The Nation Newspaper

Tag: STATE

  • One party state finally here?

    SIR: Nigerians may have to expect a full blown one party dictatorship unless the opposition parties gear up and put their houses in order. Year 2019 may just end up as a one horse race. The evidence is simply overwhelming. The ruling party is using all the political tricks in its bag to lure many members of the opposition PDP in the National Assembly into its fold. Their soft targets are the serving members who may, in the estimation of the party apparatchik, not likely get a return ticket for another term; they are also targeting those who are not in the good books of their state governors. Really the opposition PDP is in tatters. That has been the plan of the ruling APC. The plan is working well now. No thanks to overzealous state governors, lack of party cohesion and discipline that characterize Nigerian party politics.

    One of the greatest weapons being employed successfully by the APC strategists is the fear factor. Some governors and National Assembly members from the opposition PDP are scared stiff given the deployment of state power during elections in Rivers, Edo and Ondo. Then there is the fear of being pursued by the EFCC. Some prominent politicians from the opposition who are facing allegations of corruption are being declared saints for decamping to the ruling party.

    With the wave of defections likely to hit the PDP in months to come, and with the state sponsored leadership crisis in the party aided by the judiciary coupled with the politics of survival characteristic of Nigerian politicians, it will be a miracle for the party to survive the heat.

    Except there is a realignment of political forces, Nigeria should be ready for a one party dictatorship. With this obsession with 2019, governance suffers and the condition of the average Nigerian is getting worse by the day. Prices of goods are out of reach; unemployment and inflation rate have reached the double digit; there is so much hardship in the land; Boko Haram are still doing the hit and run; precious lives of Nigerians are being snuffed through inter-ethnic and inter-religious crises; nepotism, corruption and inertia still persist in government; over 80 percent of 2015 election promises are yet to be fulfilled; anti-corruption fight of the government is being used as a tool to intimidate the opposition. Power supply has fallen to an all-time low of a little over 1000 megawatts. Nigeria seems more divided now than ever before, according to a recent UN study. The list can go and on.

    What is the fate of an average Nigerian in all of these? Must the people be hypnotized again? Why are the citizens so complacent about their fate? Why have the media and the civil society suddenly become dumb? Just questions begging for answers.

     

    • Victor Effik,

    Abuja.

  • Ebonyi’s governor’s sharing of the state’s riches

    I read in one of our national newspapers, a statement attributed to Governor David Umahi that plans are on the way to pay “monthly stipends to former lawmakers and local government chiefs in Ebonyi State”. He went on to say he would send a bill to the House to this effect. His press secretary Emma Anya quoted the governor as saying “my aim is to carry everybody along especially the political class, that’s why I will be approaching the House of Assembly to ask for approval so that those legislators who are not on seat now and former local government chairmen can continue to be paid. I believe this is how we can get them to help in developing and creating wealth in our state”. I felt very sad about how low we have descended in this country that we have a governor who thinks this way. How does paying ex-legislators help to develop and increase the wealth of a state as suggested by the governor? What does he mean by “political class”? Is there such a thing sociologically speaking? A group of freeloaders cannot constitute a class. This kind of thinking shows our buccaneering approach to politics. Politics is regarded by some Nigerians as their own farms where they go to harvest. They sometimes do this on farms which do not belong to them. This is the way I see this “Ebonyi formula” of sharing the commonwealth among a few people while the vast majority of the people are suffering. This is why our youth are okada riders and politicians. When one goes to the village and meets a young man and he is asked – “young man what are you doing for a living?” – the answer is “I am into politics” as if politics is a job or a professional calling and not just a call to serve. And this is why the approach in Ebonyi to sharing the state riches among politicians is so wrong that it deserves to be challenged. This sharing is planned for one of the poorest states in the country.  It raises the fundamental question of what platform or manifesto was this man elected? Is paying all politicians who had previously held office part of his manifesto or that of his party? This kind of irresponsible behavior justifies the call from Chief Emeka Anyaoku that these so-called states should be scrapped so that we can return to regional governments that served our people very well and threw up people knowledgeable in the art of government and not village champions as we have today. It is also because we practice this form of centralized federalism in which states that have no resources at all can share in the wealth generated  and derived from other parts of the federation and are therefore not accountable to their people or to anybody about how state funds are spent. If we have fiscal federalism and Ebonyi revenues are derived from rice farmed by poor people using ancient tools of hoes and cutlasses, their government would think twice before abandoning the people to pay stipends to politicians who previously held office on the grounds that the transient governor wants to carry everybody along. If we do not stop this practice in Ebonyi, it will create precedence and every state including the centre will follow suit and begin to pay anybody who had previously held one kind of office or the other. It will spread to all former board members at state and federal level, all former chairmen of boards, all former non-career ambassadors and so on. Sometimes ago, some members of the National Assembly asked that their members be granted immunity and be paid for life. I do not know whether this suggestion has been surreptitiously passed since the legislative budget at the federal level is shrouded in secrecy. To imagine these ridiculous suggestions are coming during recession when there is just no money anywhere, one wonders what our politicians will do when we come out of recession. Nigeria carries the victor ludorum as the country with the highest percentage of its budget going to administration. We are totally over governed with 774 local government administrations 37 states administrations that is including the federal capital territory and of course the elephantine federal government . We are so over administered that there is no money left for development. Our rulers at all levels get away with murder so to say.

