The Minister of Education, Prof Ruqquayatu Rufai, who spoke after the meeting, said enrollment for vocational trainings and innovative enterprise institutions would enhance the growth of the nation’s economy.

This was just as the National Examination Council (NECO) disclosed that over 1.5 million candidates are currently sitting for its Senior School Certificate Examination across the country.

NECO Coordinator for the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mustapha Abdul, said this yesterday during a visit by the team of board of directors of NECO led by its chairman, Paddy Njoku to examination centres.

Njoku said the council was ready to introduce a pre-examination orientation in schools to prepare students for its final examination.

Njoku said, “We need to educate our children on the discipline of thoroughness from the homes. It is our responsibility as parents. The standard of everything is falling in the society and so, there is the need to adequately prepare our children for these challenges.”

Source: Politics Online

Sources said one of the injured identified as Snazzy, a 200 level Mathematics student, was shot in the neck inside the university main campus at Ugbowo during a biometric verification exercise.

He was later rushed to the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH), where he is receiving treatment.

Two others, whose identities could not be ascertained as at press time, were reportedly shot dead at an off-campus hostel of the university.

Public Relations Officer of the institution, Mr Harris Osarenren, confirmed the attack on the Mathematics student, adding that he was recuperating in hospital.

Among those feared dead in the cult war was a community leader in Ova, Egor Local Government Area of Edo State. It was gathered that the cultists traced the deceased, simply identified as Odigie, to his home.

In another attack, a boy was shot in a restaurant at Ogbelaka in the capital city.

When contacted, Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Moses Eguaveon, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), said some arrests have been made in connection with the killings.

Source: The Sun

The president, who was represented by the Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, Ms. Amal Pepple, stated this on Friday in Abuja at the official kick-of of the National Christian Campaign on Social Transformation.

President Jonathan said that parents now fought teachers who disciplined their children and also encouraged their children to insult adults.

He said “the whole society has failed, that is one reason we have incidents of cultism, armed robbery, murder, ritual killing, drugs, sale of babies, kidnapping and sexual immorality.

“Indeed, we have lost our moral values and principles, so much has gone wrong in our family life, schools, churches and society in general” he said.

The president further noted that most teachers were no longer committed and had become business men and women, through sale of handouts before students can pass, asking of favours from students to award pass marks.

Jonathan called on the church to lead the return to good values and morals and bring the much needed transformation in the society.

Speaking at the event, President of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor stated that Nigeria is never a mistake and that God is behind the idea called Nigeria.

He said “when you look at Nigeria today, we are deceiving ourselves, Pastors are deceiving members, members are deceiving their Pastors, Husbands are deceiving their Wives, Wives deceiving their Husbands, Parents deceiving their Children, Children deceiving their Parents. Sooner we would have a nation of people deceiving each other”.

Source: Tribune

The first time I met Gov. Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State, I came off with a feeling like I had just been hypnotized. It was at the launching of a book written by Salihu Moh’d Lukman titled ‘2015: Manifesto of Nigerian Opposition Politics’ at the Yaradua Centre in Abuja in January, 2013. He was given an opportunity to talk to the audience and talk he did. The crux of his talk was the need for Nigerian politicians and people to put their acts together so as to make this nation work. His passion, method and choice of words were the instruments of the ‘hypnosis’ that I was talking about. One minute, he would be whispering to get your attention; in the next, the decibels could reach high heavens. I was transfixed. In the end he concluded by saying that ‘Nigeria is the country that will show the world that blacks are human beings.’ The rousing applause said it all. But as I gradually came out of the trance, a small voice asked me, ‘Could he be for real?’

