*… when it rains, we don’t go to school — Students

*… no access road, school, healthcare centre despite pleas to govt — Community leaders

By Elizabeth Osayande

As the nation’s economic challenges rise, parents in the Okeogbe community, besides the scramble to eke out a living, spend N1,500 or more on transportation daily to send their wards to school. The closest one is three kilometers away. And the road to it is a tough one.

Their predicament is made worse by a 2.9-kilometre road awarded for construction 10 years ago. That was when Babatunde Fashola was the governor of Lagos State. The road would have taken six months to construct but is still a nightmare of flood, bushes, wooden bridges and abandoned concrete slabs a decade later. As well as putting their community at a disadvantage education-wise, “many have died” as a result of this nightmare, the residents said.

Okeogbe community, also known as the Egun Village, is in the Olorunda Local Council Development Area, LCDA, in Badagry Local Government. Okeogbe would have been easily accessible to over 14 communities in Lagos and Ogun states. Yet there is no single access road.

Homemade bridge; N1,500 to get to school daily

As the carcass of a 10-year road project that never materialised serves as a landmark for Okeogbe community, residents have built themselves a wooden bridge to civilisation. And each time they step on it, they pay a fee. Although the use has resulted in many misfortunes, they say it is better than the bridge across the swamps that was to be part of the 2.9-kilometre road in 2013, which never came.

Mr. Tayo Olaniyi, a father of three children and a resident of the community, noted that his love for education made him spend N1,500 daily on transportation for his three children, from his meagre earnings as a furniture maker.

He said: “I have four children. One has completed school, while three are still going to school. They are in Basic four, Basic 3, and Basic six.

“I spend over N1,5000 daily on transportation for my children to go to school from Okoegbe to Ile-Opo. First, they have to pay for Pako (the wooden bridge) to come out of our community, and then the rest is for transport to the school. This is aside from feeding money, which I give them also.

On what he wants the Lagos State government to do: “All I want is for the government to build a school and road in Okeogbe. The challenge is that children are exposed to accidents on the highway while crossing over. We have had some of them fall prey to accidents,” the furniture maker explained.

Okeogbe’s designer affirms Olaniyi’s words on spending N1,500 daily for school transport. He said: “I am Chief Wepe Senu, the designer of Okeogbe land. We have many challenges here. The first one is the road. If our children are going to school, we spend roughly N1,500 daily on transportation. For instance, last June when the Pako children used to go out of the community got spoiled, we used bikes and a canoe to carry them to the expressway road.

“Secondly, we don’t have a hospital here. If our women are in labour, we rush them to far away General Hospital, Badagry, and sometimes these women deliver on the road.”

My single mum gives me N500 daily — Student

A student who gave her name as Grace said: “I am Grace, an SS 2 student of Araromi Ilogbo Secondary School. The distance from my community, Okeogbe, to school is very far, and I spend N500 daily to and fro to school.

“It is very difficult for my mum, a single parent, to raise N500 daily for me to go to school. She does petty business to send me to school. That is why I want the government to build our road so that we will not be spending too much money to school, every day.”

‘My mum does sand dredging to send me to school’

Another SS2 student of the same school said: “My mum gets sand from the river to sell and raise money for me to transport to school. We are five children in number, and my daddy does security job. I want the government to come to our aid as we miss school whenever rain falls. And if my mum can’t raise transportation for me, I either use my savings as transport or I miss school on such days.”

For Okeogbe Community Development Association Secretary, Mr. Humphrey Mautin, inaccessible roads and the absence of a public primary or secondary school have resulted in their children being academically backward.

He said: “Most importantly, we are lacking in terms of education. Before our children can access a government-owned secondary school, they walk so many kilometres to school. And this in turn is denying some of them from going to school, as their parents cannot afford transport fare to and fro school.

“There have been a lot of challenges sending our wards to school. I just told you our children walk close to two to three kilometres to school. This is aside from the transportation challenge. For instance, a parent would spend an average of N1,500 to N2,000 per day, excluding feeding, to send their children to school. So, imagine an average parent earning N40,000 per month, how can he or she afford such an amount on transport daily?

