By Oloroogun Sola Ajisafe
I have read with great disappointment the statements by some groups in Ondo State attacking President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for advising Governors to stop building unnecessary flyovers and to focus instead on roads, agriculture, and security.
This is the same advice I gave some weeks ago in my Open Letter titled “The Aiyedatiwa 2.38km Flyover: A Mistake Akure Cannot Afford.” For saying so, I was called an attacker, a pessimist, and an enemy of development. The same voices that abused me have now turned to abuse the President for repeating what I said.
Let the record be clear and let history judge. I was right. They were wrong.
When I raised concerns about the proposed 2.38km flyover from Adegbola to St. Mathias, I did not do so out of malice. I asked simple constitutional questions. Where is the Environmental Impact Assessment? Where is the project cost? Where is the funding source? Why award a multi-billion naira, five-year project to a contractor reportedly blacklisted by the Federal Government? Why choose the commercial heart of Akure where the problem is indiscipline and not lack of road? I argued then, and I argue now, that Akure’s gridlock is caused by roadside trading, jaywalking, and the absence of enforcement, not by lack of concrete. I proposed what worked before under Mimiko and Akeredolu; restore the taskforce, re-erect the barricades, fix the internal roads behind Adegbemile and Adegbola, and site any future flyovers at real intersection chokepoints like Roadblock, FUTA junction, and ShopRite, not inside Oja-Oba market.
For that patriotic interrogation under Section 22 of the Constitution, I was labeled. Yesterday, the President of the Federal Republic, the leader of our party, has validated every point. Mr. President has asked Governors to exercise fiscal discipline and to prioritize projects that touch directly on the welfare and security of the people as provided in Section 14(2)(b). That is exactly what I asked for. The President has settled the matter.
What is more troubling is the response of these groups. To dismiss the President’s advice in order to defend one project is not loyalty to Governor Aiyedatiwa. It is disloyalty to the party and to the Federal Government that Ondo State depends on for support in roads, security, and grants. You cannot be at war with Abuja and expect Abuja to fund Ondo. That is not politics. That is recklessness. Why must it be Ondo every time? Why must it be Aiyedatiwa on all issues? Abuja is watching. That is the basic truth.
Mr. Governor, the facts are now too loud to ignore. The people have spoken through me. The President has spoken from Abuja. And the abandoned projects speak for themselves: Onyarugbulem flyover rushed for optics, Ijoka Road with no completion date, Oda Road barely finished, and Akungba-Ikare abandoned.
Therefore, I call on you directly and without equivocation. Pause the 2.38km flyover now. Publish the EIA, the cost, the design, and the funding terms. Redirect those funds to what the President and the Constitution demand; fund Amotekun properly and make it pensionable, equip our hospitals, fix internal roads in Akure and across the State, and restore order on our roads.
A flyover built on indiscipline will only succeed in elevating the chaos. Governance is not about clout or ribbon-cutting. It is about making the right choices at the right time.
I did my duty as a citizen. I was right.
They did theirs as praise-singers. They were wrong.
And Mr. President has now confirmed it for all to see.
Oloroogun Sola Ajisafe writes from Oka Akoko
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