Like a swarm of locusts, hordes of commercial motorcycle riders, popularly called okada, in the early hours on week days move in and out of the sleepy community of Igbesa in Ado-Odo/Otta Local Government area of Ogun State, conveying passengers.
They meander through the deplorable roads leading into and out of the community as they convey workers to the various factories dotting the landscape of the area and the students of the Ogun State Institute of Technology sited in the community, to their campus.
As the residents commute into and out of the community, two things border their minds: the deplorable state of their roads and the non-existence of a reigning monarch.
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
Virtually marooned by the impassable roads, the local populace have been lamenting that Igbesa kingdom has been completely forgotten, as far as development thoughts in Ogun State are concerned.
Residents of the industrial community of “no mean stature” expressed their frustrations to our correspondent, who visited the area.
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.
OUR ORDEAL
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 Government Area 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 officially install the new king.
Though infrastructural backwardness afflicting Igbesa has been traced to donkey years of neglect by successive administrations, 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.”
Inspite of their diversity, leaders of the Christian, Islamic and traditional religions in Igbesa, respectively, spoke on the plight of a community that parades no fewer than four notable industries, but having no passable roads in whatever form.
The leaders of the three major religions in Igbesa, namely, Venerable Samuel Durojaiye, who is the Chairman, Christian Association of Nigeria, Igbesaland chapter; Alhaji Muhammadu Lawal, Chief Imam of Igbesaland, and Chief Isa Oga, head of traditional religion adherents in Igbesa, chorused the need for the installation of the Oba-elect as the king and the need for the rehabilitation of the bad roads from both Atan and Agbara ends, with a confluence at Lusada that links Igbesa in its current state of 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.”
Corroborating 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 they have, as such, become reluctant in fulfilling their promise. This is because, they see leadership as security.”
In his own comment, too, Oga painted the picture of the harrowing experience of the 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.”
Also reacting, 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, Drury Industries, Flour Mills Ltd, and Viju Milk Industries, all in Igbesa, would have thrived more than they are currently doing, but that heavy-duty vehicles serving them were often trapped on the impassible road network.
PALACE CHIEFS PLEAD WITH OGUN GOV FOR MONARCH’s INSTALLATION
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 Elekun-Oja, 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 cause 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.”
But members of the 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.
“What we gathered is that the commissioner receives more in audience, those who are working against our interest than those who are supporting the popular choice of the entire community for an Oba,
” Dauda said.