    It is because we as a people without protest have accepted the humongous golden handshakes and allowances being paid to all former chief executives and their deputies at the federal and state levels that our politicians want to take us for a ride. In Akwa Ibom, former governors are entitled in cash and other allowances well over N100 million a year. Less endowed states are not far behind. Recently Edo State government is planning to spend N300 million to build houses for the former governor and his deputy. Presumably, this largesse will be extended to all former state chief executives in the same state. This is also the practice across the whole country. I am really sorry for this country because one wonders where we learnt this from. Is it also borrowed from the American system? Our people unreasonably point to America when they spring this corrupt practice on us. First of all, this does not happen in America. Secondly, Nigeria is not America. The entire budget of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is not even as big as that of New York fire department. We should stop comparing ourselves with America and face squarely the fact of our underdevelopment. Sometimes the action of our governments suggests that we are not only physically underdeveloped, we are also cerebrally and mentally under developed. This is the only way we can understand the poorest state in the South-east of Nigeria and one of the poorest states of the federation planning to start paying former office holders in the state when they are not holding pensionable jobs. This action will be outrightly illegal and could constitute a threat to public order and security if the common people were to challenge the government for its insensitivity.

    I pray that the audit departments at state and federal levels should be well staffed and should be made aware of their responsibility to stop any errant governor from frittering away the riches of the state on frivolous grounds not provided for in the constitution. The public, the press and NGOS in the country should wake up to protect public interest so that what belongs to the commonwealth of Nigerian peoples at federal and state levels are not appropriated by a few . Democracy is not government by politicians for politicians.

  • ‘State, private schools not in luxury contest’

    ‘State, private schools not in luxury contest’

    The Lagos State government has said its schools are not in competition with privately-owned schools for the provision of luxury education.
    Assistant Director, Public Affairs, Ministry of Education, Adesegun Ogundeji, said the government was careful to invest its resources to guarantee the highest quality education for all learners, irrespective of their social classification.
    Ogundeji stated this in response to a newspaper publication (not The Nation) which compared a privately-owned school, Grace Schools, Gbagada, with its state-owned neighbour, Gbagada Primary School.
    He said: “There is a need to educate the public that the difference in physical structure of both schools does not deduct from quality delivery of the latter because quality education is not about luxury, affluence, aesthetics but impactful teaching and learning.”
    Ogundeji said the Akinwunmi Ambode administration provides free education to over one million pupils in 1,010 primary schools, 670 junior and senior secondary schools and five technical and vocational schools across the state.
    He listed achievements recorded by public schools to include overall best state at a national Robotics Competition and qualification to represent Nigeria at the World Robot Olympiad in New Delhi, India.
    Ogundeji added: “The Lagos State Science Competition team emerged the overall ‘Best State Team’ at the 2016 National Festivals of Science Competition and represented Nigeria at the 2016 International Science Exhibition Fair (ISEF) in Arizona, USA last May.

  • Group complains about state-induced terror

    Worried by the rising incidents of abuse of rights of Nigerians by the state, a pro-democracy coalition has advised the Presidency to stop instilling fear into Nigerians.

    The Co-Convener, the Coalition in Defence of Nigerian Democracy and Constitution (CDNDC), Mr Ariyo-Dare Atoye, said in a statement that the people would not be cowed by “some misguided actions” of the state to “silence critics, infringe on people’s fundamental human rights and undermine the right to fair hearing as well as free speech”.

    Atoye condemned the “provocative arrest and illegal detention of Ms. Precious Chikwendu, the wife of Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, former spokesman to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential Campaign by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in Ado-Ekiti.”

