MY PACT WITH MY PEOPLE

Lawmaking and oversight are the primary functions of legislators. There abound other responsibilities but are secondary. The recent happenings have posed a lot of demands on the legislative arms. As an acute/valuable section of the government, ensuring dividends of democracy are evenly shared among constituents is mandatory of a compassionate representative. Aside lobbying for situation of Life touching infrastructures to benefit my constituency and constituents, I shall equally dole out financial assistance on education for indigent students in collaboration with the established students union (FILSU).



Entrusting me the mandate to represent the good people of Iwo at the Osun State House of Assembly is a huge investment in promotion of Iwo constituency and her constituents.

As a legislator;

1. I will sponsor a bill for education reform to reposition our state among others and bill to make scholarship accessible to less privileged.

2. I will sponsor a bill that will provide lasting solutions to our healthcare system problems and improve our primary health care centres.

3. I will sponsor a bill that will protect and provide resources for farmers and their crops as well as bill to maximize their profits through government-farmers scheme.

4. I will sponsor a bill that will enable government to improve on youths empowerment.

5. There will be consistent  town hall meetings to discuss the development of every town in Iwo state constituency .

6. I will sponsor a bill on local government autonomy  as this will make our LGs to function well and bring dividends of democracy to the grassroots.

7. I will be your chief lobbyist.

Here is a section of my  TRIPOD AGENDA.

Education.
Healthcare.
Constituents and Constituency Advancement.

It is broken down below:

1.  Financial support in education in collaboration with  Iwoland student body and other meaningful indigenous developmental organizations.

2. Entrepreneurship summit will be organized for our pre-tertiary students during holiday periods.

3. Jobless constituency youths will get support and recommendations needed to secure jobs.

4. Vocational Training will be regularly organised to assist youths to be independent and self-sustainable.

5. Widows amidst us will find a worthy help and support to be able to vend for themselves and their wards.

6. Sports will be used as a tool to get our youths engaged. We have organized and will continue to organize football competitions to detect our talented sportsmen, nurture them and give them the platform to pursue their dreams.

7. There will be an avenue for all our young artists to showcase themselves and assist them to achieve their dreams in life.

8. Market women will be provided with opportunities to access financial aids to boost their business.

Service to humanity is my watchword,
Bringing the dividends of democracy to my people is my target, Developing Iwoland is the task that must be accomplished.

Support and vote for RAI

God Bless You All.

Signed:
RAI MEDIA TEAM

Saving Our Education System - Adisa Kabiru, FCA


Since the 70s, the educational system of the Yorubaland has been gradually deteriorating. Standards have been falling with buildings, infrastructure poorly maintained, and teachers poorly remunerated. However, the pace of the deterioration picked up in the 90s because of the military government poor policies and the corruption that had taken over governance in the country.

Our major factor that helped the deterioration of public education system in the region was the forceful takeover of privately owned schools by the federal government in the 1970s. Schools that were previously maintained by the tithes and fisebililah money of congregants suddenly found themselves at the mercy of the inconsistent government. Of course, Nigeria was swimming (some would say, "drowning") in petrodollar in the 70s and the early days of the forceful takeover were rosy. The government had money to splash around and even ordered a nationwide increase in civil servants' salary across boards. However, things took a turn for the worse in the 1980s when the oil prices crashed and since then the schools that were forcefully taken over and those originally owned by the government have seen their fortune gone down.

What is the way forward for our education system? Alternatively, are we going to fold our hands and watch it become a centre of wasting time? How long are we going to continue churning out secondary school graduates who can barely write their name? Now, public schools have become the last option for the poorest of the poor. Private schools have taken over education for the working and middle classes of our society. This will further widen the gap between the various classes of our society. I have observed repeatedly that so many public secondary school students cannot compete with private school kids in a primary class. If we continue along this line, we are setting up our society for a serious fall.

What is the way forward? I think we need to restructure our schools one school at a time. The government should adopt a primary school and a secondary school per every local government every year and turn around their infrastructure. A community management board consisting of teachers, parents and community leaders should be constituted to manage these overhauled schools. The board must be allowed to levy charges on community members and pupils to maintain the facility and procure materials if necessary. The board should be able to hire, reward and reject teachers based strictly on performance and competence. Allow individual schools to set its test and termly examinations while the sessional examinations will continue to be state-wide.  Companies and organisation can also be encouraged to adopt a school and take care of some of its need during a certain period.

