Getting road infrastructure right is key to commerce, agriculture and socioeconomic development, but many states find this difficult because of paucity of fund. In this report, ROBERT EGBE looks at how Ogun State is confronting the challenges.
Every now and then, Dr Donald Akinmade reminisces on his university days. 30 years ago, he was the Student Union Government (SUG) President at the Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU), Ago Iwoye, Ogun State. At that time, about 1991/92, the school – then known as the Ogun State University – had a campus in Shagamu called Medical Campus. There were SUG members there, including Akinmade’s Vice President (VP). To get to them at the Medical Campus, Akinmade and other SUG executive members had to go on the Ilishan-Ago Iwoye road, which passed in front of the school.
The route was part of the 24km Ikenne-Ilishan-Ago-Iwoye road that cuts across Ikenne, Odogbolu, and Ijebu-North Local Government Areas (LGAs) of Ogun State.
“We normally went there to hold meetings and we passed through that road. I remember since that time, that road has never been fixed. That was why I said ‘past over 30 years’,” Akinmade told The Nation last week.
Like Akinmade, many other students and lecturers also used to pass to and fro school, and their tales of woes were commonly heard across the state. Things became so bad that many truck and bus drivers stopped plying the route. The terrible state of the road caused a journey that should have taken less than 30 minutes to take two bumpy and stressful hours.
Hope rises
In January this year, Governor Dapo Abiodun gave residents hope when he approved the construction of 54.1km of roads across the state’s three senatorial districts, including the Ikenne-Ilishan-Ago-Iwoye road. Ogun State Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure, Ade Akinsanya, listed the roads to include, the 24.5 kilometres Ilaro-Iwoye-Owode in Yewa South LG. He noted the road had earlier been awarded to a contractor by the immediate past administration, but the pace of construction was unacceptably slow. The other roads included the 3.8km Togunrin-Tigara Agodo road, Ogun Waterside, as well as 1.8km Esure-Mushin Road, Ijebu- East Local Government Areas.
Last week, eight months after that announcement, Dr. Akinmade, now Deputy Registrar at OOU, drove past the road again and could not recognise it. The road had been completely reconstructed. A grateful Akinmade shared his delight.
He said: “What Dapo Abiodun has done now is to fix a road that has been abandoned for over 30 years. I am not an apologist for Governor Abiodun. I don’t have any special interest in him. But as a dispassionate person, and as somebody who saw it all; also I’m not from Ogun State, I am from Ondo State. But from what I have seen the man doing, I have discovered that one of the best things that has ever happened in that place since I got to that area is that road.”
Akinmade also described the road as “world-class.” But that is not the only high quality road the Abiodun administration has constructed, or is constructing.
For two days last week, The Nation joined a team of senior editors on an extensive and critical tour of road infrastructure in all three Ogun senatorial districts.
With Commissioner for Works in Ogun State, Ade Akinsanya, providing answers to tough questions by editors – some of whom live in and know the Ogun State infrastructure terrain – the voyage was illuminating.
Akinsanya, an engineer who has been honoured in the United States for his phenomenal work in designing and building bridges, explained that the Abiodun administration has constructed no less than 270km of new roads, while over 300km of others were rehabilitated, including essentially a minimum of one road project in each of the State’s 20 Local Government Areas (LGA)s. These roads follow the revival and operationalisation of the Ogun State Public Works Agency (OGPWA).
In Ogun West, the reconstruction of Raypower Road and Imasayi-Ayetoro Road has been completed and the new roads are already being used by motorists, while Oke Ola Road in Imeko and Owode-Ilaro Road are currently being reconstructed. Also, the Odo Afa Road and Bridge in Ipokia LGA, which were in a deplorable state for a long period, have been reconstructed.
The 19.2km Agbara-Lusada-Atan Road, which was abandoned by previous governments despite the industrial significance of the region to the state’s economy, was flagged off by Abiodun on April 29, 2021, and asphalt is now being laid on a section. The 10.25km Lusada-Igbesa Road, which was constructed by the Ogun Guangdong Free Trade Zone in partnership with the Ogun State Government, has also been commissioned. In Ogun East, completed road projects include Oru-Awa-Ilaporu-Ibadan Road, Fusigboye-Ojofa Street Road and Asafa Oke-Asafa Isale-Ayegun-Ojofa Street Road in Ijebu Ode.
