[size=14pt]This cassava factory, donated by Awo, has suffered 28 years of neglect[/size]


Written by WALE ADELE and KEHINDE OYETIMI
Sunday, 11 September 2011


Propelled by the desire to build the agriculture sector of the South west, Chief Obafemi Awolowo donated a cassava factory to the communities of Ido Local Government Area of Oyo State in 1973. However,decades later, it has been allowed to suffer rot. WALE ADELE and KEHINDE OYETIMI provide the inside story.





It was one of the most unusual positive interventions that anybody could have contributed to them. For the people of Ilaju community in Ido Local Government Area of Oyo State, Chief Obafemi Awolowo saw the possibility of bringing an assemblage of pristine villages to global limelight. The vast land mass, the fertile soil and the depth of foresight moved Chief Awolowo to have donated the cassava factory to the people in 1973. The factory could process two truckloads of cassava in a day, just as it provided job opportunities for over 300 people. It had the capacity to work all days, except on Sundays. One would have expected that with such huge display of philanthropic gesture, the cassava factory would have triggered the transformation of the people and their locale. Unfortunately, the factory only operated for 11 years. It’s 38 years later and the communities have remained the same.

While interacting with Life & Living, the Oyo State chairman of Cassava Farmers Association, Chief Murtala Babalola lamented the state of neglect that the factory had been reduced, just as he reminisced on the tremendous help that Chief Awolowo gave them.

“When Chief Obafemi Awolowo was the head of the farmers association in the old Western region, he asked us to get government approval on housing.

Thefarmers refused that they were not seeing any of the dividends of governance. He then promised that they should not worry that they should look for a land where they would plant cassava in large commercial quantity. He promised to help provide a machine that would process the whole production of cassava to its finished form in one day. He said the machine would work throughout the week but must be allowed to rest only on Sundays.

“The farmers searched all over Ogbomosho, Oyo and down to Ibadan. Awolowo came here and then concluded that this would be the right place. He established this cassava factory for farmers to improve and increase cassava production. It was not any government initiative.

http://www.tribune.com.ng/sun/features/4997-this-cassava-factory-donated-by-awo-has-suffered-28-years-of-neglect