Ogbomoso-Oyo road: Who will tell President Tinubu? By Remi OLADOYE
Remi Oladoye writes from Papa Ajiboye, Ogbomoso.
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It was on a Monday afternoon, I was on the media team of Alao Akala’s campaign and my younger brother, Olawale Oladoye, joined his friends: Biola, Seun and others for the campaign.around 5 p.m., he called to inform me that he had left for Ibadan and I bade him safe journey, not knowing that it would be a journey of no return. Less than an hour later, his friend called me that he had an accident and had been rushed to the Bowen University Teaching Hospital, Ogbomoso for medical attention.
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Sad and unfortunately, the seeming uncaring attitude of the doctor on duty that day led to his death. Just like Wale died with big dreams and vision so many souls with beautiful plans that could have helped Ogbomoso even Nigeria at large have died on the old Ogbomoso-Oyo road
There is hardly any week the road will not record calamitous vehicular crash leading to deaths. Some people believe that some blood sucking demons are responsible for the fatalities on the road while another school of thought said the poor condition of the road and insensitivity of the government to the plight of the people plying that route is the major problem.
Obviously, the recklessness of the road users is another factor that makes the blood sucking demons, if there is any, to always have their way. But for how long are we going to endure this?
Relief came in 2002 when the then President Olusegun Obasanjo approved the construction of Ibadan-Ilorin Express Road. We endured the pain of development by using another route like Ejigbo and Ife Odan to Iwo which is longer than the normal Odo Oba-Oyo-Ibadan route but our beggars had no choice than to embark on the ‘Isrealite journey’ because the old road is always blocked and we hope it would be a temporary pain
Today, despite the express, many people prefer to go to Ogbomoso through Iseyin than than through Oyo because the Ogbomoso axis of the road is unpredictable and the old road is nothing to write home about. Many thanks to Governor Seyi Makinde for the construction of the Ibadan-Iseyin and Ogbomoso- Iseyin road.
Since 2002, the hope of plying the express road and enjoying relatively free movement and reduced fatalities is still in the realm of dream as the attitude of the successive governments shows they are either ill disposed to the project or hate the people of Oyo and Ogbomoso.
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Goodluck Jonathan administration completed Oyo-Ibadan, though it needs urgent repair now and the Buhari’s eight years did not do much on the project. I recall Senator Abdul-Fatal Buhari wrote letters to the then Minister of Transportation, Barr. Raji Fashola and he (minister) visited the site but nothing serious was done on the road. Buhari-led government completed about 9,000 kilometres of roads majority of which he initiated and completed before he left office but the 44km Ogbomoso-Oyo road was only identified and abandoned.
It is quite sad that even after one year of President Tinubu in office, nothing serious has been done on the road. The construction company has left the site for over five months now and the appropriate authorities seem not to bother about why the company left the road and about the plight of the commutters plying the road, the economic activities and beautiful lives that are daily being lost on the road.
The question is: Who will help tell President Tinubu? No doubt, his administration needs to release fund without further delay to complete the road. Apart from the lawmakers and political appointees, we have a lot of personalities who are in government at the federal level in both Oyo and Ogbomoso but do they have the courage to tell Mr President that Ogbomoso and Oyo people are not happy with him because he has not been responding positively to what affects them?
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In 2012, Tinubu was appointed as the Chancellor of the Ladoke Akintola University, (LAUTECH) Ogbomoso and during his tenure, the institution experienced a great turbulence which almost took her glory as the best state institution away, Asiwaju Tinubu did not do anything until after some years before he later intervened. We don’t want the same attitude on the Ogbomoso-Oyo road. If the appointees and the lawmakers at the National Assembly cannot tell him. I think it is important we use the media to appeal to Mr President to look into what is responsible for the delay and hasten completion of the road.