By launching Opon-Imo (the tablet of knowledge), a computer tablet that was designed and produced to meet the academic needs of all Osun State senior secondary school students, I have a reason to re-appreciate this unusual man. The launching took place at the Zenabas Half Moon Resort, Ilesa, on Monday, June 3, 2013. I was not there in person, but I was lucky to lay my hands on Aregbesola’s speech, a significant part of which I will share with you today. I just have one regret; which is that I did not know about this wonderful idea when I had the opportunity to head the Education sub-committee of the Kano Renaissance Think Tank. But I think it is not too late. Gov. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso must hear about this. Let me hand over the column to Aregbesola to explain this remarkable project.

‘The successful birth and delivery of Opon-Imo has been a difficult experience; but it is a happy story to tell; and I am delightfully pleased to tell it. The journey began from a trip I made to the Borough of Southwark in the United Kingdom in 2011 where I saw an electronic learning device while window-shopping in a bookshop at Dockland. And it occurred to me that we could build something like that and adapt it to our own purpose in a manner that would be unique to our circumstance. And then we went to work, and Opon-Imo is the product of our toil…

‘It is a first-of-its-kind standalone learning tablet in the world for self-paced study. It provides three major content categories vis-à-vis, e-library, virtual classroom, and an integrated test zone.The virtual classroom category contains 63 e-books covering 17 academic subjects for examinations conducted by WAEC, NECO and JAMB as well as non-academic life-enriching subjects such as History of The Yoruba, Sexuality Education, Civic Education, Ifa on ethics and morals, enterprise education, hints and tips on passing SSCE and ‘How to live a Healthy and Happy life’. This section also contains an average of 16 chapters per subject and 823 chapters in all, with about 900 minutes or 15 hours of audio voiceovers.

‘In the integrated test zone of the device, there are more than 40,000 JAMB and WAEC practice questions and answers dating back to about 20 years. It also contains mock tests in more than 51 subject areas, which approximates to 1,220 chapters, with roughly 29,000 questions referencing about 825 images.

‘From the foregoing, there can be little argument that Opon-Imo is a veritable tablet of knowledge that levels the learning playing field for all students from different social backgrounds. It allows students to learn at their own pace, wherever and whenever they choose. It provides robust and uniform learning content for all students, and offers a feedback mechanism for monitoring their performance.

‘…With Opon-Imo [which weighs 1.1 kg], learning becomes fun, easy and interesting. Because this tablet of knowledge is going to be distributed free to our students, it not only relieves their parents of the financial burden expended on learning materials, it likewise relieves the students of the burden of their book-laden backpacks… Opon-Imo has numerous other advantages. It can be solar-powered; it can record audio lessons; saves students the stress of copying notes and spares them more time to learn; facilitates early exposure of students to ICT; it has up to six hours of battery life; and its touch screen makes for easy use. To crown it all, this little device will greatly facilitate our free education policy by saving the state a lot of money that would have had to go into procuring text books on an annual basis. Indeed, the saving is humongous. Were the state to engage in the physical purchase of hard-copies of textbooks for the 17 subjects taught in our public schools, hard-copies of 51 audio tutorials, hard-copies of JAMB and WAEC past questions and answers for all subjects for a period of 10 years, it would (conservatively speaking) cost a whopping sum of N50.25billion.

‘In a world tilting inexorably towards ICT, Opon-Imo is a bold statement of our determination to qualitatively redefine public education. With Opon-Imo, we are certain to open the doors of good education to more of our students who would otherwise have been denied that priceless opportunity…’

I cannot agree more. I think it is also important to mention that the total funds needed to procure the e-materials were in the region of N200 million! I therefore make this public request to HE Gov. Kwankwaso to accept one more recommendation from our think tank: Let us borrow from Opon-Imo to develop a new tablet called ‘Allon Karatu’ for free distribution to every school kid. We can even call it ‘Allon Kwankwasiya’, for effect!

By Auwal Anwar M.Eng MHEI(Galillee) ChE
+234 (0)706 2841478
Twitter: @AuwalAnwar

http://litepoemsandprose.blogspot.com

Source: Blueprint Newspaper

Our focus is human development because it is humans that drive development, not machines…If our people have quality education, are gainfully employed and well fed, they will recreate their environment, create wealth and engender development. Our people are great and we have a history of greatness.

Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, Gov. State of Osun in his address on the 21st Anniversary of Osun State on 27th August, 2012.

That poignant quote, taken from my motivational book: How to Be a Successful Student (2013) underscores the fact that the sensitive issue of sound education delivery to the citizenry is so fundamental and critical to the socio-economic development of a country that it should not be politicized. Indeed, every true transformation is predicated on how thoroughly educated the people are ,to enhance their capacity to identify their natural potentials and harness such for the benefit of the generality of the people.

On that score, one would want to appraise the significance of the recent revolutionary introduction of Opon Imo (Tablet of Knowledge) in Osun state, its relevance to the entire nation and suggest that it should be adopted (with slight modification)by all state governments in the country, irrespective of geo-political zone, cultural differences and political affiliation. In its distilled essence, Opon Imo is a complete e-library in one tablet, distinct from any other system. With the focus to serve the academic and moral interests of secondary school students, it contains the trio-format of e-library, virtual classroom in addition to an integrated test zone.

In specific terms, the first has 63 e-books covering 17 academic subjects as well as the History of the Yorubas, Civic Education, Sexuality Education, enterprise education, Ifa teachings on morals with tips on passing SSCE and living a healthy and happy life. Furthermore, the test zone comprises over 40,000 UMTE and WAEC practice questions and answers spanning over two decades. There are mock tests in over 50 subject areas packed full with 29,000 questions with relevant images numbering 825.

As rightly highlighted by Gov.Aregbesola during the launch of Opon Imo, it will enhance the students’ access to relevant texts “regardless of means, location or status.”What more, the students would be able to read ahead of their teachers on various subject areas and test their ability to grasp how much of the lessons taught has been understood. Theses efforts on the part of the current Osun State governor who has demonstrated a good dose of creative ingenuity in governance is commendable. It is note worthy that this laudable initiative is springing forth from where the fecund mind of the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo enunciated free education in the defunct Western Region back in the sixties. One’s joy in it all is the focus of government on providing quality education right from the secondary school level, the fruits of which would be visible in a decade or even less from now.

The current status of education in the country is a far cry from what it should be. According a recent World Bank report, over 10 million Nigerian adults are stark illiterates while millions of children of school age are out of school. It also decries a situation where there is a glaring disconnect between the supply of schools and the labour market.

In a similar vein, the recent Education for All global Monitoring Report from UNESCO made available in May 2013 during the World Economic Forum on Africa, says that if the mineral and oil and gas resources in the country were judiciously utilized in a transparent manner, Nigeria would be able to take 2.4 million out of the about 9.6 million out-of-school children off the streets. The country was listed as one of the 17 developing ones that could effectively make access to education for 86 per cent of this category of disenfranchised youths.

In retrospect, one had brought to the public sphere back in February of this year, the increasing need to declare a state of emergency in Nigeria’s education sector during the launch of the aforementioned book. The reasons adduced include the abysmally low allocation to the education sector by all tiers of government, high number of out-of-school children, and low teacher-to-students ratio, standing at 1 to 100 as against the UNESCO-recommended 1 to 25 students. Others are poor quality of teachers, poor remuneration of even the qualified ones, policy flip-flops in the education sector, dilapidated infrastructure in several schools across the country, education curriculum deficient in entrepreneurship and of course, inadequate attention of parents to their children’s education. Some have been alleged to take pride in registering their children in the so called special centres and collude with unscrupulous teachers to cheat in public examinations.

Against this dark backdrop of the nation’s education sector, the revolutionary introduction of Opon Imo has come at the right time. It is praise worthy that as many as 150,000 of this would be given out free-of-charge to Osun state secondary school students in public schools. Other governors should borrow a fresh leaf from this. They may decide to remodel theirs to include the history of Ibos, Hausas,Fulanis, Tivs, Nupes, Ebiras or Ibibios depending on their geo-political zones. Nothing stops them from expunging the Ifa corpuscles from the tablet if they are uncomfortable with it.