    He said: “We are not unaware that this contrived and vicious anti-corruption crusade will hit an appalling level where the state, in an unbridled thirst to show off powers and cover up its failings, will be harassing, intimidating and victimising ordinary citizens.

    “We are miffed at the lack of discretion of the state to come down so low to the level of detaining an innocent lady with a toddler under the guise of fighting corruption, when she has not flouted any law or resisted the invitation of the EFCC.

    “We saw all this coming after this regime invaded the temple of justice in an odious coup that was plotted to subvert the independence of the judiciary and pull down the last gate shielding the common man from abuses. We know that the plan of the Presidency is for everyone to live in the fear of the state and kowtow to every of its decisions, both favourable and unfavourable, without resistance or criticisms.

    “We wish to assure this regime that Nigerians will never bow to terror; the citizens would rather resist oppression and get more emboldened by its action to countermine their constitutionally-guaranteed rights.”

    The coalition, however, advised the government to devote much of its attention and powers toward getting Nigeria out of economic recession, adding that “Nigerians are no longer thrilled by its fundamentally flawed anti-graft war which lacks sincerity of purpose.”

    It added: “The empowerment of Nigerians and eradication of poverty is very strategic to a successful anti-corruption campaign. Aside strengthening the anti-graft institutions to be independent and to operate in accordance with the rule of law, it will take the collective will of the citizens to bring sanity to the nation and defeat corruption.”

  • ADUNNI ADE COMMENDS LAGOS STATE’S FREE LEGAL SERVICES

    ADUNNI ADE COMMENDS LAGOS STATE’S FREE LEGAL SERVICES

    A-LIST Nigerian celebrities have come out to support Lagos State Government’s programme aimed at defending the public.

    In that light, the Lagos State’s Ministry of Justice, Office of the Public Defender has held a programme at its Epe Secretariat in a bid to sensitise the public on societal reforms, which saw some Nigerian entertainers lending their voice out to the grassroots.

    Speaking to The Nation, Nollywood actress, Adunni Ade commended the Lagos State government for bringing free justice to the grassroots and campaigning against societal menace.

    “Creating awareness for more people in Lagos State, especially those in the Epe Area is a testimony that the government has the plight of the people at heart. This concept is very good for the litigation of the society,” she said.

    Actor Yemi Shodinmu who was also there to lend out his voice expressed enthusiasm about the government’s commitment to social justice.

    He said; “There is something I have always been interested in, and it is fighting against oppression. When I got the opportunity to come and do what I enjoy doing from the office of the public defender, I didn’t hesitate because this is something that concerns everyone and it is of societal norms.”

    The director, Office of Public Defender, Salami Olubukola made known the significance of the programme.

    “Today’s event is all about justice. What Lagos State government is saying is that irrespective of your age or religion, you have a right to justice. We want to provide free legal services to the people of this locality.

    “What we have done today is that we have brought justice to the grassroots’ level of the society. We have a high court located in this locality as we speak now, we even have the toll-free line which people can call and they will be attended to.”

  • Sanusi to govts: Focus on agriculture

    Sanusi to govts: Focus on agriculture

    The Emir of Kano, Alhaji Muhammad Sanusi II, has urged the Federal, state and Local governments to focus on agriculture to boost food production in the country.

    Sanusi made the call when he delivered his traditional Eid-el Kabir message shortly after the Eid prayer at the Kofar Mata Eid praying ground in Kano metropolis on Monday.

    He said agriculture would provide job opportunities for the unemployed youths and ensure food security in the country.

    According to him, there is also the need for the Federal Government to construct additional dams across the country to enhance dry season farming for massive production of cash and food crops.

    He said constructing more dams was necessary in view of the fact that most of the developed countries had for long stopped depending on wet season farming.

    Sanusi urged wealthy Muslims to support the less privileged persons in the society in order to alleviate their sufferings, especially during the current economic recession in the country.

    He, however, called on Nigerians irrespective of their religious beliefs and political inclination to continue to pray for economic growth and development in the country.

    He also called for continuous prayers for economic growth and prosperity in the country.

    NAN reports that the Eid prayer which was led by Sanusi was attended by the Acting Governor, Prof Hafiz Abubakar, members of the state executive council and other traditional rulers from the 44 local government areas.

    The Eid prayer was conducted peacefully across the various Eid grounds in the state.

  • Herdsmen attacks: State or national issue?

    The big question begging for an answer in the public domain since the precarious incident of the herdsmen attacks on communities and innocent citizens of the country is whether the heinous acts should be categorized as a state or national issue.

