The value of portable water and a link bridge are immeasurable for the residents of Agboyi Ketu located in Alapere, a suburb of Ketu, Lagos State even as it is also in dire need of a health centre, writes FUNMI SALOME JOHNSON.
Rich in aquatic splendour, Agboyi community located in Alapere, a suburb of Ketu in Lagos State, is sand witched by Ogudu and Alapere in today’s Agboyi-Ketu Local Council Development Area
(AKLCDA). Cluster v
(AKLCDA), cluster villages on an Island – Agboyi 1 and 2, and Oko Agbon, so named because of the abundance of coconut plantation in the enclave. Consisting of mostly Aworis until recently when a number of Ibos, Hausas and other minority tribes moved in following the emerging business opportunities. In Agboyi, the Lingua Franca is Yoruba, but Pidgin and English and other native languages, still have a fair expression.
Conservatively estimated to be inhabited by about 40, 000 people, its peculiar location would have made it a good getaway, but typical of a community favoured by nature, but stranger to modernity, Agboyi is not different from most rural communities across Nigeria lacking in basic amenities. Though it is connected to the national grid, there are no motorable roads or a viable means of transportation linking it to the outside world. Perhaps, but for some wooden boats seemingly made in a hurry, Agboyi residents would have been cut off from the larger Lagos. But the people apparently determined to make a living, often out of nothing, are not giving up on life yet. Every day on end, they make what passes for risky trips on rickety wooden boats, men and women, old and young, across the Agboyi River to Lagos; either to school or work; and as often is the case, to carry out sundry business activities. For Agboyi residents, perhaps, it would be safe to say that they know what constitutes risks and happily take it!
Until recently, there were a number of huts, but everyday as people lose their homes to sky-high rent and government’s expansion programmes, the community benefits as those dislodged in cities seek refuge in it. And, as they come, they bring with them a new taste in architecture and other things. Today, there are ongoing construction works on new houses around the community. Yet while these point to development, Agboyi residents say they are on emergency mode and requiring government’s presence and attention in the form of infrastructure development.
In an interview, High Chief Fatai Bankole, the Baale of Oko Agbon in Agboyi 1, described the condition of residents as pathetic. Bankole who became Baale seven years ago expressed shock that government has not considered their community for any developmental project. “The situation here is a quite pathetic. It’s sad that were live close to the city, yet too far from modernity. We lack almost all the basic things of life. Except for the Alhaji Lateef Jakande administration that linked us to the national grid, probably we would have been in worse situation, today,” he says. He continued. “I can categorically say that the only infrastructure we have is the power supply which is not so regular. We may not have power in days, but we thank God that at least it comes.
Our major need is a link bridge. We need a bridge so that people can stop living dangerously by crossing the Agboyi River on rickety boats, night and day.” According to him, everything will fall into the right places the moment the community has a link bridge. He said a link bridge has become crucial in view of the many people relocating to the community. “A couple of weeks ago,” Bankole revealed, “we lost two boys who fell into the water while returning home. All efforts to rescue them from the lagoon proved abortive. They drowned.”
He stressed that it was to guard against such incidences that a link bridge has become important. “If we had a bridge, we wouldn’t need to access our homes in canoes. The government should help us build this bridge so that we will not continue to live in fear. Often, for fear of the lagoon some residents stay home hungry. Worse still, LAWMA officials find it difficult to access us for our refuse. We dispose our refuse by ourselves and by any means possible to us. We urgently need the government to come to our rescue starting with the construction of a link bridge to the cities,” he said.
The Baale disclosed that the state government constructed a borehole for the community, but that residents were yet to benefit from the project because it was not properly done. “If you move around the community, you will see a number of boreholes, but not one is working. The water is bad and tastes salty. The explanation given to us was that the soil is bad and so the tools used in its construction get rusty. The water where it comes out is usually coloured. But after checks, we discovered that they used manual machines and could not dig beyond 150 kilometres. Good water could only have been possible with an electronic machine that can drive in deeper into the soil. Bad as it is, we are still surviving. What we desperately need is a link bridge and only the government can help out,” Bankole said.
In his own remarks, another community leader, Chief Tajudeen Jimoh, Apena of Agboyi 1, said the community which has produced a prominent son such as Chief Adeniran Ogunsanya, lacks basic amenities of life. “When Governor Babatunde Fashola clocked 100 days in office, we went to him and he visited our community and promised that he would construct the bridge, but till now, he is yet to redeem the pledge,” he said. Following in the same line of argument, Chief Salau Beyioku, the Osolomade of Agboyi land, noted that the absence of the bridge has hindered the community from development in the same pace as other parts of Lagos State. “We cannot over emphasize the issue of the link bridge. In this community, if anyone has a health challenge requiring emergency treatment, especially at night, it is always difficult or impossible. Although we have a public health centre here, it is not operational at night and drugs are hardly available, too. So, you can see the level of hardship we live in. Residents usually cross over to Ketu to get medical intervention. It is really traumatic for us,” he said.
