Considering the level of success of the Governor Rauf Aregbesola-led administration in Osun State with a year, no doubt, the one year anniversary of the administration in office was indeed worthy of celebration and it was celebrated colourfully.
Within one year of his administration, Governor Aregbesola has justified the confidence reposed in him by the people of the state and some of the achievements recorded by the administration within a year includes the rebranding of the state and rechristened it as the state of Omoluabi, a situation that had restored the lost integrity of the state and its people; employment of 20 youths within 100 days in office under Osun Youths Empowerment Scheme (OYES), an initiative which was the first kind in the entire sub-sahara region; establishment of Osun Rural Enterprise and Agricultural Programme (O’REAP), through which the people of the state are being encouraged to participate in farming with special consideration for massive food production; Osun Clean (O’CLEAN), a programme designed to ensure environmental cleanliness and make people remain healthy; Osun Tourism (O’TOUR), lunched to drive the tourism potentials for the economic development of the state through which tourists are being encouraged to invest in the potentials of the state being the source of Yoruba people; and financial re-engineering, through which the administration was able to relieve the state of its huge debt burden left by the ousted administration and saved money for series of developmental project to the tune of N35 billion.
Also, 50 per cent reduction in the school fees of the state-owned tertiary institutions has gone a long way in reducing the financial burden on parents and guardians; the government carried out the dredging and channelization of rivers and streams that have been causing flooding to safe the people from the yearly incident of flooding which had in the past claimed many lives and destroyed properties worth millions of naira; nutritious feeding of pupils at primary school; rebuilding of new schools; reviving of total free education; introduction of computer tablets through which students will be made to learn and read their books with ease; cancelling of WAEC qualifying examination for all the students in SSS3 and payment of WAEC fees for all of them; recruitment of 8,554 teachers to be deployed to both primary and secondary schools; establishment of OYESTECH, through which a large number of OYES volunteers were exposed to ICT training and make them to be self-reliance; free eye surgery and distribution of eye glasses tagged Jigi Omoluabi; free surgery for all kind of ailments and distribution of free drugs; and distribution of loan to farmers to the tune of N2 billion.
These are only few that could be enumerated among many other achievements that had been recorded by Governor Aregbesola administration within one year and in view of this, a 16-day programme of activities was lined up to celebrate the one year anniversary in office and showcased what had been achieved so far.
The 16-days event was kicked-off on Monday, November 21 with a press conference addressed by the Chief of Staff to the Governor, Mr Gboyega Oyetola who double as the Chairman, Anniversary Planning Committee to roll out the programmes of activities for the celebration and it was rounded-off on Tuesday, December 6, with the Anniversary Lecture as well as lunching of three book – The Return of Oranmiyan; the Power of Oral and Documentary Evidence and Bola Tinubu: Threading the Path of Awo.
November 22 was the opening of Art and Photo Exhibition; November 23 was a day of a landmark event, Ogbeni Till Daybreak or A Night with Ogbeni where the people of the state and beyond were able to interact with the governor for over seven hours while on November 24, the governor addressed a World Press Conference. On that same day, his wife, Mrs Sherifat Aregbesola had an interactive session with Youths and Special Needs and distributed some materials for the people with special needs.
Other activities to mark the occasion were OYES Marathon where the governor engage in a 10 kilometer walk with OYES volunteers; Novelty Match between the Lagos State Legislators and Osun State Legislators; Dinner With Bankers where the governor was able to rub minds with Managing Directors and Chief Executive Officers of various banks on how to develop the economy of the state; State Banquet which was corroborated by Fireworks and Pyrotechnics in Osogbo; Youth Rally and Celebration of Heroes and Martyrs where the governor declared that the new schools that would be built would be named after those that paid the supreme price in the course of rescuing the state from usurpers and that scholarship would be given to the children of the martyrs to the University level; Launching of Osun Poultry (Broiler) Outgrowers Production Scheme and lunching of OYES Employment Sustainable Scheme where 5,000 of the volunteers are being exposed to ICT training to be self-dependent and generate