A Yoruba aphorism says the elephant is too huge an animal to be ignored. While the elephant’s size may not cover the whole forest, its presence is felt throughout the jungle. Therefore, discountenancing the presence of the elephant with “I saw something in a jiffy” is to be unfair to the elephant and unjust to the jungle.
The same goes for the road infrastructure in Oyo State. Governor Seyi Makinde may not have fixed all the roads in the state, but with the completion of 335.77 kilometres of roads spread across all the zones in the state, he has constructed more roads in five years than all the governors the state had between 1999 and 2019 put together. So, discountenancing Governor Makinde’s road infrastructure with “all roads in Ibadan, whether state or local government access roads, have gone seriously bad” as done by a Business Day’s reporter is both unfair to the governor and unjust to the state.
For the avoidance of doubt, road infrastructure is the easiest route to economic growth because it attracts new capital, drives down cost of production, pushes up output, enhances productivity and connects the hinterlands to the major economic centres. It is also a vehicle of social development for it links people and places. By reducing the space between people and places, road infrastructure plays a catalytic role in healthcare delivery, the education system and the provision of other social services. Therefore, according to experts, a 10 percent increase in road infrastructure results in a 5.16 percent decline in poverty.
These facts are well known to Governor Makinde, hence on assumption of office in 2019, he set out to improve the state’s road infrastructure with a view to leveraging same to pull investments into the state and boost its internally generated revenue. But unlike his predecessors, Makinde didn’t start his road revolution agenda in Ibadan. And that decision was founded on a very vital reason.
While speaking at the inauguration of the Oyo-Iseyin road, a federal government road which was reconstructed by his administration, Governor Makinde said, “Oyo State has arable land for agriculture, and the question for us was: how do we get the big players to come and site their agribusiness where we had land? The answer was to open up the zones through road projects.
“Yes, we had a choice of doing what previous governments had done, which was to concentrate efforts in Ibadan, to repair inner roads which would be easily visible to the people in the capital. But we chose to take the path less travelled.”
Governor Makinde, armed with data, science and logic, was of the persuasion that it would make more economic sense to tee off his road construction intervention by connecting the production zones in the state with the consumption centre, which is the state capital. So, he started with the reconstruction of the Moniya-Iseyin road. This is a federal road that had gone to the dogs. The road was a travellers’ nightmare as journeying on it was both tortuous and arduous. But the Seyi Makinde administration was able to fix the road in less than twenty months. The 65-kilometre road project, which was awarded on November 1, 2019, was inaugurated on June 3, 2021 with a 20-year warranty by the contractor. The road has taken away the stress associated with plying that route and reduced travel time between Ibadan, the state capital and the Oke-Ogun zone of the state, by as much as two hours as the trip can now be completed in less than 50 minutes.
With the completion of the Moniya-Iseyin Road, Oyo State Government moved to the Oyo-Iseyin Road that links Oyo and Oke-Ogun zones. This is also a federal road that had seen better days. At a point the road became impassable. This forced commuters going to Oyo from Iseyin to first travel to Ibadan before heading to Oyo. So, a journey that was supposed to last a maximum of thirty minutes ended up taking as much as three hours. Governor Makinde resolved to reconstruct the road due to its importance to the economy of the state. With the completion of the road, access to Fasola Agribusiness Industrial Hub, which is being developed by the state, has become easy.
In fulfillment of his promise to focus on road projects which target the state’s economy and link the five zones of the state to increase economic activities and stem rural-urban migration, Governor Makinde constructed the 76.67km Iseyin-Fapote-Ogbomoso road. This is a completely new road which links the Oke-Ogun and Ogbomoso zones of the state. The reconstruction of the 48 km Ido-Eruwa Road, which links Ibadan with the Ibarapa zone, is nearing completion.
But the vision to see all the zones connected by roads so as to boost the state’s economy has not dimmed Governor Makinde’s zest to put the inner roads in Ibadan and other major towns in good shape. He has also invested a tidy sum on inner roads. Some of the inner roads constructed in his first term are the 7.252KM Idi Ape-Bashorun-Akobo-Odogbo Barracks Junction Road, the 16.96km Kolapo Ishola GRA road network, the 4.0km Beere-Alekuso-Oritamerin-Agbeni Ogunpa-Lebanon Street-Dugbe Road, all in Ibadan as well as the 9.7km Oke-Ogun Polytechnic-Ilesha Baruba Road in Saki and the 5.2km Gedu-Oroki-Sabo-Aispa Road in Oyo, among others.
Then in December 2023, Governor Makinde approved the award of contracts for the reconstruction and asphalt improvement of 95.58 kilometres of roads within Ibadan. The first phase of the completed roads totaling 38.48km was commissioned on Thursday, July 11, 2024. The roads commissioned include the Iyaganku-Seventh Day-Oke Bola Junction and Olubadan Stadium Junction-Vale College-NUJ Press Centre Junction with a spur to Total Filling Station-Radio Nigeria-Kobiowu Estate-Akinyemi Junction-Ring Road, the dualised Mile 110-Mobil (Ring Road)-Challenge Road, the dualised Bus Stop Agodi Gate-Oje-Beere-Oja’ba-Molete Under Bridge and Oke Adu-Ode Aje-Aremo-Orita Aperin Road.
Others are Idi Arere-Kudeti-Eleta-Idi Aro-Labo Junction-Orita Aperin Road, Idi Arere-Popo Yemoja Road-Oke Ado-Molete Road and Oke Ado-Tribune-Imalefalafia-Ososami-Iyana Adeoyo Junction-Ring Road.
While commissioning the roads Governor Makinde said, “As a government, our job is to do our best with the little resources we have to keep the residents happy and attract more people to come to our state. This is the way we grow our economy. We also acknowledge that we do not have all the resources at our disposal. So, we cannot meet all our needs at the same time.
“This commissioning today will be the first of many. Our administration earmarked an initial 95.58km of feeder roads for asphaltic improvement and reconstruction in December 2023. This is just half-way through it and they are to be completed within 12 months.
“We are now in July with over 38km completed and the remaining 57km ongoing. So, I can rightly say we are over half-way done.”
But despite the strides, Governor Makinde will be the first to admit that there is still much to be done in the area of inner roads.
At the last road commissioning, he had said, “We look forward to rehabilitating more roads within the state and I can say today that we are in Ibadan zone. There will be phase two of this project, which will be in other zones of the state. And we will start by the end of third quarter of this year. So, we are coming.”
It is important to underscore the fact that for every kilometer of road mentioned as having not been fixed yet by Oyo State Government, there are several other inner roads as well as major roads which have already been constructed by the state government.
One of the major differences between leaders and others is how they view issues. While others see issues from the prism of self, leaders have the responsibility to consider the big picture to ensure a balance. The pathway to great leadership is paved with fairness and justice. A leader who cannot ensure fairness will record progress in reverse.
By his conduct and utterances, Governor Seyi Makinde has repeatedly shown that he is fair to all. He is unmoved by primordial sentiments but guided by justice and fairness, which are the underpinning principles on which his administration stands. These are the factors that determine resource allocation and project distribution in Oyo State. So, the Business Day reporter should rest assured that the gale of road construction blowing across Oyo State will not stop until every part of the state is touched. It is just a matter of time.
Olanrewaju is the Chief Press Secretary to Oyo State Governor.
ALSO READ: JUST IN: Oba Olakulehin gets Staff of Office as 43rd Olubadan
and then