We need to take radical decisions to bring public school at par with private and I hope that my article can begin a conversation on incubating ideas to do just this.

Ramadan Kareem to all Muslims all over the world.

If we continue to question the past as a result of our docility, we will never see the brightness of tomorrow through our collective unity. ~ Late Gani Fawehinmi #OurMumuDonDo

Let us come together, work together; build the future we deserve together and never allow ourselves to be used against ourselves for their selfish political project and wealth empire.

Enough of the same old wine in the rotten bottle, let's say no to used and dump.

Tell them "àwa ló'kàn".

Ramadan Kareem to all Muslims all over the world.

...together we can do it. #RAI2019

ff @niyirufai
bbm: rai2019
📧 rai2019andbyond@gmail.com

A Note to Iwoland Development Development Detractors by ADENIYI RUFAI Before you call us names, try to find how we came into an existence and what we stand for. IDC belongs to us but it is only through your committed effort and displayed patriotism you can be one of the leading members, not how long you've been partaking. Seriously, I still can't believe it that some of us have negative motives toward this coalition despite the relentless effort of our founding members.

Iwoland Development Coalition (IDC) logo

To be candid, and as a matter of fact on the issue regarding IDC, and some upcoming groups like Ileogbo Development Forum. I couldn't believe it although it was foreseen and predicted. It is just that we didn't know it would be this soon. It is a great disappointment. I can vividly tell you that I am one of the brains behind IDC and many others you have not being hearing their names. Yet, still actively and partially partaking either financially or through other means in our activities. IDC was initiated not for political motive. Its objective is mainly for community development and to call on all interested IWOLAND (AIYEDIRE, IWO, AND OLA-OLUWA LGA) indigenes home and abroad to come together as one and form a formidable force to contribute their quotas on social, economic, political and cultural development with no affiliation to any political party(ies). Like a joke, we started on social media. I became a friend to our leader who is well known as Community Servant (CS) in person of Mr. Kabir Adisa Kulukulu (FCA) on Facebook whom I never met before until I came home. I got to know him through his activities and posts online about Guildance Community Development Foundation. We chatted, and later exchanged number and started calling each other from time to time on different ideas on how to make Iwoland become a city of our dream. I realized that my own little boy's heart and mind for development mirrors his on community development. I have had my own RAI FOUNDATION on Facebook for a while which I used to help my friends and some associates within my reach. When I realized it was getting too much on me and my income wasn't up to the request I kept getting from friends. I contacted him (CS) and decided to ask him to let us form a group that will champion development in our community. He (Mr Kabir Adisa) was mainly doing his community service through Guidance Community Development Foundation to people of Ibadan. I convinced him to let us focus mainly on Iwoland and get the youths of like minds together to work with. He agreed and we started fashioning out ideas. IDC was initially known as IWO PROJECT on Facebook and BBM Group. The name was an idea of Ambassador Saheed Akintunde "Akeweje" aka Democrat. Saheed Akintunde's motive was to use IWO PROJECT to replace #IWOLOKAN2018 slogan. #Iwolokan2018 was hash-tagged by Alhaji Toafiq Odunayo Badru aka ElCerebro. His intention was to use the name to champion Osun State Gubernatorial for IWO. Mr Akintunde Saheed's concern was that the name iwolokan2018 sounded somehow and may create hatred for IWO among its Osun West Senatorial District members. We quickly think of something else and adopted Iwo Project as our name and it was mainly myself, Saheed Akintunde, Tunde Fatunmbi, Engr Shuaib Alabi Pedro. Few days later, Tunde Badru "Dat Iwo-Boi", Alh Odunayo Badru, Alh Ahmed Abdulraheed Saheed Alausa, Yusuf Saliman, Musa Fatai Freedom, Mr Kabir Adisa and then Prince Adewale Akanbi (now Oba Adewale Akanbi, Oluwo of Iwoland) joined us. We also contacted few others like Barr Kabir Alayo, Com Akin Asifat Gofment, Aremo Maruf Adedapo, Prince Jide Osunwo to be mentioned but few. Our first initiative was health clinic which was to address the health situation in Iwoland. We later swung into action by patching of Adeeke- Odo Ori road which was led by Oba Adewale Akanbi, Mr Adisa Kabiru Adeniyi and Mr Tunde Badru aka Dat Iwo-Boi acted as the secretary to the group. As time flew by, I realized that Mr Kabir Adisa was tirelessly working on how to build Health Clinic for the people of Iwo/Akinbami Village due to unavailability of either clinic or hospital in that village and was to be championed by Guildance Community Development Foundation and Airtel Telecommunication. He informed me and many other people with good heart for community development. Mr Adisa initiated a