Beyioku said that Agboyi community’s main stay is fishing, though a few eke out a living weaving mat. He, however, said that due to the pollution of the lagoon, many who ordinarily would have continued in fishing have left town. “Before now, the major vocation of our men is fishing while the women assisted their husbands with their weaving skills. Unfortunately, these activities are barely carried out due to the conditions of the lagoons.
The pollution has destroyed aquatic lives and nobody is interested in the fishing trade. Really, if we have the bridge which seems to be the major challenge for everybody, we can earn a decent living doing other things or even try our hands in other waters outside our community,” he said. Mrs. Falilat Oyebode, in an interview, traced the history of the community back to when it was the home of coconut trees. “Gone,” she said, “were when Agboyi was one of the few places where you can get coconut in abundance.
That was about 20 years ago. Things have changed so much today. And, it pains us that we have been compelled to abandon our traditional means of livelihood for other things just so we can survive. Now, no one ever remembers this, but for the benefit of history.” According to the middle aged woman, her house was one of the earliest houses in the area. She told our correspondent that in those times, bamboo sticks were used as electric poles to tap electricity from Agboyi 1 community; their neighbours. Like others, she stressed the need for government to intervene by constructing a bridge for the community.
“When I got in here with my family 20 years ago, there were no buildings. Everywhere was filled with coconut plantation. It was as a result of its abundance that it was called Oko Agbon which means coconut farm. I thought that by now, modernity would have gotten here. We don’t have water supply; what they call boreholes constructed many years are not functional. We have to buy water for our daily needs; a 25 litre keg of water costs N50 and sometimes N100 if it is during the dry season. It is so pathetic and this has given rise to the cost of living in our community,” she said.
Pastor Timothy Ishola, Chairman of Agboyi-Ketu Community Development Area, in an interview with our correspondent had this to say: “I appreciate the administration of Governor Babatunde Fashola for his good works in Lagos State. We can see his hands in almost every part of the state and we appeal to him to address our situation in the same way he has handled other communities in Lagos. We need a link bridge and water boreholes, above all other equally important facilities as health centre and road networks in Agboyi-Ketu.”
He continued. “In our community, we lack good means of transport. We cannot move from one place to any part of Lagos. The worst of this problem is that we don’t have a road in which commercial buses, Keke Marwa and even bikes can transport us to join the rest of Lagos unless we cross the waters. The wooden boats operating here are in bad shape and dangerous to everybody, including our children, who cross the waters every day to school and back.”
He said that in 2009, officials of the Lagos State Transport Management Authority (LAMATA) came to Agboyi-Ketu and promised to provide the community with new boats after seeing the canoes they use, but have yet to redeem the promise. “We are calling on our dear governor to come to our help,” he said, pointing out that with modern boats and a link bridge, development would really come to bear on Agboyi community as well as its neighbouring communities like Ogudu, Owode Onirin, Alapere and Irawo.
(AKLCDA), cluster villages on an Island – Agboyi 1 and 2, and Oko Agbon, so named because of the abundance of coconut plantation in the enclave. Consisting of mostly Aworis until recently when a number of Ibos, Hausas and other minority tribes moved in following the emerging business opportunities. In Agboyi, the Lingua Franca is Yoruba, but Pidgin and English and other native languages, still have a fair expression.
Conservatively estimated to be inhabited by about 40, 000 people, its peculiar location would have made it a good getaway, but typical of a community favoured by nature, but stranger to modernity, Agboyi is not different from most rural communities across Nigeria lacking in basic amenities. Though it is connected to the national grid, there are no motorable roads or a viable means of transportation linking it to the outside world. Perhaps, but for some wooden boats seemingly made in a hurry, Agboyi residents would have been cut off from the larger Lagos. But the people apparently determined to make a living, often out of nothing, are not giving up on life yet. Every day on end, they make what passes for risky trips on rickety wooden boats, men and women, old and young, across the Agboyi River to Lagos; either to school or work; and as often is the case, to carry out sundry business activities. For Agboyi residents, perhaps, it would be safe to say that they know what constitutes risks and happily take it!
Until recently, there were a number of huts, but everyday as people lose their homes to sky-high rent and government’s expansion programmes, the community benefits as those dislodged in cities seek refuge in it. And, as they come, they bring with them a new taste in architecture and other things. Today, there are ongoing construction works on new houses around the community. Yet while these point to development, Agboyi residents say they are on emergency mode and requiring government’s presence and attention in the form of infrastructure development.
In an interview, High Chief Fatai Bankole, the Baale of Oko Agbon in Agboyi 1, described the condition of residents as pathetic. Bankole who became Baale seven years ago expressed shock that government has not considered their community for any developmental project. “The situation here is a quite pathetic. It’s sad that were live close to the city, yet too far from modernity. We lack almost all the basic things of life. Except for the Alhaji Lateef Jakande administration that linked us to the national grid, probably we would have been in worse situation, today,” he says. He continued. “I can categorically say that the only infrastructure we have is the power supply which is not so regular. We may not have power in days, but we thank God that at least it comes.
