The Shame Called Liberation. I’ve never at any time regretted coming from the most liberated town in the whole of Nigeria – Ijebu Ode. Yes, I said the most liberated because that is exactly accurate. But recent visits have revealed to me our liberation has become something else.
How can one explain the level of underdevelopment and the stagnation the town has witnessed for over 2 decades now! No industrial investment, no good roads, general hospital is a shame. I was there for almost a week and altogether there was no electricity supply up to 1 hour. Annoyingly are many abandoned road projects within the town whjch makes driving around a pain instead of being a pleasure. Gosh!!!!
Heeps of liter everywhere, drainages are filled with liter, markets are scanty and traders looked forlorn. All I see every corner is beer parlour.
The future of Ijebu Ode looks gloomy as the youth are now professional internet fraudster, the girls are semi-pro prostitutes hanging around at night like Allen Avenue of those days. More of concern is the rate of thuggery albeit by young boys displaying various charms and weaponry.
How did we get here? On the street is the carnage by frat boys and girls Eyes versus Ayes! Haaaaaaa! Hardly a night passes by without a soul being cut short in Ijebu Ode and yet we pride ourselves as the most liberated among all Ijebus.
I asked a friend if all the regberegbe (cultural age groups) we have in Ijebus are only meant to party and jollificate while they look their town being overtaken by thugs and prostitutes (anyway their children are not back home in Ijebu Ode)
Every year we spend billions of Naira to organise Ojude Oba which has recently become political display ground for politicians instead of making fortunes out of it as tourism investment yet the youth are unemployed, uneducated and unproductive and they leadership and direction.
Teenage pregnancy I was told has now become a thing of pride among the youth in Ijebu Ode while secondary school age boys and girls now bleach their skin ignorantly to show ‘levels’
I spoke to 2 girls in a bar around Ita Alapo and I was curious to know what brought them into this shameful act of prostituting. They couldn’t come up with anything than “egbon e gbagbe o, obo lo npawo l’owo yi
No vocational homes to learn skills, no industry to earn something to live with, all those that are suppose to help are the ones taking advantage of the disadvantaged youth in the name of Sugar Daddies!
I hereby challenge all the known and unknown cultural age groups in Ijebu Ode to rise up and save us. Please and please save Ijebu Ode and redirect the focus of our youth to becoming useful and productive. Let all the chiefs of Awujale rise up help save Ijebu Ode.
We should be enjoying the proximity to Lagos but instead we are becoming dumpsite of Lagos ‘chased-away thugs, criminals and frat boys and girls.
Please help us chart a new direction for Ijebu Ode as we move towards the next election. Let us rekindle Ijebu Agenda and the need for us to take the lead once again.
Obanta a gbe wa o
Olasunkanmi Shobowale
