…. Ekiti Ringroad Project is a process, discussion with financier ongoing.
…. Ekiti Cargo Airport is in phares; Perimeter fencing, runway infrastructure etc on course.
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Below is the excerpt of interview with Hon Sunday Adumo (Galaxy), where he shared insight into his roles as an appointee in the Dr John Kayode Fayemi second term administration.
Good afternoon special adviser on road, Honorable Sunday Adumo. Sir, It appears you wear two hats in the present dispensation in Ekiti state. How do you juggle being the special adviser to the Governor on road with also being the project coordinator RAAMP
Hon: Well, to God be the glory… We have been able to meet up with the assignment that was given to us by his excellency, Dr.John Kayode Fayemi. And so far so good, God has been so faithful and has continued to be faithful. It is for me, a commitment and a grace to at least add more to whatever you are and whatever you are doing. And for you to be able to at least at the end of the day, give account of it. Also, I have a dependable team that I’m working with.
In your capacity as special adviser on road, and also project coordinator RAAMP which one of your projects would you like to be known as the flagship, the crown in jewel so to speak
For me, I classify them as being equal. It all depends on how you view it. Somebody living in Irele… will see Irelekoya road as a priority. Somebody living in Aramoko, will see Aramoko-erinjiyan as his own flash project. Somebody who lives in Ado Ekiti however and is travelling to Iyin, will see the Ado-Iyinroad as their own flash project. And somebody from my community will see Ilupeju to Igbemo as a flash project. And somebody in Ikun will see Ikun, Isan, coming to Oye as their own flash project. It all depends on how you see it. To me, the truth of it is getting all these projects done on time and for the peoples benefit. Looking at what we are doing in RAAMP, RAAMP is just a combination of rural roads, linking them all to the urban areas, state and federal roads. The purpose is reducing losses on all the produces that the farmers make per year by making sure that the farmers are able to move their produces at the right time, to the places they are needed without any hindrance. So that is the purpose. The aim at the tail end of it all is making Ekiti better. Taking us from where we are, to where we ought to be.
We have it that you have in your portfolio the construction of at least 1000 km road that will cut across the 16 local governments, what parameters were used in deciding which roads would be constructed. Also, how many roads are we likely to see constructed eventually?
Well, that 1000km, we picked them from about 2800 km of roads in Ekiti, both federal, local government and state roads.What we did was to ask our consultants to go round all the communities, we have the list from the ministry of Agric, all the farmsteads; not township roads, they are all farm roads. We look at all those farms and create accessibility. Be it footpaths or really any road that would lead to the farmsteads. That is what we take as our priority. This was why the idea of all RAAMP activities is to link the roads to the farms. Making it possible to have access to all those farms. Forget the nature of those particular roads. It may be even just a good footpath. It could also be an existing road that needs improvement. And it may be a farm that had no road at all and for which we have to create one. Another thing we look at are the river crossings. That is what determined the roads that were considered. Now it is important to note that these roads cut across the sixteen local governments. We have no particular local government in mind. We really just look at the valuable products from those farms because there is a yardstick given to the consultants. The consultants will then locate the roads that fall into the categories to be considered. So like I said earlier, out of two thousand plus, a thousand were identified. And out of those one thousand, five hundred was to be the priority. And then out of those five hundred, we picked about twenty five point five as our pilot projects. And those are the final projects we are embarking upon now. We have done the concept designs, the ECIA, we are going straight by next month to advertise for the construction.
Honorable sir, When is the expected flag off date for the ring road project
For the ring road project… the ring road project is a process.Tomorrow, we will be having a virtual meeting on it. It really depends on how soon we are able to tidy up all the documentations. But the process is still on, the negotiation with the financier is also on. We still have to wait for people building the ECIA to be done too. So, when all those things are completed, then we will give our submission to the financier. The contractor will be picked and soon after that, there will be a flag off.
Do you have any comments on the airport project sir?
The airport project is an ongoing thing too. You know, it is in phases. Phase one is fencing, phase two, putting up the runway and all those structures like the terminals and other things. So all those things are going on too.
It is an exciting news in the streets that the Ado-Akure road may soon be remodeled, please shed more light on this information.
Ab initio, we were … we were working with Ondo state; the Ekiti state and Ondo state government working together on it to at least put more light on that particular road. Mr. Governor, Dr. John Kayode Fayemi initiated it and Arakunrin Akeredolu too. But as God will have it, the federal government said ”no”, that it was their responsibility and that they would take care of it. We didn’t have any option, the design had been done by us in Ekiti state and the Governor worked tirelessly to get it done and now we hear that it has been awarded. We are happy about that and we are waiting for them to come in and we are ready to give them every support they need to quick start the job and get the road fixed as soon as possible. It is going to be a well constructed road and instead of the fifty four plus minutes travelon that road, if it is remodeled, it will become about twenty plus drive.
Seeing as the road network issue has always been a problem for farmers in terms of accessibility and transportation, what impact do you think the administrations projects, through your office will have on these rural areas.
As I said earlier, RAAMP was created because we have a vision that by the time these roads are done, every individual including you and I will be eager to be a farmer. I am a farmer, and I believe that if we are able to feed ourselves as a nation, then the excess will be exported. When we are making good profits from farms, everybody will love to go there. Look at the cassava processing and export that they are proposing, look at the rice mill that we have in ekiti, we have three ongoing at the moment,when we see good improvement in where we are, we will be inspired to keep working on it until we get to where we ought to be. When people’s farms are accessible through good roads, people will like to go to farm. The economy of the whole world is changing and it is tilting heavily towards agriculture. No nation can survive without being able to feed their people. We at Ekiti have figured out what we are good at and that is what we will go into. We are going to be producing rice, and come to think of it, we have cassava, yam and a lot of other things here.If you go towards the north now, there are two cassava processing plants. One is almost completed and the other is coming up too. Now if we have all those things, believe me, allthe farmers who are discouraged will want to go back to the farms. Their produces will not suffer wastage anymore because there will be accessibility and also food processing provisions. As far as we can see now, believe you me, the future is good for the average Ekiti farmer.