbo and that the former governor gave him his whole month salary.
    “In 2012, when I contested for LG chairman in Adamawa, I visited you in Government House, Osogbo and you gave me your whole salary for that month. I confirm your nomination,” he told the Senate.
    Also, Senator Surajudeen Bashiru also said he earned N184,000 as commissioner in Aregbesola’s second term, saying that no commissioner got an official car.
    “As a commissioner in (Aregebsola’s) second term, my take-home pay in total was N184,000. None of his commissioners got an official car and I did not get official accommodation,” he said.

  • Narrative on salary arrears in Osun during my tenure mischievous, based on Ignorance – Aregbesola

    Narrative on salary arrears in Osun during my tenure mischievous, based on Ignorance – Aregbesola

    Former governor of Osun state Rauf Aregbesola said on Monday that rumours of owed salaries in Osun during his tenure was due to mischief and ignorance.
    Aregbesola made this known during his turn for ministerial screening and confirmation before the Nigerian Senate.
    Aregbesola said “We (Osun State Government) ensured between July 2015 and July 2018 that public servants on level one to seven and they constitute about 72 per cent in the state earned their full pay, contrary to the belief that every civil servant was paid 50 per cent.”
    “By 2014, our nation was in distress, and virtually all states had difficulty with salaries.
    “We came up with an approach that there is no month that any public official did not have salary every month,” he said.
    Aregbesola is the 35th nominee to be screened by the upper chamber.
    Details soon…

  • Why Tribunal verdict on Osun governorship poll cannot stand – Aregbesola

    Why Tribunal verdict on Osun governorship poll cannot stand – Aregbesola

    Former Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola has described the judgment of the Election Petition Tribunal last Friday, which nullified the election of Governor Gboyega Oyetola as very strange and unknown to law.

    Aregbesola, in a statement by his Media Adviser, Mr. Sola Fasure, said the report of the split judgment came to every watcher of political events in the state as a rude shock.

    In the statement entitled: “This judgment cannot stand,” the former governor said the people of the state and the government have the highest regards for the judiciary and would keep having high regards for the revered institution.

    Aregbesola, however, regretted that the tribunal’s majority judgment was strange to law and common sense.

    He said the majority judgment, as delivered by their Lordship, did not support the cause of electoral justice and might constitute the death knell for properly conducted elections.

    Aregbesola said the people rejected the majority judgment and believe that it would not stand scrutiny at the appellate court.

    The statement noted that the majority judgment, which held that the rerun election conducted in seven polling units on the September 27, 2018, was illegal, null and void, was equally shocking and amounts to a travesty of justice.

    He said the government would appeal the judgment, adding that the verdict would be upturned.

    The former governor wondered why elections in 17 polling would be annulled when there was no evidence of any act known to render them null and void in an election petition such as over-voting, non-accreditation, ballot box stuffing among others.

    Aregbesola contended that concern for substantive justice should have dictated that since the results from the 17 units were duly signed and adjudged by INEC to be authentic, there should not have been any controversy over there validity.

    He lamented that the tribunal has effectively disenfranchised the legitimate voters in the 17 polling units and rendered the election undemocratic.

    The statement said: “In nullifying the elections in the 17 polling units, the majority judgment predicated it on what is regarded as ‘substantial non-compliance’ with the provisions of the Electoral Act 2010. The said non-compliance, according to the judgment, borders on the failure of INEC’s appointed presiding officers to record accreditation and ballot accounting on the result forms in the 17 polling units.

    “There was no evidence of any act known to render election null and void in an election petition such as over voting, non-accreditation, ballot box stuffing etc.

    “This much was highlighted in the dissenting judgment of the Chairman of the Tribunal in disagreeing with the majority decision.

    “It must be noted that APC and its candidate were not accused of any electoral malfeasance in the 17 polling units. Rather, INEC, a common agent of PDP and APC (and indeed, all the political parties), which neither of the parties has control over was merely accused of not complying with its manual for the election, when the presiding officers appointed for the election failed to make the entries.

    “Therefore, the most relevant question one would pose here is: should the tribunal allow APC to suffer as a result of the mistakes or omissions occasioned by the INEC staff? Certainly, no!”

    The statement added: “Equally shocking are the reasons advanced by the two justices. They advanced the proposition that elections in the seven polling units were cancelled by the state collation officer. This was not the case. There were no elections in the seven polling units, and if there was any, the onus was on the petitioners. This onus was not discharged in anyway as no results was tendered.

    “The state collation officer in compliance with the margin of lead principle rightly reasoned that the outcomes of the elections could not be determined without conducting polls in the affected elections. Hence the commission’s decision to conduct supplementary elections in line with these principles.”

    The ex-governor urged APC members, “supporters and lovers of justice, who have been outraged by this verdict, to be calm and unruffled”.

    He insisted that the verdict cannot stand.

    “As they say in law, you cannot build something on nothing,”Aregbesola said.

  • I didn’t receive salary for eight years as governor — Aregbesola

    The outgoing governor of Osun State, Rauf Aregbesola has said that he did not earn salaries throughout the eight years of his administration.

    Aregbesola disclosed this during an interactive programme tagged ‘Ogbeni Till Day Break’ on Saturday in Osogbo.

    The governor said since it was the state that was feeding him,fueling his cars and provided him with accommodation, there was no need for him to be paid.

    Aregbesola also said that he did not have bank accounts where money was kept in any part of the world.

    He said,”I have not collected salaries since I became the governor of the state.

    “The state feeds me, fuel my car and provided me accommodation. With all these, I don’t need money.

    “I have no money and bank account anywhere .

    ” I have no house except the one I built before I became the governor.

    “Anyone can go out there to investigate if I have bank accounts.”

    Aregbesola who will handing over to the governor-elect, Alhaji Gboyega Oyetola on Nov. 27 said he would vacate the government house by Monday, Nov. 19.

    He said that the decision to leave the government house earlier was to give his successor enough time to do necessary renovations.

    When asked what his regrets were as a governor in the last eight years, he said he had no regrets.

    He said, ”If you give me another four years to rule again, I will still do what I did before and I will not do anything differently.”

    On his next political plans after office, Aregbesola said he was going to rest for awhile from politics.

    “l had been in politics since my secondary school days. I have had been an absentee husband for many years because of politics but for now, I want to be with my wife,” Aregbesola said.

    On his achievements, the governor said he was happy that his social investment programmes supported and transformed the lives of the people in the state.

    He also said that the infrastructure development his administration embarked upon would continue to be a reference point in the state, adding that all the roads he built would last for the next 50 years.

    Aregbesola, however described his successor as a silent achiever and a goal-getter expected to build on his legacies.

    He said “Oyetola is not radical like me but he is a silent achiever.

    “He contributed immensely to the success of my administration and I know he will do well in office.”