'I STAND BY MY 25 LEGACY ROADS PROJECT' -- SHOBOWALE

IT’S A REVELATION OF OUR DEVELOPMENTAL BLUEPRINT FOR AYOBO/IPAJA -- CPS Razaq Jimoh

By Razaq Adedeji Jimoh

The Executive Chairman of Ayobo-Ipaja Local Council Development Area (LCDA), Hon (Mrs.) Bolatito Shobowale, has insisted that her mission to leave behind a fully completed 25 inner roads after her full tenure of office is a sacred vow she is pursuing relentlessly. She revealed this to Civics Weekly to give clarifications to an earlier interview she granted Bond FM Radio Station.

The broadcast became controversial when some residents of the LCDA rushed to dispute her claims to ‘25 roads legacy project’ mentioned therein. She said the controversy could have been borne more out of a malicious cause to explore a mischief of politicking in a sincere and innocent error.

In the broadcast conducted in Yoruba and monitored by Civics Weekly, the Council Chairman could be heard and deemed to have assertively said she “had done 25 roads”. The excerpt of the question and answer here transcribed reads:

Bond FM Anchor: Looking at it critically, one of the legacies left behind by the former governor of Lagos State (Tinubu) is this local government creation. Now I want you to look at so too; as a leader in your, what are the ongoing developmental projects your government has embarked upon such that when you leave office as Council Chairman, they will be the legacies you have left behind?

Council Chairman: We thank God and we also thank ourselves such that when we leave office, we shall have something to point at as our legacies. In Ayobo/Ipaja, we have new hospitals which can be pointed at as our legacy when leave the office – that this was done in the tenure of so and so person. We have new market – it is not even one or two. We have International Market.

Bond FM Anchor: Is that true?

Council Chairman: Yes sir! We have markets. Apart from those we already have, we also have local markets we have just opened at Baruwa. This market has the modern facility of solar system such that there is no time you get there that there is no light. If you get there now, there is light. When it is night, the public toilet that is built there has regular supply of light so that people using it can see each other and you can see where you want to enter for your convenience. It is no longer a case of the past that when you want to enter the toilet, you will be marching on faeces and everywhere would be oozing out faecal stenches.

When we go to Salvation, we have new school. When we leave that, the roads we have built are there, such that I can’t be mentioning names (of their places), but at least in counting, we shall have 25 of them.

Bond FM Anchor: Twenty-five!!!

Council Chairman: Yes!!! Bond FM Anchor: That your government has done? Council Chairman: Yes!

Soon after the broadcast, the Council Chairman came under a barrage of attacks by those who claimed to be concerned residents of Ayobo/Ipaja. They claimed that such performance did not exist in the LCDA. They accused the woman of “telling lies” to the public.

Responding to this with the necessary clarifications in an audience granted this Civics Weekly magazine, Hon (Mrs.) Shobowale said the mention of ‘completed 25 roads’ was a Freudian Slip of intention contained in her “Developmental Blueprint”, which she gave in line with the question of “legacy” after office as the anchor posed it. She said anyone that followed the interview with an open mind would never have cause to raise any issue with her reply, even with their acclaimed discernible error.

She said: “Now my brother, I would like you to go back to the audio clip and tell me the operative words or phrase in the question that gave birth to the mention of ‘25 roads’. The interviewer, as I here quote him, requested for a list of ‘ongoing developmental projects’. For emphasis, please help me put that in bold as I so repeat it to you: ‘the lists of ongoing projects’ that would count for ‘my legacies after the completion of my tenure’. Go back to the audio clip and listen to it very well. This was the flow of my response that informed the mentioning of 25 roads I intend to complete by the end of my full tenure”.

Putting further clarifications to where the error originated from, the Chief Press Secretary (CPS) to the Council Chairman, Mr. Rasak Jimoh, said “it was an error that emanated from the interviewer”. He said it should be clear that the anchor man distracted himself from the flow of his question “when he put words into the Chairman’s mouth.

He said: “Even while acknowledging the error and no intention to make any blame game, the distraction from that flow could as well be found in the interviewer’s interjection comments, which rather distracted than keeping the interviewee within the frame of the questions asked”.

The CPS also went further to explain the Chairman’s projects as they stand today. He said: “On health and hospitals the Chairman referred to, we have about seven Primary Healthcare Centres (PHC) that are functional and working perfectly in Ayobo/Ipaja LCDA. Two of them are flagship – if you understand what I mean. Calling them flagship, I mean they operate 24hours. The one at Igbogila here; when you come to see the doctors and they prescribe, you are expected to go to the pharmacy department there to get your drugs. We have the second one at Bada, but I learned the service hours of this has been reduced to 8hours a day.

“We have another PHC at Ishefun. I’m counting the PHC now so that you will understand what I’m telling you. The Ishefun one is currently undergoing renovation. In actual fact, the ongoing renovation is a process to upgrading it to what I may describe as Mini-General Hospital. This administration has two of such to be built in its ‘Developmental Blueprint’. We have one PHC at Apata and there is one at Baruwa. We also have the Ayobo PHC.

“The simple fact about the health policy of this Hon Bolatito Shobowale's administration is that it intends to bring accessibility to healthcare to the door step of Ayobo/Ipaja residents. And if you know these areas I’m mentioning, each of them is a communal division within the LCDA. The ultimate goal is that every resident within a division should be able to walk into a health centre at the slightest sign of illness. This is what the Chairman has in her developmental blueprint for the health sector. It is designed to eliminate distance barrier between the healthcare givers and healthcare seekers in the LCDA”.

The CPS speaks further: “Talking about the 25 roads that actually generated the needless noise, my Principal has clarified the context of the mischief some people attempted to make out of it. But let me add that out of the proposed 25 road networks, we have fully completed three. We have also completed the drainage works of another two streets, remaining the asphalt laying only.

“Just across the road directly opposite our Secretariat here, you will enter Ogun Abewela Street, which has been completed with asphalt and delivered to the people. Its intersection Street, Olatiwa, has also been completed and delivered. The third completed road is Bolaji Animashaun at Ayobo. Its intersection road, Kufo Street, is only awaiting asphalt laying because the drainage works have been completed.

The implication of all this is that five out of the 25 scheduled roads would have been completed in about the third year of this administration if the asphalt of the two streets should be laid by July this year as thoughtfully scheduled”.

He concluded that this is to remind the public that this is just about two and half years that she assumed office, which tells “how far she will go after giving her the opportunity of a second term for eight years by God’s mercy and the backing of Ayobo/Ipaja people”.