Ajimobi: Nemesis of Ibadan ‘ancients’

Governing Oyo State is very complex but governing Ibadan is more complex. The paradox that makes the city more complicated to rule than the state can only suggest one thing; that Ibadan is a primitive city that will not easily and positively be receptive to any idea of transformation or modernisation that amputates a part of them that is ancient. Or it can also suggest that Ibadan and its people will be ambivalent towards any policy, idea or action that will deny a part of them that is tied to their culture, habits, idiocies and behavior.

In the midst of this dilemma, there is that residual expectation that Ibadan should be transformed and developed if it was to rank with other advanced and developed cities of the world. But over the years, the governors that had ruled Oyo State, whether in Khaki or agbada, had behaved like timid administrators, pampering the people and treating them with kid gloves thus encouraging them to continue to indulge in their old habits for whatever reason(s). The emergence of Abiola Ajimobi as the governor of Oyo State was later to change the city’s landscape. He came with a transformative agenda that will change Ibadan and instill a new culture of discipline into the people. Drawing up an agenda for Ibadan is one thing, perfecting such agenda requires a strategy that will align with the realism of Ibadan “peculiar mess”.

J.P Clark’s poem on Ibadan written in the late 1960s or early 1970s talks about Ibadan’s “splash of rust and gold”, but even the gold of Ibadan had been contaminated and polluted by filth that permeates the city. The filth, the rust and the rot of Ibadan have all grown to a blinker that competes with the “seven hills” Clark refers to in his poem. So, the first “peculiar mess” that Ajimobi had to contend with was the customary filth and the heaps of refuse that dot the landscape of Ibadan. Without a blitzkrieg on the filth and the dirty habit of stooping to poo anywhere it grips them, there cannot be a new image or any sensible transformation.

Knowing that the development of Ibadan in all its ramifications needed to be driven by an aggressive attitude, policy, character and action, Ajimobi established two strategic agencies to tackle Ibadan’s filth and traffic. The first agency is Oyo State Waste Management Authority (OYWMA) and the second one is called Oyo State Road Traffic Monitoring Agency (OYRATMA). Anybody who is familiar with Ibadan’s past cannot but commend the aesthetic appreciation of Ibadan landscape. Today, the roads are clean, garbage dumps are gradually disappearing, street trading that used to be the source of refuse generation on the streets has been outlawed but has not been totally eradicated. Ibadan is experiencing a new landscaping culture and all road medians and kerbs are well painted. Though, when you climb the Bower’s tower to have a panoramic view of the city, the rust of the corrugated metal sheets looms large, you can only feel the freshness of a new Ibadan when you walk its streets. The ancients that are used to the habit of indiscriminate garbage throwing are gradually being swept away by the tide of change.

It is an open secret that off-loading of faeces is like a carnival In Ibadan among the ancients who still prefer the gutter-side method and the “Abe Igi style” because of the natural cooling system of the environment especially in the heat of ejecting the waste from the “underground zone”. But today, things are changing because of Ajimobi’s tough environmental laws. The irresponsible habit of littering Ibadan metropolis with ‘power-pack’ faeces in different colors of polythene bags and leaves is now forbidden.

Traffic in Ibadan is still hellish. Driving against traffic excites an average Ibadan driver. But there is hope that things will soon change. The roads are now being expanded, dualised and upgraded. Traffic lights now work in Ibadan. Broken down motor vehicles are towed without delay. There is a new traffic order. The OYRATMA whose duties are not different from LASTMAs now go about with the new traffic mantra of the state so that all motorists can operate within the ambit of the law. Driving within Ibadan is chaotic today because the entire city is now a construction site.

The Mokola flyover also known as “Mokola Miracle” is a very creative remedy to the gridlock at Mokola round-about. For years, no administration ever came up with any idea as to how to solve the challenge of the Mokola traffic chaos. In less than two years, Ajimobi not only came up with the idea, he also ensured that the flyover was completed in record time. The transformation of Iwo road and its beautification is another major testimony to Ajimobi’s giant strides in road management. For so many years, Ibadan people and regular users of Iwo road were held hostage by the Iwo Road gridlock. But now, Iwo road is free of the usual traffic jam as traffic now flows without obstructions. The OYRATMA always go round to ensure that those who contravene traffic regulations are apprehended for possible sanctions and penalties.

Ajimobi has really shown that he is a warrior, a reformer, a moderniser, a transforming agent and the nemesis of the Ibadan ancients. The so-called untouchables have been touched. Those who contravened building laws are being dealt with. To accomplish his dualisation projects, Ajimobi had to demolish some buildings. But instead of doing it indiscriminately, he adopted a PPDP approach meaning Public-Private Demolition Partnership-a consensual policy or action which encourages violators of set-back rule or affected victims of government demolition exercise to engage in self-demolition of their structures in public interest without the active involvement of the government. All that can be traced to the government is just the marking of affected structures.

It was unthinkable that any governor would have contemplated dualising the roads around Onireke, Dugbe, Golf club, Eleyele, Jericho and Aleshinloye considering the massive human congregation and business ventures and structures scattered all over these places. But Ajimobi did. He even went as far as Isokun and Owode in Oyo where another dualisation is going on in addition to the one at Abiodun Atiba Road and Palace Road.

The road dualization/expansion that generated furore was that of Challenge-Iyalode Efusetan-Toll-gate interchange. The controversy centred around the personality of Yinka Ayefele whose studio/office would have been consumed by the dualisation project. But on compassionate ground, the government spared the gigantic office as the road project only chopped off part of his fence and security house.

For the people of Ibadan to enjoy the benefits of these new roads, all street traders are to be relocated to neighbourhood markets being constructed in scout camp, Temidire Motor Park, Nitel, on old Ife Road, toll-gate Ibadan, Akinyele, Molete and Samonda, a private sector driven initiative. The Ibadan ancients who see street trading as a cultural activity are being told to start getting used to diplaying and selling their wares in the ideal place-market.

Ajimobi’s audacity, candour, truculence, daring exploits, political aggression, war-like tendencies and tempestuous adventurism place him in the same league with past Ibadan warriors like Basorun Oluyole, Basorun Ibikunle, Basorun Ogunmola and Aare Latosa. A city like Ibadan whose source of strength and existence lies in the many wars of consolidation fought by these great warriors could not have prayed for a better leader at a time when underdevelopment was posing serious threat to its very foundation. Ibadan was almost caving in to maladministration, inept leadership, corruption, owambe governance, and administrative complications when a new warrior emerged to fight a war of his life in order to save Ibadan from obvious paralysis. Ajimobi may be wearing agbada but his vision is like that of a warrior on a mission to salvage whatever was left of Ibadan before it finally crumbled. But he did not only save Ibadan from disintegration, he reproduced the tenacity of Oluyole, the bravery of Ibikunle, the fearlessness of Ogunmola and the shrewd diplomacy of Are Latosa to reconsolidate Ibadan and put it on the path of greatness and fame so that it would not be “like broken china in the sun”.

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