Gov Ogun State Governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun, has explained why his administration is prioritising road development across the Gateway State. He cited the desire to shore up the socio-economic status of the state and the economic importance of infrastructure as major forces driving priorities.
He, however, restated commitment to the delivery of dividends of democracy to every part of the state. According to him, his focused administration would not be distracted by the rhetorics of arm-chair critics and fault-finders. He emphasised that the state has the longest kilometres of federal, state and local government roads, which were in deplorable conditions when he assumed office. He said that his administration consulted widely with stakeholders on the roads with the greatest economic importance to the state to guide prioritization.
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The governor also noted that roads that connect the state to adjacent states, be they intrastate, interstate or roads that connect farms to markets, have been enjoying attention. Mr Abiodun, who stated this in Abeokuta, the state capital, said his focus is to deliver the dividends of democracy to the people and not to respond to baseless criticisms by out-of-favour politicians.
He said: “For the avoidance of doubt, we have reconstructed every major expressway connecting Lagos State to Ogun State as a matter of fact; every major expressway connecting Ogun State to adjacent states, from those that were not existing before to those that were existing. Is it Agbara-Atan-Lusada that was not motorable or the Epe-Ijebu-Ode that was not motorable? Between Epe-Ijebu-Ode takes you 12 minutes now and it is a world class expressway.
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“Between Epe and Ijebu-Ode, we now have two adjacent roads, one built by us, another one facilitated with Dangote, using his tax credit,” Mr Abiodun added. He maintained that his administration is currently reconstructing the Lagos-Ota-Abeokuta Expressway, regarded as the second busiest road in Nigeria, noting that he met the road in a deplorable state, as it was not attended to by past governors.
“But we saw that road as a road of high economic importance and we fought tooth and nail to take over that road. Today, we are reconstructing the Interchange to Papalanto in reinforced concrete in partnership with another company using their tax credit.
“We reconstructed Abeokuta to Sagamu that was probably the worst road ever constructed in the history of this state. It was like laying asphalt on laterite, you know how many lives it claimed even in the last administration and so many other roads,” he said. He, consequently, declared that he would not be distracted by rhetorics sponsored by disgruntled politicians who sees nothing good in his administration.
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He said: “We will continue to remain focused despite the sponsored barking of some nay sayers. You know I am not one to respond to the frivolous sponsored rhetoric of some frustrated politicians. This is not politics here, this is governance, I am the Governor of Ogun State and I know what I am doing.
“Some of our governors before, they didn’t know what they were doing, but they now see a governor in action and rather than applaud, they were sponsoring cheap political rhetoric, but we know how to deal with those kinds of people.
“The most important thing is that all the sponsored rhetoric about bad roads here and there, you know performance is undeniable. It can’t lie, you know you can sponsor all the Twitter and Facebook in the world, but people can see what we are doing.
“Almost going to 1500 kilometres of roads, it is unprecedented in the history of this state. The roads I am reconstructing did not degenerate to that level after I became Governor, I inherited them but that is not an excuse.”
The governor said apart from roads, his administration built an airport in line with its multi-modal transport master plan which reaffirmed the location as suitable for an airport. “Every indication suggested that we needed to have an airport in Ogun State and I am glad that has been validated today. We built the best airport in this country today, the best equipped airport in this country today.
“The flights arriving and departing there are full. We are now getting ready to increase passenger traffic, that airport is in our Aerotropolis. Ogun State is the fastest developing economy in this country today and one of the safest if not the safest state in this country today. Our internal revenue has quadrupled, our GDP has quadrupled from N3.56 trillion to N17 trillion, so, what are they talking about?” the governor queried.
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