Local communities, in Erin-Ile, Oro-Ago and others in the geopolitical axis called Kwara State have been expressing mixed reactions over road project execution in their domains according to media tour undertaken by Daily Independent to audit the state’s Sustainable Development Project, SDP.

SDP is the state’s development blueprint endorsed by the Federal Government, Multilateral bodies like UNDP and other agencies and since adopted by the administration of Governor AbdulRahaman AbdulRazak.

While some are effusive with thanks to the state government over roads linking rural agrarian communities to market hubs, others express worries at the pace of work as the rainy seasons move closer.

In Oro Ago, transporters heave a sigh of relief after the completion of the 2.3 kilometres Oro Ago Oyate road which links the first with the later, an agrarian community.

“Until recently when the road was repaired by the state government, commercial vehicles from Ilorin dump their passengers in Oro-Ago, never willing to proceed to Oyate,” said Oladiran Awade, deputy chairman, National Union of Road Transport Workers, NURTW.

According to him, the 2.3-kilometre road to Oyate was so bad that transporters don’t contemplate taking passengers to the town.

So commuters have to pay more in transport fare.

But with the new road, passengers now travel from Ilorin to Oyate with just a stopover at Oro-Ago.

There is also spinoff in other economic terms, especially in the area of supply of food items from Oyate.

“At some point, you could buy just two tubers of yam at N2,500 in Oro-Ago when the road was so bad because farmers from Oyate had to pay more to bring their produce,” Awade narrated.

But he said that things have changed.

“The same number of yam tubers now sells for a little less N700 in Oro-Ago,” he said, but hastily asks the state government to complete the Orisa Bridge which leads into Oro Ago.

In a similar vein, Erin-Ile, this time in Oyun Local Government where there has been perpetual economic buzz along communities and towns connected by the new 20 kilometre Station Road.

Until the road was built, agrarian communities that are sources of palm product, cashew nuts, maize and livestock breeding and supplies to much of the bigger towns like Ilorin, Offa, Omuaran were linked by a small bridge built by communal effort back in 1973.

This is was because Station Road, the link highway was in terribly bad shape.

But with its reconstruction, by the state government, a new lease of life has since begun, say residents and users of the road.

“The new road also serves Oyan and Igosun, both agro-based communities in Osun State, not even Kwara alone,” explained Asiwaju Tajudeen Olabisi Abioye, a community leader in Erin-Ile.

But for High Chief, Malachi Atolagbe in the remote Owode, also in Kwara State, it’s a case of mixed feelings on the state of Owode-Ofaro Road.

While there are works ongoing, the elderly man who has lived 19 years in the town after retirement is worried at the pace of work at the Awere Bridge after it collapsed in 2018.

“We are grateful for the commitment shown so far in reconstructing the bridge.

“But work stopped after 2020 shortly after it started,” he explained.

Owode and Ofaro are home to large farming communities who mostly of Hausa Fulani stock.

They came south to escape insurgencies and banditries up north of the country.

According to the high chief, the farmers now resort to using camels, donkeys and even their cattle as beast of burden to evacuate their farm produce through hilly terrains.

“Government has to do something fast before the rains start,” said High Chief Atolagbe.