    The above question is against the backdrop of the continuous attacks in recent times which have led to wanton destruction of lives and property of the people. What is more worrisome is the fact that the Federal Government, which is constitutionally saddled with the responsibility of protecting lives and property of the citizenry through its security agencies such as the Nigeria Police Force, the Army, the State Security Services (SSS), among others, has not taken decisive actions against the ceaseless and inhuman atrocities of the herdsmen.

    The worries remain that the present administration has not treated the herdsmen issue with the urgent dispatch it requires, thereby posing a serious security threat to the peace and unity of the nation. Painful to note is the fact that in the past one year, the nation has witnessed series of attacks and killings of innocent people as a result of the weird attitude of the herdsmen.  The situation has become so terrifying that Nigerians keep wondering what could have come over these cattle rearers, that they now unleash grievous terror on their fellow Nigerians with sophisticated weapons, while nothing much is being done to tackle the issue.

    Coming to the recent attack on Attakwu Community of Enugu State, and the misconception and sentiments being attached to it in the arena of public opinion, one is first compelled to frontally condemn the unfortunate incident as callous and barbaric. But the truth remains that the Enugu incident is not as grievous as the ones that occurred in other states of the country, yet people have not raised their eyebrows over how the affected state governors have addressed the issue.

    It is on record that the recent report released by the United States government to its citizens traveling to Nigeria, named 20 unsafe states in the country and marked them as no-go-areas for the reason of “pockets of crimes being carried out by faceless persons that are hardly brought to book”. Enugu State was not in the list.

    When one takes an inventory of how many people that have been killed and injured by the herdsmen in ravaged states such as Benue, Plateau, Kaduna, Delta, Imo, among others, it becomes obvious that Enugu does not deserve the negative comments it receives from cynics.

    In Benue State for instance, the casualty rate of persons killed by suspected herdsmen between May 30 and June 20 this year, in Logo and Ukums local government areas alone, according reports is about 81 persons. Even though the Benue State Police Command said it witnessed 22 deaths, the number is still high compared to what was witnessed in Enugu State on the two occasions the herdsmen struck. The statistics are the same in other ravaged states.

    The questions now are these: Why is the Enugu State issue different? What have the governors of these other states mentioned above done constitutionally to address the issues   that the Enugu governor has not done? Under our lopsided federalism, does the power to direct the security agencies to crush the marauders rest squarely on the shoulders of the governors or the President and Commander-in- Chief of the Armed Forces? Do the people expect a governor who swore an oath of office not to take unlawful actions that could lead to bloodshed or jeopardize the unity of the country, to make inciting statements?  Is it the responsibility of the state assembly to enact laws bordering on national issues such as grazing bill or is it the duty of the National Assembly?

    These and other questions are indeed begging for answers, considering the fundamental rights of every citizen of the country as contained in our constitution.

    One, therefore, takes exception to the falsehood being peddled by the likes of Amanze Obi in the Thursday, September 1, edition of his Broken Tongues in Daily Sun, where he alleged that the “Fulani herdsmen massacred an entire community” in Enugu State. Nothing could be farther from the truth – how could that be true?

    I live and work in Enugu and to the best of my knowledge there is no record of an entire community being wiped out anywhere in the state. The state despite the unfortunate recent incident of the herdsmen has remained peaceful and is still rated as the least among the states ravaged by the herdsmen in the country. There is no doubt that the governor is working tirelessly with the security operatives to do all that are necessary and lawful to bring the culprits to book and end the menace of the marauders.  This is evident in the recent arrest of a suspected herdsman in the state by the police for allegedly being in possession of a sophisticated AK47 riffle.

    One appreciates the stance of the Enugu State students, who “lampooned” those inciting the students and youths of the state to stage reprisal attack on the Fulani herdsmen over the recent carnage in the state, particularly that such vengeance would be counter-productive and might lead to the endangering of lives of youths and students in the state. While condemning the attack in its entirety, they noted that the menace of the herdsmen was a national issue and requires the swift intervention of the federal government, which is constitutionally empowered to nip in the bud the atrocities of the marauders.

    They reasoned wisely that “unlike in Ekiti State, the population of the Igbos living in the northern parts of the country is enormous, allaying fears that any unlawful action against the herdsmen in retaliation may likely put the Igbos in the north at the receiving end.”

