By DEMOLA OMIGBODUN

I was priviledged to have my father, the late Chief Julius Omigbodun, live for 100years. Besides his early years, he spent the last 62 years of his life in Osogbo, Osun State.

His experience of living through changes in Osogbo over a 100-year period should make one ask what sort of life would be possible for residents of Osogbo and our other communities over the next 100years.

He indicated that the earliest homes were roofed with grasses and that several homes were destroyed whenever there was a fire event. These fire events brought about the use of corrugated iron sheets as roof cover in our homes.

My early years were spent between Ipetu-Ijesha, Ilesha and Osogbo, all in Osun State.

I have some affinity for each of the three towns and I will draw on my experience in the three places in looking ahead. Water for domestic use was not a problem.

There were wells in the compounds where we lived and in Ipetu-Ijesha, a river about 2 kilometres away was an additional source of water. Ready access to potable water shapes the lives of people in our communities.

Osogbo is surrounded by a number of other towns; Ede to the west, Gbongan, Ode-Omu, Sekona, Edunabon, Ipetumodu to the southwest, Ile-Ife to the south, Ilesha to the southeast, Ibokun, Imesi-Ile to the east, Ikirun, Iragbiji, Inisa, Okuku to the northeast, Oba to the north, Okinni, Erin-Osun, Ilobu, Ifon to the northwest.

The towns to the southwest, west and northwest are supplied potable water from the Oshogbo/Ede Water Supply Scheme, which has two dams on the River Erinle. There is a dam under construction on the River Osun between Osogbo and Ilesha.

Water from this dam should be used for a regional water supply scheme which would serve Ilesha, Osogbo and the communities to the east and southeast of Osogbo. This dam should also be the anchor for agricultural and industrial development on the Osogbo-Ilesha axis.

The distance from the Steel Rolling Mill on Ikirun Road in the north to the Osun State Government Secretariat in the south is about 16 km while the distance from the Dada Estate on the Old Ede Road/Iwo Road in the west to the bridge crossing the River Osun on the Ilesha Road is about 19km.

One should be looking at the Osogbo metropolitan area as being within an area of 20km by 20km. Movement within Osogbo is by road in private cars and taxis. Can a bus transit system be devised for Osogbo?

The Transmission Company of Nigerian, TCN, has a very important transmission station in Osogbo on the Ikirun Road. With the projected growth in electric power generation and transmission additional 330kV transmission lines would be built to and from Osogbo.

Is the land at Ikirun Road adequate for TCN’s requirements or would land be required at another location in Osogbo for a second transmission station? In order to meet the power requirements of this metropolitan area, the state government should put together a consortium to build and operate an Independent Power Plant, IPP, at the site of the old diesel generating plant opposite the waterworks at Ede.

This IPP would serve the waterworks at Ede and any new waterworks at the existing dam north of Okinni and in addition provide power to parts of the metropolitan area.

Putting our people to work is key to the prosperity of our communities. A prosperous community would be able to pay for social infrastructure, potable water, roads, schools, public transportation.

We need to lead our population towards employment opportunities for reasons of social cohesion.

We can also not afford to waste the substantial investment being made on the education of our population if a substantial number of our school leavers are not in employment or engaged in further education. We need new initiatives that would give our school leavers hands on training transforming them into world-class technician-engineers, artisans etc.