programme of LMDGP, the state government listed nine communities within Lagos metropolis as beneficiaries, describing them as under -erviced and the largest blighted area in the state. These communities; Agege, Ajegunle, Amukoko, Iwaya, Makoko, Ilaje, Ijeshatedo/Itire, Bariga and Ijora-Badia were characterise by haphazard development.
The LMDGP noted that more than 75% of residents in these communities live in one-room households with density of between four to six persons per room while between eight and ten families live in face-me-I-face-you structure, sharing same kitchen, toilet and bathroom. Some houses in these communities do not even have kitchen, dwellers cook their food at the passage.
The needs by residents of these communities included rehabilitation of roads, extension of water distribution lines, rehabilitation and construction of health centres and schools, provision of street lighting and public sanitation facilities, upgrading of the markets in the neighbourhood and provision of electric transformers.
However, two years after the completion date that was fixed for the provision of these facilities by the state government under the LMDGP programme, residents of Ijora-Badia continued to cry out to the government to come and make a difference in their community, as they still live in abject penury.
Our correspondent again visited Ijora-Badia recently and noticed that the situation of the community has not changed from what it was years ago. Despite that the place is a meeting point for diverse people from all over the country, the environment at Ijora-Badia is horrifying. The place is not worthy of habitation and it is a question mark of the succeeding governments in the state that have talked much on Lagos being a megacity of note.
Some of the residents who spoke with our correspondent explained that living in the community, especially during rainy season, is nothing but a nightmare. The residents said they are no longer interested in living in the area but the high cost of accommodation in other areas of Lagos has kept them at bay.
A community leader, Joshua Ibiyemi pleaded with Governor Akinwunmi Ambode to visit Ijora-Badia to experience what the residents go through all the time – whether dry or rainy season.
Ibiyemi who lives on Ireti-Owosheni Street, said: “I have been living here for close to 30 years. We don’t feel government presence here in Ijora-Badia. We encounter serious challenges, especially during the rainy season. Ask anybody around here and they will tell you what we go through daily. This place is terrible but where else would we go? We don’t have the financial capability to live in areas where the house rent triples what we pay here.”
Worse hit in this community are streets like Obale, Sunday, Fadiani and several others, where heaps of refuse have been dumped deliberately by the residents, to wage ‘war’ against flooding.
Many houses in the community are linked to the streets via makeshift wood bridges.
A resident, Kehinde Ijaodola, who claimed to have been born and bred in Ijora-Badia, said the area has for long been neglected by succeeding governments.
“No effort has been made to transform this place. We don’t have any good road or drainage to ease flooding. The available roads are not motorable. The prominent road from Ijora-Badia junction opposite 7UP Bottling Company going to Orile and other places in this axis are full of pot-holes and people have turned it into market.”
