Tinubu, Minister of Power, Gov Makinde, Ogbomoso 132KV needs urgent attention

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By Femi OGUNLANA

The award of the 132kV Power Sub-station at Ajeja/Temidire, Ogbomoso in the 2000s was greeted with elation. It is however disheartening that two decades after commencement, the project is yet uncompleted. It is typical Nigeria’s nature of government’s negligence and unresponsiveness. Even though the installation of transformers and transmission lines for distribution of voltage to 33kV sub-stations is long done, energizing it by connecting high tension 132KV transmission lines to the Ganmo 332kV/132kV/33kV is what is left. Ganmo, a community near Ilorin capital of Kwara state, is about 59km to Ajeja/Temidire. Erection of transmission towers was partly executed but got abandoned. In fact, in 2020, a company, Trennco, was awarded the contract to erect the towers and complete the connection of the transmission lines.

The completion of the project is expected to improve bulk electricity supply to Ogbomoso and its environs which will significantly improve the economy of the area, lower overhead cost as demand for diesels will be cut down.

As he returns Soun’s visit, Power Minister, Adelabu, promises Ogbomoso 132kv will complete in 4 months.

Many efforts have been made and are being made to get the project completed to no avail. Former Oba of Ogbomoso, the Soun, HIM (Dr.) Oladunni Oyewumi Ajagungbade III JP CON CFR, during whose reign the project was approved, strove with commitment to commit government’s attention to it till he joined his ancestors in December 2021. His successor HIM Oba Ghandi Afolabi Olaoye Orumogege III has not relented too. And at a townhall meeting recently the monarch disclosed efforts were afoot to get relevant authorities intervene in the abandoned project. In the twilight of the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari his Minister of Youths and Sports Chief Sunday Dare, an indigene of Ogbomoso and indeed the chieftaincy title holder of Agbaakin of the city, facilitated the visit of a government delegation to the site with promise of completion, nothing similarly came out of the effort. The incumbent Minister of Power Adebayo Adelabu, an indigene of Oyo state, Ibadan specifically, and who has declared his gubernatorial ambition come 2027, has also been appealed to, by various individuals and groups including the Soun, yet, no movement is visible. In fact, Soun visited him in 2023 before his coronation and the minister returned the visit (in January 2024), during which he confidently gave a timeline of four months for completion, we are still looking.

But completing this Ogbomoso power project is A TASK THAT MUST BE DONE to give a new lease of life to the people of the communities making up the area. By completing it, increased megawatts supply and daily power distribution will be achieved. Businesses, industries, government establishments and private customers will all be better for it provoking an improved economy.

The town must persist to seek federal government’s commitment to the project. It is critical to the achievement of the bold 25 year-development plan unveiled by the Soun Oba Ghandi. The legislators from the zone, those in the Executive Arm, and all who have influence that can be exerted on the powers-that-be to get the project funded to completion must rise to the occasion.

Meanwhile, the magnanimity of the Oyo state government can also save the situation. It is it’s immediate citizens that will directly benefit. This is not unprecedented. Former governor of Kwara state Dr Bukola Saraki during his tenure intervened in the Ganmo Power Sub-station project. At the same stage with the Ogbomoso’s, Dr. Saraki got it completed and energized. He was rewarded for it, he effusively received the then President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s commendation, and more than that, he got “energized” too to represent his senatorial district in the Red Chamber of the National Assembly, where he emerged the President. Giving people “power” has a way of attracting “power” in return! Thus, Governor Seyi Makinde’s intervention in the Ogbomoso power project is ardently solicited. If the federal government that initiated it will not do it, he can work things out with them and get it done. The ensuing accolades will be eternal.

I make bold to say that this is the best time to get the project executed. Oyo state has the Minister of Power and other highly placed and eminent personalities in government like the FIRS boss, another, a ranking Senator and other invisible men of power in the power corridors. If they put their mind to it like they did and got re-awarded, the hitherto abandoned Ogbomoso-Ilorin new highway project, they will get this one too accomplished.

Energizing Ajeja/Temidire Ogbomoso Power Sub-station project is A TASK THAT MUST BE DONE.

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