By Waheed Adekunle
It is unfortunate that we found ourselves as a people in this situation inspite of the humongous resources available to the present government in Osun State. No doubt, the road from Olaiya to Abere seems to be one of the major roads within the capital city if not the busiest, but yet it suffers regular maintenance approach.
Not until the members of the major opposition party raises an alarm or take to the social media and other digital or traditional media to show the terrible potholes on the road, that something would be done.
It is no more news that most of the repairs done either perfectly or otherwise were products of constructive criticisms from the opposition party in the state.
If not for the ill-thought road diversion, Okefia-Olaiya-Ogo-Oluwa roads have always been the regular routes to the Government Secretariat, Osogbo by the people, government officials including the siting governor attesting to the fact that the people in government are in the know of the state of the roads.
Unfortunately, instead of paying an attention to some of the critical spots on the road that require serious and prompt intervention, what we see has always been rehabilitation that adds little or nothing to the quality of the road.
There was a time a drainage was constructed on a section of the road without finishing touches. Instead of finding permanent solutions to these identified spots, they chose to embark on palliative work that has no sustainable remedy.
With the huge allocation from the federal government currently coming into Osun State on monthly basis, Osogbo, if not the entire state, ought to have been turned into a mega city, but instead, the opposite is the order of the day.
It is expected that a perfect drainage system would have been done on the road to prevent erosion. It is equally expected that quality rehabilitation would have been done on major spots identified but rather, the reverse is the case.
What would it take a government to maintain the drainage from the Government Secretariat down to the Old Garage to ensure unhindered and free flow of water since it has been technically established that most of the damaged spots are caused by downpour? Infact, there are some areas that need concrete and interlocks to fix. Instead, billions of naira are expending on flyovers at the expense of deplorable roads across the state. That is a discussion for another day.
Some areas like Baruwa Street Junction around Finger Licking Restaurant; Olosan Junction; Onward Junction; opposite old FRSC Office, Bovas Filling Station Junction among others are flashpoint of deplorable potholes.
Instead of finding permanent solutions to the cause of the incessant damage on the spots, they embark on patching exercise that can not hold heavy erosion whenever there’s torrential rainfall. Just because there has been noise here and there overtime on the damaged spots, they mobilized to the place to do samething they used to do. What a pity!
We all know the tactics, though. Regular patching or repairs is never for free, something must definitely go for it as being budgeted and appropriated for. But in the interest of the state, an adequate attention is needed on this, it goes beyond palliative work.
We can’t be doing samething, same way and expect different results.
May God heal our land!
