OPEN LETTER TO HIS EXCELLENCY, DR. LUCKY ORIMISAN AIYEDATIWA
Governor, Ondo State
THE AIYEDATIWA 2.38 KM FLYOVER: A MISTAKE AKURE CANNOT AFFORD
Your Excellency,
The Ondo State Government’s recent announcement of a 2.38km flyover from Adegbola Junction to St. Mathias, Alagbaka, is being sold as “the cure” for traffic chaos in the heart of Akure. With respect, it is not a cure. It is a mis-diagnosis, and prescribing surgery for a disease that requires discipline.
By every standard, Akure deserves modernity. It deserves smooth traffic, dignity for commuters, and infrastructure befitting a State capital. No one disputes the government’s right, even duty, to develop the capital. But development without diagnosis is vanity. And this flyover is vanity masquerading as vision. It has the capacity to turn to our own “Strait of Homus” a choke point of monumental proportion if you persists.
1. The problem is not asphalt. It is indiscipline.
Sir, traffic in the Cathedral/ Oja-Oba/A-Division corridor is not caused by “lack of road”. The road exists. What is missing is enforcement.
Under Mrs. Yetunde Adeyanju as Commissioner during Mimiko’s administration, that axis flowed. Under Governor Akeredolu, (you ran the government together), gridlock was tamed not by concrete, but by political will, that is, barricades to stop indiscriminate pedestrian crossing, activation of the pedestrian bridges built by Agagu/Mimiko, and a special taskforce led by Dr. Doyin Odebowale’s team that kept traders off the carriageway. Akure people mockingly called it “Odi Jericho”. But it worked. Traffic moved. Business thrived. Order returned.
When your administration removed those barricades for “public applause”, the chaos returned tenfold. Your abandoned “Odi China” iron barricade now stands as a monument to policy inconsistency.
Mr Governor sir, flyovers do not cure human behavior. If the State cannot enforce existing laws against roadside trading and jaywalking, a flyover will simply become a bridge over a market. It is that simple.
2. Flyovers are engineering solutions, not beautification projects.
Globally, flyovers are built where natural bottlenecks, intersections, or topography create physical constraints. The gridlock notices at Oja Oba, Arakale and Alagbaka axis is not constrained by terrain. It is constrained by people. The gridlock is man-made; traders on the road, okada/motorcycles weaving, commuters boarding anywhere, and zero enforcement.
Build a flyover here and you will not solve congestion. You will relocate it, while killing the informal economy that sustains thousands. What would you do to Arakale’s and Nepa current chokehold when you start your flyover? Look at Apongbon, Lagos, the flyover did not end gridlock. It ended access. Businesses beneath and beside it withered because footfall died. A flyover at the commercial heart of Akure will divide the city, reduce access to shops, and strangle the very “commercial centre” status the government claims to protect.
3. The execution risk makes it a white elephant in waiting.
Respectfully sir, even if the engineering argument were sound, the project fails the test of capacity and credibility.
- Duration: A 2.38km urban flyover, with underpasses, utilities diversion, and traffic management, takes 3-5 years minimum even with Julius Berger. The contractor announced is a “backwater company” already blacklisted by the Federal Government for non-performance. That is not confidence inspiring sir
- Track record: The Onyaregbulem flyover was 55% complete in 2023 with no issue of fund with the contractor. It was rushed to commissioning in 2026 for optics, not completion. Oda Road barely finished. Ijoka Road completion date is “unknown” per the Commissioner. Akungba-Ikare Road and Judiciary Village are technically abandoned. A government that cannot complete inherited projects in 3 years should not start a more complex 5-year project with 3 years left in its term.
- Accountability gaps: Where is the cost? Where is the engineering design? Where is the EIA? Where is the funding source and, if it’s a loan, the tenure and interest? Under Akeredolu, no contractor got mobilization without ISPO. Work had to start before money flowed. That discipline produced quality. Stopping jobs on change of government, as happened post 2023, breeds delay and shoddy work. Ijoka and Oda Roads today show it.
4. What Akure actually needs: Value, not optics.
Mr Governor sir, intentionally, I do this as a stakeholder to project Ondo and as a concerned citizen. If the goal is a modern capital, spend money where it adds value:
- Enforce and Rehabilitate: Restore the taskforce model that worked. Re-erect barricades. Sanction roadside trading. Pay a suprise visit by 4 pm without siren on week days or weekends to Stadium junction up to Toyin Bookshops area and see the truth. Simultaneously, rehabilitate internal roads behind Adegbemile, behind Adegbola to St. Mathias, and across Akure metropolis as Mimiko and Akeredolu did in Ondo and Owo. When internal roads are motorable, commuters avoid the main artery. That reduces pressure without killing commerce.
- Strategic, not sentimental, flyovers: If flyovers are truly needed, site them where traffic engineering demands: Roadblock/Chicken Republic/Orita Obele/FUTA Southgate junction; Federal Girls/Total to Agbogbo corridor; Fiwasaye/Oba Ile/Iyeoma corridor; Nepa/Arakale/Hospital Road junction/ ShopRite junction. These are intersection chokepoints, not market centres.
- Prioritize security and health: Section 14(2)(b) of the Constitution makes security and welfare the primary purpose of government. Kidnappings have increased because the Amotekun template of Akeredolu was abandoned. Make Amotekun pensionable, raise pay to N350,000/month, equip them with modern tools, and enforce the anti-open grazing law. Hospitals across Ondo lack equipment. A functioning hospital saves more lives than a flyover saves minutes.
Conclusion
Sir, governance is not about “clout” or ribbon-cutting. It is about solving real problems with real capacity. A 2.38km flyover through Akure’s commercial heart is ill-thought, poorly timed, insensitive, wrong choice and potentially unachievable. With the contractor’s history and the administration’s project delivery record, it risks becoming an 8-year, abandoned white elephant that outlives this government.
Mr. Governor, Akure does not need a bridge over chaos. Akure needs order on the road. Enforce the law. Fix internal roads. Fund Amotekun. Equip hospitals. That is development. That is legacy.
A flyover built on indiscipline will only elevate the chaos.
Oloroogun Sola Ajisafe (Fundamental Ajiology) Friday 5th June, 2026. Akure, Ondo State
