Wole Balogun, Ado-Ekiti

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In Ekiti State, particularly the state capital, Ado-Ekiti, old, tired and dilapidated buildings are fast disappearing. They are giving way to newly constructed and well laid, dualized roads, fly over and water fountains.
Almost everywhere you turn to in Ado Ekiti, Ikere-Ekiti, second largest town in the state and local government areas, wore new exciting look. But not many of the residents, especially owners of the old buildings who are indigenes of the town like the novel development. Some of them hold the view that demolishing their old buildings should attract more compensation than they are getting currently. Others are simply amazed at the sudden transformation and praising government for it. Yet, few others are not quite happy that the development has taken them unawares.
“The way the governor (Ayodele Fayose) is seeing this demolition of old buildings is good luck to him. But there are different sides to it and that depends on how each and everyone living in the state perceives it. To the governor, whatever he does is for the benefit of the people, as he earnestly desires to make Ekiti look like London or the cosmopolitan Lagos. But what of how some of us view it?
“Another question is, as cosmopolitan as Lagos or Ibadan are, don’t they also have old buildings like we have here in Ado-Ekiti? But we can’t condemn Fayose because he is our leader and knows what is best for Ekiti,” Pa Amodu Aliu who resides in Okeyinmi, told Daily Sun.
Pelumi Ojo, a young graduate said: “For me, Governor Fayose’s demolition exercise and rebuilding of the city is a welcome idea. This is because the city is wearing a new exciting look now. Whoever thought Ado-Ekiti could be this beautiful? Look at the new Fajuyi Park, more elaborate, bold and beautiful. See the fly over. In fact, by the time they complete the King’s Market, you would be mistaking this city for one of those fine places in Abuja or Lagos. That to me is a welcome development, as an indigene of Ado.”
For Mrs. Abeke Olaiya and Madam Gbeminiyi Aluko, Fayose would be scored high for having the courage to demolish old and dilapidating buildings, but he should give those affected compensations. Aluko: “We are not against the demolition of these old buildings. In fact, it is true that many of them are not only outdated but are poorly built and losing weight.
“But we frown at a situation whereby the governor wants us to rebuild our old buildings but he is not giving us money that can build a new modern building up to our taste. We appeal to the governor to compensate owners of these buildings in a way that would be far more than the cost of the buildings he is demolishing. That way, he would make us very happy.”
Fayose responded: “We are demolishing buildings and we are not sparing anyone no matter how highly placed or close to us. Recently, I had to demolish an old building, which belonged to a relative of my Chief of Staff, Chief Dipo Anisulowo. We have to do this to set an example. If it were my mother’s building found to be intruding into our road network or debasing the city, we will pull it down.
“It is not all the buildings we pull down that we are taking. There are those that we just pull them down so that their owners would have to rebuild them to the taste of the emerging new city. There are buildings that have been poorly built. They have neither bathroom, or toilet and it is depressing that the human waste from the portly built bathroom and toilets of others have been rubbishing and debasing our environment, causing communicable diseases and others. We cannot continue to tolerate all these.
“It would interest you to also know that many of our people who are complaining that we are pulling down buildings of their forefathers and erasing their ancestral homes have abandoned such buildings to waste away. They neither live there nor rebuild them well for others to live in. Many of these buildings have become dilapidated and wear an ugly look. We don’t want this in our new Ekiti.
“You see many of them living in beautiful modern houses in the GRA in Ekiti while they abandon their ancestral homes to rot away. Many of them even live abroad and never dome home to develop their ancestral homes. We are not taking all the pieces of the land that we pull down. We are pulling down some only to ensure that the owners of the pieces of land rebuild them to taste of the new city. Those whose land we are taking for developmental projects we are paying them handsome compensation and no one of them can complain.”