Ogun Waterside Local Government Area in Ogun State is unique considering its geography. It is remarked to be the only area of the state sharing borders with Ondo and Lagos states. The local government area is made of the Ijebus, Ikales and Ilajes. However, for residents of one of the prominent towns in the local government area known as Itebu-Manuwa (an Ilaje community carved out of Ondo State), it has been one long night of lack. With the absence of basic amenities, they have resigned to a painful fate of government neglect. HAKEEM GBADAMOSI, after a visit to the community, reports the plight of the residents.
Itebu Manuwa is a coastal community in Ogun Waterside Local Government Area with its headquarters in Abigi. The people are mainly Ilaje from Ondo State. The division which informed the present location of the community from Ondo to Ogun was created by British colonial masters for administrative convenience in 1929. But the people of the community who are largely farmers and fishermen have always maintained that the ceding of the community to Ogun State adversely affected their development as a people with no significant government presence.
A visit by Nigerian Tribune to the community revealed a sorry tale of a community living on the precipice. With no functional hospital, schools, water, among much other lack, the residents claimed to have resorted to fate because of the many years of neglect. The residents begged for government’s intervention and upgrade of the area. They listed areas of need to include provision of access roads, health care, school and water.
One of the residents, Abel Omosule, said the only health care centre in the community lies abandoned, leaving pregnant women at higher risk of mortality. He explained that pregnant women lack prompt medical attention and have to travel most times to Okitipupa General Hospital in Ondo State, which he said has always resulted in the death of some people.
A farmer, Mrs Funmilayo Adebunmi while relating her experience said: “I was very sick some two months ago. I had to travel to Okitipupa to get medication. We will be glad if your visit will yield results. All we want is for the government to help us with the road, water, electricity and other social amenities.”
According to her, many pregnant women relocate to Okitipupa or nearby towns because of the deplorable state of the health centre. “They have abandoned the health centres. The health centre cannot attend to common illnesses not to think of taking successful deliveries of pregnant women. Not all of us will have money to travel to a hospital in another place to receive medical treatment. So many people have died from this ugly situation,” she said.
Also, a fisherman, Francis Ebierowei, said the major challenge of the community is lack of road, just as he called on political leaders who made promises during the electioneering campaigns to fulfil their promises, lamenting that the waterways have been blocked and nothing is being done.
A political leader in the community, James Oluwaro, expressed worries over the deplorable state of primary and secondary schools in the community and appealed to the Ogun State government to intervention. According to him, “despite the first and oldest primary school in the region, St. Mark Anglican Primary School, was established in the community in 1875, the community’s only primary school is nothing to write home about, while the secondary school, Comprehensive High School, Itebu Manuwa, has been taken over by weed and reptiles since it was abandoned. There are no chairs and tables for learning. Students sit on the floor during class. We have written series of letters to the Ministry of Education and the state government on the deplorable condition of the schools, but to no avail.
“We are appealing to the state government to come to the aid of Itebu Manuwa people by posting teachers to our school, renovating the abandoned secondary school to enable the students to learn.”
Speaking with the Nigerian Tribune, the traditional ruler of the community, Oba Fredrick Adetutu Manuwa, the Elero of Itebu Manuwa, lamented the neglect and lack of amenities, saying disaster looms if nothing urgent is done to address the situation.
“We are Ilaje and this place is very close to Ondo; we are close to Atijere, Araromi, and Mahintedo. You cannot come into this community without passing through all these places which are in Ondo State. Administratively, we were carved to be in Ogun State and that is part of the reasons we have been abandoned and neglected. There have been series of agitations by our people to move to Ondo State, because we are from Ilaje origin in Ondo but nothing has come out of this. This place was called Ijebu Waterside Local Government Area but my predecessor made all possible efforts to explain that not all the people under the local government are Ijebu and it was changed to Ogun Waterside Local Government Area.”
