If you have driven round Ibadan recently, you would have noticed ongoing rehabilitations on many roads in the metropolis. From Ring Road to Challenge, from Yemetu to UI, from Dugbe to Sango, Ibadan has become a construction site.
Those rehabilitations are part of the inner road reconstruction and rehabilitation project designed by Governor ‘Seyi Makinde to modernise the historical city. The rehabilitated roads will be completed with road markings, painting of the kerbs in Oyo State colour and other modern features.
But some people are not happy that Ibadan is moving into the new era where potholes are anathema to city centres. If you love the new Ibadan or the idea of what it is going to be, please ask such people why are they angry?
Of course, lovers of progress have continued to commend the modernisation of Agodi Gate, Basorun-Iwo Road, Challenge through junction improvements, with similar developments going on in UI and expected to also take place in Sango-Polytechnic Ibadan Road. Hundreds of residents and visitors to the city have been lauding Governor Makinde for daring to move Ibadan into the new era, with good roads, quality road lighting and appropriate rules to guide road use.
Yes, many people have also been calling on the governor to attend to more inner roads, especially away from the city centres. And this request, the governor has said, will be given due attention, as according to him, the wave of renewal blowing round Ibadan main city will touch the less city and other councils outside the state capital.
Let’s go back to the ongoing rehabilitations on the roads in Ibadan city. The contract for the project was awarded on December 7, 2023. [Kindly note this time date, as I will come back to it]. This is a link to the story on the contract award
The roads included in the contract are about 12 and they were divided into two Lots, while the Oyo State Road Maintenance Agency (OYSTROMA) was also to fix some roads of the. Of the 84.7 kilometres awarded by the government for rehabilitation, about 38 kilometres have been completed and these were commissioned by Governor Makinde on July 11, 2024. At that event, the governor promised to extend the rehabilitation of inner roads to other zones of the state. Please note the date, July 11, 2024 and you can read a news story on the commissioning of the inner roads here.
The ongoing rehabilitations you see now did not come out of the blues. They are a product of Governor Makinde’s well-thought-out infrastructure development plan, which began with the construction and rehabilitation of roads linking the five zones of the state.
Having made a huge progress in the area of connecting the zones of the state for ease of movement for people and agriculture produce, the government had then decided to heed the yearning of Oyo State residents to pay attention to fixing inner roads.
Governor Makinde’s decision to pay attention to inner roads in his second term can be explained from the fact that most of those who criticised the government in his first term used the state of inner roads as a premise.
One of those who criticised the governor was the presidential candidate of the AAC and activist, Omoyele Sowore. Commenting on the state of roads within the Ibadan metropolis, Sowore, during a radio appearance in the Oyo State capital, berated Governor Makinde for failing to fix roads in Ibadan, which he rightly said, is central to the South-West. You can read Sowore’s comment here.
Similarly, Prof Muyiwa Awodiya, a resident of Ibadan had also in an article published in the Guardian newspaper, knocked the Oyo State Government for the neglect of roads in Ibadan metropolis.
On Saturday, 19 October, 2024, the governor equally told the world how former Secretary to the State Government, Pa Michael Koleoso, who passed away in September 2024, advised him on the need to fix Ibadan roads. The governor went ahead to say that he heeded Pa Koleoso’s advice and that the result is the massive constructions going on across several roads in Ibadan.
Despite the views of countless people, who saw a need for Ibadan roads, most of which were constructed more than 20 years ago, to be attended to by Governor Makinde, one Sola Abegunde, is angry that the governor is fixing roads in the state capital. The individual, who once referred to himself as Governor Makinde’s diehard critic, declared that the rehabilitations amounted to the destruction of the roads. What a shame!
Major roads in Ibadan are wearing new looks. The government has promised to reach more areas and to also extend to Oyo, Ogbomoso, Ibarapa and Oke Ogun zones. But Sola Abegunde is still unhappy with the ongoing infrastructure development in Ibadan. The question is why is the man angry that Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, is being modernised?
The answer is simple; Abegunde is always looking for opportunities to rail and rant against the Makinde government. He seeks attention shamelessly and wants to be answered endlessly, despite always running afoul of reason, logic and wisdom. But his anger on the rehabilitations going on in Ibadan is unexplainable.
In his last piece of inanity, he declared that Governor Makinde has been destroying Ibadan roads and that the government has been ‘scraping’ roads with a view to siphoning some imaginary local government funds. To justify that jaundiced claim, he resorted to outright lies and misinformation by trying to link the road projects to the July 15 Supreme Court judgment on local government autonomy.
