By In Ara community, Osun State, the throne speaks and the throne is tired. HRM (DR) Oba Olubayo Adesola has given voice to what many residents already feel in the dark, quite literally. His community, he says, has done its part. People turned out to vote, showed up for civic duties, played by the rules of democratic participation. What they have not received in return is the presence of their own government.
The blackout is not new, but the King’s frustration seems to be growing sharper. Electricity, he notes, remains a struggle, leaving Ara in a kind of development limbo while other communities move forward.
But power lines are only part of the story. The palace also pointed to a school that stands without teachers, a building with the shape of education but none of its substance. Children show up, perhaps out of habit or hope, to classrooms that cannot fully function.
Healthcare fares no better. Residents describe a local medical facility too limited to meet basic needs, forcing many to make difficult choices when illness strikes and options are scarce.
The monarch’s message reads less like a complaint and more like a appeal. Ara has honored its side of the civic bargain. Now it wants government to honor its own.