Other ongoing projects include the 14km Ijebu Ode-Epe Expressway; Oba Erinwole Dual Carriageway, Sagamu; Molusi College Road; Ilishan Market Road; 11km Atan-Erunwon Road; Ogbagba Street Road; and Ejinrin-Oluwalogbon-Mobalufon-Ibadan Road. In Ogun Central, completed road projects include Obantoko Road (Fajol-American Junction-Unity Estate-Gbonagun); Idi Aba-Oke Lantoro Road; and Ikoritameje-Adenrele/Olose Titun-Vespa Road. Ongoing projects which are nearing completion at a commendable pace include construction of the 42km Abeokuta-Sagamu Interchange; reconstruction of Panseke-Adigbe Road; as well as an extension of the proposed gate Development at Sagamu Interchange. In Ifo LGA, roadworks are ongoing on Akute-Denro-Ishasi-Oluwakemi Road.
‘Trespassing vehicles will be shot and eaten’
One of the almost completed projects is the almost six kilometre Somorin-Kemta Road in Idi-Aba, Abeokuta, which passes right in front of the Ijegba residence of the Nobel Laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka. Vehicles and pedestrians driving by the smooth road can sight the now iconic screaming signboard hung on a tree: “Trespassing vehicles will be shot and eaten,” at the entrance to the Soyinka’s ‘foresty’ home with its tall trees and thick shrubs.
Akinsanya, who described road infrastructure as a catalyst for socio-economic development, noted that the newly approved roads had been abandoned for years, adding that the Dapo Abiodun-led administration would leave no stone unturned to alleviate the sufferings of the residents. A few metres before Soyinka’s home, Akinsaya pointed in the distance at community of fast developing buildings.
“A lot of land in that estate used to sell for N250,000 per plot. It is now N4million,” he said, noting how good roads can increase property value.
Akinmade also touted the economic benefits of the Ikenne-Ilishan-Ago-Iwoye road.
He said: “It has a lot of economic benefits for the people in that environment; and it will also promote their commerce, because they have this plantation there, plantain plantation in Ago-Iwoye and Ijebu-Igbo here. Every day, more than 20 packing vehicles move from Ijebu-Igbo/Ago-Iwoye to Lagos carrying plantain every day. So, instead of them going through Ijebu-Ode with the plantain, they can just go through that Ago-Iwoye and under 15 minutes, they’re already on their way to Lagos.
“What the government has done is a very impressive effort, and he (Abiodun) has not relented on his effort. In the past, if you want to leave for our campus in Ago Iwoye, you would move from Ago Iwoye, you go back to Ijebu-Ode. When you get to Ijebu-Ode, you now turn again and face Lagos road. As at the time you’ll be getting to Ijebu-Ode, if you pass through that Ilishan Road, you would have been in Ilishan en-route Lagos. So, that road would save an average commuter a minimum of 40 minutes.
Ogun Cargo Airport
Perhaps one of the most important projects of the Abiodun administration is the Ogun Agro Cargo Airport expected to come on stream in December this year.
International aviation agencies, such as International Air Transport Association (IATA), an association of airline traders around the world, and local regulatory agencies, such as Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), Nigerian Metrological Agency (NiMet) and Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), have all indicated interest in the new airport because of its strategic location. The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) and Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), two critical components in aviation security and safety, are also not left behind, while the fire station within the airport is nearing completion.
Akinsanya, while explaining the rationale behind the new airport during the facility tour said the agro cargo airport would stimulate economic activity around the corridor.
It is not hard to see why. He said that the airport, which is the first of its kind in Nigeria with a blend of features of the San Francisco Airport and Dubai Airport, would be ready in December. The control tower and runaway, the two most important features in airports, he explained, have reached 80 per cent completion.
Akinsanya also said that the icing on the cake of the airport is the economic deals with African Development Bank (AfDB) to site an agro testing firm at Sagamu, adding that most of the agricultural produce in Nigeria lack certification, which had made their exportation to other countries impossible.