The Olaiya flyover in the heart of Osogbo, Osun State capital, is certainly not a destination but never- ending a journey to the economic posterity of Osun, with wealth creation, expansion and diversification get accelerated for emphatic thump up for the state Development Agenda, unfolding under the watch of Governor Gboyega Oyetola.
The flyover has its iconic differentiations
One. Oyetola’s routine pre- and during- inspections of the of the flyover project, an instance of his entrenched accountability or responsiveness in the management of public projects in the state, insistently alerted construction engineers to comply with the project’s specifications to meet Osun’s people’s expectations, wants and needs. The writer, particularly at different occasions watched Mr. Governor’s inspections by palpation, feeling the project with his fingers, hands.
Oyetola’s visual inspections also delved into engineering insurance when he firmly charged the main contactor to protect the project from halting and lost investments that could result from any engineering defect. Given his background in Insurance, he sternly advised that safeguards to any possible damages should be provided as checks for the insurance integrity of the flyover.
And during such unscheduled inspections, the writer observed Mr. Governor encouraged innovations and diversity which berthed the high brow aesthetics on the available walls of the new bridge.
His inspections also directed the flyover to be compliance- based while engineers at site did the piece-by-piece inspections by measurements and comparisons that met specific engineering standards in conformity to quality and quantity verifications. That in-line process made the identification and correction of errors possible and made the final, Olaiya flyover, the deliverable, opened for public use, Monday, this week.
Two. Competent bridge construction accreditations indicated that the engineering components of the latest flyover in Osun met specified standards that validated the structural soundness of the project. In that wise, any costly structural damage, defect or potentially hazardous conditions now or in future to warrant unnecessary re-engineering work later could be avoided. The engineering credentials of the project abound in the highly quality asphaltic thickness of the flyover that qualifies it to be plied by all grades of vehicles.
The flyover carries road standards with yellow shoulders, projected midget wall painted alternate white-black with silver coloured stanchion steel, dome made on both sides of the bridge, telling where the road stops or when you skid off. The white marked median poked with ground pinned reflective light is a deliberate plot to ensure the road is safe. And it’s safe for you! Yep! While the accompanying decked channels to drain water away from the surface of the bridge against erosion and enhance its life span are a value added to the integrity of the project. The flyover, smooth and wide enough for seamless movement of two vehicles side by side at fair speed make motorists comfortable.
Three. Oyetola’s deployment of the social responsibility in Public Relations profession earned the indigenous contractors the contract for the flyover and the job, rightly done, never fell short of the expectations of the project’s stakeholders, the governed. Engagingly, the flyover project slid away from the consequences of infrastructural travails, a short of impunity with the public disavowal of government rampant, corruption permitted and tendency to cronyism, shoddy contract performance besmirched.
Frankly, nothing in any dire straits about the flyover project. It’s impressible! And contextually appealing to the writer is that neither the government nor contractors defaulted. Government never accused the contractors of sub- standard materials used to have ordered the work to stop or the contractors complained they were broke and needed money to complete the flyover project. No brawl, no blame game on finances, job quality that could have smeared the completion of the project.
Four. How the Olaiya flyover was financed is still attracting a reputation of one project thoroughly bred and the stakeholders, the Osun publics are proud of the financial creativity put into it. In terms of finances, the project benefitted tremendously from Oyetola’s “Alternative Project Funding Approach to infrastructural development” in place of having to go cap in-hand to Abuja, banks or other money lenders, near or far in the globe. No less thanks to his ingenuity and finance wizardry. It also made sense to have had the project fully executed. Time and tide make the differences in the cost of projects, public or personal in the contemporary Nigeria with inflation on its prowl, causing projects’ costs sky rocketed, the speed of light.
And five. No sooner that the work commenced on the flyover than there were oppositions, sabre rattles of all hues, disingenuous, many not in balaclavas with the intent to terrorize the Osun government to abandon the project, with demonic frenzy that created Luciferian feasts for hack writers, paid social media users and critics of the project who churned out damning commentary and coloured observation primed in the art of mumbo-jumbo feature writings, egregiously opinionated that painted gloomy picture of the flyover project.
The oppositions, a cabal of traducers, vicious strugglers around, on a slew of base instincts of hate politics and calculated antagonism, fired up phantom engineering rules of project accreditations and processes to push an agenda ill-fated that must not be allowed. And it was not! The falsehood unleashed by oppositions was to disarray the flyover project. But Oyetola never pandered to any such whims and caprices on cue and que, and all that shenanigans, tricky thrust and parry came miserably to a futile bid.
At the early stage of the project, the writer in his *Boosting Osun Economy with Olaiya Flyover*, finds: “Oppositions to the flyover project, the outlawed desperadoes, bent at the embroilme to cause imbroglios, intricate disputes in the state over the project to want to return Osogbo to rural backwaters along the ill-worn path of development of the reactionary Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) era, time past in the state, got mauled, sledgehammered as the project continues and to be completed successfully.”
And proudly today, the flyover is not one project that had the state resources thrown into a bottomless pit to retard the development of state capital. It is one project of right quality and delivered to schedule, pointing up its significant commitment to turn the state to a booming investment hub for huge investment interests, boost tourism and alleviate cost of doing business.
*(To be continued)*
*_OLUSESI writes at the Foot of the Most Merciful. Most Gracious. All-knowing_*
