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Osun is moving; Aregbesola is Working

Tuesday, 11 February 2014

Warped and distorted facts about Opon Imo

        Warped and distorted facts about Opon Imo

As a conscious adult indigene of Osun State, I have never wavered in my conviction that Senator Iyiola Omisore has no respect for facts. Anyone in doubt of his disregard for truth, especially the wisdom in the aphorism, ‘opinion is free, fact is sacred’, needs not look any further than his latest utterances regarding the electronic learning device introduced by the Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola administration. The sacredness of fact in respect to the distribution of the stand-alone device means nothing to this overly desperate People’s Democratic Party politician.
In a recent report in a national newspaper credited to Omisore, he stood truth on its head when he let forth the unsupportable claim that the state government had ‘distributed just 900 Opon Imo till date’. He went further to assert that ‘the project is a deceit and everybody knows this’.
When his supposed truth is scanned on the screen of fact, it comes forth as untruth. At the launch of the solar-powered device last June, I remember Aregbesola explained that of the 150,000 units to be distributed to students and teachers, only 50,000 units would be imported, while the remaining 100,000 would be assembled in Osun. This point was even reiterated in the reaction of the state Commissioner for Education, Mr Sunday Akere. And just a few weeks ago, the governor commissioned a $50 million phone factory at Ilesa, where the 100,000 units of Opon Imo would be produced.
Unable to fathom the uncommon commitment of the present administration to the implementation of its promises, Omisore freely elected to distort the fact about the units of the tablet computer distributed up to date. As government and media sources revealed, 20,000 units of the learning device have been distributed to some teachers and students across different schools in the state. The state government has reportedly received the remaining 30,000 units to be distributed soon. But Omisore, inured to the self-pleasing music of his untruths, chose to disregard verifiable facts and so speciously howled that only 900 units had been distributed. Except to himself and his tiny band of admirers, he has not been able to substantiate his hollow assertion with reliable and provable facts. Omisore has continued to hammer facts on the head because he has been unable to command a considerable followership and substantial supporters through excellent performance like Aregbesola.
It is on record that the introduction of the tablet computer to high school students of Osun has greatly improved their performance in public examinations like SSCE. With about 57 preloaded textbooks on 17 school subjects, Opon Imo has provided students access to relevantly current learning materials. Parents and guardians too have been relieved of the heavy financial burden of buying many of the expensive textbooks. It beats me hollow that Omisore wrongly believes that these parents who enjoy this kind of government intervention and even teachers who no longer have students without learning materials to teach would bond with him to deplore the state government’s programmes and initiatives as ‘fraudulent and deceitful’!
Sadly, Omisore speaks falsely when in that media outing he noted that the school reclassification initiative and the mega schools springing up in different areas in Osun have negatively affected the education system of the state. In spite of the exaggerated controversy surrounding it, it must be noted that the school reclassification is one of the most commended ideas of the state government. It is a fact that the school system in Osun has undergone such transformation that makes it evidently distinguishable from the one run by the PDP government in about seven years. So then, if Omisore says the replacement of dilapidated classrooms with modern ones built to internationally acclaimed standards destroys the education system, we should simply understand that his ability to appreciate quality has been taken over by his inordinate pastime for gross distortion of facts.
Clearly, in matters dealing with facts, Omisore has proved a failure. Therefore, he should be informed that his mounting repulsive untruths and deliberate distortion of facts will never unlock the precious hearts of the voters in Osun to him. Not long ago when work began on Gbongan- Akoda road and Osogbo-Ila-Odo road, he claimed he had awarded the contracts for the same roads and paid the contractors when he was in the Senate. His capacity for untruths became laughable when he was asked to state the capacity in which he was awarding contract and making payments.
The people of Osun would rather return a performing leader whose programmes have ministered positive changes to their socio-economic conditions. They won’t exchange that with the uncertain promises of a politician whose words and conducts reveal his leadership inadequacies.

Oyelade wrote from Ile-Ife, Osun State

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