Our major need is a link bridge. We need a bridge so that people can stop living dangerously by crossing the Agboyi River on rickety boats, night and day.” According to him, everything will fall into the right places the moment the community has a link bridge. He said a link bridge has become crucial in view of the many people relocating to the community. “A couple of weeks ago,” Bankole revealed, “we lost two boys who fell into the water while returning home. All efforts to rescue them from the lagoon proved abortive. They drowned.”
He stressed that it was to guard against such incidences that a link bridge has become important. “If we had a bridge, we wouldn’t need to access our homes in canoes. The government should help us build this bridge so that we will not continue to live in fear. Often, for fear of the lagoon some residents stay home hungry. Worse still, LAWMA officials find it difficult to access us for our refuse. We dispose our refuse by ourselves and by any means possible to us. We urgently need the government to come to our rescue starting with the construction of a link bridge to the cities,” he said.
The Baale disclosed that the state government constructed a borehole for the community, but that residents were yet to benefit from the project because it was not properly done. “If you move around the community, you will see a number of boreholes, but not one is working. The water is bad and tastes salty. The explanation given to us was that the soil is bad and so the tools used in its construction get rusty. The water where it comes out is usually coloured. But after checks, we discovered that they used manual machines and could not dig beyond 150 kilometres. Good water could only have been possible with an electronic machine that can drive in deeper into the soil. Bad as it is, we are still surviving. What we desperately need is a link bridge and only the government can help out,” Bankole said.
In his own remarks, another community leader, Chief Tajudeen Jimoh, Apena of Agboyi 1, said the community which has produced a prominent son such as Chief Adeniran Ogunsanya, lacks basic amenities of life. “When Governor Babatunde Fashola clocked 100 days in office, we went to him and he visited our community and promised that he would construct the bridge, but till now, he is yet to redeem the pledge,” he said. Following in the same line of argument, Chief Salau Beyioku, the Osolomade of Agboyi land, noted that the absence of the bridge has hindered the community from development in the same pace as other parts of Lagos State. “We cannot over emphasize the issue of the link bridge. In this community, if anyone has a health challenge requiring emergency treatment, especially at night, it is always difficult or impossible. Although we have a public health centre here, it is not operational at night and drugs are hardly available, too. So, you can see the level of hardship we live in. Residents usually cross over to Ketu to get medical intervention. It is really traumatic for us,” he said.
Beyioku said that Agboyi community’s main stay is fishing, though a few eke out a living weaving mat. He, however, said that due to the pollution of the lagoon, many who ordinarily would have continued in fishing have left town. “Before now, the major vocation of our men is fishing while the women assisted their husbands with their weaving skills. Unfortunately, these activities are barely carried out due to the conditions of the lagoons.
The pollution has destroyed aquatic lives and nobody is interested in the fishing trade. Really, if we have the bridge which seems to be the major challenge for everybody, we can earn a decent living doing other things or even try our hands in other waters outside our community,” he said. Mrs. Falilat Oyebode, in an interview, traced the history of the community back to when it was the home of coconut trees. “Gone,” she said, “were when Agboyi was one of the few places where you can get coconut in abundance.
That was about 20 years ago. Things have changed so much today. And, it pains us that we have been compelled to abandon our traditional means of livelihood for other things just so we can survive. Now, no one ever remembers this, but for the benefit of history.” According to the middle aged woman, her house was one of the earliest houses in the area. She told our correspondent that in those times, bamboo sticks were used as electric poles to tap electricity from Agboyi 1 community; their neighbours. Like others, she stressed the need for government to intervene by constructing a bridge for the community.
“When I got in here with my family 20 years ago, there were no buildings. Everywhere was filled with coconut plantation. It was as a result of its abundance that it was called Oko Agbon which means coconut farm. I thought that by now, modernity would have gotten here. We don’t have water supply; what they call boreholes constructed many years are not functional. We have to buy water for our daily needs; a 25 litre keg of water costs N50 and sometimes N100 if it is during the dry season. It is so pathetic and this has given rise to the cost of living in our community,” she said.
Pastor Timothy Ishola, Chairman of Agboyi-Ketu Community Development Area, in an interview with our correspondent had this to say: “I appreciate the administration of Governor Babatunde Fashola for his good works in Lagos State. We can see his hands in almost every part of the state and we appeal to him to address our situation in the same way he has handled other communities in Lagos. We need a link bridge and water boreholes, above all other equally important facilities as health centre and road networks in Agboyi-Ketu.”
He continued. “In our community, we lack good means of transport. We cannot move from one place to any part of Lagos. The worst of this problem is that we don’t have a road in which commercial buses, Keke Marwa and even bikes can transport us to join the rest of Lagos unless we cross the waters. The wooden boats operating here are in bad shape and dangerous to everybody, including our children, who cross the waters every day to school and back.”
He said that in 2009, officials of the Lagos State Transport Management Authority (LAMATA) came to Agboyi-Ketu and promised to provide the community with new boats after seeing the canoes they use, but have yet to redeem the promise. “We are calling on our dear governor to come to our help,” he said, pointing out that with modern boats and a link bridge, development would really come to bear on Agboyi community as well as its neighbouring communities like Ogudu, Owode Onirin, Alapere and Irawo.
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