whatsapp group mainly to discuss and champion this cause and also to source for fund. We started sharing contacts of people to reach out in gathering financial support and after so many trials and an unexpected accident that nearly took the life of Engr Shu'aib Alabi Pedro and Engr Yusuf Adeleye "Abu Haneefa", we finally commissioned AKINBAMI HEALTH CLINIC in Ayedire Local Government. Later, we challenged ourselves and ask for physical meeting instead of an online. The idea of meeting physically was mentioned by Alh Adebayo Lasis (FCA) and the first meeting took place at 155 Bowen Street Oke-Odo, Iwo hosted by Mr Kabir Adisa. Among people expected were Alh Bayo Lasisi (FCA) one of our pioneer fathers of this initiative though, he could not make it to the meeting. But there were over ten members at the meeting like; Mr Kabir, Mr Tunde Badru, Mrs Gbemisola Adisa-Lawal, Adisa Idayat Abisola, Sulaiman Olaide, Sheu Roji, Muslim Lukman and few others I couldn't remember. In summary, several names were suggested at this meeting to name our group which Iwoland Development Coalition (IDC) was later adopted at the second meeting after several deliberations. This was how IDC came to birth and existence. Mr Kabir Adisa was collectively agreed to be coordinating it due to his community service and humanitarian experience and being the founder of GCDF and initiator of ongoing Akinbami Health Clinic Project. He was the one funding most of the assignments to be embarking on by himself before we formed this coalition and started calling for help. How did we get other local government involved is another big task and with this he deserves a very big applause. Mr Kabir Adisa was the one sourcing for members across the globe that are people from Iwoland. He started calling and giving them follow up on the needs to develop our community by ourselves. Among the big fishes we got with open heart was Mallam Olawale Rasheed through Comd Akin Gofment's recommendation, Lekan Afonrinwo, Engr Semiu Odeyinka and many others. Later people like Prince Lekan Aforiwo, Prince Ayo Ojedokun, Elder Bisi Ogunkale, and others were also contacted and joined us along the way and we all had no issue or rancor but fostering and prospering with good faith and unity, and love became our founding spirit. Later, due to known or unknown political reason of some elements among us. Some guys started distracting the group and causing chaos, forming sub-groups and group within the same group which I can say it is normally wherever because where there is a large number of people, such things should definitely be expected. To my greatest surprise, I was called and informed that some people have started discouraging our financiers and calling for their heads or asking them to stop supporting our initiatives that Iwo people only wants Iwo to be developed with no interest in its suburb or environs. This same few people that orchestrated this divisive action were the one that later formed their own forum. May we all be rewarded according to our motives. To me, when I was informed of their ongoing activities, I told all members that it is a good idea. IDC alone cannot do it. Let us have sub-groups and branches that will be doing similar things, what we all want is development except that we shouldn't be distracted, divided but rather let us make sure our mission and objective still remain the same. But the motive of these guys were not meant to foster the same IDC ideology but to dislodge, break, divide and cause enmity within IDC all because of their selfish and personal political interest to champion the motive of their principal they believe in. With their hope that it will render IDC powerless. We are not asking for other group(s) not to be formed, inasmuch it is for the development of our community. With no joke, what we won't condone is to divide IDC to form theirs. It won't be easy and anyone we find stealing our ideas without our knowledge or approval, such persons if happened to be in our group may be likely be removed or permanently banned only if his or her action is bringing chaos and misunderstanding among us. In summary, IDC doesn't belong to anyone, it belongs to us all but there must be a leader and decision makers in a group of hundreds of people. And for you to be among leading decision making members, you will have to display exemplary leadership trait and commitment per excellence and not bit and beg ideas. IDC has come to stay and nothing shall deter us. We are ready to do what is necessary and we must act decisively. Thanks a bunch to all our members and every committed fellows of this selfless founding members for their relentless commitment.

BROADCAST BY THE GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF OSUN, OGBENI RAUF AREGBESOLA, TO THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE ON THE CREATION OF 31 LOCAL COUNCIL DEVELOPMENT AREAS, THREE AREA COUNCILS AND TWO ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICES ON TUESDAY MARCH 8, 2016

My good people of Osun,

I am very happy to announce to you certain changes we are making at the local government system, in answer to the legitimate demands you have placed before us.

