OBASANJO AND SOUTH-WEST ROADS

By Jide Ayobolu <jideayobolu@yahoo.co.uk>

Sept 1, 2006

After seven years of civilian administration in the country, the roads in the country are still in a deplorable state of this repair. The present has not done anything at all about the south –west roads. Just name it, the Lagos – Ibadan express road, the Ilorin – Ibadan, Lagos – Abeokuta, Lagos – Ota, Ibadan- Ife – Ado Ekiti – Akure just to mention but a few. The point, however, is if the president has failed to attend to roads in his own base how is he going to repair roads in other geo-political zones? For instance, this government started the construction of the new Ibadan – Ilorin since 2001 and up till now they have done up to 20 per cent of the road, this unfortunately has sent many innocent and innocuous to their early grave because of this unpardonable negligence of duty by those at the helm of affairs.

Not only has the president not delivered on his electoral promises, he has carried on doing what he likes not caring a hoot about the plight of the masses. Yet, they want us to take in hook, line and sinker that, democracy is a government of the people, for the people and by the people. But those who preside over the affairs of the Nigerian state have not been accountable to the Nigerian people. The like to do what they without any recourse to the collective interest of the Nigerian people. From north to east, south to west, the roads are in a death-trap, so, if the government cannot take care of this basic things, how will it fix the Niger – Delta problem for instance. Why will the government leave a lot of abandon projects all over the place and start new ones running into several billion of dollars in the twilight of its departure from office?

What we have witnessed over the years is apparent infrastructure underdevelopment and decay. The country is at a standstill and nothing seems to be working. Apart from the fact that the roads are in a very horrendous state, the is erratic and epileptic power supply, water supply is grossly inadequate, there is no concrete housing policy in place, as houses in the country are just for the affluent in the society, hospitals are worse than mere consulting clinic as there are no drugs, the education sector is in a shambles, agriculture has long been neglected and to a very considerable extent this has been the dividend of democracy. We therefore ask the president to get serious for once and repair all the roads  before his departure from office.

BY

Jide Ayobolu

No 19 Gongola street

Garki 2

Abuja