By Alhazan Abiodun R.
“If we have chosen the position in life in which we can most of all work for mankind, no burdens can bow us down, because they are sacrifices for the benefit of all; then we shall experience no petty, limited, selfish joy, but our happiness will belong to millions, our deeds will live on quietly but perpetually at work, and over our ashes will be shed the hot tears of noble people.” – Karl Marx.
Whenever I see the nearly-impassable Iseyin-Okeho road, especially at those points where the roads have collapsed and motorists now have to navigate the bush to get by, I remember that the Honorable member of the Federal House of Representatives, representing Iseyin/Itesiwaju/Kajola/Iwajowa federal constituency, Hon. Oyeshina Oyedeji will soon get delivery of a #130million SUV bulletproof Jeep to do ‘oversight functions’.
My letter is not aimed to dissuade him from taking his own SUV, he must have already done so. It is for him to rise above ‘selfish joy’ as Karl Marx put it up here in his quote, and work assiduously for the ‘benefit of all’, by finding a lasting solution to the jinxed Iseyin-Okeho road.
I remember that during his term in office, the erstwhile honorable representing this constituency, Hon. Abiodun Olasupo once exposed the corruption associated with the road, saying whatever fund allocated for palliative measures on the road then we’re shared at Abuja by the contractor and some big wigs over there. He went against them and forced the contractor to spend the fund for 2017 and a stretch of the road was tarred, leaving about two kilometers to Okeho town that year.
That was when people were able to use this road after an abandonment that lasted almost a decade. During the second term of the last administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, the Minister for Works, Mr. Babatunde Fasola visited the road and it was announced that the road would be reconstructed. The palliative platform was scraped and up till today, nothing concrete was done. The culverts put in place since then have been abandoned and today, we are back to two decades again.
This is not a medium for me to demand what Hon. O-Shine has achieved within the short period he got to the Green Chambers, though some of his colleagues that have just got there anew are pointing to one thing or the other, but it is time for him to start working on this particular road by reaching out to the concerned federal ministries and agencies.
At least we have the compendium of the achievements of Honorable Kola Olabiyi, Abiodun Olasupo, Shina Peller and those who came before them in the areas of human capital development, social infrastructure and good legislation with us, we are cataloguing yours too, though our pens are still hanging, as we see nothing yet to write about.
Oke-Ogun region, which Okeho community is a part of and which is the hometown of the lawmaker, is the proud food basket of not just the Southwestern Nigeria, but Nigeria, this road, like the Moniya-Iseyin road, Iseyin-Fapote-Ognomoso road, Iseyin-Oyo road, Saki-Okerete road and the Saki-Sepeteri road, reconstructed by the incumbent administration in Oyo State, will add socioeconomic values in the areas of agribusiness, solid minerals in mining of natural resources along the Iwajowa axis, which will propel employment opportunities and good standard of living for the people.
I am not begging you to go cap-in-hand to solicit for the good of your own people from those hoarding it at Abuja, I’m begging you to do all you can and more, so that upon “your ashes, will be shed hot tears of noble people”, as your deeds on Iseyin-Okeho road will then be remembered for eternity as we remember those of Honorables that came before you.
Thank you.
Alhazan Abiodun R. writes from Iseyin.
