Thread by @toluogunlesi

I’m interested in how #Infrastructure transforms places. The village of Ore (“a collection of motley huts”) ’blew’ because someone decided, in the 1970s or so, that the new major Highway linking Lagos/Ibadan to Benin would pass through it. (The Old Road passed elsewhere)

The Old Road to Benin: Ibadan-Ife-Ilesha-Akure-Owo-Agbanikaka-Benin.

Then a new one was built: Sagamu-Ore-Ofosu-Benin Expressway.

That’s how Ore landed the chance to become a Transport and Commerce hub.

Time and Chance. But #Infrastructure made it possible.

In my traveling around Nigeria following ongoing Infrastructure projects - I can’t help imagining just how much things will change in the years ahead. Nigeria’s landscape will be redrawn in fascinating ways. New hubs will ‘blow’, new habits will follow new infrastructure.

The new Western Railway Line runs through ‘villages’ like Papalanto & Kajola in Ogun State. Imagine what those places will become a decade from now. Papalanto will be well under an hour from Lagos by train, and minutes from Abeokuta by car. Already land prices there skyrocketing.

On Monday I sat in an airconditioned coach on the #ItakpeWarriRail Line for about five hours, cutting a path through endless miles of ‘bush’ & ‘invisible’ villages with forgettable names. Half the time spent hunting for mobile network.

But not for long. Change is coming bigly.

For now most people don’t know Kashimbila. A town in Taraba where a Dam & 40MW hydro Plant have just been completed. Kashimbila has every potential to be a tourist hub - & it’s only a matter of time. Keep in mind it’s in Taraba; offering one of Nigeria’s prettiest landscapes.

Nnamdi Azikiwe and Odumegwu Ojuwku were both born in a town called Zungeru, in today’s Niger State.

Worth wondering if their parents would have been there working and living had Zungeru not been fortunate to be on the narrow gauge rail route that runs from Lagos—Kano.