The residents of Oba in Obafemi Owode Local Government area of Ogun State are currently crying in silence, basically due to the bad state of their road, which has hitherto assumed a major encumbrance to transport their produce to market.
Oba, a majorly agrarian community is about 7km drive from Ojere, the site of Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Abeokuta. The residents also engage in fishing due to the passage of Ogun River towards the right hand side of the community.
One of the attractions to this community is the market, popularly called Oba market. In those days, like an artery, anyone coming to Abeokuta from Lagos, Ijebu or the eastern part of the country must pass through Oba town, due to the availability of common food items such as gaari, aadun, palm oil and other agro produce like vegetables and bush meat were at affordable prices.
As a result of this development, the five day apiece market attracted huge population to the community, on each of the market day the town was always buzzing with economic activities.
However, the community was not satisfied with its level of development. The residents believed it has failed to tap its God-given resources, aside in agriculture to the fullest.
This was what led to the discovery of vast land of sand and granite, which they believed if well exploited, will open up the community and also bring them good income to embark on projects to develop their community.
As expected, quarry miners started their operations in the community and regular income was coming into purse of the community. The operations of the miners also created employed for most of the residents, including students on holidays.
But what they actually perceived a great blessing for the town, later turned out to be a major problem. Within the shortest possible time, due to lack of maintenance of the only road that came into the town the road became dilapidated.
Currently, it is a disaster driving smoothly to Oba town. More importantly, the construction of another road linking Abeokuta directly to Sagamu without coming in through Oba made the road and the Oba market to be deserted both by transporters and people who now prefer Siun-Abeokuta road to the dilapidated and disastrous Oba market.
Now, the once tarred and smooth road, which was a delight of transporters and other road users have become a death trap, with craters, potholes and ditches of different sizes are depth adorning every part of the road.
Aside the groaning of the residents on the agony of passing through the road, the popular market is becoming desolate as many buyers and traders have neglected the area to avoid the stress of travelling on the road.
A yam farmer, Olumide Ajagbe, lamented that on each market day, he usually make at least N100,000 from the sale of his yam, but with the bade state of the road, he can only sell to residents of the community, majority of whom will not only price down the produce, but also buy on credit.
“We thought the mining will elevate our status as community, but we didn’t weigh the pros and cons before we invited the miners. Now, our roads are bad, small vehicles cannot plight this road, it’s only their Lorries. We don’t know when this will be addressed, as there is no solution yet in sight.
A member of the Community Development Association (CDA) in the town, Comrade Damilola Ajani said they have written letter to the state government and hoping that soon, the state government will remember them and the road will become motorable again.
“We have lost enough; we need the assistance of government to rehabilitate this road, so that our farmers will return to the old good days.”
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