Roads Cannot Hide Failure: Why Adeleke’s Inordinate Concentration on Road Projects Is Not Performance.... By David Olufunsho Fagbohungbe GFOD

Beyond the fanfare surrounding road projects and flyover commissions in Osun State lies a growing debate about the true meaning of governance and development. In this featured opinion piece, political commentator and APC media strategist, Fagbohungbe Olufunsho David, argues that the administration of Governor Ademola Adeleke has placed excessive emphasis on visible infrastructure while neglecting critical sectors such as education, healthcare, agriculture, youth empowerment, and economic development.

‎
‎Drawing from official budget performance figures, public reports, and policy outcomes, the writer contends that governance should be measured not merely by the number of roads constructed, but by the overall impact of government policies on the lives and welfare of the people. He raises concerns over spending priorities, sectoral imbalance, and what he describes as the “politics of visibility” dominating the current administration.

‎
‎In this detailed analysis, Fagbohungbe examines the implications of Osun’s infrastructure-heavy spending pattern and questions whether the state’s developmental priorities truly reflect the pressing needs of its citizens......
‎
‎

The Adeleke administration has tried very hard to reduce governance in Osun State to one thing: roads. Every ribbon-cutting, every flyover announcement, every dualisation project and every government press statement appears designed to create one impression, that once a government is laying asphalt, it must be performing. But government is not a road show. A state is not developed by concrete alone. Roads matter, but roads do not teach children, treat patients, feed families, employ young people, revive farms, support small businesses, or build the kind of economy that can survive beyond political photo-ops.

This is the core failure of the Adeleke-led government. It has mistaken visibility for performance. It has taken the easiest projects to advertise and pushed them as proof of transformation, while several critical sectors of the state economy continue to suffer weak attention, poor funding, delayed implementation, and declining public confidence. The administration can commission all the roads it wants, but if hospitals lack adequate workers, students face unbearable fees, farmers remain under-supported, youth empowerment lacks scale, and small businesses cannot feel government beyond slogans, then the government has failed the broader test of leadership.

The numbers expose this sectoral imbalance, because in 2024 alone, Osun State recorded total actual expenditure of about ₦237.04 billion. Out of that, the Ministry of Works alone spent about ₦60.17 billion, roughly one quarter of all actual state spending. The Office of the Governor spent about ₦25.50 billion in the same year. Together, the two offices accounted for about ₦85.67 billion, more than 36 percent of total actual expenditure. The Ministry of Education recorded about ₦13.13 billion, Health about ₦9.46 billion, Agriculture and Food Security about ₦3.65 billion, Industry, Commerce and Cooperatives about ₦845 million, and Environment and Sanitation about ₦394 million. These figures are not mere propaganda. They are contained in the state’s own Q4 Budget Performance Report.

That is the problem. A government that spends ₦60.17 billion through Works in one year, while Agriculture receives ₦3.65 billion and Commerce less than ₦1 billion, has told the public where its heart is. Osun cannot pretend that its developmental problem begins and ends with flyovers and urban road expansion. This is a state with deep needs in education, rural production, primary healthcare, job creation, water access, market development, and industrial support. When road projects swallow public attention and public resources at this scale, citizens have a right to ask whether the government is building for the people or building for political optics.

Even the road agenda itself is not beyond criticism. The governor announced a ₦100 billion infrastructure plan in 2023, including five flyovers and dozens of roads, but the proposed ₦159 billion second phase seemed unrealistic, especially after questions about the delivery of the first phase. This is coupled with the over-concentration of most of the project within a single township of Ede where the Governor hails from.

The governor’s defenders will say roads drive development. That is partly true, but it is also incomplete. A road to a farm is useful, but farmers still need inputs, mechanisation, storage, credit, extension services, irrigation support, and access to reliable markets. A road to a school is useful, but students still need teachers, affordable fees, books, laboratories, and decent classrooms. A road to a hospital is useful, but patients still need doctors, nurses, drugs, equipment, and a functioning referral system. Roads can support development, but roads cannot replace development.

Education gives one of the clearest examples. There have been questions about the administration’s handling of teacher recruitment and school funding. A fact-check by the Nigerian Democratic Report noted that evidence indicated 1,500 teachers were laid off after Adeleke took office, while later reports described the recruitment of 526 teachers as inadequate after years of delay. At the tertiary level, students have protested fee increases at the University of Ilesa, with reports placing some charges as high as ₦1.5 million. What kind of pro-people government celebrates roads while students struggle to remain in school?

Health tells the same story. The government often points to renovated primary healthcare centres, and even that claim must be judged by what those facilities can actually deliver. Paint, roofs, signboards and ceremonies do not treat patients. BusinessDay reported concerns that 73 percent of Primary Health Centres in Osun were operating with zero to one health worker, a figure that turns the government’s PHC publicity into an indictment rather than an achievement. A health centre without enough staff is not a functioning health centre. It is a building waiting for service.

The same weakness appears in agriculture, commerce, youth empowerment, innovation, and tourism. The government speaks often about economic transformation, but the spending pattern does not support that language. In a state with strong rural roots and a large youth population, agriculture and commerce should not look like afterthoughts beside the road economy. Osun needs jobs, production, exports, skills, technology, food security, and local enterprise. Instead, the administration seems trapped in the politics of what can be photographed from the air.

There is also the unresolved question of executive concentration. The Governor’s Office is directly tied to the governor. The Ministry of Works, although formally a ministry, remains under the governor’s political authority and has become the most visible arm of his administration. When both the Governor’s Office and Works consume such a large portion of state spending, it is right to raise questions about control, procurement, transparency, and value for money. No democratic government should be offended when citizens ask how their money is being spent.

The 2026 budget makes the issue even more urgent. Governor Adeleke presented a ₦705.794 billion budget proposal, with capital expenditure put at about ₦388.38 billion, representing 55 percent of the total. That means more contracts, more infrastructure spending, and more opportunities for either public development or deeper waste. If the past pattern continues, Osun may again be pushed into a concrete-heavy budget while the real human needs of the people remain underfunded.

This is why we reject the idea that road concentration is performance. It is not. Performance is balanced development. Performance is affordable education. Performance is a health system that works beyond press statements. Performance is a farming economy that feeds people and creates wealth. Performance is youth employment with measurable results. Performance is transparent procurement, not political celebration. Performance is not how many roads a governor announces, but how many lives government policies improve.

Adeleke’s government has chosen visibility over depth, applause over structure, and road politics over state building. That is why, from the standpoint of balanced governance, the administration has failed. Osun deserves more than asphalt and slogans. It deserves a government that understands that public money must serve the whole state, not the image of one administration. Enough is enough.