Osun season of projects, commissioning

One of the remodelled schools

In the last couples of months, series of infrastructural and developmental projects embarked upon by the administration of Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State have been commissioned.

The bulk of these infrastructural projects involve massive road construction and new school buildings under the on-going educational reform in the state.

The administration had on assumption of office on November 27, 2010 made its first charge the completion of various projects initiated by the Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola administration before embarking on fresh ones encompassed in its Six Point Integral Action Plan which is its blue print of actions and programmes.

The administration of Aregbesola also embarked on the rehabilitation and re-construction of most of the roads across the 30 local government councils of the state to engender free flow traffic.

It rehabilitated over 20 intercity roads totalling 319 kilometres, 13 intra-city roads totalling 79.46 kilometres and some selected roads in six administrative zones of the state totalling 74.1 kilometres.

Not done yet, it awarded to contractors the dualisation of Osogbo to Ela-Odo in Kwara State boundary road totalling 43.37 kilometres, dualisation of Gbongan-Orileowu-Ijebu Igbo road, dualization of 30km Akoda-Gbongan road and construction of inter-change bridge as well as Osogbo West Bye Pass Express way named after the former Governor of the defunct Western Region and Ooni of Ife, Oba Adesoji Aderemi among other.

Some selected roads in the state capital, Osogbo, were also rehabilitated totalling 21km, 15km roads in Ilesa and 14km in Ede aside from construction of 229km local government roads spread across all the 31 local government councils including Modakeke Area Office.

Besides, the first aerodrome in the entire West Africa located at Ido-Osun in Egbedore Local Government Council of the state over 90 years ago is being re-constructed into modern airport by the state government. The project will gulp nothing less than N4.5bn. The State Government has further signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with foreign partner for the construction of both helicopter and aeroplane hangars where damaged helicopters and aeroplanes would be hanged for repair. This will be the first of its kind in Nigeria and even in West Africa region.

Under the new school system; the state is targeting building 100 Elementary Schools, 50 Middle Schools and 20 High Schools as first phase and is poised to commit a whopping sum of N30billion to the school infrastructure upgrade under this phase.

The High School will be having facilities such as boarding, staff quarters, standard laboratories, food courts, standard sporting facilities, school hall of 1000minimum sitting capacity and school managers for properfacility management.

As at last count, the state has committed a sum of N14.41billion into school construction of 39 elementary schools, 14 middle schools and 12 high schools while a sum of N1.6billion was expended on renovation of dilapidated and reconstructed schools together with a sum of N2.5billion spent on the purchase of school furniture.

While all these projects were at various completion stages, none of them was commission officially based on the conviction that the current administration to prudently manage the scarcely hard earned resources of the state. The state government was of the belief that the projects are meant for people and that once they are completed; they should be made available for use by the citizens.

But the opposition in the state introduced politics to this conviction by claiming that nothing has been done by the current administration and therefore nothing for it to commission.

The government then changed its style and started commissioning these projects one after the other for people especially those outside Osun to see and know what is going on in the state.

Project commissioning of the current administration started on Wednesday October 2, 2013 with Salvation Army Middle School, Alekunwodo, Osogbo amidst pump and pageantry. It was attended by array of prominent traditional rulers, market men and women, artisans, professional groups, civil societies, parents and teachers and thousands of people.

It also turned the sod of the new Baptist High School in Ejigbo with fanfare around January and later commissioned the Baptist Central Elementary School, Ilare in Ile-Ife on Tuesday February 18, 2014.

The latest commissioning is the state-of-the-art Ansar-udeen (AUD) Government Elementary School, Isale-Osun in Osogbo on Thursday March 14, 2014. It was witnessed by unprecedented crowd including the Ataoja of Osogbo, Oba Olanipekun Larooye.

The school is to accommodate about 1,000 pupils, with 28 classrooms, hall, sickbay, staff room, grassed courtyard, recreational toys, basketball court with an area fitted with swings, and other toys.

But the Director of Communication and Strategy in the office of the Governor, Mr. Semiu Okanlawon emphasised the fact that the commissioning of series of projects now has no political undertone nor due to the criticism mounted by the opposition. He explained the current is not border about the criticism of the opposition in the state describing it as diversionary.

Speaking at the commissioning, Osun State Deputy Governor who is also the Commissioner for Education, Mrs. Grace Titilayo Laoye- Tomori, said that the spate of works done on the schools’ reform in the state have confirmed to the people that the current administration is focused on its’ mission of salvaging the battered education sector as a result of many years of neglect.

She explained that the various reforms are already yielding fruits as indicated in the drastic improvement in the results of public examinations where students from the state now take part in.

According to her, “today, we are witnessing the fulfillment of one of the promises of the governor before he came in. Since the commencement of the reforms programme of this administration, we have built 1,724 classrooms in 39 schools throughout the state and the job continues.

“This government is determined to ensure that there is a level playing field in the education of our children in Osun.

Performing the commissioning, the governor reiterated that the policies and programmes of his administration have been deeply steeped in vision, well-oiled by passion, and firmly backed by action.

He noted that as far as education in Osun is concerned, government is on a mission to develop the greatest asset in nature and the human mind.

The governor stressed that his administration is aware of the fact that leadership is empty without vision and that vision without action will not lead to any transformation and development.

He pointed out that the commissioning of another new model school building is another sign of the administration’s serious intent to completely remake the public education system in the state.

His words, “when I assumed office as the governor of the state, I had a vision of what the future of education in Osun public school should be like. It is a vision that sees our public sector education on a comparable level with what obtains in the most educationally advanced parts of the world.

“It is towards the realisation of this vision that the energy and attention of my government have been resolutely focused. It is a vision that we intend to see through without minding the obstacles in our path.

“This education mission is solely driven by public interest without preference for any private interest, be it religious or otherwise. As I said during the last elementary school commissioning in Ile-Ife, the goal of our education policy is bringing about human advancement and progress, which are desires that are common to all members of the human family.

Aregbesola stressed that the overriding purpose of Osun education policy is to give children what it takes to be masters of their environment, adding that government sees nothing wrong with the policy and that it is the right thing to do.

The governor called on detractors of the education policy to change their mindset, because government is not about to change course.

“In the building of more schools, we will keep on confronting them with the evidence of their futility; and with the accompanying message that they can neither alter our focus nor can they derail our mission.

“For this is one mission we regard as our sacred duty towards our children and their own children that are yet unborn. And we will not fail them. And if only for their sake, we will stick with what we are doing until our mission is accomplished”. He told the gathering.