Combing the Akinyele Thickets in Search of PAPs

 

Wednesday and Thursday, 23^rd and 24^th June, 2021 were two days of a kind for some operational staff of the Ibadan Urban Flood Management Project (IUFMP). Not because the Project suddenly hit a jackpot or accomplished its full mandate, but more for the streak of adventure experienced by the concerned staff on both days. This derived from their being co-opted into the arduous but exciting task of combing remote villages and farmlands within the jurisdiction of Akinyele Local Government Area of Ibadan, which have been earmarked for building of dikes for flood control in the metropolis.

The background information is that, building of seventeen (17) dikes had been factored into the IUFMP design as part of the long-term measures to checkmate perennial flooding in Ibadan. The idea behind the dikes is to temporarily hold water flow at the upstream areas of rivers prone to flooding, with a view to curtailing flow level into the metropolis during periods of heavy downpour. The dikes had, therefore, been designed on site-specific basis as a fallout of prior studies on the flow levels of the identified rivers and their tributaries.

But having followed me thus far, you might be wondering, why comb the forests? In search of what? What are PAPs? The answers are not far-fetched. Dikes are concrete structures built on vast expanse of land. In our case, the lands are not what can be classified as no man’s land; they are owned by certain families and individuals who are using them either for residences or farmlands or other means of livelihood. This kind of people are known as Project-Affected Persons (PAPs). And for projects of IUFMP type, such people must be appropriately identified, duly documented and adequately compensated, in order to ensure that the intervention project does not leave them worse than it met them.

In pursuit of this people-centric mission, more hands were co-opted from across other units of the Project to complement our colleagues in the Social Safeguards Unit to effectively cover the vast expanse of areas where the dikes will be located and identify the PAPs. Four (4) teams were raised, each assigned to a couple of locations. Each team was made up of the relevant professionals, especially surveyors who have the expertise to pinpoint the stretch of lands to be covered by the intervention.

And so the mission took off. From Ibitunde to Idi-Iroko, Akinboro to Aba Otun Eleshin, Apete (Life Forte) to Arulogun, Akinlegbe to Akingbola and more, it was a traverse of vast expanses in the thick bushes and virgin forests dotted by patches of arable farmlands and century-old cash crops such as kola trees, cocoa, palm trees, among others. As our 4-Wheel Drive trucks trudged through the dusty village roads, trees and bushes formed massive umbrella-like shapes along the road, providing cool shades to pedestrians and commuters alike. Aside the occasional fears of possible security breaches for which the remote parts of Akinyele have become notorious, one could easily describe the outing as a return to nature!

It is gratifying that the exercise was not in vain, as it threw up a good cache of PAPs who, though had initial reservations about the intervention, subsequently became convinced about the loftiness and laudability of the works and promised to fully cooperate with the implementers towards ensuring its successful execution. This was even more so that they realized that it would amount to having some government presence in their locales, despite the remoteness of the places.