Ogun State, a land of rich heritage and promising horizons, finds itself ensnared in a paradox that both baffles and infuriates. Picture Governor Dapo Abiodun, resplendent in his regalia at the 2024 Ojude Oba festival, basking in the cultural splendour of Ijebu Ode while his constituents navigated a labyrinth of deathly roads to partake in the festivities. This striking contrast—between the pomp of tradition and the grim reality of infrastructure decay—calls for an urgent reassessment of priorities.
But who cares? The show must go on. Thus, the pageantry persisted through filth and foul. The Ojude Oba festival, while a magnificent celebration of culture, highlights a glaring disconnect. How can such grandeur coexist with abysmal neglect? Participants travelled from near and far, braving the perilous roads to celebrate, their plight akin to the proverbial prodigals who weep outwardly but laugh inwardly. This spectacle underscores the chasm between leadership and the led.
Consider another paradox in the recently completed Gateway International Airport – supposedly a symbol of progress and ambition. The facility is purportedly built for cargo and passenger flights, while the other zones within the Aerotropolis are marked for concession.
The Commissioner for Finance and Chief Economic Adviser to Ogun State, Dapo Okubadejo, recently revealed that the state’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) has almost tripled from N50 billion in 2020 to almost N150 billion in 2023, thereby ranking Ogun 3rd in IGR drive.
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Okubadejo was enthused about the proposed Kajola Dry Container Port, which is meant to provide efficient and cost-effective operations for manufacturing companies. He also stated that the state had initiated discussions with the Lagos State Government to extend their Blue Line and Red Line rail networks into the state. Okubadejo, who disclosed this at the 2024 K.P.M.G. Alumni cocktail in Lagos, said with over 6,000 industries and over 500 km of roads constructed alongside six Economic Development Clusters (E.D.C.), Ogun is the investors’ destination of choice,
Yet, the very roads leading to this gateway of commerce are pocked with craters, turning journeys into treacherous odysseys. The irony is palpable: a state that boasts of industrial and aeronautical advancements cannot guarantee safe passage on its terrestrial routes.
Will Governor Abiodun ignore the decline of Ogun’s major highways, where decay and death spit venom at hapless citizenry like Siamese cobras daily?
Once a proud artery of connectivity, the old Lagos-Abeokuta expressway has degenerated into a death trap, claiming lives with ruthless regularity. Commuters dread its lethal stretches and hazardous bypasses, where every journey is a gamble with fate.
Ignorance is never an excuse for denying the citizenry good governance and fundamental human rights, like access to good and safe roads. It is never “politically expedient” to neglect a class of the governed just because, by will or circumstance, they inhabit parts of the state the ruling class would rather not lose sleep over, except at the time of election or re-election.
Highway communities like Owode Ijako, Owode Iyana Ilogbo, Ewekoro, Lafenwa, Iyana Iyesi, and Itele are mired in misery, their hopes for development dashed by neglect. The recent outcry from residents of Ijere, Pakuro, Magbon, and other communities in the Obafemi-Owode Local Government Area over the deplorable state of their roads echoes across the state. They yearn for the basic infrastructure that remains a distant dream.
Now in his second term, Governor Abiodun must resist the hubristic complacency that often plagues re-elected leaders. This is not the time for regal indifference. He must transcend the chorus of sycophantic aides and confront the stark reality of Ogun’s infrastructural failures lest his inaction and mistakes deny him of an enduring legacy.
Save an empty promise made by Abiodun in the early days of his administration that he and his Lagos State counterpart, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, had gotten approval from the federal government to repair the highway and earn a toll from it; nothing has been done to rehabilitate the treacherous stretch.
Abiodun must learn from the failure of his predecessor, Ibikunle Amosun, who neglected the dangerous state of the Lagos-Ibadan highway simply because it was a federal road. The world would never forget in a hurry the poor, helpless souls that thrashed out and gave their final gasps in grotesque, bloody accidents on the road on Amosun’s watch.
Omolade Ogunnoiki, 17, was a 100 Level History student at Olabisi Onabanjo University (O.O.U.). Together with her friend, Funmilayo Pampam, 18, and Olatunji Dairo, a 2014 Physics graduate of O.O.U., she was crushed to death when a truck carrying an unlatched container and their Lagos-bound passenger bus on the Ilishan- Sagamu highway in Ogun State.
In a bid to avoid inadequate portions on the road, the driver of the truck reportedly drove against the traffic until its container fell off its hinges, crushing the students, the bus driver and nine other undergraduates to death. The deceased probably nursed dreams of greatness. Those dreams lie six feet under red earth now.
On Monday, July 1, Governor Abiodun trended on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) for his inability to rid Ogun of bad roads. Images of the state’s derelict roads flooded timelines, accompanied by scathing critiques of Abiodun’s broken promises. One poignant post read: “In 2020, when Dapo Abiodun was looking for votes, he said to us on X that he was fixing a few roads listed in his tweets. Here is the condition of some of the roads in his tweet. He fix am abi him no fix am? I will allow you to judge.”
On the night of Tuesday, July 2, social media and major news sites buzzed with the outrage of citizens over the abduction of about 20 commuters on the Sagamu-Ijebu-Ode highway. In the grim episode, gunmen abducted three Indian nationals and several Nigerian travellers, exploiting the road’s dilapidated state to execute their crime. Such incidents are not isolated; kidnappers lurk around Ogun’s crumbling highways, preying on innocent travellers. The governor’s recent call for security operatives to hunt these criminals is commendable, but the root cause—deplorable infrastructure—remains unaddressed.
This writer harbours no personal resentment for Governor Abiodun but holds an unwavering desire to see him rise to the occasion. Hence, exuberant ‘influencers’ and apologists of the state governor may digest this cautiously; would they defend him unquestioningly if they had lost their loved ones on Ogun’s bad roads?
Nonetheless, fanatical apologists would argue that Abiodun has done right by Ogun State. Anthony Storr, a late British writer and psychiatrist, would term this one of the many delusions that render the continual neglect of the state’s highways and dirt roads justifiable for Abiodun’s zealots and, as such, defensible against admonishment and reason.
People are dying on Ogun roads. It’s about time Governor Abiodun heeded the cries of his constituents. If he were the people’s messiah, he wouldn’t ignore the death traps on Ijoko, Agoro, Ijako, Iyana-Ilogbo, Ilepa, Lafenwa and Itele roads. He would stop ignoring the bloody ravines dotting Alade, Elekunmefa, Imise, Onihale, Singer, and Iju, to mention a few. At Toll-gate junction, Joju, Temidire, and environ, mucky pools still stagnate in perilous craters along the bypasses because these scenes of deadly accidents are inconsequential to Governor Abiodun.
This is not just about infrastructure; it is about the lives and livelihoods of his people. Perhaps Governor Abiodun would answer as the humane, proactive administrator he professes to be and save commuters in Ogun State from untimely death.