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Ogun and Deplorable State of Ilaro-Owode Road
[September 19, 2014]

Ogun and Deplorable State of Ilaro-Owode Road


(AllAfrica Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Owode-Egbado as hitherto called, has transformed into Owode-Yewa or better still Owode-Idiroko. It berths in Yewa South local government area of Ogun State. As a after of fact, the location of the town, as a boisterous settlement on the Nigeria-Republic of Benin border, is one of the reasons that earned the appellation of the "Gateway State" for Ogun.



It is arguably the most prosperous and enterprising in Ogun West Senatorial District, after the industrialised Otta. It connects Lagos from Badagry and Sango-Ota and links Ilaro, the sleepy political headquarters of the region, thereby qualifying it to be called a nodal town.

The absorbing capacity of the population surge of Lagos, which the town represents is not in doubt, considering the fact that Owode expansion has subsumed adjourning villages like Alagbon (from Lagos end); Isaga, from Ilaro axis and Idi-Ota from Ado-Odo region.


Its potentialities and economic prosperity are, however, being threatened by lack of motorable connecting roads in one instance and traffic snarl, in another. The by-pass linking Joju, from Abeokuta, to Ota-Owode road is in a sorry state. The road and the damaging impact on automobiles, from that axis results in high volume traffic that could make a born-again Christian invoke the god of iron to curse policy makers, whose responsibility it is to fix the road.

The agonising and deplorable state of the Ilaro-Owode road, has however, make the Joju nexus, a motorable bye-pass despite its sorry state, a retired headmaster and indigene of Iwoye, along the road, told Daily Independent, last Saturday.

"If there is any word more appealing and stronger than appeal, please help us use it to make government address the state of this road and make it passable; we are suffering as you can see. That is a man coming from farm with cassava on his motor bicycle falling off there just because of the road," the 71 year old Pa Muraina Ajibola appealed.

He added that the distance between Owode and Ilaro is such that could be traveled under forty minutes if the road is good, but said the journey takes close to two hours to accomplish.

"Some of our family members were coming from Owode to Ilaro exactly two Saturdays ago for the apprenticeship graduation of my son, they had to turn back with the food and drinks because the road was completely impassable. Time was that even the NURTW people embarked on strike and there was no movement for about three days before they pleaded with themselves to go back to work," the retired headmaster recounts personal ordeal.

Speaking on the road, Mr. Taiwo Kodaolu, a resident of Eredo, lamented that there people have always find it difficult to evacuate farm produce to towns and markets on account of the bad roads, thereby appealing to concerned government to act with compassion on the road.

In Eredo, community self-help appears to be the saving grave even though not much could be achieved. The youths were seen channelling the flooded road into the bush from both ends of the road, even while it is still drizzling.

Team Leader, Oladipupo Johnson, who is a Barber resident in Abeokuta wondered why the local government could not consider a palliative so as to make the people have a sense of belonging and confidence in government.

Lending a voice on the road and drumming an appeal, a youth activist in Owode, Wale Adegbite, want Senators and House of Representatives members who have represented the area to constitute themselves into a lobby group, to make sure the road is fixed, once and for all.

"It does appear to me that it is a failure of governance. We concur that we have never have the Executive power to make this happen, what about our legislators who had and who are in both the red and green chambers, it means they have failed us and sadly enough, we have not been asking questions.

"When next anybody comes up to ask for our support, we should make sure they are not the likes of our past and present Senators, because I like someone to remind me of the efforts made by the late Senators Olabimtan, Ayo Otegbola, Kola Bajomo, Iyabo Anisulowo and now Akin Odunsi. One would have thought that Odunsi would form a lobbying caucus with the incumbent lawmakers from the area to facilitate the road reconstruction.

"In case it has been fixed on paper, I think the onus lies on them to let their constituents now of this. I have neither seen any standard here at all, let alone Ogun Standard. And wait a minute, where is the federal government transformation in all of this. It thus appears to me that this region is neither here nor there in the reckoning of all the three tiers of government, " the troubled student union activist stated.

Also commenting, a chartered Accountant and Director of Finance with ActionAID, Mr. Mutairu Elegbede, said the road cannot be as worrisome as the Lusada-Igbesa road, which has been abandoned despite hosting some industries to complement those in the core Agbara Industrial zone.

He said he has stopped worrying himself on the state of roads in Ogun West, especially the Owode-Ilaro under focus when it does appear that the government lacks listening capacity. The Ifako-born fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountant added that he has witnessed articulated vehicles, conveying raw materials falling off on the Lusada-Igbesa road. Expousing another view on the Owode-Ilaro road however, a quantity surveyor senior staff of the Ogun State Property and Investment Corporation (OPIC), who craved anonymity, blamed the deplorable road on the Dangote truck plying the road.

His words: "the stage which we are is for stakeholders, both public and private to play its part and pug their names in the sand of time. This government in the state should rise above pettiness to stop playing ethnocentric developmental agenda.

"Dangote Cement should redouble its corporate social responsibility if it had been doing it in the area, the worsening state of the road was brought about by their trucks plying the road," he submitted.

Copyright Daily Independent. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com).

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