What really matters at the end of the day is the increased capacity of our children to learn with more eagerness, excitement, passion and excel at their studies .Only then can they become better citizens, to lead this country to the land flowing with milk and honey, as destined by God.

Source: Daily Independent

If we work marble it will perish; if we work upon brass time will efface it; if we rear temples they will crumble into dust; but if we work upon immortal minds and instil in them just principles; we are then engraving that upon ‘TABLETS’ which no time can efface but will brighten to all eternity”. Daniel Webster (1782-1852)

Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola, the Governor of the State of Osun, being a black man from Africa, may not have many things in common with Daniel Webster, the white American author of the above quotation. But venturing into the inner rooms of both men’s minds individually, one is likely to discover a common signpost upon which a common indelible identity is inscribed. That identity is FORESIGHT which is the hallmark of statesmanship. Incidentally, both Webster and Aregbesola are statesmen in different lands and at different times but with similar goal. And, in their unified identity, both of these extraordinarily oratorical men will go down in history as statesmen with footprints on the sands of time.

Daniel Webster is, today, globally remembered for his forthrightness and vocal championship of justice both of which have put his name in the history’s hall of fame. Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola’s uniqueness in setting pace for African leaders in the realm of governance has conspicuously marked him out as a vertical political leader in the midst of horizontal others. If the phrase ‘Giant Stride’ bears the insignia of achievement, it must be synonymous to Rauf Aregbesola in connotation. Of all the elements of legacy that can be bequeathed to any human being, none is comparable to knowledge. It is only with knowledge that the continuity of human civilisation can be guaranteed across generations and times. This is an axiom upon which Ogbeni Aregbesola placed a premium for the certainty of today and the assurance of tomorrow.

Going by the quoted poem above, any sensible person will confirm that in contemporary Nigerian system of governance only the ingenuous ‘Tablet of knowledge’ (Opon Imo) is qualified to be the mother of all legacies. The thought of it was right. Its design was right. Its environment is right. Its time is right. And since all it takes to be right in governance is to get things right no pleasant success of today can turn into a bitter failure tomorrow except by accident of negligence. With the ‘Tablet of Knowledge’ at hand for secondary school pupils in Osun State who says the time for renaissance is not here? While presenting the wonder ‘Tablet of Knowledge’ publicly penultimate Saturday, Ogbeni Aregbesola stated thus inter alia:

“The idea of an electronic tablet is not our invention, and we make no such claim, for it would be patently false. But we have made something completely unique out of the existing idea. Hence, we make bold to say that Opon Imo is a tablet like no other on the face of the earth. As we speak, learning devices are usually e-readers that require internet connectivity to access their library resources. But Opon Imo stands alone. It is a complete library in a single computer tablet. It’s a complete and closed system that cannot interface or interconnect with any other system, because it does not need them to function. It was commended at Harvard University and by the Mayor of Pittsburgh who made no disguise of his admiration for the device.

It is a first-of-its-kind standalone learning tablet in the world for self-paced study. It provides three major content categories vis-à-vis, e-library, virtual classroom, and an integrated test zone. The virtual classroom category contains 63 e-books covering 17 academic subjects for examinations conducted by WAEC, NECO and JAMB as well as non-academic life-enriching subjects such as History of The Yoruba, Sexuality Education, Civic Education, Ifa on ethics and morals, enterprise education, hints and tips on passing SSCE and ‘How to live a Healthy and Happy life’. This section also contains an average of 16 chapters per subject and 823 chapters in all, with about 900 minutes or 15 hours of audio voiceovers.

In the integrated test zone of the device, there are more than 40,000 JAMB and WAEC practice questions and answers dating back to about 20 years. It also contains mock tests in more than 51 subject areas, which approximates to 1,220 chapters, with roughly 29,000 questions referencing about 825 images.

