A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, Ogun State and one of its gubernatorial aspirants during the 2023 elections, Segun Sowunmi, has described the present status of the road network in the state as quite shameful and embarrassing.
Sowunmi dropped this observation on his verified Facebook page on Saturday.
He said that there was no hiding the truth that the current state of roads across the state is appalling and had set tongues wagging, making visitors and residents in the state wonder what has become the preeminence status of the Gateway State.
He adduced the determination not to allow the local government to work as one of the major reasons for the parlous state of affairs as far as the road network is concerned in the state.
Sowunmi said, “Without a doubt our roads are appalling and we must own up to the fact that visitors, residents and all that know of our preeminence must wonder what has become of us and our reputation, for all that needs to happen is for people to either try to commute on our roads daily for residents and more dramatic for visitors who would be so surprised that is this it, is this who they are? Is this how they live?
“Well, we need to be embarrassed that things have gotten to this embarrassing state. We have been on a steady journey to this disgraceful state of affairs steadily.
“The state is large and mostly urban with many built-up areas, so many adjoining towns to Lagos, Oyo, Ore, Ondo, Republic of Benin making it a gateway state in the truest sense of the word, those who have governed and are governing now must look themselves in the mirror and be ashamed of themselves for how the state looks in terms of road infrastructure.
“A major cause of this ugly state of things is that once local government does not work, we won’t fix the challenge! Once we insist that infrastructure is the conduit pipe and we are only interested in contracts, we can never find the resources to fix our infrastructure demands on roads. Once we don’t get that the thought process that created Ogun State Road Maintenance Agency (OGROMA) is profound and meant to build local competence to do so much of the road at a more sustainable price we are joking. Once we insist that there will be no real post governance accountability to punish those who ought to give account and they will be extremely wealthy at our expense we are not serious”.
Sowunmi has however told Governor Dapo Abiodun to re-order his priority and declare a state of emergency on the terrible situation of the roads across the state.
He said, “I believe it is time to declare a road emergency in Ogun State and the Federal Government needs to stop being an obstacle to our desire to fix our roads under the guise of a terminology called federal roads.
“It is time to rethink this idea of abandoned major roads that the federal government won’t fix and won’t let anyone fix using practical business models to mobilize private equity that can be bankable and sustainable in fixing the embarrassment that has now turned us to the butt of jokes!
“Well as for the present Governor Dapo Abiodun reorder your priorities. I attest to the fact that I have seen some efforts with roads that are equally important but mostly unspoken about by telling you to take away the reproach of bad roads.
“I get that your predecessors left a mess but right now you must buckle up and put a lot of gangs to ameliorate the situation. Ogun cannot look like an infrastructural disaster”.
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