Sorry Tale of Igbesa, Ogun’s Neglected Industrial Hub
Community agonises over bad roads, absence of a monarch Kayode Fasua
Like a daze of the locust, hordes of commercial motorcycles popularly called okada are common sights at the early hours of work days at the sleepy community of Igbesa in Ado-Odo/Otta Local Government area of Ogun State.
They are seen meandering through the bad roads in the community as they convey students of the Ogun State Institute of Technology sited in the community, to their campus.
Upon interaction with THISDAY recently, residents of Igbesa, an industrial community of no mean ‘stature’, expressed their frustrations in turn. Marooned by virtually impassable roads, the local populace, in separate interviews, lamented that Igbesa kingdom had been completely forgotten, as far as development thoughts in Ogun State are concerned.
The elders who spoke, looked straight ahead in deep contemplation, heaving a sigh of stoicism, as they wondered why a community where the bulk of the state’s internally generated revenue is derived from, should be brushed aside in the scheme of things. The locals are particularly displeased that the state government appears to have hit them below the belt in its unexplained reason for delaying the installation of their monarch, having been elected over a year ago. The Ado-Odo/Ota local council had since March 2017 issued Prince Abdulazeez Oluwatoyin Akinde, a certificate of selection to become the Oloja-Ekun (traditional ruler) of Igbesa kingdom, but the Ogun State Government is still being awaited to install the new king.
Though infrastructural backwardness afflicting Igbesa has been traced to donkey years of neglect by successive administration, the community leaders are of the conviction that the situation is now made worse by the delay in the installation of the Oba-elect, who, “as an educated and well-travelled personality, can easily draw the attention of those in authorities to the plight of our kingdom.”
United in adversity, leaders of the Christian, Islamic and traditional religions in Igbesa, respectively, spoke on the plight of a community that parades at least four notable industries, but having no passable roads in whatever form.
The three major religious leaders in Igbesa, namely - Chairman Christian Association of Nigeria, Igbesaland chapter, Samuel Durojaiye; Chief Imam of Igbesaland, Alhaji Muhammadu Lawal and the head of traditional religion adherents in Igbesa, Chief Isa Oga, stressed the need for the installation of the Oba-elect and the need for the rehabilitation of the roads from both Atan and Agbara ends, with a confluence at Lusada that links Igbesa through sheer dilapidation. According to Durojaiye, “All our farmers have been impoverished by the situation of our roads, as they can no longer transport their market produce easily. Again, we don’t have a traditional ruler like the other communities; so there is no one to be our symbol when communities are sending representation to government.”
Complementing him, Lawal said, “While the Chinese industrialists who had come to our community to site industries were willing to assist in rehabilitating our bad roads, they expressed concern that we don’t have a traditional ruler and have, as such, become reluctant in fulfilling their promise. This is because, they see leadership as security.”
In his comment too, Oga depicted the harrowing experience of Igbesa populace thus: “We don’t have an Oba to lead, we don’t have roads that can lead us out and that can lead people here, and we don’t have anything near fairly stable electricity, as most parts of Igbesa kingdom have been thrown into darkness for years that I can no longer remember.”
In own reaction, the President of Igbesa Youth Assembly, Comrade Babajide Aina, said, “It is unfortunate that where the bulk of all the revenue of Ogun State is coming from has no passable roads leading to it, thus frustrating the operations of the companies.”
Aina noted that industries like Hexing Industries, Brury Industries, Flour Mills Ltd, and Viju Milk Industries, all in Igbesa, would have thriven more than they are currently doing but that heavy-duty vehicles serving them were often trapped on the impossible road network.
Meanwhile, the Igbesa palace chiefs have renewed their plea with Governor Ibikunle Amosun to speedily install Akinde as the new Oloja-Ekun, having been duly elected through a new procedure introduced by the state government.
In a joint address at the palace of the ElekunOja, the chiefs, namely, Mohammed Akapo, the Ajanna of Igbesa; Adewumi Durojaiye, the Otunba Moloje of Igbesaland; Chief Abdulwahab Imosu, the Bobasaye of Igbesaland, and Oseni Adeola Obanla, the Afose of Igbesaland, all urged the Ogun governor to wade into the logjam surrounding the installation of a new Igbesa monarch.
Recalling the antecedent of the logjam, Chief Durojaiye who spoke on behalf of others, said, “When the last Elekun-Oja joined his ancestors in 2015, there was only one kingmaker left alive.
“So the state government appointed 10 other personalities in the community to join him in voting for a new Oba. And at the election, Akinde defeated his rival by 6-5, prompting the local council to give him the certificate of selection. “The other party went to court but there has been no court injunction whatsoever restraining the government from installing our Oba. So we plead with Governor Amosun to do the needful,” the chief said.
But members of Igbesa District Community Association in the United Kingdom and Ireland, said they smelt a rat in the delay of the installation of the Oba-elect.
Its leader, Sheik (Dr.) Olushola Dauda, who spoke from his London base, said the Ogun State Commissioner for Chieftaincy Affairs, Chief Jide Ojuko, should grant audience to Igbesa chiefs to lodge their complaints over the obaship issue.