by Ajadi Daniel
YMonitor held a grassroots engagement at Ijeshatedo, Lagos. The engagement had in attendance the leaders of the Ijeshatedo CDA and the Baale designate, as well at the councillor representing Ijesha in Mushin LGA, Hon Amoo Rilwan.
The grassroots engagement organized by YMonitor with support from NED and YNaija was aimed at bringing the people and their leader together, so as to encourage robust face to face enagegement between the governors and the governed.
Chief Ogunwale, the CDA chairman stated that “I am glad that you have gathered us here, we have tried reaching the government, yet no response”. Alhaji Shodeke who is also a memeber of the CDA said “No maintenance of the flood prone road, some of these problems we face need immediate attention”.
The people in attendance highlights some of the challenges faced in the community. Most of them spoke about the absence of good roads, and the fact that they need the local government to de-silt their drainage canal. They also revealed the fact that there is no one single school in Ijesha community.
Some of the issues highlighted in the grassroots engagement as challenges faced in Ijesha include: Road, poor electric supply, crazy bill which according to them can only solved by prepaid meters, Unemployment among youths, Intimidation of youths-most of them cannot speak up, they are blackmailed as cultist whenever they want to speak out. The attendees also complained that successive government ignore projects carried out by the previous government.
The big issue in Ijesha is basically absence of good roads, poor electric supply and crazy electric billing system. One of the participant complained that he was asked to pay N48,000 to get a prepaid meter.
Participants commended YMonitor for the initiative, especially on the fact that they were given the opportunity to make known the challenges they face in their community.