ABIODUN AND THE ABANDONED AGBADO IJOKO-ROADS

When that English poet and literary critic, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, in his poem titled “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” said: “Water, water everywhere, / Nor any drop to drink”, he must have had Agbado-Ijoko and its environs in Ifo Local Government Area of Ogun State on his mind. To make Coleridge’s line aptly complete, I’ll add: “dungeons, potholes everywhere/No good roads to travel upon”.

As humans, the road has always fascinated our species. It is the outlet out there. No country, no government, no club, no school operates without the road. So, it is little wonder that development is nothing without it.
Agbado-Ijoko road will embarrass you. I presuppose that should be the most deplorable road in Ogun State. If you actually bought your car with your hard-earned money, while struggling through that road, you would be livid till you get to your destination. That is even the manageably passable part of it as commuters have abandoned the government roads for the improvised rat-run within streets. An eyesore.

To Agbado-Ijoko and its environs, development is a taboo as midwifed by the terrible state of the roads that lead to and within the area. Both the present and the past governments have turned Agbado, Ope-Ilu, Oluwo, Itoki, Lemode, Abule, Robiyan, Ibaragun, Orudu, OgbaIyo, Arepo, Gas Line, Lisa, Adiyan, Giwa, Oke-Aro, Matogun, Osere, Lambe, Abule-Ekun, Tipper, Oniyanrin, Akute, Ajuwon, Alagbole, Ojodu and Agbado Crossing amongst other places to a Government Rejected Area (GRA) in the last 20 years.

The dungeons we have as roads in this axis have been like that since the last days of Olusegun Osoba in office. Daniel inherited it. Amosun neglected it. And Dapo Abiodun has yet to attend to it. These deplorable roads have negatively affected many communities with over a million people. Businesses have collapsed, houses have been abandoned and as a result of the influx of motorcycle riders— since vehicles couldn’t ply the roads— criminal activities are on the increase in the area.

Since the construction of durable roads, bridges and culverts in every part of a state as well as the rehabilitation and maintenance of existing roads enhance the economic development of a state; and that Prince Dapo Abiodun on his emergence as the Governor of Ogun State noted that infrastructural development is the first among the five developmental pillars his administration popularly known as ISEYA, I hope and appeal to Prince Abiodun to come the rescue of the residents of the aforementioned so that they can also testify to the dividends of democracy. This is an area that forms a large chunk of the second biggest local government in Ogun State— Ifo Local council. Massive number of votes would always emanate from this area. They deserve good road networks too!

Folorunso Fatai, Oluwo-O peilu, Agbado Station, Ogun State