From the foregoing, there can be little argument that Opon Imo is a veritable tablet of knowledge that levels the learning playing field for all students from different social backgrounds. It allows students to learn at their own pace, wherever and whenever they choose. It provides robust and uniform learning content for all students, and offers a feedback mechanism for monitoring their performance.

Opon Imo also has the advantage of offering a highly interactive computer-based learning and testing environment. Opon Imo weighs 1.1kg. Its small size and light weight allows for flexibility in its use, which means a student armed with Opon Imo can learn walking, sitting or even lying down. With Opon Imo, learning becomes fun, easy and interesting. Because this tablet of knowledge is going to be distributed free to our students, it not only relieves their parents of the financial burden expended on learning materials, it likewise relieves the students of the burden of their book-laden backpacks. As the Mayor of Pittsburgh enthused, it also relieves students of ‘bad back’. His argument is that carrying a heavy backpack is bad for the back, therefore doing away with backpack is good for the back.

Opon Imo has numerous other advantages. It can be solar-powered; it can record audio lessons; saves students the stress of copying notes and spares them more time to learn; facilitates early exposure of students to ICT; it has up to six hours of battery life; and its touch screen makes for easy use. To crown it all, this little device will greatly facilitate our free education policy by saving the state a lot of money that would have had to go into procuring text books on an annual basis. Indeed, the saving is humongous. Were the state to engage in the physical purchase of hard-copies of textbooks for the 17 subjects taught in our public schools, hard-copies of 51 audio tutorials, hard-copies of JAMB and WAEC past questions and answers for all subjects for a period of 10 years, it would (conservatively speaking) cost a whopping sum of N50.25billion.

In addition, we do not have to buy books as long as the tablets are in use. We also cannot quantify the cost of the virtual classroom which does not even exist anywhere, except in Opon Imo.

The introduction of Opon Imo is a precious high point in our comprehensive plan to totally remake the public school system in Osun. Our first concern after our inauguration was education. We discovered then, to our chagrin, that only three per cent of secondary school leavers in the state had the requisite pass for admission into tertiary institutions. We quickly held a summit of education stakeholders which looked into the state of education in the state and made far-reaching recommendations.

In a world tilting inexorably towards ICT, Opon Imo is a bold statement of our determination to qualitatively redefine public education. With Opon Imo, we are certain to open the doors of good education to more of our students who would otherwise have been denied that priceless opportunity. Through education we are rescuing our children from possible misery. As Victor Hugo famously put it, “He who opens a school door, closes a prison’. Through Opon Imo we are opening more doors to more students to learn. By educating our youths we are also doing our society a world of good for an educated society will most likely be a better society. This is duly affirmed by Maya Angelou who pointed out that, ‘When you know better you do better”. With this milestone and those words of wisdom can anything else be called ‘FORESIGHT’? In a nutshell, the ‘SOURCE’ remains the ‘SOURCE’.

Source: The Nation

Several sources disclosed that the students were demonstrating against the introduction of transport fees.

Eyewitnesses said a peaceful procession on campus turned violent, leading to the burning down of the vice chancellor’s office located at Ikpa Road in Uyo.

“At least three students were shot and killed by the police,” said a student source. He added that the police contingent had been brought in to quell the uprising.

Unconfirmed reports said university officials have closed down the school indefinitely after the protests that turned violent.

An eyewitness told SaharaReporters that the protest was started by engineering students protesting the introduction of fares for the school bus shuttle. The school earlier moved the engineering faculty and the faculty of sciences from the town campus to the permanent site at Nsukara Offot. “The distance between the two locations is very far,” said the source. He added: “Before now the school provided buses that shuttled between the two campuses of the university, and the bus service was free to all students. Now this morning the students woke up to the announcement that a fee of 100 naira has been fixed for the bus services.”

Our source disclosed that the fares infuriated students who afterwards mobilized for a peaceful protest. He said the university officials then brought in policemen to break up the protest. Two of our sources accused the police of using excessive show of force against the unarmed protesters.

