For residents of Opeilu, Agbado Oja, a community in Ifo Local Government Area, Ogun State, rain is a curse.

Whenever it rains, access to their homes and businesses becomes more difficult. When the ground is dry, it is not better as the road is marked by sharp bumps and scattered stones, which throw motorists into the air as they move.

However, they prefer the sharp bumps and scattered stones to the rain. “Even if it rains for only 30 minutes, everywhere becomes flooded and the roads become completely inaccessible,” Dolapo Olamilekan, a motorcyclist who has been working on the road from Agbado Oja to Abule Ijoko for two years, told FIJ on Sunday.

When it rains, the road is slippery and muddy. Motorcycles are bound to skid or lose control due to the slippery surface. Also, larger vehicles get stuck and are unable to move.

This road is the only one leading into Opeilu and connecting it with other areas from Agbado Oja.

Olamilekan explained to FIJ that the road has been in its current state for at least eight years, even though he has only been using the route for two.

He stated that only motorcycles can ply the road when it rains, as the terrain becomes too slippery for mini-buses and tricycles.

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“The Opeilu Road has been like this for at least eight years. During the dry season, it is fair, but whenever it rains, the road will be in such a terrible state. This is why we have only a few vehicles plying this road as most of the transportation is done on motorcycles.

“Most of the vehicles get spoilt and people are forced to either pay more for transportation or trek.”

Olamilekan told FIJ that the government has also not helped matters, as they have been making on-and-off constructions on the road. He said that the road has remained in the state since Ibikunle Amosun, the former governor of the state, left office.

He said this was fueled by discontent from Dapo Abiodun, the governor of Ogun State, who said residents of the area did not vote him into office.

“Amosun started the road project and wanted Adekunle Akinlade, a politician who is now a member of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), to be his successor,” Olamilekan said.

“But Akinlade did not win the ticket and couldn’t become the governor, so the entire area has been abandoned since then.

“The government has been working on and off on the road, especially during elections. They will come and grade it, giving residents the impression that they are going to work on the road.

“Even work has stopped on the abandoned bridge. It was started by Ibikunle Amosun, but ever since he left office, the current governor has not made any attempt to work on it. He claimed that the residents of this place didn’t vote for him, as Amosun wanted Akinlade as his successor. He claimed that once Akinlade became governor, he would fix the road, but Akinlade never did, and the road has been there since then.

“But lately, there have been conversations about the road getting an upgrade again.”

The motorcyclists and other residents rely on makeshift roads when the rain comes. These makeshift roads, often walkways, sometimes cut through people’s compounds, inner streets and even an ancestral home.

But it also does not come cheap.

To ply these alternative roads, they pay as low as N100, or more, depending on the area.

“Even on the makeshift roads, we have to pay the owners of the community to pass through them. They take as low as N100,” he told FIJ.

“Some of these people use the money to fix their streets, as they are inner streets, while some just eat the money. From an area called Sharp Corner, the landlords collect money and then use it to grade their road.

“In some other parts, the residents just take the money and do whatever they want with it.”

Olamilekan told FIJ that the cost of transportation surges at the sight of rain. He said what would usually cost only N400 would rise to N700 or even N1,000.

“When it rains at night, everyone becomes stranded, and we would charge between N700 and N1,000 to take passengers from Agbado Oja to Opeilu,” he said.

“A lot of passengers complain about this, but by the time they get onboard and see the manoeuvres we have to make, they will understand. Just last week, I fell headlong into a ditch with two passengers due to the bad and slippery road.”

Ola Adekunle (pseudonym), another resident of Opeilu for at least 15 years, also told FIJ on Sunday that they used to pay N100 between Agbado Oja and Opeilu, but the fare has now gone up by more than 200%.

“Since the tenure of Amosun, when he cleared the road to fix it, they didn’t touch it throughout his eight years in office. Every time it rains, it becomes problematic because fares become more expensive,” Adekunle told FIJ.

“When Amosun was governor, the fare from Opeilu to Agbado used to be N100. After he came to clear the road, it went up to N300, and now it’s N400 and above.

“The fare from Abule to Agbado used to be N400, but it’s now N700. Whenever it rains, it rises to N1,000 or N1,500 because buses have to take longer routes and pass through people’s compounds.

“Life has been unbearable, and we usually don’t pray for rain because it means no business and no life.”

FIJ noted that from the road leading into Agbado Oja, right in front of the Lateef Jakande Train Station, until a bus stop known as Idiroko, 1.8 kilometres, using Google Maps measurements (this is equivalent to the length of more than 18 football fields), most of the road either covered by vegetation, filled with large puddles or too thick with mud to navigate.

Meanwhile, in separate posts shared on X in 2022, Governor Abiodun shared media showing work ongoing on the road.

“We’re currently regrading and compacting sub-base of Ojodu-Alagbole-Akute end of the Sango Ota-Ijoko-Agbado-Akute-Alagbole-Ojodu Road, in preparation for laying of stone base and asphalt,” he wrote in the first post.

“Laying asphalt on Ojodu-Alagbole-Akute end of the Sango Ota-Ijoko-Agbado-Akute-Alagbole-Ojodu Road is still ongoing as we speak,” the second post reads.

Ade Akinsanya, the Ogun Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure, told FIJ in August that the roads would be ready by the end of the same year.