He claimed that Governor Makinde “has emptied the Local Government funds in the Oyo State Joint Allocations Accounts. He needs an alibi to cover the illegal expenditures. The alibis are the roads he deliberately destroyed by scraping and relaying asphalt of the affected roads…”
Sadly for Abegunde, the internet does not forget. As stated earlier in this piece, the contract for the award of the ongoing rehabilitations in Ibadan was awarded on December 7, 2023, that is exactly eight months before the Supreme Court judgment that granted autonomy to local governments. The first batch of the project was commissioned on July 11, 2024; that’s three days before the Supreme Court judgment. So, Abegunde’s foxy attempt to link his baseless claim on Ibadan road rehabilitations to his obsession with local government autonomy falls flat in the face of reason.
He also declared that the governor has been destroying Ibadan roads by scraping them and relaying them with asphalt. One wonders how low Abegunde would go. Why would a critic be so unwise to go against public interest? Today, several roads in Ibadan, including the Iyaganku-Seventh Day-Oke Bola Junction and Olubadan Stadium Junction-Vale College-NUJ Press Centre Junction with a spur to Total Filling Station-Radio Nigeria-Kobiowu Estate-Akinyemi Junction-Ring Road, Mile 110-Mobil (Ring Road)-Challenge Road, Bus Stop Agodi Gate-Oje-Beere-Oja’ba-Molete Under Bridge and Oke Adu-Ode Aje-Aremo-Orita Aperin Road are wearing new looks because of what he described as ‘scraping’ and ‘destruction.’
Residents of Ibadan, who ply Idi Arere-Kudeti-Eleta-Idi Aro-Labo Junction-Orita Aperin Road, Idi Arere-Popo Yemoja Road-Oke Ado-Molete Road and Oke Ado-Tribune-Imalefalafia-Ososami-Iyana Adeoyo Junction-Ring Road are also commending and praying for Governor Makinde. Yet, Abegunde claimed that the governor has only been destroying the roads?
Some of these roads were built more than 20 to 40 years ago, with successive governments patching and rehabilitating bad stretches, which continue to give way after a short time. Instead of focusing on bad stretches of roads, wasting billions on palliative fixing, Governor Makinde has embarked on what would be a lasting solution and one would imagine that reasonable people would commend that bold initiative. But Abegunde is angry. Why?
Does Abegunde think that thousands of people who ply the Vale College-NUJ-Iyaganku-Ring Road or live around the axis have forgotten the state of the road before it was rehabilitated? He should ask owners of Best Western Plus, Pleasure Summit, Vale College and NUJ members whether or not they are happy with how the governor ‘destroyed’ their road and gave them a new one.
I am also sure that those who ply Molete-Oke Ado-Dugbe Road would remember the crater in Oke Bola before Odion Junction and the large spots of unfixable portion in front of Sterling Bank in Oke Ado-Ososami Junction, just a stone throw from the APC Secretariat. As they move on the smooth road now, I am sure they will be praying for the governor ‘for destroying’ that road to make it so beautiful again. Again, anyone conversant with Ibadan would also wonder how the transformation of the Dugbe-Mokola Road, with the bad spot after the Nigeria Railway Corporation office/SARS Office axis always being an eyesore, amounts to destruction.
Those who frequently move from Total Garden to UI would remember all the bad spots, and there are many; the ones in Aare Junction and opposite of Foodco, the deplorable spots in Ojurin and the ones after Bodija Market Junction can’t be forgotten easily. So, if the government fixes that road and makes it as smooth as new, how can that be destruction?
The matter is simple; Abegunde’s main intent is not about roads. In fact, he does not care whether Ibadan is modernised or not. All he wants to do is to rehash his views on local government administration, views that time and other developments have rendered unpopular. Well-meaning residents of the state and other Nigerians have made their positions known on the local government autonomy. The governor has equally clarified that he is not against his people, but Abegunde has continued to rant.
He claimed that the cost of rehabilitating the roads will be borne by local government areas. How is it a bad thing if the governor and local government chairmen collaborate to address issues of concern to residents of the state? The governor, in justifying his position on the Supreme Court judgment, made a reference to how the people only want to see results and how they care less about which tier of government did what.
So, if the state government and the councils join hands to fix Ibadan roads and go ahead to fix inner roads in other zones, who will be the beneficiaries? Of course, the people of Oyo State. So, why is Mr Abegunde behaving like a hater or an enemy of progress?
Alao is the Special Assistant on Print Media to Governor ‘Seyi Makinde