“They started firing teargas, and this made the students to respond by turning violent. The students started hurling whatever objects, they could lay their hands on at the police and blocked all the entrances and exits locations in the school,” said one of the sources.

The sources said the protesters were stunned that the police fired live ammunition at them. They said the irate students then burnt down the VC’s office, other nearby buildings and the school gate.

When SaharaReporters contacted the Akwa Ibom State Police Public Relation Officer, Effiong Dickson by telephone he said the police contingent sent to quell the riot did not enter the campus but admitted that when the student came out on the street, there was a skirmish as police reportedly came under attack from students “wielding sticks and throwing stones”. The PPRO stated that there was no report of any killing from his colleagues engaged in the operation. However, he said he had heard rumors that one student was killed.

Culled from Sahara Reporters

In a detailed statement, ABUSRC described Mr. Abati’s outburst as an embarrassment to Nigerians and the academic community.

Signed the ABUSRC’s president, Abubakar A. Rafindadi, the statement declared: “As an impeccably responsible students’ body, the Students’ Representative Council of the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, notes with utter consternation and disappointment, the reaction by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati on a lecture delivered by Mallam Nuhu Ribadu during a One Day Public Lecture organized by ABUSRC on 8th June, 2013, in Assembly Hall of the Samaru Main Campus. With all due respect to the revered Presidency, the way and manner in which the Presidential Adviser came out and launched his characteristic campaign of calumny against perceived opponents to his boss, this time against Mallam Nuhu Ribadu in the national dailies, is very disheartening. It is also instructive to note that he did so on account of total misconstruction and deliberate distortion of the contents of the speech delivered by Ribadu.

“In the said lecture entitled ‘Political Engagement: A New Approach,’ Ribadu attempted to locate the role of all stakeholders in the Nigerian enterprise, particularly the youth, in rising up to the myriad challenges of national cohesion, entrenchment of democratic values, the increasingly rising tide of oligarchic tendencies in the nation’s politics, the divisive and exclusionist siren calls among parochial ethnic chauvinists, among other very important national issues including insecurity. We view as unfair as well as provocative, the statement credited to Abati by national dailies that ‘President Jonathan and his administration will not be distracted from the diligent implementation of the agenda by the falsehood and vituperations of Ribadu and his new friends’. It is disgustingly surprising that this statement was made as an attack on a paper presented which was tailored to address the aforementioned challenges.

“It is instructive to note that the lecture in question looked at Nigeria and its embarrassing predicaments, and not at any particular person or group. No mention was made of anybody’s name. Naturally, one wonders why the hoopla! In the lecture, this was, amongst others, what Ribadu said ‘…we need to come together to make our democracy work; let us drop any form of identity that introduces us as something other than ‘citizens’, and let us drop any citizenship that asks for anything other than ‘change’ for the better. Let us destroy any institution that preaches divisions and exclusions’. For goodness sake, fellow Nigerians, what is wrong with a paper (or for that matter, its author) that advocates for the much-sought-after ideals, as quoted above?

That Nigeria and Nigerians need take their destiny into their own hands is, in the opinion of ABUSRC, which is made up of true democrats, (and indeed the majority of well-meaning Nigerians), a right philosophy on the right track. Interestingly, this is the philosophy that pervades throughout the paper delivered by Mallam Ribadu.

“It is equally important to emphatically state here that the fact that Nigeria is in unfortunately ailing situation is not in doubt. Therefore, why should it become a crime when Nigerians are told that there is a problem with their dear country, with the intention that they may be spurred to wake up to clear the mess for the political and economic development which the nation badly needs?”

