Why The Demolition of People’s Homes In Ado-Ekiti Is Very Bad

ADEWALE ADEOYE

The demolition in Ado Ekiti is very bad. I agree to the extent that real development should come with some level of public obligations and sacrifices. But what we see in Ekiti are:

(i) Lack of consultation.
(ii) Lack of inclusion (If you want to demolish my house you need to let me know even if you cannot make alternative provisions)
(iii) Lack of alternative provisions.
(iv) Wilful destruction of valuables belonging to inhabitants.

I know of a boy who could not find his NYSC discharge certificate and another old man whose pension documents can no longer be traced.
For another old woman, her greatest pain is inability to trace the only picture of her late husband taken in the 1940s.
A case as narrated by the Kabiyesi Ewi of Ado Ekiti in that clip where pupils go to school and come back to meet their homes in rubbles is agonising and should never be tolerated in any decent society.
Some of these buildings are as old as 500 years.

Some are custodians of ancient gods tied to the beliefs, wellbeing, mental stability and spirituality of the people.
Some are burial sites of ancient warriors and family progenitors. There was no debate, no prior and informed consent of the affected people and no compensation for many of them who unfortunately do not have alternative shelter over their heads.

This is the brute force. This is condemnable.

I share in the grief of people who have now been made homeless by share lack of vision and lack of compassion by a government that relishes in euphoria, photo opportunism and grand deceit of self esteem backed with a well orchestrated photoshop delusion of false public acceptance.