Abiodun pledges more road projects for Ogun west next year

Ogun State governor, Dapo Abiodun, has pledged that his administration would construct more motorable roads in the Ogun West Senatorial District to ease movement of people and goods in the axis.

He noted that the axis with over 400 foreign and local industries deserves more attention in terms of infrastructural development, reiterating that his government would redouble efforts at ensuring that the district is given priority in the scheme of things.

Abiodun stated this while declaring open the Yewa/Awori Division Town Hall meeting on the 2023-2025 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and the 2023 Budget, held at Ilaro.

He acknowledged the deplorable condition of roads in the senatorial district, but pleaded for patience, noting the state government was working to address the situation.

He said: “We cannot deny your pains, especially as it concerns mobility on some roads in this division. The major challenge about these roads is their ownership. Yewa/Awori Division hosts some of the major federal roads that traverse our state. That brings to the fore some of the challenges of our federal system.

“People who commute on the roads are not interested in the ownership structure of the roads. They geo-locate their pains, stress and strains at the location where these are felt – which is this state. This is understandable. Again, I plead for your continued patience, understanding and fortitude. Let me re-assure that we are equally anxious as you are to get these roads fixed.

“We are not sleeping on them. While we still await the Federal Government’s approval on transfer of the reconstruction of Lagos-Ota-Abeokuta, we are daily on that road to fix the failed portions. As a stop-gap arrangement, you would have seen the Ogun State Public Works Agency (OGPWA) undertaking daily palliative works on these roads so as to make them passable.”

On steps taken to repair some of the major roads in the axis, Governor Abiodun stated that Mike Adenuga had agreed to reconstruct the 64 kilometre Ota-Idiroko international road through tax credit.

He added that the state government would  continue to improve on th=e public private partnership to identify necessary funding options for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of major roads in Ogun.

Speaking on some projects executed in the Senatorial District, the governor disclosed that over 198 classrooms had been renovated in five local government areas, just as construction of housing estates had commenced in Ilaro and Ayetoro, while plans are on for the commencement of other housing projects within the division.

He said his administration has embarked on digital transformation of key processes and revenue lines to improve the process and collection efficiency, while steps were taken to broaden revenue scope and block leakages, thereby boosting the Internally-Generated Revenue (IGR) of the State .

“As a Government, we will not turn away from the methodical and strategic approach towards the formulation of policies and implementation of programmes across all parts of the state. Our aim is to consolidate on the global best-practices in Public Financial Management (PFM) reforms that we have embarked upon since 2019,” the governor noted.

The Commissioner for Budget and Planning, Olaolu Olabintan, in his presentation, said 65 projects were executed across the state with 85 percent of inputs from the people included in the 2022 budget.

He affirmed that no part of the state was excluded in project execution as the Yewa/ Awori section had a fair sharelike the rest of the zones.