Road patching bo in Ogbomoso!

Road patching bo in Ogbomoso!

Ben GEORGE

I was shocked yesterday Friday September 12 when I read in this medium the story of the commencement of road patching in Ogbomoso South local government area ostensibly being undertaken by the Oyo state government.

Related Post:

OGBOMOSO: FG begins construction of Osuru – Arowomole road as Oyo govt begins road patching

I hope it is not true. Road patching ke in the second largest city in the state after 6 years of Governor Seyi Makinde administration. We are regularly inundated with the billions of naira voted to road rehabilitations and constructions in Ibadan the state capital. The bulk of this fund comes from loans and local governments’ allocations from the federal government. Ogbomoso has five local governments and for the six years the larger volumes of their allocations have been commandeered by the state government with nothing much to show for it in terms of infrastructural development in the zone. We have suffered and groaned over poor state of roads in Ogbomoso and environs. While Ibadan continues to receive attention other zones are almost abandoned. Such situation was not our portion when local governments enjoyed autonomy or a modicum of it; they continuously rehabilitated roads and constructed new ones, opening up new suburbs with good road networks.

Furthermore, local governments used to hold empowerment programmes and skill acquisition training, provide boreholes, build health centres, repair school buildings and so on, all these have become history because of the abrogation of their autonomy. The fact is that our situation has gotten worse in terms of grassroots development, shown in many collapsed roads and bridges and other infrastructural deficits. Communities now have to undertake repairs or constructions of culverts because most times local governments are financially constrained to step in according to the narratives given.

The crux of my piece therefore is that we need more than road patching in Ogbomoso – re-paving with asphalt is what we need and deserve. I believe government too knows it is despicable to the ears and that is why it didn’t make public announcement like they do that of Ibadan from time to time when humongous funds are awarded. There was one earlier this week when another tranche of about ₦100b is voted for road projects in Ibadan alone. So, how can you secretly patch our roads and you will later tell the world you fulfilled your promise of raid repairs in Ogbomoso? It is despicable, we utterly reject road patching in Ogbomoso. We own Oyo state together.

But l pray the story of mere road patching in Ogbomoso is wrong. It should be proved wrong!