He maintained that “There is no government presence here, though we have a maternity centre here; the school is nothing to write home about. We have no road, no electricity. You may not get anybody to attend to you at the medical centre here especially during public holidays. If there are emergencies, we usually rush the affected to the Okitipupa General Hospital instead of going to Ibiade or Ijebu Ode because of the proximity.
“We have one primary school and one secondary school. The primary school was established here in 1875 but the school is in a sorry state, St. Marks Anglican Primary school, Itebu Manuwa. We are seeking assistance from the state government especially in the area of social amenities: road, electricity, and education too. Some teachers were just transferred here some two or three weeks ago because of my intervention. The storm also recently destroyed the school’s main building, the hall and the two classrooms in the school. We are calling and appealing with the state government to come to our aid and assist us. Education remains the bedrock of social and economic development. Education is very important to national development; we must give our young ones the opportunity to acquire it, with adequate priority and attention in order to be relevant to the society.”
He added that many of the community leaders have written to the appropriate authorities, adding that nothing has done to remedy the situation. “The inhabitants of this community have been writing for years, but nothing has been done. We want to beg the government to come to our aid because the suffering is becoming unbearable. It will be impossible for a society to grow in an environment where people do not go to school. Also, to avoid children dropping out of school after primary and junior secondary education, there is need for government to build a senior secondary school in this community,” he appealed.
The police officer-turned -traditional ruler also solicited for government’s assistance in the construction of road to the area. He said many people avoid coming to Itebu Manuwa because of the state of the road. He, therefore, called for the construction of an access road. “The waterway which is less than 30 minutes to Lagos has been blocked and we travelled all through Okitipupa to Ore to Lagos,” he painfully stated.
He, however, added that that the community is peaceful with no security challenges, saying the people have organised themselves into different groups, while any strange faces or security breach would be fished out by the people within a short while.
Asked if he was to pick between Ondo or Ogun for Itebu Manuwa to be located, Oba Manuwa said: “I’ve told you earlier that I hail from Ilaje in Ondo State and we speak Ilaje here. I would have loved to be with my people and the agitations for that have been on for a long time. They have protested several times, even during the military regime. Personally I want to be in Ondo. We want it to be done peacefully and if the boundaries adjustment committee can do something about it, my people will so much appreciate it. The National Boundary Commission has been here. We have travelled to Abuja on many occasions. This will surely bring us close to development if we are returned.”
Meanwhile, a former Commissioner for Environment in Ondo State, Chief Sola Ebiseni, who was a delegate to the 2014 National Confab in Abuja, said the issue was raised at the conference to reunite the Itebu Manuwa residents with their kinsmen in Ondo.
Ebiseni, however, noted that the Itebu Manuwa people failed to embark on that journey when the opportunities came. He said there was the case of the Obinnehin people, another Ondo riverine area carved out and delineated to Ogun State but went back to Ondo in 1991. He added that the Imeri people in Ondo North District, agitated for a reversion from Edo State to Ondo in 1992; and the Sanbe people too left Ondo back to Edo State, while Itebu Manuwa people were passive in their agitations.
But some residents of Itebu Manuwa maintained that whether they remained in Ogun or were returned to Ondo State, what is important to them is the development of their community in improving their lives especially in the area of health, education, road, water and electrification of the community and its adjoining settlements.
Reacting, the Ogun State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Alhaji Waheed Odusile, said that the present administration placed priority on every community in the state.
He said, “Every community in Ogun State is valued and important in the Building Our Future Together agenda of this Administration, and therefore, nobody or community is ignored or neglected.
“The fact remains that Governor Dapo Abiodun in the last three years has embarked on massive infrastructural development of Ogun State, especially those areas that had been less served by previous administrations in the state.
“Every one of the 20 Local Government Areas in the state has at least one infrastructure project either completed or about to be completed, ranging from roads, hospitals/Primary Health Centres, schools and even affordable houses,” he added.
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