    On the call by some Igbo groups for the Enugu Governor to emulate Governor Ayo Fayose’s actions against the herdsmen, the students said that “no true Igbo leader would support any act that could lead to bloodshed or undermine the peace and unity of the country.” According to them, “Governor Ugwuanyi as a responsible leader believes in due process and constitutional means of addressing issues of this nature and should not be pushed to instigate the people of the state to take laws into their hands, as that is certainly not the best option under a democratic setting.”

    Hence, the Enugu Students passionately “called on President Muhammadu Buhari and the security agencies to step up actions to put an end to the dastardly acts of the herdsmen in the overall interest of the country.”

    In the same vein, the workers of the state through the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) shared similar views with the students, calling on the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to exercise his constitutional powers to ensure that the issue of the herdsmen was laid to rest.  In their joint statement signed by the state chairman and secretary of the congress, Comrade Igbokwe Chukwuma Igbokwe and Comrade Benneth Asogwa, they also commended the Enugu Governor, “for his prompt visit to the ravaged community and the efforts he had put in place to maintain peace, protect the lives and property of the people of the state as well as ensure that the incident did not escalate.”

    From the foregoing, it is clear that the menace of the herdsmen is a national issue and should be tackled holistically with the full support and cooperation of the federal government for a peaceful, united and prosperous nation – thereby sustaining the dreams of our founding fathers.

     

    • Chukwuma, a public affairs analyst writes from Enugu.

  • ‘Every state, council viable’

    Chairman of the Kwara State Internal Revenue Service (KWIRS), Dr Muritala Awodun has said that many states and local governments in the country are in a financial mess because of their over-reliance on  federal government allocation funds.

    He added that every state and local government area is viable because they are blessed with abundant resources.

    Dr Awodun said this in Ilorin, the state capital, at an interactive session with the local government joint account committee members. The former Kwara State University lecturer said: “There is no state or local government area in Nigeria that is not viable. It is the function of the perception of management because Nigeria is a blessed country. And every nook and cranny of Nigeria is blessed.

    “However, the way and manner we are used to management; where we collect money from the federal and until money comes from federal there is nothing again, then you can say that some states are not viable. By the virtue of what they are now collecting you can say that some states or local councils are not viable. But is it just collecting money from federal that is the only source of revenue generation?

    “The answer is no. The reality when we look down into what we can do within our various local governments, then you realise that all local governments are viable, but because we have been so used to being fed we don’t know how to prepare food ourselves. Now because nobody is feeding us we are crying of hunger that we are going to die and the food is there for us but we have refused to prepare it.

    “The reality is, are ready to tap into those resources available there and transform the various local governments. Whether we like it or not we don’t have a choice; that is what all of us will start doing now.

    All local governments are viable and we can make them viable. That is why we have to look internally, because viability is not external. As far as external support from federal government and others are concerned we are not viable. But internally we are viable. So let’s look internal and survive.”

    Dr Awodun added that KWIRS has signed  a memorandum of understanding with the 16 local government areas in the state to shore up their revenue generation.

    He said, “We are ready to go the whole hog in all the local governments but we have a perfect understanding with all the 16 local governments and we are desirous of working with them to move their revenue from where it is right now to where we think it should be particularly in terms of capacity.

    “All the 21 revenue items by the MoU we signed with the councils have been surrendered since February. But not all the revenue items we have started collecting, we are only collecting the revenue items that we feel we should test the water with and we started with four, progressively we are in about seven now.”

  • National question/state of the nation

    SIR: Lately, the polity has been heated up by the echoes of restructuring which has become a catchword across the geopolitical divide.   No one is certain what the proponents of restructuring actually means, whether by restructuring they mean negotiation for break up, true or loose federalism or regional autonomy.

    Restructuring, whatever be the intendment would be an issue that goes to the root of our nationhood and touches on the constitution. Therefore, it is a question that can only be decided by the Nigerian people through a referendum or conference of a sort; sovereign or otherwise.   To this end, there must be a legal framework to cloth it with character and content of enforcement.  The proponents of restructuring in their wisdom feel that when the restructuring of Nigeria is defined one way or the other, our problems would be solved while every other thing would fall in place.  To me, this assumption is rather too simplistic and pedestrian as the demographic demarcation of Nigeria has never in itself posed a problem.

    The fundamental problem with Nigeria I dare say is not the issue of structure but leadership.  We have never had national leaders from time; all we have always had are regional leaders and ethnic jingoists.  We have ruling elites who appropriate power for self-aggrandizement and oppression of the ordinary citizens in their acts and life style.

