SETTLING POLITICAL SCORES THROUGH PEOPLE’S BASIC NEED IN IJESHALAND.
For the attention of:
His Royal Majesty, the Owa Obokun of Ijeshaland,
Ijesha council of Chiefs,
Ijesha Elites Club,
Ijesha Forum,
Roots Club,
Rt. Hon. Timothy Owoeye,
Hon. Wale Adedoyin,
Federation of Ijesha Students Union,
Christian Association of Nigeria, ilesha,
League of Imams and Alfas of Ijeshaland.
All Stakeholders,
ILESHA WATER PROJECT IS ABOUT TO BE ABANDONED LIKE OTHER PREVIOUS GOVERNMENT PROJECTS.
It is not a news to the people of ilesha and the entire Ijeshaland that the ancient town has been denied one of the basic amenities that is essential for human being to survive which is water. For over 40 years now, ilesha and environs has been faced with the persistent problem of potable government water supply.
To break this jinx, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola as the Governor of Osun then, approached the federal government , the world bank and the Islamic development bank for assistance and got approval for a 107 million dollars water project for ilesha and environs. The project, when completed will be supplying 60 million litres of water per day to the entire ilesha township and other surrounding towns and villages in ijeshaland. The project’s complete package came up as follows:
1 – 60,000m3/day Water Treatment plant at Kajola; (IsDB funding)
2 – 22km Transmission mains and Booster Pump Station; (IsDB funding)
3- 3No. 10,000m3 Concrete Circular Tanks in Ilesa; (IsDB funding)
4- 530km Water Distribution Network within Ilesa; (State Govt. funding)
5- Provision for Sanitation Facilities.
The project was known to be the largest single project in the entire south west Nigeria then and was to be completed within 24 months.
To ensure immediate take – off, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola as the Governor of the state then performed the ground breaking of the project on 19th of December, 2017 where he informed the general public of the government’s efforts before securing the assistance of World bank, Islamic development bank and the federal government to fund the project. This made Ogbeni to inform the people of ilesha during the campaign for Gov. Oyetola in 2018 that completion of the ilesha water project will be one of the major priorities of Oyetola’s government when elected.
It is therefore sad to learn that since Ogbeni Aregbesola left office in 2018, Gov. Oyetola has been doing everything possible to frustrate the project and has embarked on moves that will make the projects uncompleted, render the facilities useless and later get the projects abandoned.
Despite the fact that Ogbeni has secured the money meant for the entire project in the central bank of Nigeria before he left office in 2018, the project which was supposed to have been completed since 2 years ago (Dec 2017- Dec.2019) has not near completion stage after another 2 years (2019-2021) and this is not strange to many because it is a commonly known to the people of Osun that Gov. Oyetola is not interested in completing any landmark projects of Ogbeni Aregbesola for reasons best known to him..
The first pointer to Gov. Oyetola’s moves against the project was to remove the consultant in charge of the project, Engr. Mrs. Tawa Williams. The woman who was instrumental to the smooth running and progress of the project was not offered any reason. Her removal created a big setback to the project to the point that the federal ministry of water resources was surprised at the Governor”s decision.
After the removal of Engr. Mrs. Williams, Gov. Oyetola introduced some administrative bottlenecks that started to affect the progress of the project. He decided to constitute a committee headed by the commissioner for water resources, Engr.Hamidu Tadese to be overseeing the project. The commissioner, one day announced to the general public that the project would be completed by March 2020. After the announcement, he has not shown any serious commitment to the progress of project till this period.
What triggered the fear about the ilesha water project is the obvious fact that everybody knows on what Gov.Oyetola has been doing to all other landmark projects of Ogbeni. It is no longer hidden to the public that:
1- The Gbongan – Akoda road project has been tactically abandoned,
2- No work is ongoing at Oba Adesoji Aderemi Ring road project in Osogbo.
3- The Osogbo- ikirun- ila- odo road project is not receiving Gov. Oyetola’s attention.
4- The Nelson Mandela park , the only open recreational park in Osogbo has been turned to a jungle in the city.
5- The iwo mega school project which requires just #200m to complete has been abandoned.
From the above, it can be assumed that thesame thing awaits the ilesha water project if care is not taken on time.
Most unfortunate and disappointing in this is the decision of the house of assembly to look away from the situation of these projects. The house under the leadership of Hon.Timothy Owoeye has all it takes to get the projects successfully completed. As someone who has full knowledge of the projects since his days as the majority leader of the house, the current speaker should be told to shelf aside, all forms of politicking and personal ambition and rise up to his duty. Watching these projects going down the drains because of Gov. Oyetola’s political vendetta against Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola is not the best that Timothy Owoeye can achieve as a speaker.
Let the People of ilesha and Osun in general prevail on Gov. Oyetola to please stop this vindictive and needles political tug of war on ilesha water project because public funds and people’s welfare are involved.
Till then……..
