Iwo Road is an economic hub in Ibadan, where thousands of people run their daily businesses like edible, non-edible goods and transportation business.
Iwo Road is the first point of contact for people traveling from other south west states. In fact, Iwo Road connects residents of Ibadan to the airport road.
However, one of the busiest roads in Ibadan is currently in bad shape and it is affecting the proper flow of vehicles and businesses.
With the current situation of Iwo Road, dignitaries avoid the road and go through Gate Road. However, public transport drivers with no alternatives spend more money fixing their vehicles after passing Iwo Road.
Motorists plying the Iwo Road interchange expressed concerns over the bad shape, citing potholes, poor maintenance, and drainage as major threats to their livelihoods and safety.
Saheed Mustapha, a Micra driver, told this reporter that the road has become a major challenge for his daily profit amidst the high cost of petrol.
“The road got to this bad shape because of lack of proper maintenance. The small drainage is not big enough to ensure the proper flow of water and this led to the deplorable state of the road,” Saheed said.
A tricyclist, who identified himself simply as Mr Tunji, said the constant rainfall experienced recently contributed to the poor state of the Iwo Road interchange, noting, “When the rain started the government refused to do the necessary things. As big as this Iwo road is, there is a dumping site and people dump refuse inside the drainage, which overflows into the road.”
One of the roles of the government is to provide basic amenities like good and motorable roads that can drive the economy. Some motorists operating at the Iwo Road axis urged the government to find a last solution to the road.
One of the motor park leaders at Iwo Road, Alhaji Musbaudeen said the government needs to fix the drainage.
“The road will become a mess if there is no proper channel for water to flow especially during rainfall season like this,” he said.
A driver, who identified simply as Ola, lamented that he spends more money buying fuel and on fixing his car.
“If the road is not fixed I won’t be able to make more money to feed my family, we all know what the economy of the country is saying. The government should not neglect this road,” Ola said.
When this reporter visited Iwo Road, it was observed that the government had started clearing the drainage.
In an interview, the Oyo State Commissioner for Public Works and Transport, Professor Dahud Kehinde Sangodoyin explained the plan of the government on Iwo Road.
“The attitude of our people also contributed to the problems around the Iwo Road interchange. The drains around the interchange have been silted up with waste so for the last three months it has been problematic around that area because there was no free flow of water. So when I noticed it I ensured that we desilt it to ensure the flow of water.
“Last week, we brought in equipment to excavate the silted areas of the drain to stabilize the road a bit. What we are going to do next is to put in some materials that will make the road passable. We are going to extend the channels to accommodate more water,” Professor Sangodoyin said.
The Oyo State Commissioner for Public Works and Transport also said there will be a final lasting solution.
“Apart from the fact that we want to ease traffic flow, we also want to put a final lasting solution to the drains to accommodate the volume of water,” he said.
Good roads can improve access to markets, which can lead to economic growth and development, and more importantly, a well-maintained road can reduce the number of accidents.
