Makinde: The Primacy Of Infrastructural Development

By Bolanle BOLAWOLE
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If you were to choose between three infrastructure, which is also often referred to as social amenities, which of these three would you choose? Or, better still still, how will you prioritize power supply, water supply and good roads? Which will come first in your order of preference?

Power supply is the life-wire of economic activities, apart from its domestic use as well as for relaxation. Power supply also aids security. In the dark, anything can happen. That is why our people say darkness does not recognize who is VIP and who is not. Important as power is – it was the first creation of God (Genesis 1:1-5) – we can still do without it but no one can do without water. In one of Fela’s songs, he said “water no get enemy”.

As a general rule – there may be exceptional cases – a man can only survive without water for about three days. According to Google, wilderness guides often refer to what they call the “rule of 3”, which means that a person can live without air (oxygen) for 3 minutes, without water for 3 days, and without food for 3 weeks. Water is also the soul of hygiene. Without water, it is impossible to keep our environment clean, tidy and hygienic.

Now, what are good roads? If you travel by road as often as some of us do, you will realize the importance of good roads as critical infrastructure that cannot be relegated to the background. Apart from over-speeding, one of the major causes of avoidable deaths on our roads is bad roads. Other causes include reckless driving, mechanical fault and, wait for it, overzealous and corrupt road traffic officers such as the police, civil defence, Customs, VIO, and road safety marshals.

The wear-and-tear that bad roads inflict affect the vehicle as well as the person driving it. The economic loss that results and the health impairment that road users suffer cannot be quantified. While citizens can provide themselves with power through generating sets (even if it is the poor man’s generator called “I pass my neighbour”), inverter and solar panels; and we can also dig boreholes or wells to meet our water needs, no one is able to build all the roads he will travel on. This is a duty set apart for the government. Hence, a road is either a federal, state or local government road. How effective, responsible and responsive has the three tier of government been in living up to this obligation?

On Monday last week, I traveled to Abeokuta to participate in a live radio programme on Rockcity 101. 9 FM at the invitation of my friend and professional colleague, Niran Malaolu. The topic of discussion was the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN), which the six governors of the south-west states (Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ekiti and Ondo) appear to have suddenly developed interest in!

Someone said it was because of the marching orders given to the 36 state governors by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to find a solution to the food shortage and the resounding cries of “we are hungry” resonating all over the country. Another said the incentive was the funds the president promised would be made available. I am sure you know our leaders go after the money, like the two mice (Sniff and Scurry) and two little people (Hem and Haw) went after the cheese in the book “Who moved my cheese” by Spencer Johnson.

Yet, another explanation was that the fear of military coup (Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso) and the people’s rage (Kenya) has suddenly become the beginning of wisdom for our leaders. So, DAWN, which had been comatose since its inauguration in July 2013, with many of the governors failing in their statutory financial obligation to it, has suddenly become the darling of the south-west governors. We shall return to that.

The trip from inner Lagos to the interior of Abeokuta took me less than two hours. In times past, that would have been impossible. Good roads make trips easier, faster and pleasurable. You are able to meet up with appointments – and with ease. No sweat. Each time I hopped into my car to travel, I always felt the trepidation and disgust of what lay ahead of me on some of our roads. There was an occasion when I spent six hours on the Lagos – Sango-ota – Abeokuta road that ordinarily should not have taken more than one hour. I missed the appointment I went for. That was when the Lagos-Ibadan expressway was undergoing its unending construction. I never again ventured near that road!

Not only has it not been made good, it has gotten even worse. The right hand side of that road, going from Lagos to Abeokuta, I understand, has now totally collapsed from very close to the foot of the Abule-Egba flyover all the way to Abeokuta while the state governor, Dapo Abiodun, blames the FG . How is a gateway without good road networks linking it to Lagos, the commercial and economic life-wire of the entire country? To think that this is the same state that has produced some of the country’s foremost leaders – Awolowo, Obasanjo, Diya, MKO, Shonekan, Osinbajo, among others!

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Neighbouring south-west states cannot take full advantage of their proximity to Lagos because of bad roads. The Lagos-Ibadan expressway, which took eternity to construct, is already wobbling at some sections, particularly at Ogere and as you drive into Ibadan around the Foursquare church camp , down to Guru Maharaj and beyond. As they say, a stitch in time saves nine. But not with Nigeria! Here, nine stitches are needed to save one! It is only when contracts worth billions of Naira can be awarded that our leaders get interested. I am sure you understand why this is usually so.

The federal road that runs from Ibadan through Ife to Ilesa is a nightmare. I have lost tyres, shock absorbers, tie rods, upper joint, lower joint – what have I not lost on that stretch of road, save life? I have run into crevices and potholes better described as manholes. I have suffered breakdowns and skidded off the road once. On one occasion, my friend, Prof. Tope Ogunbodede (immediate past VC of OAU), had to come in the dead of night to tow my vehicle off that road. Only the grace of God sustains someone on that road.