Road, our major challenge — Community leader

For Monday Sewanu, Secretary of the Okeogbe community: “The number one challenge is the lack of road. The link road to Badagry Expressway is not good. This road has caused us to lose some pregnant women due to the absence of a healthcare facility. We also do not have a secondary school, and the nearest community where the school is, our children trek for two hours to get there.

“We want the government to come to our aid. We are in the rainy season now, and some children cannot go to school as the flood covers them up to the waist. Again, businesses are being affected. This road we are pleading to be done links to over 20 communities such as Ipara, Iduntun, and Iyese among others. “

When asked between the road and school, which was Okeogbe’s most pressing need, Sewanu reiterated: “We want the road because if we have an accessible road, we won’t be losing our pregnant women, and our children will not be academically backward. These are reasons why we want the government to come to our aid.”

Getting government’s attention has been tough — Baale of Okeogbe

A visit to Baale Tasu Samson, Agolufi I of the Okeogbe community, shared more light on the challenges his people are facing. The visit turned into a tour around the community with evidence of the residents’ efforts at addressing their challenges on display.

In his words: “Having informed the government of what we are facing, but no immediate response. We started the building of a community healthcare centre, and also a school. We, as a community, tasked ourselves to do these things. The healthcare centre has been roofed and plastered with German floors. We also allocated a hectare of land for the secondary school building, where the foundation has been made. However, these projects are currently been suspended due to funding.

“We contributed money to start the projects, but there are not enough funds to complete them. We have been to Alausa and they promised to come to our aid.”

Corroborating what the Baale said, the CDA secretary of the Okeogbe community, Mr Mautin, said the government was aware of their lights. “Of course, we have written to the government. We started from our local government, the Olorunda LCDA, to the state government, and the Ministry of Education, at Idowu Taylor. All these parastatals; we have written to, telling them that we have started something. So they are well aware of our plights.”

Shedding more light on the community projects, residents of Okeogbe are working on, the CDA secretary explained: “The school project which started about two years ago, and ought to have been completed within six months to one year, was suspended due to lack of finance. Primary healthcare is also part of what we have done by ourselves with our resources. If you get there you will see improvement. Our efforts were geared towards avoiding the death of our pregnant and nursing mothers, including children.”

More on the bridge

According to Mautin: “Having an access road in the Okeogbe community has a huge economic prospect for us as a community, and for the government. Presently, our community has links to 13 or more communities in Lagos and Ogun states. So, you can imagine the joy we had when the former governor, Mr Fashola, approved the construction of a link bridge with access to Badagry Expressway.

“However, the project which ought to last for six months, after a few months, suddenly stopped. Then during Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, we sent letters to the Ministry of Rural Development in Alausa, and a promise was made to complete the bridge construction project. Mr. Ambode even sent contractors to come to see the abandoned work, yet nothing was done to restart or complete it.

“The CDA is currently in talks with the present administration of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu to see what can be done,” Mautin explained.

Would Lagos’ recent visit to Okeogbe change the narrative?

Recently, the Special Adviser to Lagos State Governor on Rural Development paid a visit to Okeogbe. This was disclosed on the official Instagram page Lagos State government. This visit, it is hoped, would be the beginning of good things for Okeogbe people.

Part of the release read: “The Special Adviser on Rural Development to the Governor, Dr. Nurudeen Agbaje has led a team of government officials on an inspection tour to the Okeogbe community in the Badagry Local Government Area of Lagos State.

“The inspection, which is part of the ongoing tour of rural communities across the state, was aimed at identifying the infrastructural deficit in all local communities and developing appropriate initiatives to ensure every community benefits from the development plan of the state as enshrined in the T.H.E.M.E.S Plus Agenda of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu Administration.

“Speaking during the exercise, the Commissioner described the tour as a way of understudying the peculiar challenges of rural communities and proffering short and long-term solutions to them to improve the standard of living of the dwellers.

“According to him, ‘The inspection of the six Community Development Associations (CDAs) under Okeogbe has provided the Ministry the opportunity to assess the state of the community and their infrastructure.

“As a responsible government, we have been able to ascertain the pressing concerns of these communities, particularly the construction of the Okeogbe Community link bridge. The absence of which poses a significant threat to residents.”

Vanguard News