Open letter to Gov. Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq
“During the rain, our clothes get rustled by the mud on our bad roads;
during the dry season, the dust on our rickety roads stains even our most distinguished Kabiyesi’s hair brown.
Who will make Igbonla’s bumpy roads straight?
Igbonla Kingdsom can best be regarded as the underrated heart of Kwara South. A careful perusal of our history and our strategic location gives credence to our assertion. As observers of Governor Rahman’s attention and recognition towards Kwara’s agricultural, tourist and mineral potentials; one will agree that lack of viable road in a town like Igbonla which links these core agricultural, tourist and mineral abundant communities is an Ignominious fact.
Located 5.6 kilometre from Igbomina’s historic Ajasse-ipo town to the north and prestigious Iludun Oro to the south; Igbonla-Ajasse ipo-Agbamu Junction road is a gateway to Bayagan community, Egudu, Ajengbe, Asanlu, Sanmora, Agbamu, ijan-otun, Arandun, Igosun etc and far into historic Offa town and ila Oragun community in Osun State.
Blessed with gold, tantalite, cashew, cassava and our historically rich Oju-odo river, the inadequacy of the Igbonla-Ajasse Ipo- Agbamu road has for decades caused untold hardship on farmers whose agricultural products depreciates and lose value due to the longer hours of travel to the market; instances abound on the death of igbonla aged and children enroute Oro hospital on the rickety road.
Igbonla which was once a buzzing agricultural and tourist destination has lost patronage because of her bad road network, dilapidated health centre and almost decrepit school buildings. Teachers find it difficult navigating Igbonla daily from neighbouring towns, hence only few can withstand the rigors of traveling to Igbonla daily, which in turn leads to disenfranchisement of our children towards education.
Imagine having an alternative route that links the ever-busy Offa town, Oro to Osun State? Imagine visiting Esie museum without the hassle of long holdups and bad roads? Construction of Igbonla-Ajasse-Agbamu road is the answer!
An illustrious son of Igbonla sponsored the yearly upgrade of the road (before his demise in 2011). In 2002, 2008 and 2013, a wind of hope blew to our household through the radio; we heard on radio that the Kwara State Government and the Federal Government through Hon. Funke Adedoyin (of blessed memory) were ready to construct our road; till today, not one trailer has worked on the road.
One would wonder, if the past and present administration of Kwara State despises Igbonla or whether there is a deliberate conspiracy to kill the potentials of the great town.
Through numerous media, we have cried and screamed out loud for the government to fix our road, give us clean water, build our schools and support our hospitals to no avail. We are predominantly a Kingdom surviving through our own personal and community efforts.
Indeed, the present administration have been making giant strides in the socio-economic development of our dear state. A lot of communities which have hitherto never felt the impact of governance under the past administrations are now having some much needed respite under his visionary and purposeful leadership.
As much as we understand that not every community can be touched at the same time, there seems to be an infinite omission of Igbonla Community for development. We are appealing to our Governor and other representatives in Kwara- our road needs urgent attention in order to revive the socio-economic prospect of our town and the rest of Kwara State and even Osun State.
A good road in igbonla is the key to our prosperity.
Anike Igbonla
Co-Convener, Igbonla Progressive Youth
igbonlayouth@gmail.com