    The defining feature of the nation today is fear, insecurity, ethnic tension and religious intolerance.  There is hunger and poverty as never before and some people literarily feed from the dustbin; not just the scavengers we used to know picking metal and plastic bags for recycling.   There is a palpable fear that the country is heading dangerously on a precipice and the government appears helplessly overwhelmed and preoccupied with trading blames on the failures of the past regimes.  All these have nothing at all to do with the structure of the nation; you have Hausa-Fulani, Ibo, Yoruba and the ethnic minorities all part and parcel of running the government.  That the previous government was engaged in primitive acquisition is a common knowledge which of course led to their waterloo and the aftermath is the current probe going on by the anti-graft agencies.

    Nigeria is bleeding; infrastructures have become decrepit and nearing collapse.  A travel by road to any part of the country is more than a nightmare; more like a journey on the road to Golgotha.  You are lucky if you make it: that is if you escape from kidnappers, armed robbers and the numerous police and other security toll collecting points harassing citizens and commuters.  This is not to talk about the state of the roads that have collapsed completely at different points without diversions.

    Whatever the argument, the issue with Nigeria has gone beyond whether our nationhood was a product of historical accident or design by the British colonialists.  It certainly is beyond whether we are a mere geographical expression to the extent that we have always consciously operated and lived under a unified form of government in whatever nomenclature, unitary or federal but with subconscious commitment to our ethno-religious divide.  Nigeria may have been a product and conscious effort of the British imperialists to bring the amalgam of tribal men and ethnic diversities to live as one with the sole aim of exploiting the rich resources of the various regions for the benefit of the industrial machines of the metropolis.  Again, it would be mental indolence to continue to blame our woes on colonialism.  The United States of America was once colonized; so are countries like India, Pakistan etc.  It is even more infantile to blame our woes on military intervention in politics whereas the military has left power over 16 years. The Nigerian ruling elite have promoted ethnicity and religion above every other consideration in order to continue to remain relevant.

    The issue of restructuring is a huge distraction like the former President Jonathan’s National Conference. Agreed there is nothing immutable or sacrosanct about any geographical expression whose boundary remains forever and never shifts when the conditions are created.  As it is often said, “empires rise and fall”.  Boundaries of great countries and empires have been redrawn before our very eyes especially those that were wielded together and skewed to marginalise some of the ethnic groups; minority or otherwise.   Whatever shape Nigeria takes in the face of sustained leadership failure would not solve the problem of poverty, unemployment, deficit in infrastructure, insecurity, etc.   If we tackle the problem of leadership, we are on our way to solving the Nigerian problems.  It is not at all in the structure because giving the same type of leadership, Nigeria would continue on a drift to a collapse.

     

    • Mike Kebonkwu Esq

    Abuja.

  • Ondo communities decry poor state of roads

    Community leaders in the four local government areas of Akoko land, especially Ikare- Akoko, headquarters of Akoko North East Local Government Area of Ondo State have urged the Federal and the state governments to rehabilitate the deplorable roads in their communities.
    The community leaders conducted reporters round some of the roads which they said had been hindering economic activities and affected smooth movement of goods and prevented commuters in Akoko land from travelling at will.
    They pleaded that the roads be fixed immediately to enable the residents of the communities to enjoy the dividends of democracy.
    Speaking through the Owa Ale of Ikare land, Oba Samuel Kolapo Adegbite Adedoyin, the aggrieved residents listed the Owo-Ikare highway which is a Federal Government road.
    The monarch said: “The Owo-Ikare road is now a death trap for travellers. The importance of the road cannot be over-emphasised considering the fact that it links the nation’s federal capital, the northern and eastern parts of the country.
    “Also, the Owo-Ikare Road is also economically important to Ikare and Akoko people, in the sense that they evacuate their agricultural produce to the cities through the road.”
    The monarch appealed to the Federal Government to prioritise the Owo-Ikare Federal road to boost the economy of the area and prevent incessant accidents on the road.
    He also urged the Ondo State government to fulfil some of its electoral promises for Ikare and the entire Akoko land.
    Also speaking, Olotu Omolola, Alhaji Momoh Aliyu Ogunyen and Chief Ahmed Ohunjugbagbe, appealed to Governor Olusegun Mimiko to assist in rehabilitating the deplorable Awara Road which is very important to the Ikare community as the road links many Ikare farmlands.
    The community leaders jointly drew the state government’s attention to its promise to make Ikare-Akoko township road a dual carriage way such as that of Akure.
    They also solicited for the reticulation of Awara Dam to enhance distribution of potable water to Ikare and the four local government areas of Akoko land.