shareBOLU-OLU ESHO,
AbeokutaAmong all towns in Ogun State, Igbesa, is one of the most popular due to its location which shares boundary with Lagos State.The advent of Ogun/Guangdong Free Trade Zone in the outskirts of the town further throws up the status of the settlement headed by Oloja Ekun of Igbesaland, Oba (Dr.) Samuel Olusola Banuso.Linking the town from Lusada, one would expect to see a beautiful town judging by the number of industries that lined the Lusada/Igbesa Road on either side, but when Daily Newswatch visited the town which is about a stone-throw to the free trade zone, it is better to describe it as a ghetto meant for ostracized citizens of a sovereign nation.There are no traces of modern development and nothing could be ascribed to the current administration in the state that does things with world standard usually referred to as Ogun standard.The Awori extraction of Yorubas, who are mainly farmers, expressed their dismay at the way they are being treated by every successive administration in the state.Their traditional ruler of 25 years, Oba Banuso, bared his mind on the travails of the town, which he said is visited by politicians only during election periods to campaign for the citizens into casting their votes for them.Speaking on the relationship between the town and the vista of industries in the area, the monarch said: “When the Ogun/Guangdong FTZ was to be established, the state government came with the entire paraphernalia of office to ask us for land in the palace here. The youth and the people didn’t want us to release the land because in Aworiland, our land is precious to us. The state government came here with slides and showed to us prototype of what the FTZ and our town would be transformed into within a spate of one year.They said by January 2010, the road from Oba Adesola Market, also known as Lusada, to Igbesa town would be have been dualised. That’s the road you passed through on which nothing has been done. As a people, we have made several attempts to see that our problems are attended to by the state government but this is to no avail.I supported and granted the request but since then nothing has been done in our town contrary to government’s promises.The companies here pay taxes to both state and federal governments, yet none of them deemed it fit to even visit our town since then to see what our plights are. We have made efforts to interface with the state government, but we have always met brick wall.Just last week, the state governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, came to commission a new company which is a short distance away from here. He saw how terrible the condition of the road is.Though he promised that when he gets to Abeokuta he would inform the Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure to see what could be done about the road, how long would it take the government to fulfil a promise made in 2009, at least government is continuum. The governor didn’t bother to visit the palace.Government has turned Igbesa to the goose that lays the golden egg and has nothing to eat. A hunting dog would go the bush to hunt game and when it kills a big animal that’s too heavy for it to drag home, it would come and inform its owner. When the game is brought home, at times, they would not remember to feed the dog while they will feast on the game it killed. That’s the situation of Igbesa people. We are not relenting in our efforts to get the ears of the governor.Occasionally, when we approached the companies to challenge them on their failure to perform their corporate social responsibilities to our town, they will run to the state government and the government in turn would plead with us and make empty promises as usual. This is our dilemma. So, as at now, the CSR of all the companies to Igbesa is zero. We invite some of them to the palace for dialogue and they will also make promises to exercise the CSR, but they don’t fulfil any of these promises. This is unfortunate.During the rainy season, the condition of the road is extremely worse, trucks transporting raw materials and finished products of these companies usually got stocked in the muddy craters at different spots on the road. In some situations, other vehicles would not be able to pass by until heavy duty towing vehicle is brought to remove them after they must have unloaded the trucks.As a community, we took it upon ourselves to raise funds and buy stones to fill the craters because we also use the road to transport our farm produce to markets. We believe in the saying that self-help is the best help. If this town has been turned to an Eldorado since the advent of the FTZ, it won’t be out of place.Those who should help us are the detractors. This town is the third largest town in Ado-Odo/Ota Local Government, yet there is no presence of either local or state government in the town. There’s no township road constructed by local council or state government. The last time government constructed a road in the town was 10 years ago.If we are blaming the companies for not responding to their CSR, what about the state and local governments?Commenting on how his subjects are being treated by the companies in terms of employment and the nature of jobs they engage them in, the monarch revealed how the community had a running battle with the managements of some of the companies before they started employing them.“Besides Ogun/Guangdong, we don’t have the opportunity to have discussions with other companies because I would rather say that Igbesaland is under siege. I say this because the state government said it has acquired virtually all the land here. So, when the new companies would come, it is the state government that allocates land to them. All the agreements the companies ought to have reached with us ab-initio, we don’t have the opportunity. Despite this development, we still try to interface with some of these companies to employ our people, especially the youth. But what grade level do they place them? They came up with the gimmick that whenever they want to employ people to the senior and management level, it is done online. How many of our people would they employ in spite of the fact that this is the catchment area. There should be concession for people from the catchment area.As I said earlier, it wasn’t their fault; it’s our governments that are causing all this. During the time of Otunba Gbenga Daniel, when President Goodluck Jonathan just took over from the late President Umaru Yar’Adua, the president came to commission one company here. The most terrible aspect of it is that as they came here to commission companies, it has never occurred to any of them to visit our town. They will sit in Abeokuta and Abuja making empty promises.On the personal efforts of citizens of the town in ensuring the development of the town, Oba Banuso disclosed that they had to form a new front called Igbesa Day to which they invite natives and government and reel out the challenges of the town and seek for how it could be surmounted.Our children both in Nigeria and abroad are coming home to contribute to the development of our community. We don’t know whether it’s because our town is on the borderline of Ogun and Lagos states that’s why we are facing these problems. Each state would be pushing for the development of their town to the other. Maybe that’s the cause of our problems. The filling station here was established by the late Chief Amosun, may his soul rest in peace. Chief Femi Obanla, Chief Olagbaye, Chief Imusu, Chief Odunsi built hotels here. I think we are suffering this way because we don’t have anybody in the government.We celebrate Igbesa Day every two years. We had the last in 2012. About six years ago, we decided to look inward whenever we celebrate the Day, because we usually invited the Governor, Ministers, council chairman and a host of government functionaries, but at the end of the day they would not turn up. Whenever they sent representation, they would give promissory note which would never be redeemed.Since we began to look inward, we selected our citizens as chief launcher, chairman of the day and other important positions, we started recording success.The palace in which we are is outcome of the contributions of the citizens; no assistance was rendered by the state or local governments.That School of Science and Technology, besides the fact that government pronounced the establishment and location of the school, we are the one who developed the school. Government made no contribution there. It was because of the facilities we provided there that made the government to declare the place as the headquarters of its contemporaries in the state.It’s meant to be the only higher institution for Ogun West, but because it was situated in our town, other towns in the district abandoned the project to us and we solely developed it to the stage it is today.Our son, Dr. (Chief) Godwin Odia Ejodame, was the pioneer Rector of the institution. He put in all efforts to develop the polytechnic. The institution is among the best in the country as of today. There are currently nine Higher National Diploma (HND) programmes offered in the school. Ejodame’s mother is our daughter who was married to an Edo man, who came as a teacher to our town.No matter what, we have the hope that someday, Igbesa will become an Eldorado of sorts considering the influx of industries to our land. As a stone rejected by the builders, like the Biblical saying, it’s going to be the head of the corner of the house.
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