The importance of the local government cannot be overstated. It is where the government is designed to be closest to the people. While you need to follow some protocols for reasons of security and tight schedule before having an audience with a minister, a state governor or the president, you can walk in on your local government chairman or other officials of council.

Also, because the geographical space of the local government makes it the smallest unit of administration, it is easier to get things done at this level.

The local government is also the ideal training ground for political leadership.

A presidential candidate has to travel round the country’s 36 states and Abuja while a governorship aspirant must tour all the local governments in his state. However, a chairmanship candidate only needs to cover his local government and the councillor just his ward.

In a democratic society, a citizen should be able to contribute to the administration of his or her local government in a meaningful way more than is possible at higher levels. A voice can be easily heard and a little gesture can be easily felt at the local government, than at the state or national levels.

In the advanced western democracies, the local government controls the police and provides municipal services like housing and physical planning, environmental sanitation, water, markets, healthcare and education. Some of these services are already being provided by the councils. Though we are not fully there yet but we are on the path and if we keep at it, we will get there.

Our communities also recognise the importance of the local government in development. This is why their various traditional rulers, religious leaders, youth leaders, market leaders and women leaders never cease to ask us to expand the platform of the local government in order to enhance their participation.

Gov Aregbesola

We carefully considered their request and set in motion the process for acceding to their demands. On June 18, 2012 we inaugurated a committee headed by Prof Mojeed Alabi, a former speaker of the State House of Assembly, to look into the modalities for creating more councils in accordance with the wishes of the people. That committee received 71 memoranda requesting new councils. It wrapped up its assignment and submitted its report on October 26, 2012. In April 2013, we set up a review committee headed by the Secretary to the State Government, Alhaji Moshood Adeoti, to look into the Alabi committee’s report. After this, we sent the request to the state House of Assembly in form of an executive bill. The House also looked into the bill, set up a committee on it and subsequently, a referendum was held on February 19, 2015 in which the people of the state overwhelmingly gave a yes vote on the bill. After this, the house passed a bill creating 31 new Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs), three Area Councils and two Administrative Offices. I have since signed this bill into law. The requests for new councils have been granted; all constitutional requirements have been met and the prescribed procedure followed to the letter.

My good people, I am pleased to inform you therefore that in place of the old order of only 30 local governments and an Area Office, we now have additional 31 Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs), three Area Councils and two Administrative Offices in accordance with the requests which you democratically placed before us. The list of the new LCDAs, Area Councils and Administrative Offices, their territories and headquarters will be published soon and is also available at the State House of Assembly, Ministry of Local Governments, Chieftaincy, Water Resources, Rural and Community Affairs and Local Government Service Commission.

The management committees made up of the executive secretaries, deputy executive secretaries, scribes, members and special advisers have acted excellently, astutely managed scarce resources and faithfully served their communities. However, financial and other considerations have forced us to adopt a new parliamentary system which is compact, efficient and better, in the present circumstance. The management committees of the 30 Local Councils and Area Office are hereby dissolved and their Executive Secretaries, deputy executive secretaries, members, Special Advisers and other functionaries removed.

In the interim, the entire local government system will be managed by Council Managers for three months. These managers shall be appointed and deployed by Local Government Service Commission from among the substantive grade level 14 officers in the local governments. Grade level 15 officers and above at the local governments should consequently report to the Local Government Service Commission for further briefing.
Many would be wondering and asking: why create more councils at this special time of financial challenges? We have also given sufficient consideration to this. With this new parliamentary system, it will cost less to run the new councils and save a lot of money for the government than in the past.
The primary responsibilities of our new local government system are sanitation, market management and revenue mobilisation and generation. This is consistent with local government administration worldwide.

The beauty of this new system is its parliamentary nature, which requires the chairman and the vice chairman to be elected by the councillors from among their own ranks, thereby saving cost. We shall therefore be saving a huge cost with this new system.

In addition, the same number of staff will still run all the councils, as no new appointments will be made to existing ones. We shall make the most judicious use of our revenues in such a way that increasing the number of councils will least constitute any financial burden.
I will like to thank the executive secretaries of the 30 councils and area office that have just dropped the baton, for service well rendered to their communities, our great party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and humanity at large. They have been part of our development efforts and I am proud of them all.

