Afe Babalola decries deplorable ABUAD road, urges FG action
August 27, 2026 3:25 am
Afe Babalola (SAN)
By Abiodun Nejo
Elder statesman and Chancellor of Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti, Aare Afe Babalola (SAN), has appealed to the Federal Government to revisit the issue of the Ado-Ijan-Ilumoba-Ikole Road, which is in deplorable condition in Ekiti State.
Babalola stressed the importance of the road, which connects different communities in Ekiti State as well as the state to others, in addition to leading to many institutions and facilities.
The elder statesman, in a statement titled, ‘An appeal to the FG to revisit the road leading to ABUAD’, in Ado Ekiti, on Wednesday, appealed to the Federal Government that “something must be done about this road, and the time is now.”
The elder statesman listed institutions and facilities along the road to include ABUAD; ABUAD Multi-system Hospital; the Federal Polytechnic, Ado Ekiti; Ado Ekiti campus of the National Open University of Nigeria; the Federal Government-owned multi-million naira Silo; and Ekiti Agro-Allied International Cargo Airport.
The ABUAD Chancellor said, “This all-important road has been neglected for several years, a development which has rendered it impassable.
“This compelled me to make several representations to the Federal Government and its agencies to fix the road. But it would appear that all my pleas were ignored.
“However, as part of its corporate social responsibility, our university, ABUAD, spent billions of naira for the repair and maintenance of the road and the old Ureje Bridge between 2010 and 2019 when the road was awarded to a local contractor for repairs,” he said.
The ABUAD founder said that the contractors engaged to handle the rehabilitation project had, rather than improving on the extant condition of the road, ended up compounding matters by rendering it impassable.
Babalola said that owing to the poor state of the road, “Today, many of our lecturers living outside the campus cannot come to the university with their vehicles, a development which makes them report to work late. It is that bad.”
He said that he had made several attempts to get the Federal Government and successive governments in Ekiti State to appreciate the need to make the state, which he described as among the least developed and neglected in the country, more accessible.
He lamented, “Unfortunately, nobody seems to be listening.
“It is on record that I have written several letters to many Presidents of the country, different Ministers of Works, Ministers of Transport, the leadership of Federal Road Maintenance Agency and many governors of Ekiti State drawing their attention to the unbearable and deplorable nature of the roads in the state.
“On January 24, 2022, I wrote another letter to the then Minister of Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola, SAN, to authorise our university to use the resources and the highly qualified and competent personnel in our world-class College of Engineering to repair the road, construct a new bridge, provided that the Federal Government would pay the cost of repairs.
“Most regretfully, there was no acknowledgement or response to that letter/altruistic request.”
The ABUAD Chancellor, who said the university had a programme billed for October, which would be graced by personalities from America and Canada, said, “The question that readily comes to mind now is: Is the deplorable and impassable road what we want to showcase to the international community?
“Something must be done about this road, and the time is now, bearing in mind that ours is a university which has students from all the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory and some foreign countries.”
All rights reserved. This material, and other digital content on this website, may not be reproduced, published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in whole or in part without prior express written permission from PUNCH.
Contact: [email protected]