The students’ statement continued: “As true democrats, we strongly believe in intellectual exchange of ideas so as to move this nation and its nascent democracy forward. It will doubtless not augur well for this country and its politics when its leaders consider any attempt to enlighten the public politically as irresponsible and subversive. The ABUSRC believes in the great possibility of a greater Nigeria with the active participation of all and sundry, whether one is in government or not. In view of the above, we view as sine qua non for the achievement of the above goal, the entrenchment of freedom of speech which the Nigerian constitution guarantees. And it sounds paradoxical for a government that takes pride in ‘consistently (upholding) the rule of law and respect for fundamental human rights’ to now come out berating a Nigerian who has lawfully expressed his opinion as guaranteed by the law of the land.

“On a final note, if Nigeria should move forward politically and otherwise (which we believe so), leaders should learn to tolerate opposition, allow the freedom of expression to be exercised and look at things in proper perspective. Decontextualizing issues for personal and/or political reasons will not help our drive for a more prosperous, egalitarian and united Nigeria.”

Culled from Sahara Reporters

A statement by the Head, Public Relations Unit, LAUTECH, Mr. Ayodele Adeyemo, on Monday, said the licence by the Acting Registrar of PCN, Mrs. G.O. Abumere, “confers authority on Ladoke Pharmaceutical Company Limited to manufacture oral liquid preparations.”

Abumere urged LAUTECH to ensure strict compliance with general manufacturing practice and maintain the standard observed at the time of inspection of the drug firm.

LAUTECH’s Chief Medical Director, Prof. Femi Fadiora, commended Osun State Governor, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola, for supporting the initiative, adding that the firm was capable of producing 10,000 liquid drugs for adults and children daily.

Fadiora said, “The drug firm was commissioned by Governor Rauf Aregbesola late last year. This is a bid to ensure administration of quality drugs to patients and also enhance good healthcare services in its locale.”

However, he said the facility owed its continuous success to the cooperation of the two owner-states of Oyo and Osun.

Source: Punch

First, he successfully organised and executed a celebration of Yoruba culture by bringing together selected Yoruba sons and daughters in Africa and Yoruba descendants in the Diaspora for the express purpose of cultural reproduction.

Second, he introduced a unique tablet, named Opón Ìmò (Tablet of Knowledge), in which textbooks and other learning tools are stored for secondary schoolchildren. Both projects have major implications for Yoruba nationalism, cultural reproduction, and the transmission of knowledge and skills in Osun schools.

After several false starts and the unnecessary politicisation of the Yoruba integration project, it would appear that Aregbesola finally got it right, by focusing on the projection of Yoruba cultural tradition, with emphasis on its transmission to the children. Shared language, culture, and history have been central to the rise of nationalism. In modern nationalist struggles, as in the Middle East, these shared attributes are often fore-grounded.

Although culture is dynamic and perpetually in flux, there are enduring features that are worth reviving, maintaining, and reproducing. In Yoruba, for example, such features include language, the royal tradition and associated rituals, and the various genres, notably Ifá, IÌjálá, and Oríkì, in which Yoruba tradition, philosophy, and historical knowledge are stored. If all these features are not maintained and constantly reproduced, the chances of cultural “death” are high, especially in this age of religious, cultural, and technological assimilation. Just look at what is happening on the music scene in Yorubaland, where local juju music is gradually giving way to American-type rap music and popular culture. In this transition, educative lyrical content is sacrificed for electronically produced rhythm and stage theatrics.

To be sure, culture cannot be legislated or stagnated, but it can be engineered in several ways, including annual festivals and staged celebrations. Aregbesola’s attempt at cultural engineering on May 27, 2013, was a step in the right direction. The occasion was the Children’s Day Celebration, appropriately renamed Oodua World Children’s Day Celebration, and held at the Osogbo City Stadium.

What is particularly unique about the event is the wide-range of participants, including children, royalties, and other personalities of Yoruba origin from Osun, Ekiti, Ondo, Ogun, Oyo, Lagos, Kwara, Kogi, Edo and Delta states of Nigeria; West African countries of Benin, Togo, Ghana and Sierra Leone; South American countries of Brazil, Argentina and Colombia; Cuba; the Caribbean; and the United States. Neither the Osun Osogbo festival, with a focus on tourism, nor the Odunde festival celebrated in Philadelphia, which I attended last Sunday, June 9, 2013, comes close to the Oodua Children’s Day Celebration in the range and quality of participants and cultural content.

