ADO-EKITI: Founder and Chancellor of Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti, ABUAD, Aare Afe Babalola, has appealed to President Bola Tinubu to personally inspect the deplorable Ado-Ijan-Ilumoba-Ikole federal road in Ekiti State.
Babalola said a personal assessment by the President would enable him to appreciate the condition of the road, which he described as largely impassable.
The elder statesman made the appeal in an open letter titled, “An Appeal to the Federal Government to Revisit the Road Leading to Afe Babalola University and an Open Letter of Appreciation to Senator Babafemi Ojudu.” He said the appeal became necessary after years of neglect of the road, which serves several major institutions and facilities in the state.
Babalola disclosed that ABUAD had, as part of its corporate social responsibility, spent billions of naira between 2010 and 2019 on the repair and maintenance of portions of the road and the old Ureje Bridge, explaining that the university intervened because of the road’s importance to the institution and surrounding communities.
According to him, the federal road serves ABUAD, the ABUAD Multi-System Hospital, the Federal Polytechnic, Ado-Ekiti, the Ado-Ekiti campus of the National Open University of Nigeria, a Federal Government-owned silo and the Ekiti Agro-Allied International Cargo Airport.
Babalola expressed concern over previous attempts to rehabilitate the road through contractors, recalling that residents had welcomed the award of the rehabilitation contract to a local contractor in 2019. He, however, said the project was subsequently abandoned after the contractor allegedly left the road in a worse condition.
The legal luminary also urged Ekiti indigenes, particularly professors, opinion leaders and other influential stakeholders, to join efforts to press for the rehabilitation of federal roads across the state.
Babalola commended Senator Babafemi Ojudu for consistently drawing attention to the condition of federal roads in Ekiti, particularly the road leading to ABUAD, saying Ojudu’s advocacy had provided an additional voice to the longstanding campaign for the rehabilitation of the road despite repeated representations to successive administrations.
Babalola said Ekiti’s economic development was being hampered by inadequate road and other transport infrastructure, noting that the state remained disadvantaged by its limited connectivity, and urged the Federal Government to prioritise the rehabilitation of major federal roads linking Ekiti with other parts of the country.
According to him, the road leading to ABUAD is particularly important because of the strategic institutions and facilities located along the route. He described ABUAD as a major educational institution, citing its ranking in the Times Higher Education Sustainability Impact Ratings, while also highlighting the facilities at the university’s 400-bed multi-system hospital.
Babalola said the poor state of the road had compelled him to make several representations to the Federal Government and its agencies without the desired result. In support of Senator Ojudu’s position, he appealed to President Tinubu to personally visit the road, noting that it appeared he had not been given a true picture of its deplorable and impassable state.
He also urged Ekiti residents to join the campaign for improved road infrastructure, calling on all the people of the state, particularly professors and opinion leaders, to join Senator Ojudu and himself in the crusade to make Ekiti roads motorable, insisting that it could and should be done.
