Founder and Chancellor of Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD), Aare Afe Babalola, has appealed to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the Federal Government to urgently rehabilitate the deplorable Ado-Ijan-Ilumoba-Ikole federal road leading to the university.
Babalola, in an open letter, expressed appreciation to former Senator Babafemi Ojudu for consistently drawing attention to the poor condition of federal roads in Ekiti State, particularly the road serving ABUAD and several other major institutions.
He lamented that 30 years after the creation of Ekiti State, the state remains disadvantaged by poor road, rail, power and other infrastructure, which he said continues to hinder its economic development.
According to him, the road leading to ABUAD is more than a century old and has suffered prolonged neglect. He said the university had spent billions of naira between 2010 and 2019 repairing and maintaining portions of the road and the old Ureje Bridge as part of its corporate social responsibility.
Babalola said repeated government interventions had failed to resolve the problem, alleging that contractors awarded the road rehabilitation projects worsened its condition. He added that the poor road now affects lecturers, students, parents, patients, workers and visitors who travel to the university.
He noted that the road serves several important institutions, including ABUAD, its 400-bed multi-system hospital, the Federal Polytechnic, Ado-Ekiti, the National Open University of Nigeria campus, a Federal Government silo and the Ekiti Agro-Allied International Cargo Airport.
The ABUAD founder also recalled that he had written to former Works Minister Babatunde Fashola in 2022 offering the university’s engineering personnel and resources to undertake the repairs, provided the Federal Government reimbursed the cost, but said the request received no response.
Commending Ojudu’s intervention, Babalola said the former senator’s persistent advocacy had provided another strong voice calling attention to the road’s condition. He urged Works Minister David Umahi to personally inspect the road during his tour of federal roads in Ekiti.
Babalola further appealed to President Tinubu to personally visit the road, saying the President might not have been given an accurate picture of its deplorable state. He also urged Ekiti citizens, professors and opinion leaders to join the campaign for the rehabilitation of roads across the state.
The appeal comes ahead of a major event at ABUAD on October 21, 2026, when Trinity Western University, Canada, and Trinity International University, USA, are expected to confer honorary Doctor of Laws degrees on Babalola. He questioned whether the university’s poor access road was what Nigeria wanted to showcase to international visitors and called for urgent action.
