Sagamu, a once-beautiful city, is fast relapsing into slum-like community. The smooth, sleekly administrative headquarters of Sagamu Local Government Area lacks roads and other amenities that enhance the well-being of the residents. ERNEST NWOKOLO reports that the government is working hard to fix the roads and other infrastructural facilities to make the city regain its lost glory.
To some, it seems Sagamu, the administrative headquarters of Sagamu Local Government Area and the royal home of the Akarigbo of Remoland, Oba Adeniyi Sonarinwo, may relapse into a slum-like if the roads and other facilities are not improved upon. What they didn’t take into account is the efforts being made by the Senator Ibikunle Amosun’s administration to regain the seemingly lost glory of Sagamu as a city. It is not the fault of the government as most of the problems people are complaining about are as a result of actions of the residents.
For instance, nowhere cuts this gloomy picture better than the seedy and boisterous Sabo and its surrounding.
Aside the congestion and filth, the area is routinely flooded whenever it rains as a result of poor drainage.
The roads leading to it, such as the Ode-Lemo, GRA; Sabo-Oja cow sellers’ roads respectively and the adjoining ones have remained in bad shape.
To worsen the situation, roadside traders and hawkers make the roads get narrower, even as the trend makes vehicular and human traffic more challenging. Noise pollution emanating from grinders and blaring speakers of music sellers are also troubling to first time visitors.
The fly-over constructed at Sabo as well as the Oba Akarigbo Road by Senator Ibikunle Amosun is the first modern road construction in the area in recent decades. Unfortunately, they are also being defaced with bizarre graffiti, dirt, fluttering junk banners and posters by the residents. Underneath it and even with the dirt, it serves as shelter for both the sane and insane.
Our correspondent sited four lunatics-three males and a female—who had turned portions of it as their homes even as few others were roaming the area unkempt and scavenging for food.
With regard to the economy of the state, the Igbo, Edo, Ibibio and Ishan, among other ethnic groups are making tangible contributions; but it seems the Yoruba and the Hausa are about the most active and commercially-inclined ethnic groups in Sabo.
The nearly-a-century-old Oba Akarigbo Market in Sabo, which was founded by hunter-farmers (Agbekoyas) lacks water and toilets despite its size, economic importance and strategic location.
A resident, Mr Sunday Adebayo described the market as one bustling and commercial nerve centre of Sagamu with admixture of the good and the ugly.
Adebayo, who sells electrical materials, said the only driving principle in Sabo seemed to be business of “buying and selling” as people pay less attention to orderliness and cleanliness.
He said: “Once you can get a foothold to display your wares; whether such a place is on the road or atop sewage system is secondary.”
The Asiwaju of the market, Alhaja Falilat Awolaja (Omo Apelogun), who spoke to our correspondent on behalf of the Iyaloja, Bintu Sonnubi, said basic facilities are conspicuously lacking in the market.
The market boasts a borehole facility for water provision. Mrs Awolaja, who sells in the market, said the facility functioned only for six months before it packed up.
She said the Ode-Lemo Road, which traversed through the market requires urgent reconstruction as it leads to other places like Emuren (Sagamu), Agbowa and Imota in Lagos.
Sabo’s peace and long years of ethnic harmony were ruptured in July, 1999 as the area erupted in violence. The mayhem was between the Yoruba and the Hausa over cultural issues.
The violence, believed to have been caused by a young Hausa lady who came out during the observance of rituals of the Yoruba Oro traditional festival in the area. But the crisis was eventually resolved and normalcy returned.
In 2012, Sabo-Sagamu was also the theatre of incessant robbery attacks and cult violence. The situation compelled commercial banks and other businesses to close down for weeks.
Chief Olumuyiwa Sonuga, a civil engineer and President of the Sagamu Development Association (SDA), said the Sagamu people aren’t “crying wolves” over roads in the town “as the condition of the roads get worse by the day due to lack of maintenance.”
Sonuga, who praised Governor Amosun for making Akarigbo Road a dual carriage way and the fly-over at the Sabo area of the town, urged him to also pay attention to internal road network. He also praised him for combating robbery and other vices in Sagamu with the provision armoured personnel carriers (APC) and other operational vehicles to assist police and other security agencies in carrying out their jobs.
There is a ray of hope that palliative measures would soon begin on the roads as the rainy season subsides. The Secretary to the Sagamu Local Government Area (SSLG), Mr Isiaka Salami has promised that facilities that will improve people’s well-being will be rehabilitated, even as he blamed the deplorable condition of the roads on the residents.
He said: “We are the problems behind the condition of the roads. Residents keep dumping refuse on the drainage which blocks them. When it rains, the water forces itself into the roads and washes them away.
“That is why you see gullies and craters here and there. Although there has been shortfall in money that accrues to the local government from the Federation Account, we will do some palliative measures when the rains subside.”
The Commissioner for Physical and Urban Planning, Olugbenga Otenuga, said what obtains in Sabo and some areas of Sagamu is a reflection of the state itself.
Otenuga said Ogun State is an ancient state and residents had built in ancient way without making provisions for today’s challenges, resulting from development, increased human activities on the environment and population surge.
The commissioner noted that some of the challenges such as poor road network, flooding, lack of drainage facilities in some places and inadequate space being experienced can’t be corrected immediately by the state government. He said steps are being taken to stop people from compounding the problem by discouraging them from building structures haphazardly.
Otenuga further explained that the state government has designed programmes meant to “up-grade slum-like areas,” build pathways, gutters and toilets to enhance sanitary conditions as well as encourage residents to give their buildings face-lift.
Governor Amosun had promised that Sagamu would be broken into two or three local governments in the planned creation of local council development areas (LCDA).
Senator Amosun also said splitting Sagamu would not only bring governance and development closer to the people, but will be a thing necessitated by its land mass, size and population.
The governor also assured that the Sabo-Emuren-Ode Lemo Road would be constructed once the rainy season subsides while the state’s proposed light rail project will also begin and will pass through Sagamu.
But how far this can change the face of Sabo and its environs would be a matter of conjecture if the people do not abide by the physical planning regulations or take decency and cleanliness of the environment as a way of life.
