Few months ago, Nigerian Tribune visited Baba Pupa community in Odeda Local Government Area of Ogun state and discovered that basic amenities was elusive and they had to pay for luxuries that were basic to other communities. The community in its 300 years of existence, had rarely had the good fortune of living a qualitative life like other communities as civilisation though near, was far from their reach due to circumstances beyond their control
For the people of the ancient Baba Pupa, village, is a 15-minute bike ride from Olodo community, which is also not far from Abeokuta in the same state, the only thing they have in common with other communities close to them is just being in the same state and being neigbours; the difference in the quality of life cannot be measured in minutes but in decades.
This is due to the fact that in spite of its 300 years, the only thing that stands this village out aside its age and dilapidating buildings, is its status as an important ward when it comes to elections. Indeed, the town is acclaimed to be one where every party must hold its campaign since the era of the Western Region. But this has in no way uplifted the life of the people despite being on the popular Alagbagba road, which at present is in bad condition and home to kidnappers.
Baba Pupa community with its extension, Abule Ojo, has over 200 old houses, some of which are falling apart and like countless villages in that vicinity, there is nothing to show for being part of a civilised world; all forms of development are alien and basic social amenities; potable water, good road, secondary school, primary health care centre and power supply continues to elude the community and its people. Indeed, the community has never experienced power supply, the nearest they have come close to having electricity are the poles that dots the road from Olodo to the community on the Alagbagba road but these poles had never been wired.
But after Nigerian Tribune reported the situation in the village, hope has risen for the people that finally something will done about their situation. The villagers are happy that the report has drawn attention to their plight and they will soon get potable water in their community.
The ray of hope came from an intervention by the senator representing Ogun Central in the National Assembly, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, who the villagers told Nigerian Tribune, has given instruction to some people to dig a borehole for the community and they had commenced work. It was further learnt that a group of people also came to the village with the promise of repairing the roof of a block of classroom
However, the villagers express fear that the work may suffer a setback because the people working on the project had stopped work on the ground that they met rocks under the surface of the ground. “They had commenced work and had already dug a pit but they left with the machine some days after they started with complaints about a rock belt in the soil making the work difficult; we believe this happened due to the quality of machine they used,” Sola Obadimu, an indigene of the village stated.
Obadimu further told Nigerian Tribune that efforts are also ongoing in other quarters to reverse the bad fortune of the community in terms of basic amenities. “I went to check things on December 31, 2019, with Dr Kehinde Kadiri of Grassroots Aid Initiative, in company of former Chairman of the National Youth Council of Nigeria, Ogun State, Prince Adeleke Adebajo as well as the current State Secretary, Comrade Akolawole Shoremi. We met with the Baale and other villagers and Dr Kehinde Kadiri of Grassroots Aid Initiative, who was the last winner of Gani Fawehinmi Award, promised to get something done to support the village. The stakeholders do not trust the mode of operations of the ongoing borehole project by the senator and they are calling for help from other well meaning Nigerians,” Obadimi explained.
But for the people, there is a level of hope that this New Year will indeed bring good tidings.
and then