The condition of roads in Ogun State has been a prominent public concern. BANKOLE TAIWO, in this article, notes Governor Dapo Abiodun’s efforts to address the issue, highlighted by his direct inspection of several critical roads in the past weeks
One issue that has generated so much interest and discussion in the media space as far as Ogun State is concerned in recent times is the challenge of the poor network of roads across the state
Some of the worst hit areas near Lagos State and chief among these are Sango-Ota in the Ado-Odo/Ota Local Government Area, Alagbole-Ajuwon, Akute, Olambe in the Ifo Local Government Area as well as Mowe/Ofada in the Obafemi-Owode Local Government, to mention but a few.
Specifically, some of the roads that have kept pushing criticism against the government of Governor Dapo Abiodun include the collapsed Federal Government-owned Lagos-Sango Ota-Abeokuta Expressway, the deplorable Alagbole-Ajuwon-Akute road, the Kemta-Olokuta-Wole Soyinka Train Station-Laderin Road, Sagamu-Papalanto-Ilaro road, among others.
The anguish motorists and commuters who ply these roads go through daily has been compounded and excruciatingly painful by the constant rainfall that has further worsened these roads.
Occasionally, some communities have organised peaceful protests to call the attention of the state government to fix the roads. A few days ago, residents of Idomila Community in the Ijebu North East Local Government Area of Ogun State trooped out to protest the deplorable condition of their road. The residents said the bad condition of the road had caused immense hardship to them, including avoidable accidents and loss of lives.
Speaking with newsmen during the protest, the Chairman of the Idomila Elders Council, Alhaji Kunle Sanni, said the community, which boasts of about a million population and who are major farmers, have had serious challenges conveying their farm produce to the markets. Sanni then urged Abiodun to come to their rescue on time before the situation worsened.
At a recent media engagement organised by the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Ogun State Council, the former governor of Ogun State and Senator representing Ogun East Senatorial District, Gbenga Daniel, called on governors to assist the ongoing road infrastructure development of the President Bola Tinubu’s administration by intervening in numerous bad roads in their states, even if they are federal roads.
Daniel, charged the governors to do more for their people as the power to develop each state is concentrated in their hands than the Federal Government. While appreciating the efforts of Abiodun in tackling the challenge of bad roads in the state, the former governor said Abiodun would, however, need to do more to bring reprieve to the residents of the state.
“I read the avalanche of comments on social media after the Ojude Oba Festival and the criticism on the state of our roads, not just in Ijebu but the entire state. To be fair to state governors, most of these roads are federal roads while some, like the inner town roads, are state roads. I want to speak on the federal roads for now.
“When I was governor, we created OGROMA to fix roads, be it federal or state. The goal was to engage the professional but idle hands at the Ministry of Works. That is why we didn’t award any road contracts to foreign companies. The Sagamu-Abeokuta road is a federal road, but when we were to host the National Sports Festival, we decided to tar the road and not wait for the central government. That is how it should be. Governors are the custodians of their states, and we cannot continue to wait for the Federal Government alone while the people are suffering,” Daniel said.
He acknowledged that some states were not as financially buoyant as others, but said the state government could make sacrifices for the love of the people they serve.
“I know our state governor is not a poor man. In fact, he is reported to be one of the richest Nigerians before he became governor. So, with a N50m donation from his pocket, most of these roads can be patched in the meantime, using the equipment at the Ministry of Works,” he said.
Following up on the bad road challenge, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party in the state and one of its gubernatorial aspirants in 2023, Segun Showunmi, also described the present status of the road network in the state as quite shameful and embarrassing.
The former spokesman for former Vice President Atiku Abubakar said there was no hiding the truth that the current state of roads across the state is appalling and had set tongues wagging, making visitors and residents in the state wonder what has become the preeminence status of the Gateway State.
He adduced the determination not to allow the local government to work as one of the major reasons for the parlous state of affairs as far as the road network is concerned in the state
Showunmi said, “Without a doubt, our roads are appalling and we must own up to the fact that visitors, residents and all that know of our pre-eminence must wonder what has become of us and our reputation, for all that needs to happen is for people to either try to commute on our roads daily for residents and more dramatic for visitors who would be so surprised that is this it, is this who they are? Is this how they live? Well, we need to be embarrassed that things have gotten to this embarrassing state. We have been on a steady journey to this disgraceful state of affairs steadily.”
Other residents of the state have equally taken to social media, demanding that Abiodun should rise to the responsibility of attending to the poor network of roads in the state. It seems this barrage of criticisms and public outcry is yielding the desired results, as the government has been practically dragged out of its cocoon to begin to attend to some of these bad roads making life hellish for the residents of the state.
For instance, a few days ago, Abiodun, during an on-the-spot assessment of some deplorable roads in the Ifo Local Government, ordered the contractor handling the construction of the Denro-Ishashi-Akute road to ensure the completion of the project within two weeks. The governor also disclosed that work would begin on the Alagbole-Ajuwon-Akute road in the same locality soon
Other roads whose contracts are to be awarded soon include Hercules Giwa (Oke Aro Rd), some sections of Akute-Ijoko road, and the road leading to Yakoyo.
