Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun, has claimed to have constructed 600 kilometres of roads since his administration’s inception. The governor made this known during a visit to road projects in the state.
According to a report by Business Day, Ogun State is the 8th wealthiest state in Nigeria, with a GDP of about N5.3 trillion. However, the state road networks have been a significant concern for residents.
According to the governor’s statement, an average of 10 kilometres of road construction was done every month since its inception. This raises questions against the backdrop of the state’s economic disposition.
After visiting some roads yesterday, the governor, in a post on X, committed to fast-tracking such road projects. An action seen directly as a response to the surge of complaints by residents about bad roads with the hashtag #DapoFixOgunRoad trending on X.
With a GDP of N5.03 trillion, such economic strength should be able to reflect more substantial investment in road infrastructure.
Ogun State is a commercial and industrial hub hosting most manufacturing sectors, and being close to Lagos, it attracts investment in other fields as diverse as agribusiness, construction, and logistics.
The governor’s statement questions his administration’s accountability; however, with continuous critique facing the state over its road infrastructure, the governor has the burden of proving his statement regarding the timeline of fixing roads in the state.
“I want to implore our people to be patient with us. We cannot reconstruct all the bad roads in three years,” the governor said. “In fact, no administration can reconstruct all the roads in Ogun State, not even in 8 years,” he added.
“When I assumed office on the 29th of May, 2019, the deficit that we met on assumption of office was such that we began to wonder what the previous administration was doing.
“In some instances, they appear to have good intentions. They go to the roads, they demolished houses, roads that should not be more than a single carriageway, they turned them into dual carriageways. By so doing, they removed all the asphalt serving the people and abandoned these roads.
“We inherited quite a lot of these roads. Some of those roads are federal roads; you know our people cannot differentiate between federal and state. They will geo-locate their pains where and when they feel it,” he continued.
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