By: Folorunso Fatai Adisa

At numerous points in history, the people of Ogun State, especially the Egbas and the Ijebus, have shown themselves bold, valiant and courageous. We cannot quickly forget how the Ijebu kingdom fought against the powerful imperial forces of the British Empire at the Imagbon war, nor the rebellious Egba women who stood against taxation, nor the men of Egba who rose against the Oyo’s Ajele under the leadership of Lisabi Agbongbo Akala. And who could forget the legendary Kurunmi of Ijaye and his storied bravery? Even the great Awori people, in whose domain the bridge falls, are notable for their staunch defence of their sovereignty, their role as the spiritual and political pillars of the Awori kingdom, and their strategic resilience during the nineteenth-century Yoruba civil wars.

We did not descend from that lineage to become docile overnight. It is as though that DNA has thinned in our bloodstream, because lately the people of Ogun fear to voice their concerns, preferring instead to leave matters to time. Our forebears did not wait on time. They acted. Ogun State today carries no shortage of troubling issues, but it is the ongoing construction in Ota that has struck a nerve in me this week.

An online broadcaster, Objectv Media, has spoken tirelessly on this issue and was allegedly harassed and nearly bullied into silence for it. But you cannot muzzle an entire state into silence about a danger this visible.

I have seen footage of the construction in Ota, and I have attached a snapshot to this update. The reinforcements are visibly weak. The concrete cover is poor. And the site itself sits exposed, with commuters, drivers and passersby all within reach of whatever goes wrong next.

Ogun State cannot be allowed to become an avoidable slaughter slab. Whatever is worth doing is worth doing well. The bridge itself is a noble project. It promises relief from a bottleneck that has bred snaking, punishing traffic on that axis, and it could genuinely unlock economic growth for the area. But a noble purpose does not excuse shoddy execution, and a project meant to save lives cannot be permitted to take them instead. Just days ago, news reports confirmed that a slab collapsed and injured several people. That should have been the warning. It should not have to become the pattern.

We therefore call on the Minister of Works Senator Engineer David Nweze Umahi, CON to confront this growing engineering danger without delay, and on the Governor Prince Dr. Dapo Abiodun – MFR, as chief security officer of the state, to prevail on the Minister in the interest of the people he governs. Development must never be purchased with human life.

The bridge, in itself, is one of the more commendable undertakings of the president’s, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration, a worthy vision from the Ministry of Works, and it deserves better than to wear the toga of controversy over what proper diligence could easily have prevented. The demand here is not for abandonment, but for competence. Let the needful be done, quickly and visibly, before Ota’s bridge becomes remembered not as the crossing that eased a bottleneck, but as the one that buried the people it was built to carry.