Abiodun said, “My pledge is that I have come here today to see things for myself. Two roads are considerably important to our people. First of all, for the Denro-Ishashi-Akute road, I have given the contractor a matching order that the road must be completed in the next two weeks, asphalt and the bridge. I want to assure you all that it is your time now. It is your right. You voted for us. I am a promise-keeping governor. I will not make empty promises. Now, within the next two weeks, a maximum of three weeks, active construction will start on Alagbole-Ajuwon and Akute-Ajuwon roads.
“Today, here, we’ve reconstructed Olusegun Osoba-Toyin Street, Denro-Ishashi-Akute is under construction. We have so many other roads we’ve constructed here. But because there is so much deficit in the infrastructural development in this area, at times, it appears as if we are not reconstructing them as fast as they want us to.”
Abiodun, while noting that his administration owes everyone equitable infrastructure development, added that the deficit he met on assumption of office made him wonder what the previous administrations were doing. He said his government had to draw up a priority list using indices such as the vehicular traffic and economic impact of some of these bad roads to determine which come first in the reconstruction plans of his administration.
“When I assumed office on the 29th of May, 2019, the deficit that we met on assumption of office was such that we began to wonder what the previous administration was doing. In some instances, they appeared to have good intentions, they went to the roads, demolished houses, roads that should not be more than a single carriageway, they turned them into dual carriageways By so doing, they removed all the asphalt that was there serving the people and abandoned these roads.
“We inherited quite a lot of these roads. Some of those roads are federal roads, and you know our people cannot differentiate between federal and state. They will geo-locate their pains where and when they are feeling it. Let me give you an example of the road that goes from Agbara-Atan-Lusada road. When I assumed office, trailers carrying containers were falling off on that road. That is the road that leads to the biggest industrial estate, not just in Nigeria but one of the biggest in Africa.
“Ijebu-Ode-Epe road is a road that evacuates people from the Lekki corridor to the Eastern flank of Nigeria. That road was non-existent. I had to prioritise that road. Sagamu-Abeokuta Road, the road leading to the state capital, was not good. People were dying. I had to prioritise that road, another federal road, and so many other roads.
“Today we can brag and say not only have we constructed 600 kilometres of highway or roads, both inter-state, intra-state, inner-city roads, but, I beat my chest that there is no local government in Ogun State today that does not have at least one or two roads that we have reconstructed in the last five years and that is in line with being equitable and fair.”
The governor called on those reporting negative stories about some bad roads crying for attention in the state to, as a matter of fact, also learn to report about the over 600km of road constructed by his administration.
On Wednesday, the governor, while inspecting the 20-kilometre Agbara-Lusada-Atan road, which he promised would be completed in September, also cheerfully announced the much-awaited news of the award of Lagos-Sango Ota-Abeokuta Expressway to the contractor in May.
Explaining how he and his counterpart in Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, failed to secure the Federal Government’s approval to commence the reconstruction of Lagos-Sango Ota-Abeokuta Expressway during the immediate-past President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, said the President Bola Tinubu’s administration has given the nod to the state to fix the road.
Abiodun, however, said some federal officials had refused to cooperate with him but he had nonetheless gone ahead to award the contract to ease the pains of people travelling on the Federal Government-owned road. The governor, with or without the federal officials, his government’s resolute determination to fix the all-important road remains unwavering, a reason he awarded the contract in May.
The governor, however, did not take kindly to the criticism on social media over the state of roads in the state. He condemned the attack against him, describing such outbursts as being sponsored and threatened legal action against anyone who misrepresented his administration.
He said: “My attention was drawn to various sponsored media attacks on my person and my administration. These media attacks are focusing on roads by attempting to disparage me and accuse me of either neglect, not being responsive or being uncaring.
“When I see these media attacks, at times, my first reaction is to ignore them because I know who I am. I know why I am here. I know what it has taken me to get to where I am. I know what I was before I became governor. The only reason I am here as governor is to serve the good people of Ogun State and that I am irrevocably committed to.
“When I now see such a barrage of sponsored media attacks, the first question I ask myself is: Where were these people before I became governor? We know how many roads were in a state of disrepair across the country. We know how many federal roads are in a state of disrepair. I just came on another federal road, Lagos-Badagry road, which has been in a state of disrepair.
“When Lagos-Ibadan Expressway was under construction, we were all suffering. At times, we will be on the road for 10 hours. Not once did anybody go there and begin to attack anybody.”
While seeking the cooperation and understanding of residents, the governor, however, threatened legal action against those critics misrepresenting his administration, just as he promised not to be disturbed by the antics of his detractors.
Speaking with our correspondent, a public affairs analyst, Lekan Okunade, said the beauty of this media report on the terrible situation of some roads across the state was that it had spurred the governor to action.
“Active media engagement is one way to put our leaders on their toes and hold them accountable. The public outcry on social media has forced the governor out of his cocoon and he has been doing exactly what the people wanted.
“I hope people will do more of this to wake up any sleeping leader. We have voted them to serve, so let them just do that, but if they are failing, the residents should make use of the power of both the conventional and social media to reorder their steps,” Okunade said.