I will also like to thank the honourable members of the state House of Assembly, especially the Speaker, Rt. Honourable Najeemdeen Folasayo Salaam, for meticulously and favourably looking at our proposal for a more enhanced council system.

I will like to thank you all, especially at the grassroots. These are my people, the farmers, women and women groups, market women and men, civil servants, teachers, senior citizens, traders, artisans, workers, students, transporters, drivers, commercial motorcyclists, traditional rulers, community leaders and religious leaders; for your support at all times, for your faith in us and your unyielding desire for increased participation at the local government. We are a great people and we shall not cease to do great things.

Let me remind you once again of the need to support the government maximally by paying your taxes, levies and dues.

I thank you all for your kind attention.

Osun a dara!

JOBA scores Ekiti Assembly low, calls for a proactive Legislature
Former House of Assembly Candidate of the APC in the Okemesi/Ido-Ile constituency in Ekiti West Local Government, Comrade Johnson Oyekola Bode-Adeoye popularly known as JOBA has berated the performances of Ekiti Assembly in the last one year.
JOBA spoke with EKITILINK. Excerpts:

Comd Johnson Oyekola Bode-Adeoye

EKITILINK: How would you assess the legislative house in Ekiti in close to a year now? JOBA: Generally, any legislative chamber that is populated with members of one single political party can hardly be vibrant, moreso, that Ekiti has a power-conscious governor who hates opposing views in its entirety. EKITILINK: What do you think could be the implication of this on governance in Ekiti State? JOBA: There is every tendency that most business of the legislative chamber is done quietly and as such, disallowing the electorate contributions. In this kind of situation, governance then becomes one way traffic. EKITILINK: Are you insinuating that the present Assembly is not impacting on governance in Ekiti of today? JOBA: When we have a situation where the governor presented a budget and approved same right inside the House of Assembly and received a resounding applause from all members of the Assembly. This is to say the governor's act was actually approved by the house, hence, the public has not heard much about the said budget. EKITILINK: Lastly how do you think your ideal legislative house should operate? JOBA: My ideal legislative house should be people-oriented and should be interactive; it must maintain the principle of checks and balances and make people-oriented laws proactively.


Source: Ekiti Link

Art, Culture and Tourism; A Panacea to Economic Diversification in the State of Osun-Oluwo

Recently, His Royal Majesty Oba Abdulrasheed Adewale Akanbi Ilufemiloye Telu I, Oluwo of IWO Land started a campaign to championing the promotion of Yoruba Culture as a means to create employment opportunity and economic sustainability in South Western States of Nigeria. In which it it is going to be a remedy for getting Yoruba Nation out of dying culture among many reasons, and specifically for job creation for youths and all. Oba Akanbi pressed more on this during presentation of Staff of Office and official Coronation by H.E Gov Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola to him, on January 16th, 2016 when was he was addressing the people present at the event. Oba Akanbi said making  our locally made products especially BATIK CLOTH "adire" as Hikab, Jalabia, customized shirts e.t.c is a ways of showcasing and promoting our art, culture and promotion of tourism. More so, to generate revenue for the State of Osun and Yoruba Nation in general. This is becoming a reality as the State of Osun House of Assembly legislates and mandates the using of batik cloth - adire by all Muslims and Christian Pilgrimage to Mecca and Jerusalem respectively starting from these year pilgrim service.



Oba Abdulrasheed Adewale Akanbi

The State Minisrty of Culture and Tourism brought it to the House of Assembly for acceptance and implementation as a way of creating economy and employment opportunities in our dear state of virtue, Osun.

This was made known today during the official visit of the State Honourables representing Aiyedire Local Govt, IWO Local Govt and Ola-Oluwa Local Govt-AYIWOLA to the Monarch, Oluwo Of Iwoland. HRM Oba Akanbi. the monarch was very glad and happy for this news. The state honorables shown their appreciation to the the Royal Majesty and promised to be diligent in their legislative assignments.

HRM Oba Akanbi promised to show them more encouragement on ways and means on how to make our culture be more promoted in getting light of the day across the globe. The Monarch says the palace of Oluwo of IWO Land is always available and open to all sundries of Iwo Land at all time.

This step will encourage and promote our culture and will definitely lead to economic diversification thoroughly when it is properly analyzed. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism said this became a panacea and necessity when this the issue was brought to the state House of Assembly and many thanks were sent to Oluwo Of Iwoland for his pragmatic approach.

Palace of Oluwo