It is heart-warming to see rival Yoruba royalties share the same stage and speak with one voice about the need for Yoruba integration. Their blessing and participation should have been the starting point of the project.Yoruba cultural integration is important because the Yoruba are arguably the single largest ethnic group in Nigeria, and one with surviving indigenous tradition in various West African countries and the Diaspora. It is not by accident that Yoruba culture survived in slavery and continues to be a rallying point for not just Yoruba but other African descendants in the Diaspora, as evidenced by the Odunde festival in Philadelphia and the establishment of Oyotunji village in South Carolina.

Over the years, research by scholars of Ifá tradition, including Profs Wande Abimbola, Olabiyi Yai, and William Bascom (an American anthropologist married to a Cuban wife), have all demonstrated the role of the Ifá corpus as a key factor in Yoruba survival and integration in the Diaspora.Two interesting aspects of Ifá aided its survivability in slavery: First, the rich corpus is memorised by diviners, which allows them to carry the corpus in their head anywhere they found themselves. Second, the use of the Yoruba language to store and reproduce the text allows the language to survive for some time. However, as generations of Yoruba speakers in the Diaspora began to die and miscegenation set in, the Ifá corpus became adulterated in the hands of diviners who could hardly speak or understand the Yoruba language.

This brings me to the role of language in cultural reproduction and survival. As Prof. Akinwumi Isola pointed out during his lecture on the occasion, a culture dies when its language dies, because language is the primary vehicle for cultural reproduction. This is not the first time Isola would highlight this problem. During his convocation lecture given entirely in Yoruba at the Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko in March, 2013, Isola regretted the use of English in speaking to children in many Yoruba homes, all in the belief that they need a head start in English in order to do well in school. This practice used to be an elite behaviour. However, it has trickled down across the population. For example, my driver always speaks in monosyllabic English to his two-year old daughter.

This deliberate shift to English, which is rampant among the Yoruba, deprives children of socialisation into Yoruba culture through the Yoruba language. There are cultural values embedded in Yoruba language and its various dialects that children may never acquire if they are not encouraged to speak the language at home, the primary setting for socialisation. The irony about today’s parents, who speak English to their children at home, is that their own parents spoke Yoruba to them at home. Yet, they went to school to learn English successfully, and became professors, journalists, doctors, lawyers, engineers, and what have you? What today’s parents need to understand is that a child has the capacity to acquire any number of languages to which he or she is exposed at least until age six.

The question now is how much Yoruba content is in Opón Ìmò, the cornerstone of Aregbesola’s secondary education agenda, and what role can it play in cultural reproduction? Let’s look more closely at the tablet. It is a standalone e-learning tablet for senior secondary pupils, which provides three major content categories—textbooks, tutorials, and practice questions. It also features a virtual classroom, dictionary, and Bible; books on the history of the Yoruba; Opón Ifá; and developmental games. The good thing about it is that the content is resident on the tablet and can, therefore, be accessed offline. As Aregbesola himself indicated on the Opón Ìmò web-site, “This is one of the most significant steps in our journey towards a new beginning.”

It is commendable that there is some Yoruba content on the tablet already. But more still needs to be added. Beyond Opón Ifá, which is only the diving tray, what about the rich texts ofese Ifá, IÌjálá, and Oríkì? It is important to stress, however, that no matter how much Yoruba cultural content is stored on the tablet, it cannot substitute for culture as lived experience. This is why authority figures—royal fathers, parents, teachers, and community leaders—have a significant role to play in cultural reproduction. Their input, including frequent use of the Yoruba language, is urgently needed in order to translate Aregbesola’s cultural project into lived experiences for the children.

Source: The Punch