By Femi Atolagbe
The need for attitudinal change in the ways of the citizens’ life being preached by the current government of Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Akeredolu (SAN) has been yielding results as Leo youths in Akure embarked on community self help, by patching the bad portions of the road that lead to the area.
Leo, a street off Oyemekun road in Akure, the State capital , with about 1.5 kilometer road stretch that has adjourning streets like ,Oke -owo, Adegbomire, Fayanju and Akinwumi street all in the state capital.
Speaking with The Hope Metro upon visiting the site, the President of the youths in the area , Mr Kunle Agbaje explained why they embarked on the fillings of the potholes because they are the users and it is gradually turning to a death trap.
He added that motorists have neglected the other side of the road totally, hence the reason they decided to rescue the situation in their little capacity.
According to him , “the road is too bad, since Dr Agagu constructed the road many years ago. No government has ever come to add anything to the road. That is why the road is in this state of disrepair. Had it been that the successful government have been maintaining the road, it would not have gone bad as it is”.
“We came together as youths to think of what we can give back to our society, as we cannot expect government to do everything for us. That is why we deem it fit to fill the bad portions of the road with sand, gravel, thanks to the elders and Landlords in the street, they supported us financially by given us money to buy cement to patched the road to be temporarily motorable.
“We are in ember months, and Okada Riders have on many occasions while dodging the pothole almost crushed some passerby, we don’t want any unfortunate things to happen to our people that are why we put it upon our self to contribute our quota to fix the road.”
The youth President therefore called on the government to come to their aid to complement their efforts by rehabilitating the road.
In his contribution, Mr Ayomide Kehinde, a shop owner in the street said they did what they did because they see it as their social responsibility to their community, saying the era when youths will be constituting nuisance in their environment has gone .
“We are refine youths that love our state, we can’t continue to wait for government to do everything for us, God forbid if any unfortunate incident happen here we are going to be at the receiving end.
“We are using this medium to plead to the Ondo State Government to put (Leo street) in this year budget, we have raised our arm, let the government lift us.” He said.
A government official and a regular user of the road, who spoke under the condition of anonymity, said he had lost two of his vehicle tyres to the road.
He said what the youths did was rare in the country, saying while some youths prefer to be blaming government and causing unrest in the society, these ones are doing community self-help. These are type of youths that will do the country proud in future.
Mrs Biola Awoso another residence in the street ,who appreciated the youth for their efforts in putting the road in good condition,though temporarily, saying motorist almost ram into houses on daily basis ,when they are dodging the potholes.
“Let government come and complement the efforts of our youth. They have really helped us”, she said.
