By OLALERE FAGBOLA
Fagbola
NOT many people understand the reason why Ilesa, right from pre-independent Nigeria has been the town with the Best town planning regulations in old Western Region and by extension in Nigeria generally.
It was simply because, unlike in other towns which township planning was left solely in the hands of town planning personnel ,and at the whims and haphazard directives of land grabbers,Ilesa was one of the very few towns planned majorly by health personnel and professionals.
That people in Ibadan(my hometown)destroyed the town planning efforts of the colonial administration and resorted to building on the banks of Ogunpa river arbitrarily, led to the flood which more than twice in the 80s destroyed lives and properties in the largest city in sub saharan.
Unlike in Ilesa where public health law was sacrosanct and where-in the town planning exercise was a combined efforts of both the town planning personnel and public health departments,Ibadan was the first place where the involvement of public health personnel in building regulations was stopped. This is authoritative.
In his re-issued edition of “The tradition of public health service in Nigeria “, the author of the book, Mr A.A.Akinbola who served for many years in the Ministry of health of the old Western Region, emphasised the unique place of sanitary inspection which did not spare anybody in western region no matter how highly placed.
“I used to inspect the premises of the residence of the Governor for the Western Region, Sir John Rankine.He would ring the Chief Medical Officer if in one week he had not seen a Public Health Officer in his premises…
When our people became the occupants of Government House, a public health inspector would be challenged:” What right have you to come here ? ”
When however Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola in his formidable efforts at beautification of Osun town holistically , led to the reintroduction of public health service, pulling down obstructions, clearing drainages ,bringing back the Sanitary Inspectors( Wole-Wole) to compel house owners to build good toilets with a view to stopping people defecating in open places, tongues were wagging about if that was the next thing that would put food on the table.
Not wanting his no-nonsense administration to catch me pants down flouting the public health sanitation law , being one of the arch critics of Ogbeni’s administration, I had to divert some big fund earlier intended to start a magazine project to building a modern toilet to replace a rickety pit latrine in use by my tenants. That was a time when the fear of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola was the beginning of sanity.
It is said that orderliness is the first law in heaven and that health is wealth, and which was why the Buhari/Idiagbon military regime left undying legacy in Nigerians through the introduction of queue culture and strict observance of regular environmental sanitation exercise in Nigeria.
It is true that “Opon-imo ” wisdom tablet introduced into schools in the state of Osun had its ups and downs because it was a vision which came too early for our perceptions, one cannot however deny the fact that , unlike successive governments in Nigeria which revel in pulling down syndrome, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola is known for carrying to higher heights, whatever good things on ground, namely School feeding programme , now being admired internationally , Oduduwa Omoluwabi anthem, modern school building initiatives, free train service ( among others) and now in the same Ilesa, ( through the Federal government) Digital Nigeria Centre in which youths are to be equipped with 21 century skills towards connecting to broad based internet.
FAGBOLA, wrote from Oshogbo
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