MAJIYAGBE HAS SUFFERED NEGLECT FOR MANY YEARS, WE HAVE NOT FELT THE IMPACT OF ANY GOVERNMENT-Youths

                          

---No Politician should come to Majiyagbe to campaign!

As the okada man carried me into Majiyagbe, a suburb of Ipaja, Lagos, I beckoned on him to take it easy. The road was very rough; he kept throwing me up and down and when I asked him, oga don’t you see the road is bad… was what he muttered. Truly, the road is bad, not only that, the houses looked ancient. Is development not in this area of Lagos state? I asked myself as I was taken through the streets.

I had earlier received a call from a group of people, mainly youths who identified themselves as The Voice of Majiyagbe, Ipaja community. They had made an SOS call to Abesan News on the state of their infrastructure. On the phone, they stated so many things going wrong in their community and how they have tried without success to tackle them. They pointed out the very bad roads that had been like that since many of them were born and no sign that it might be a different story soon. I decided I was going to visit their community to see the roads myself and that was what got me to Majiyagbe in Ipaja, Lagos state.

As I got there, they were already waiting for me and eager to show me their sufferings. Will you believe you are in Lagos state? They asked me as they pointed to their bad roads. Today I went to bring a car my father just bought and I had a smooth ride till I got to this place. We have not felt the impact of this place at all, said the Prime Minister of the group, Mr. Kehinde Majiyagbe. The spokes person of the group, Chief Akin Williams who spoke at length decried the state of the community infrastructure.  He told us how the community has suffered neglect by different administrations in the area. He lamented on how empowerment programmes never got to their area. In his own words, “though they claim Lagos is a mega-city, this place is an ancient village and you can see it yourself. The people of this area have never had the impact of democracy and you will wonder if there is anybody responsible for the development of infrastructure in this area.”

Speaking to Abesan News, the Prime Minister who said they had come to a resolve not to allow politicians campaign in their community stated the number of times they went to the leaders but nothing was done. “as an indigene of this area, I have not witnessed any meaningful development in the area. There was a time we held an event in this area and people that came asked us if we had any government in this area. We had to lie to them that the person who is the chairman is an unknown person” lamented Mr. Kehinde Majiyagbe.

One will wonder why they didn’t show their grievances to the past administration of Ayobo/Ipaja LCDA led by Hon. Shakiru Yusuf, but they were quick to respond. “on the issue of the chairman, we have on several occasions gone to him and even had serious disagreement with him to the extent that we almost fought, but he has not done anything to our roads. He kept promising till he served-out his tenure. There was a time he asked us if he should give us one hundred thousand Naira and we buy sand to grade it ourselves or he gives a Caterpillar and we buy sand to grade it. This is someone who went to a party and spent hundreds of thousands on the spot.” They responded.

If they couldn’t get the attention of the Council Chairman, what of the Councilor representing them? “Damola just cruises around in a car, he has never come to say hello to us”, they chorused. “His mum stays around Ile Eleni, he doesn’t stay around here and he doesn’t care about the people here. He does not even give room for people to greet him, talk less of telling him what our problems are. We are waiting for all of them now, they will definitely hear from us”.

Hon. Bisi Yusuf was reported to have done very well during his tenure, didn’t he do anything for them too? Not at all, one of the youths answered. The only thing we can point to is a Bore-Hole and it’s not working. He claimed that he empowered 2000 youths with computer education but we were all told to pay N2,000 each for handout! They did not pay us for 3 months when we worked for them. Everything they are claiming is propaganda.

We the people of Majiyagbe, Ipaja have therefore come to the resolve that none of them, either low or high profile politician should come to our community to campaign, share fliers or paste postals. Anybody seen will be dealt with and his postals torn. In fact, there won’t be any election in Majiyagbe!