From Ilesha juncture to Akure is fairly okay but from Akure to Owo, my hometown, is another nightmare. I understand Akure to Ado-Ekiti has become impassable. Apart from its disincentive to economic activities, bad roads make the job of terrorists, kidnappers and other sundry criminals easier. They – and the traffic and security officials who extort money from motorists and other road users – wait at the very bad sections of the road to strike because they know you must slow down there. One mischievous FRSC official sarcastically told me: “Sir, it is in your interest that the roads are bad because our statistics show that ghastly accidents are more prevalent on good roads than on bad roads!” Let’s ask our leaders: is that, then, the consideration?

From the Ibadan end of the Lagos – Ibadan expressway to Iwo road junction and from there until one gets out of Ibadan and is on the Ibadan – Ife road was nightmarish in times past. One could spend hours there – a stretch of road that, ordinarily, should not take more than 10 minutes. The road was particularly bad at the time. Now, it has been reconstructed. The by-pass from the expressway into Old Ife road, just before the Iwo road junction, has also helped travelers to escape getting enmeshed in the unpredictable traffic flow at the Iwo road junction.

The clincher, however, is the Ibadan Circular Road that the Oyo State governor, Seyi Makinde, is constructing at a whopping cost of N120 billion. When the road is completed in November this year (hopefully!) travelers coming from Lagos and going towards Ife and those from Ife travelling towards Lagos will have the opportunity of bypassing Ibadan. I told Makinde during the facility tour of his legacy projects during the first anniversary celebration of his second term in office on Saturday, June 8, that I cannot wait to see that happen!

The 110 km Circular Road, named after a former governor of the state, Senator Rashidi Olawolu Ladoja, comprises bridges and interchanges to ease traffic congestion in various areas of the city. Handled by Craneburg Construction Company, it encircles the urban area of the Ibadan metropolis and will provide a strategic link between different parts of the city and the new Central Business District.

According to the Oyo State Commissioner for Public Works and Transport, Prof. Daud Sangodoyin, the Circular Road is not just a mere stretch of asphalt but “a catalyst for monumental change and advancement. The expansive setbacks along the road corridor will be transformed into sprawling industrial parks and a myriad other amenities. Appropriately, Ibadan, the largest city in West Africa by land mass, aims, with this project, to rival and even surpass the landmarks set by other larger and (more famous?) African cities like Cairo (Egypt), Kinshasa (Democratic Republic of Congo) and Johannesburg (South Africa). Again, I cannot wait to see this happen!

Only last Thursday, the Oyo State Government carried newspaper adverts personally signed by the governor announcing the commissioning of 33 klm roads in what Makinde described as keeping his promise to fix hundreds of city centre and rural settlement roads during his second term in office. Thirty-three minus hundreds leaves us with how many more roads for Makinde to fix?

Now back to DAWN! Its mandate is: To manage Western Nigeria Development Agenda. The vision is: For the south-west region of Nigeria to become the preferred place for people to visit, live, work, and invest. Its mission is: To engender regional cooperation and integration as a catalyst for development and facilitate sustainable working relationships among different governance stakeholders. Noble ideals!

Our problem, I am sure you know, is not in formulating ideas and coming up with programmes and policies that will wow anyone. Leadership deficiency, lack of the political will to implement laudable policies and programmes, reluctance to follow-up and conclude what we start (leading to abandoned projects and waste of resources), the selfishness and self-centredness of our leaders, their lack of discipline; political partisanship, political instability and incessant change of leaders are some of the problems that we face.

Our people have a saying: This thing is our own is different from this thing is my own. “This thing is our own” often suffers neglect. It is passing the buck that ensures that the hen being taken care of by two owners ends up in the wolf’s belly. That was one of the viruses that killed Sketch newspapers where I started my journalism. We also saw it rear its ugly head in the tussle between Oyo and Osun states over the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso jointly owned by them. I suspect the same factor will dog, if it has not already dogged the feet of DAWN.

DAWN’s name will also wag it, like the tail wags the dog: It is the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria; not the Development Agenda for Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ekiti and Ondo states. We must return, first of all, to Western Nigeria. Stop putting the cart before the horse!

* Former Editor of PUNCH newspapers, Chairman of its Editorial Board and Deputy Editor-in-chief, BOLAWOLE was also the Managing Director/ Editor-in-chief of THE WESTERNER newsmagazine. He writes the ON THE LORD’S DAY column in the Sunday Tribune and TREASURES column in New Telegraph newspaper on Wednesdays. He is also a public affairs analyst on radio and television.