Kemi Olaitan in Ibadan
A socio-cultural group in Oyo State, Ebedi Frontliners, Iseyin (EFI), has presented agenda for Iseyin Development to the President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and Governor Seyi Makinde.
This is as it urged them to key into the community development agenda, which according to them would have positive impact on the nation.
This was the main point at the end of its emergency meeting at the palace of Aseyin of Iseyinland.
The group in a communique signed by its President, Olusegun Adeleke, and made available in Ibadan, yesterday, outlined various projects and programmes it believes would benefit Iseyin people, Oyo State and Nigeria.
These projects, according to EFI, include food sustenance, job provision, completion of the Ikere Gorge Dam project and re-construction of federal roads around Oke-Ogun area among others.
The group also lamented what it called total neglect of the Oke-Ogun area by the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, stating that no physical infrastructural project was allocated to the region that consists of 10 local government areas.
It then called on the president-elect to see to the completion of the abandoned Ikere Gorge Dam project to show gratitude to the people of Oke-Ogun region for their support towards his victory and effect positive change in power generation by reactivating the dam.
The communique read in part: “The agenda for development in our area is anchored upon sustainable agricultural development, security of lives and properties, provision of employment and public infrastructures like the federal roads in and around us.
“The Ikere Gorge Dam was inaugurated by the Shehu Shagari administration in 1979 to generate electricity and portable water for Oyo State and three other neighboring South-Western States but has been abandoned since then while the multimillion naira equipment procured then have been outdated or left to rot, we believe that as part of the move by the incoming administration to increase power generation to meet the industrial and household needs of the people of the Southwest Nigeria, there is need to complete the project and as well put life into the water distribution aspect of the project to meet the yearnings of the people.
“This will also provide employment for the youths in the agro-allied industry, assist farmers with irrigation during dry season and create an all-year-round food production sustenance.
“Attached to this demand is the need for the federal government to urgently reconstruct the Abeokuta-Iseyin road that has been abandoned since the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo reconstructed it, the road has since been left to damage, with casualties from robbery attacks, kidnapping and traffic crash that have led to many deaths of road users.
“It is our belief that the bird will not fly with one wing, the efforts of the legislators to assist the executive to make bills and laws that will aid human development, this is where our legislators like Senator Fatai Buhari, Hon. Oyeshina Oyedemi and Hon. Dele Adeola from our area will have to show that they are capable.
“For each of our legislators that got re-elected to have such opportunity, it means that our people have seen and attested to your capabilities, we beseech you now to make the demand for these major projects your priority and we promise that the people of Iseyin will never forget your name when the success thereafter is discussed.
“If these are done, we believe it will be a complete departure from the neglect that Oke-Ogun area and Iseyin community suffered under the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, during which no single federal road was reconstructed until the Seyi Makinde-led government intervened by taking up the reconstruction of the Oyo-Iseyin road that has been abandoned by successive governments in Nigeria.
