By Tunde Bibi Aladenola
I had the pleasure, albeit a painful one, to travel the road less taken, but unfortunately the realities of many people who have to, for they live along this road. For a town that generates billions of naira to the Ondo State Government coffers, a town that is around 15 minutes’ drive from the state capital—if all is well—a town designated to host the world in a matter of weeks to showcase the beauty and the best of Ondo State in tourism potentials, a UNESCO-declared tourist city, PLEASE, is this the sort of road that should lead to the town? For those who may want to say “but they have mobilised to site”, is that miniature work ongoing adequate to complete the road in time for the event? Will that road not expose the inadequacies of the state? Will it not scream incompetence to the highest mountain?
Has the impediment to the quality of lives of citizens along the road been measured? Are our people deliberately wicked? Are our people so cowered they have accepted their fate? Or is the expectation of a political appointment that seems to elude party members from the town enough to silence the voices that should rail against the injustice and show of incompetence in governance? There is a line between politics and governance that SHOULD never be crossed. It surely shows a lack of patriotism to the town in which many Idanre’s were born and would probably die in.
The state’s budget, despite the humongous allocation to it, is performing at below 40%. If anything should tell us mediocrity has taken over the state’s affairs, we need no further examples beyond what the State House of Assembly has agreed is a poor performance. The downward revision of the 2025 budget caps it all. If one is blinded to the realities on ground as it concerns the infrastructure on ground, then the lull in economic activities should tell the story further. The hitherto human traffic at Shoprite, a place that used to be a beehive of activities, shows many of the shops have closed down, the shelves are empty, the feet on ground have all disappeared. What a gory sight to behold.
Where are the Idanre voices like in the days of yore that put government on its toes? Where are the political voices in politics and government that FOUGHT to bring benefits of politics to Idanre in the days of old? Even in the heady days of the military era, Idanre has always had voices that ranked amongst the best along the corridors of power, who used their closeness to the MILADs of those days—The Chief Bisis, Akin Babas, and a man of no mean repute, Chief Alex Akinnadeju, who spoke fearlessly to the authorities then. Nowadays, aside from political sustenance or personal aggrandisement, the alleged ‘yummy’ relationships of the leaders of note in the ruling party have become the albatross on the neck of Idanre as a town. They ply these roads on a daily basis and can see the sufferings of their people, and yet they are unashamed to mouth “They are lucky?” Like someone once asked, what type of luck? With all in place in Idanre, it is bad luck on display. May we not be unfortunate.
I beg the state government and the people in charge to up their game for the sake of the state. This is a government whose principal person, the Governor, has been sworn in twice and has occupied Alagbaka for almost two years now, that cannot wholeheartedly point to any completed project that has positively affected the people. The Oda Road was almost completed by the late Governor Akeredolu, and that still took the better part of a year to get it to the current state.
The Akure–Owo Road flyover has continued to create unnecessary traffic delays and congestion on that road due to the incomplete status of the project. Inadequate funds cannot be used to excuse that display of incompetence facing us all on that route.
I must commend the state government on the repair of the footbridge at Oja-Oba. Three times in the last one week I have had to ply the road at night. Work is going on there late into the night after most sellers have left the market. The workers block the entrance by the post office but could do better since vehicles are directed to one lane. Oncoming drivers from Alagbaka, NEPA, A Division can be better protected by using cones or traffic-guiding signal lights to inform them of work in progress ahead and the road now shared as a single lane for both directions, to avoid head-on collision.
The Chairman of Idanre Local Government, Barrister Omotadowa, should mobilise the council to protect lives on the road on Alade market days. Due to traditional rites and beliefs, the market had to be moved temporarily till another king is crowned in Alade, but if urgent action is not deployed, may bad news not follow the incursion onto a hitherto narrow road between Alade and Atosin. The sellers encroach on the road and a single lane can hardly be seen in the midst of crowds on any market day. There should have been a diversion towards the Starlight Hotel Road that can take anyone back to Akure or join the road to proceed to Odode Idanre. However, that road also is impassable as it is under construction, leaving the encroached Atosin–Alade Road as the only passageway. May there not be a brake failure; casualties will unfortunately be high.
I pray the powers that be rise to the occasion and do the needful; otherwise, the people of Ondo State will look back in no distant future and say this era is one blighted by ill luck.
Aladenola writes from Usimore Lodge, Idanre.
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