Akure deserves development. But development without direction becomes debt. The proposed flyover bridge over Oba Adesida Road “because of traffic” is a classic case of a good project, sold with the wrong intent, and at the wrong time. If we build it, we will celebrate concrete for 6 months, then regret it for 20 years.
The Real Problem Is Not the Road, It’s the Market
The major traffic on Oba Adesida is not caused by too many cars. It is caused by too little order. The choke point is Oja Oba. The people who are supposed to be trading inside the market have spilled onto the road. Hawkers, wares, and makeshift stalls have turned a 6-lane city artery into a 2-lane footpath.
You don’t cure indiscipline with concrete. You cure it with planning, enforcement, and alternatives. A flyover will lift cars over Oja Oba today, but in 2 years the market will climb the bridge too. We will have an expensive bridge and the same traffic underneath it.
The digital traffic lights at Cathedral Junction and other intersections are already enough. What’s missing is compliance and traffic management, not another engineering structure.
Wrong Timing When Basic Economics Are Bleeding Us
Akure is dying from inaccessibility, not traffic jams. Consider this:
Airfare Crisis: Akure Airport has the shortest route to Lagos/Abuja, yet it charges the highest airfare in Nigeria. Proximity should mean affordability. Instead, it means exclusion. Investors, tourists, and even our own indigenes fly to Lagos and drive 3 hours rather than land in Akure for 30 minutes.
Revenue Poverty: One month’s IGR for Lagos State is roughly 2 years of Ondo State’s revenue. Ogun State was once at the bottom of the revenue ladder. Today it’s top 5. Why? They turned proximity to Lagos into an advantage — industrial hubs, linked roads, and investor confidence.
Job Deficit: Youths are not protesting traffic. They’re protesting joblessness. A flyover creates 200 temporary construction jobs. An industrial hub creates 20,000 permanent ones.
Building a bridge while our economy is stranded is like buying curtains for a house with no roof.
What Government Should Do Instead
If the goal is truly “ease of movement + prosperity for Ondo people”, the priorities must shift:
Create Industrial Hubs, Not Just Interchanges
Jobs end traffic. A working man leaves home at 6am and returns at 7pm. An idle youth is on Oba Adesida at 10am. Government should acquire land in Ilara-Mokin, Owo, Ore axis and build SME clusters with power, roads, and tax incentives. Let Ondo export products, not just civil servants.
Link Inner Roads to Coastal Roads
Our coastline from Araromi to Ode-Aye is untapped gold. Linking inner Akure/Owo roads to coastal highways opens fisheries, tourism, ports, and new towns. That’s how Ogun escaped poverty — by connecting hinterland to the sea and to Lagos. Ondo is more blessed with coastline but less connected.
Fix Visibility & Accessibility
Force airlines to justify Akure airfare with a regulatory review. High cost kills investment faster than bad roads.
Dualize Akure-Benin and Akure-Owo roads. Good roads move goods cheaper than bridges move cars.
Make Akure a conference + tech city. We have universities, land, and peace. Lagos has congestion. That’s our advantage.
The Cost of Misplaced Priorities
A flyover will cost billions. That same money can:
Equip 5 technical colleges with modern workshops
Tar 50km of rural roads that move cocoa and food to market
Subsidize Akure flights for 3 years to attract businesses
“Misplaced priority will ruin us.” Not because the flyover is evil, but because every naira spent on the wrong problem is a naira stolen from the right solution. In 2035, when our youths still have no jobs and Oja Oba is still on the road, we will point at the flyover and ask: “Who advised us?”
Conclusion
Akure needs vision, not vanity projects. Let’s decongest Oja Oba through urban planning. Let’s decongest our economy through industry. Let’s decongest our isolation through cheaper airfare and coastal links.
A bridge is good. But the right bridge at the right time is wisdom. Today, Ondo needs factories more than flyovers. We need runways, not just overpasses.
If we get the intent right and the timing right, the projects will be good too.
Chief(Dr)Alexander Oluremi Ajipe
APC chieftain Ondo state .
