Kunle Adelabu
-Pledges to reconstruct barrier at canal along Oba Omolaja Road
Builder Sesan Daini, the Chairman of the Igbogbo/Bayeku Local Council Development Area of Ikorodu Division, Lagos State, Southwest, Nigeria, has threatened to de – register any CDA without capacity to perform as enshrined in the laws that established them.
He condemned a situation where CDAs are not living up to their responsibilities, stating that the duty of community associations is to take ownership and monitor projects.
Daini stated this on Sunday at the commissioning of the newly reconstructed Paul Palmer road, Igbogbo, while expressing his displeasure towards the joint Igbe CDAs over the maintenance of Igbe road that was facilitated by Rep. Babajimi Benson.
“I want to talk about the roads and other projects that were facilitated and done by the Federal and the State governments in Igbogbo on the basis that they usually hand them over to the local government for maintenance, information and updating. Once my boss commissioned this road today, it has become my duty to supervise and monitor it”, he said.
“But I have seen that we don’t maintain projects executed for our benefits. Concerning the 2.2km road facilitated by Rep. Benson, after some time, parts of the road started collapsing due to lack of maintenance and he was unhappy about it and expressed his displeasure to me. In fact, he blamed me for it and at a point, I visited the Igbe community and met with the nine CDAs on how to ensure the maintenance of the road.
“I assured them that the council will see to the rehabilitation of the portions that were damaged and also evacuate the drainage, which we did. I also had agreement with them, that after necessary rehabilitation and evacuation of the drainages, that members of the community will be responsible for the clearing of the drainages on a monthly basis”.
While stating that nine months after, the CDA has not fulfilled their own part of the agreement, the Chairman said that the council may consider delisting CDAs that are not capable of performing their functions.
“This is the 9th month after the agreement, the community has done nothing on our agreement. It is unfortunate that the CDAs are not living up to one of their primary responsibilities which is to relate with the government and monitor projects in their domains”, he said.
“It is possible that we might look into reviewing the existing CDAs to see if they have what it takes to stand on their own. We may have to delist those that are not capable. Most of the CDAs are not doing what they are expected to do”, he threatened.
“We can turn the nine CDAs to three if that would make them effective”.
The Chairman, however, pleaded with the Ife Oluwa CDA to take ownership of the newly commissioned road.
Daini also pledged to reconstruct the barricade along the Oba Omolaja road in Igbogbo, which many have described as a death trap.
“I want to plead with the CDA that we are commissioning this new road in their community to take ownership of the road and report whatever issue on it to us in good time. Bring whatever challenge on the street lights to our attention so that we can proffer solutions to it”, he said.
“You see the canal over there (pointing to the canal after Conoil station along Oba Omolaja Road), my administration fixed its barrier and all the iron used for the barriers were removed and taken away because residents failed to protect it. They stole the irons and barbwire that we used and the CDAs were unable to do anything about it.
“I assure you that I will put in place another barrier within the next three months. After doing that, I will have a meeting with the CDAs to take ownership of it.
“We may have to use concrete for it instead of barbed wire for it to be more secure”, he said.
