Your Excellency,
It is on record you mounted the mantle of leadership of Ogun State apparently with good intentions to transform the state far beyond the height achieved by your predecessors. To demonstrate seriousness to this course, your administration started by rolling out massive projects for execution which cut across the length and breadth of the state. The workload was so gigantic that everyone thought yours would turn out to be the best performing administration ever in Ogun State.
Incidentally, the high hope and enthusiasm that heralded the commencement of your administration turned out to be shortlived however. It was obvious your administration had bitten far more than it could chew in one aspect. Some of the projects wouldn’t have been necessary at all as they failed to add any value to the existing lives of the people. In other aspects, some of the projects were nothing short of gross misplacement of priority being embarked upon at the expense of those that would appropriately address the needs of the people of Ogun State.
Your Excellency, it is my humble intention therefore to draw your attention to areas where I think you could better address the real needs of the people of Ogun State. Perhaps, it was not to your knowledge companies are closing down daily in Ota and Agbara, the industrial nerve centre of Ogun State. Why? Extremely dilapidated road infrastructure. Companies operating in this areas tend to lose patronage by key customers due to poor access roads, in some cases, completely cut off. Typical example, Lynson Chemical Avenue, Ota. The resulting daily job losses is indeed unimaginable. Ota and Agbara are too crucial in terms of revenue generation to government not to be given priority on infrastructure development. The near abandoned double lane road from Sango under bridge to Ojodu Berger, Lagos, would have been made just a single lane. That road, if abandoned just like that, would be worse than it was before the failed construction and thus make life more difficult for people.
The Ota-Ifo area of the Lagos Abeokuta road, though federal road we are told, is an embarrassment to Ogun State especially to your government belived to be close to the Federal Government. It is too deplorable not to chase away existing and prospective investors. It is not too much a sacrifice for Ogun State to fix and claim expenses from the Federal Government as it is usually done by other states especially Lagos State. The old Ejirin/Ibadan garage road in Ijebu Ode would have been merely renovated with asphalt overlay instead of total reconstruction.
The old completely covered and stronger drainage would have been far better than the new open one which automatically has become a waste bin to Ijebu Ode people right now. The Ijebu Igbo overbridge being constructed at a snail’s pace wouldn’t have been necessary at all considering relatively low and scanty vehicular movement there. Right or wrong, the belief of the people is that you have concentrated too much attention on developing Abeokuta at the expense of other priority areas of the State.
Your Excellency, considering its strategic location and of course the associated economic importance, Ota deserves special attention more than it is right now. With its proximity to Lagos, there is ceaseless influx of people from Lagos to Ota. This accounts for Ota being densely populated at the moment. If properly harnessed, this could turn to revenue generation opportunity for Ogun State. Abandoning Ota in its present state means Ogun State should prepare to face the challenge of population explosion in a few years to come.
Matthew Adeleye, Ota, Ogun State
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