Adebayo Adenrele
The Ekiti State Executive
Council has approved the rehabilitation of the Ado-Ilawe Road and construction of the dual carriage way between G.R.A III Extension and the State Pavilion along NTA road.
This is part of the efforts to ensure that all roads in the State are motorable and well-maintained to provide free-flow of traffic and unfettered access into and around the State capital.
The State Commissioner for Information, Rt. Hon. Taiwo Olatunbosun, in a statement made available to the Press in Ado Ekiti on the outcome of the State Executive Council meeting, explained that the focus is to significantly contribute to economic growth and boost social activities.
He stated that the State Government decided to rehabilitate the Ado-Ilawe road where some sections of the road had deteriorated due to high water-table in some locations which led to failure of the road, causing serious discomfort to motorists.
Describing the Governor Oyebanji administration’s intervention on road as strategic, Olatunbosun noted that it was designed to ensure alternate routes for motorists to maneuver across the State with minimum stress.
Olatunbosun clarified that the Oyebanji administration formulated a system of sustaining good State road network that link communities
with major roads and ease movement around the State in recognition of the fact that the State Government has no control on construction, maintenance and repairs of Federal roads.
Using the on-going rehabilitation of Igede-Ilawe road as an example,
the Commissioner stressed that, on completion, the road would ease
traffic from Kwara up north to Akure or Lagos in the south as well as serve as a ring road that would help reduce traffic volumes in the
State capital by providing alternate route around the city for drivers
that do not essentially need to stop in the center of the metropolis.
In his words, “Same goes for the Ikere – Igbara Odo road that links the State with Igbara Oke in Ondo State and beyond without going through the avoidable rigors of driving through the State capital and compounding the traffic situation”, Olatunbosun noted.
He listed other road interventions by the State Government to include
the Ilawe Igede road, completion of the bus terminal in Ado Ekiti that
was inherited from the previous administration; rehabilitation of
Agric Olope-Moferere/Agric Olope-Odo Ado road; reconstruction
(excavation and casting) Igbara-Odo-Ikogosi lined drain road;
rehabilitation of Ado-Iworoko road.
Others are rehabilitation of Ilawe-Erijiyan road; reconstruction of
ikere-Ilawe road; construction of Atlas (Ajebamidele)-Deeper Life-
Alasia-Shepard-Omisanjana road in Ado Ekiti and the general
rehabilitation of Ado township roads.
Olatunbosun assured that the State Government would continue to
partner and encourage the Federal Government to maintain its share of roads in the State, adding that though the State do not have resources to cater for Federal roads, the administration would work round the challenge to ensure free flow of traffic in and out of the State without stress.
Another key decision reached at the State Executive Council meeting, according to the Government’s spokesperson, was the approval of the presentation of the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) for 2024 – 2026 documents to the State House of Assembly for legislative processing and passage.
The revenue for the approved period was projected as
N235,332,401,626.00 for 2026, N207,974,197,512.00 for 2025,
N187,280,552,421.00 for 2024 and N159,754,889,425.00 for 2023 which was use as the base-line.
According to Rt. Hon. Olatunbosun, total expenditure for the same
period are estimated as N232,332,401,626.00 for 2026,
N204,974,197,512.00 for 2025, N184,280,556,421.00 for 2024 and
N156,754,889,425.00.
The Commissioner stated that with due cognizance of the Six Pillars of
the administration namely: Governance, Agriculture and Rural
Development, human Capital Development, Infrastructure and
Industrializations, Youth Development and Job Creation as well as Arts, Culture and Tourism.
He added that the MTEF is made up of Medium-Term sectorial Strategy (MTSS) and The MULTI-Year Budget Framework (MYBF) which is , traditionally, reviewed annually to mitigate the volatility of the National and global economic indices, new government policies and the need to accommodate fresh government’s programmes and projects.
Olatunbosun explained that parameters assumptions and indicators (PAIs) considered include global oil price, Nigeria’s daily oil production, exchange rate of naira to dollar as well as inflation rate and the effect of fuel subsidy removal, adding that all Government ministries, departments and agencies; civil society organisations and other stakeholders were involved in the preparation of the MTEF 2024-2026 towards the 2024 budget.
