By Dr Nurudeen Oshinlaja
Many thanks,Mr ‘Nìyí Soyebo, for your piece with the above tittled published online in the IMPACT newspaper of August 5, 2023. It is so poignantly detailed and direct. Your account gives adequate picture of all the roads and the concerning, failing, and failed portions even if one does not know the roads – the only thing missing is the map of the areas! You exposed the difficulty the people face as they struggle for their daily survival. I am sure H.E, the governor and his coterie of advisers, assistants cannot use roads in this deplorable condition. Meanwhile, the people are not less humans than they are. As long as things remain like this, the remonstration will and should continue. We are not too small to demand actions from our governor. When the roads are fixed to the satisfaction of the people, we will appreciate. Well done, brother.
It shouldn’t get to this level if promises (by the Executive Governor of Lagos State) are kept. I do not understand why our state government is suddenly making Lagos state lose her prestige – we can imagine the percentage of research works and dissertations which use Lagos state as case studies to inspire positive actions in other Nigerian states and other major cities in Africa. Here we are! We now need to keep hammering it down that situations in our state are becoming bad.
The citizens of Lagos state should not be going through what the pictures and video clips coming through are showing for several months. The length of time of inactions is causing the most palpitations for me because of the hardship the people are enduring. A true public officer whose responsibility it is to act on the roads in question should be beyond bothered seeing the harrowing experience school children, young and old face on daily basis due to the comatose infrastructures in most parts of Igbogbo-Baiyeku LCDA and the entire Ikorodu Division.
You highlighted the large number of affected CDAs and the commercial activities that are crumbling as a result of the lethargic interventions of the state government. Many of the people whose businesses are on the affected corridors would hardly be getting some sleep. I shudder for their mental health. If the governor does not understand this, then I wonder his compassion level. It is even beyond compassion. It is about responsibility!
You linked the eye-sore situations to political implications and how APC’s political goodwill may be eroded in Ikorodu Division. Well, you are right because that is important to be identified. I, however, think it is more than that. Even if the people of the division did not vote for the governor, the situations should not be like this, this level of neglect is an affront on a people who you beg for power. The governor or any leader for that matter is at the mercy of the people and not the other way round. Issues like this should not be used to canvass for votes and should not be determinants for how responsive an executive governor of a state should be. Once elected, our governor must be responsive to and govern all areas of the state with fairness and due regard. Tying governance to the number of votes gotten from an area under ones jurisdiction as an elected officer shows lack of gravitas. It is also unacceptable to delay actions so that past contributor(s) can be denied a share of the glory of bringing the infrastructures to fruition. What many look for in life can be befuddling, honestly, and such belittles their moral posture and goodliness! It is trite that a government exists for the wellbeing of the citizens, what the governor and his government is doing is antithetical to that solemn responsibility.
Our dear state is losing latent social capital and future altruism. Just thinking about the daily excruciating experience of school children whose schools are on the corridors alone should make the governor sees the problems as a matter of life and death. That our senior citizens along the areas too are banished indoors because of mobility challenges is also a matter of life and death. That is not an exaggeration, Mr Governor. God forbid emergencies around Baiyeku, Oreta, Òffin, Gberigbe, Ijede and all the contiguous precincts under the 5 LCDAs and 1 LG in Ikorodu Division! Imagine how long it will take for help to get there or to transfer potential patients or victims to safety or to where they will get treatment. Imagine, just imagine, Mr Governor!
I also appreciate that you gave due, not patronising, acknowledgment of good efforts, e.g., by IBLCDA and zonal CDC chairmen for the palliatives on some portions of the roads in the LCDA. I am sure other similar efforts obtain in other LCDAs and LG as well. The actions by our federal representative, Rep. Babajide Benson on several important inner roads are the most commendable. We can be happier if the push by distinguished Senator Adetokunboh Abiru on federal roads that open up our division to inward and outward commercial are worked on. The issue is the people cannot be discouraged and certainly we will not be tired. Also, the chairman of IBLCDA and other LCDAs chairmen and all our representatives in the Lagos state and federal legistive houses cannot rest on their oars. More actions are needed from them severally and jointly with other constituted authorities such as business leaders, party leaders, and traditional leaders.
I am happy that you mentioned the inadequacy of public schools in IBLCDA l. However, you may have been less clear. For me, the governor should note that many secondary schools in IBLCDA and the entire Ikorodu division require urgent face lift. Why were individual helps on the schools discouraged if government attention would not be prompt and total? Like you did, we can also talk about the situations of our public primary schools to the governor but those should be appropriately placed at the doorsteps of the IKDLG and LCDAs chairmen. Actions, Actions, Actions, please, our chairmen. The chairmen should reach out to those who can help them and stop the unnecessary X builds this, Y builds that when it is supposed to be IKDLG or xLCDA builds this or that. Do the people even see their budgets which are shrouded in secrecy? Many public retreats held for budget purposes, yet the budgets are arcane products. How retrogressive can that be! Media reports of budget presentations to local legislative houses are scanty to the extent that basic ratio deductions cannot be readily assumed and citizens cannot do follow-ups. I mean, how can the people contribute meaningfully? People’s and media’s contributions to democracy is an essential part of a working democracy, I hope our chairmen know and appreciate this. I see too much over-glorification going on even when public officers are ineffective and inefficient. Focus, focus on the jobs at hand is what we need not canonising public officers! Don’t get me wrong, I like to give credits because “yinni yinni, Kénì le ṣe èmi,…” and I believe in management by patting people in the back. But this over glorification does not cut it if we should be frank with ourselves.
It will be well with our state! But the governor should act now.
God bless IBLCDA.
God bless Ikorodu LGA
God bless Ikorodu Division.
God bless Lagos state.
God bless Nigeria.
Nurudeen Oshinlaja; PhD, ACA, an indigene of Igbogbo, Igbogbo/Bayeku LCDA writes from Cardiff, United Kingdom.
