Osun Youth Need Quick Educational and Psychological Supports - Part II

We have to commence with a sincere request for your granting us a total absolution for the failure in releasing this article as scheduled; it was due to the honouring of the Invitation sent to us by the Senate President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to be part of the ‘National Assembly Interactive Session with Civil Society Organizations on the 2016 Budget’ where we made a Submission and a Presentation.

We have to acknowledge that we got lots of responses to the Part I of this write-up where people commended us and some even added to our lists of what the Governor has successfully done and the happenings in the state that we couldn’t mention. We would like to commend you all for throwing away partisanship in dealing with this write up and for wearing a garment of patriotism to move our State/Nation forward.

Giving the details of the perceived and researched causes of the present situation we are in the State of Osun would definitely make some people tagged us ‘Anti-present-government’ while some would call us ‘Pro-present-government’. Notwithstanding, Over Ambition; Progressive Aggression; External Interference; Absence of Sound Researches; Betrayal of Trust; Heavy Presence of Aliens (who are indigenes); Unrealistic Financial Plans; Refusal of People’s Views; Tagging every Opposing Views as ‘Political Opposition’s View’; Overconfidence; Failure to Accept Mistakes/Faults; Lost of Focus etc are some of the things that affected/affect the present Government of the State.

On the part of the State of Osun’s people: Overreliance on Campaign Promises; Economic Shortsightedness; Complete Dogmatism and Blindness to Government’s Mistakes/Errors; Selfishness; Over-expectation of Democratic Dividends; Unwarranted Silence etc are some of the ways we contributed (and still contribute) to the present situation in the state.

The ways forward should now be our collective efforts, whether we are PRO or ANTI- Aregbesola’s Regime. Whether we like it or not, Aregbesola would never ever spend the length of time he stays(ed) in government as the Executive Governor of Osun, in living with us in the state again. The moment he completes his tenure, he shall surely do what his predecessors did/do. Do we have any past administrator or ex-governor living with us in Osun? Starting from Col. Bamigboye (non-indigene of the state) Adetunji Adeleke, Bisi Akande; and Olagunsoye Oyinlola – they are all in diasporas while we are left to face the consequences of their Actions/Inactions, Policies and Projects.

We wish to implore Indigenous Societies, Clubs and Associations to kindly come up strong and determined to help their respective communities. This government is seriously in need of helping hands. But it would open up a political advantage to the opposition, if the ruling party cries out for helps, and that’s why we all perceive and see them as being arrogant and ruthless. In actual sense, the present-day government has openly displayed arrogance and incompetency. Whether this government cries out to us for helps or not, it is high-time we rendered the government ‘inconsequential’ and moved on to liberate our people from the shackles of bad policies that robbed/rob the state of its economic power, and which is robbing the state of its Progressive Future if we stay unresponsive.

If we lack the power to enforce each school to go back to wearing the prestigious uniforms their schools were known for, at ISERH, we believe that we all have the power to positively impact the lives of our youths socially and academically. We all need to work together, to get our poor youths who are victims of misplacement of priority, poor education policy and economic disarray, to be intellectually fit and have something to lay their hands on.

The heavy presence of Betting Centers in our state is an evident surety of unsaved future. The over dominance of our communities by Cultist Groups is having a multiplier effect on our Security and Welfare. The heavy presence and prevalence of SSCE-failed youths and jobless graduates could rape us of relative Peace we were used to enjoy in the state. With the huge spending on education (Building of Schools and payment of WAEC), our state managed to be in 29th position of the WAEC-recently-released State Ranking. This tells us that we have collectively failed the ‘tomorrows’ of our state.

The unfortunate assertion and conclusion of the State’s Ministry of Education, through the Deputy Governor of our state who doubled as the then Commissioner of Education (don’t know whether she is the only Commissioner at present as other Ministries have no commissioners yet), - that the USE OF MOBILE PHONES by OSUN STUDENTS was/is responsible for their poor performance in their SSCE and thereby BAN the use of MOBILE PHONE during the School’s hours. As one may happily okay this BAN, one should as well wonder whether the Ministry/Commissioner is ignorant of the contributions of the following to the position we found/find ourselves and what their/her plans are:

1.      Inadequacy of Teachers in our schools
2.      Successful inculcation/planting of Fear in Principals and Teachers from Voicing out their minds.
3.      Absence of Stationery Supply in our Schools
4.      Indirect killing of Private Schools through imposition of unfair taxes and imposition of unfavourable policies
5.      The well-known contribution of Opon Imo (Tablet of Knowledge) to this unfortunate situation.
6.      Adoption of Same Uniform and the Policy of Mega Schools where students from 2-4 schools are brought under a school
7.      Absence of due process in the state-sponsorship of WAEC
8.      The Policy of ‘No Second Chance’ to every student who fails the state-sponsored WAEC
9.      Poor conducts of Term’s or Promotional Examinations where Teachers write Promotional Examination Questions on the Black Board for students to tear a sheet(s) of paper to use as an Answer Booklet.
10. Absence of Report Sheets
11. Irregular Payment of Teacher’s Salary (and the state Civil Servants), Fractionalization of their salary in payment etc.

At ISERH, we stand so tall, and ever committed to making sure this state and Nigeria as a whole shall ascend the zenith it was used to occupy. We therefore open our doors to any Indigenous Society, Club and/or Association that is ready to prepare the youths of its own domain (town, village etc) for the task of the future. Let’s work together, to bring Osun back to shape. Less than 2 years of our existence, we have done a lot, since we know that the present administration has completely lost the control of the state’s education/economic steering.

We are convinced that there are lots of brilliant education policy makers/analysts, Individuals and Civil Societies (NGOs) in this state that can help this government back on track. We kindly implore us all not to wait for this government to call on us, the same way Senate President (Senator Bukola Saraki) and the National Assembly INVITED us at ISERH for an Interactive Session on the 2016 Budget.

Let us throw away partisanship and face reality…
The Blaming Time should be over by now, while the Action Time should prevail.

Thanks.
Our Next Article:
THE HIDDEN HAPPENINGS IN OSUN EDUCATION AND ITS CONSEQUENCIES