THE SUNDAY READ
EKITI: PATHWAY TO OUR ELDORADO
By Segun Dipe
Eldorado used to be a bedtime story. A city of gold where roads never broke, where light never blinked out, and no child had to leave home to find life.
For years, Ekiti chased that story with hope but no compass. We had brains. We had land. We had energy. What we lacked was direction, consistency, and a partner in Abuja that believed in us.
That has changed.
Eldorado is no longer a myth. It is a project under construction. For Ekiti, Eldorado means roads that connect, schools that deliver, hospitals that heal, farms that pay, and young people who no longer believe that success only lives outside Ekiti.
The pathway is getting tarred. It is lit. It is linking us to the centre.
Governor Biodun Abayomi Oyebanji, BAO, is laying it at home through Shared Prosperity. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, PBAT, is backing it from Abuja through Renewed Hope.
When Ekiti and Abuja walk in sync, Eldorado stops being a dream. It becomes a budget line. It becomes a contract. It becomes concrete.
The airport is a veritable door to the world. It is the clearest sign that Ekiti is leaving the margins. It is now our functional Ekiti Agro-Allied International Cargo Airport in Ado-Ekiti.
Yesterday, it was a campaign poster. Today, planes are landing. Cargo is moving. People are flying.
An airport is more than concrete and runway. It is time saved. It is dignity restored. A trader from can meet buyers in Lagos and sleep in Ekiti the same night. A farmer can move tomatoes and yam before they spoil. A young graduate with an interview in Abuja can make it without a 6-hour road battle.
Investors no longer ask, “How do we enter Ekiti?” They now ask, “When can we land?” The airport has moved Ekiti from a landlocked hinterland to an open economy. That is how Eldorado starts: by removing distance from opportunity.
Ijigbo Bridge is the door within our metropolis. If the airport is opening Ekiti to the world, the Ijigbo Bridge is opening Ado to Ekiti.
For decades, Ijigbo was a daily tax on our time. Flood. Gridlock. Lost hours. Lost money. Traders planned their day around it. Students missed classes because of it.
Today, the bridge is done and busy. Movement is free. Commerce is faster. Stress is lower.
It looks like steel and concrete. It works like economic oxygen. A working bridge means a working market. A working market means a family that eats. That is Eldorado, in real terms.
The centre’s hand is the Renewed Hope. No state can build its Eldorado alone. Renewed Hope is showing up here, and we must embrace it.
Federal road interventions are linking our 16 LGAs better. PHCs are getting support. Schools are getting upgrades. Social investment is reaching market women, artisans, and young entrepreneurs.
In agriculture, the alignment is strongest. While BAO pushes cocoa, poultry, rice, and youth agribusiness, the centre’s food security push is opening funds, inputs, and markets. More farms stay alive. More youth choose the soil. More money stays in Ekiti.
MSMEs are getting credit. Health facilities are getting drugs. Classrooms are getting teachers and tools.
These are not slogans. These are the results that come when Ekiti and Abuja trust each other.
Why is the continuity non-negotiable? It’s because we are on the pathway already, but we have yet to arrive our Eldorado.
If we sustain this alignment, the airport gets busier. More federal roads cut across our 16 LGAs. Health and education funds grow bigger. MSME credit reaches the last woman in the market.
A second term for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu means consolidation, not restart. It means the runway stays busy. The Ijigbo Bridge stays smooth. New bridges, roads, and industries keep coming to Ekiti.
Voting massively for PBAT’s second term is not just politics. It is economics, an investment that’ll pay us well in Ekiti. It is a vote to protect today’s gains and unlock tomorrow’s projects.
It’s our part to play. Government can build the road, and they are.
But we are the ones who must walk the pathway. By protecting public assets. By rejecting pull-down politics. By patronizing Ekiti goods, services, and talent. By telling our story.
Every positive post is an investment pitch. Every visitor is a potential partner. Eldorado will rise from our farms in the North. From our classrooms in the West. From our markets in the South. From our airport in Ado.
The pathway is here. The bridge is open. The runway is live. The centre is aligned.
As we walk with BAO at home, let us back the Renewed Hope of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at the centre for a second term.
By so doing, Ekiti will not just find Eldorado.
Ekiti will become the Eldorado.
Know this, know peace.
Segun Dipe is the Publicity Secretary of All Progressives Congress, APC, in Ekiti State