By Oloroogun Sola Ajisafe
For about three weeks before The Nation reported it on August 1, 2026, residents of Oba-Ile, Shagari, Ijoka, Alagbaka, Oda Road and other parts of Akure had been breathing a persistent and offensive odour, with complaints of headaches, throat irritation and difficulty breathing.
It took another 12 days for the Ondo State Government to respond on August 12. That response told us nothing: “organic compounds in the air” and “a high-powered team has been set up”. No source named. No timeline. No health advisory. No clean up plan. This is not governance. This is lethargy and irresponsiblity.
Best practice in environmental emergencies is clear. NEMA, NESREA and WHO protocols require that the Ministry of Environment Emergency Response Team be on ground within four to six hours. A public safety advisory within 24 hours. Preliminary source identification within 72 hours. Lab results and interim report within five to seven days. Enforcement and remediation within seven to ten days. In Akure, none of this happened. Instead we got silence for weeks, then a vague statement.
We are not unaware that this delay may be due to a deeper problem: most Ministries and Agencies in Ondo State are not funded. Funds are not released by the Ministry of Finance, and critical files lie unattended to on the Governor’s table.
When the machinery of government is starved of funds and paralyzed by bureaucracy, it is the people that suffer first.
Ondo State is not without capacity. We have AAUA, OSUSTECH, UNIMED, Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, and FUTA. We have OAU and EKSU close by. These institutions have departments of Environmental Science, Chemistry and Public Health that should have been activated on day one. The Ministry of Health should have been tracking symptoms. NEMA and other agencies should have been visible.
The failure to deploy this expertise, and to fund those who have it, shows that government is not serious about prevention and the health of its citizens. It is only interested in blackmailing critics and blaming them for every conceivable governace failure.
The question is simple; if this odour had been poisonous or life threatening, how many people would have been affected in five weeks of inaction?
Government must now do what it should have done from the beginning. That is, publish the date the investigative team was constituted and its membership release the so called interim findings, give Akure people a timeline for clean up and a clear health advisory. Release funds to the relevant Ministries and Agencies so they can work.
Accountability is not a favour. It is the duty of government. The era of waiting for media pressure before acting is over or blaming a ” Minister” for lack of governmental action should cease.
Ondo people deserve a government that protects life first, not one that reacts late and speaks empty.
Oloroogun Sola Ajisafe, lawyer, journalist, pro-democracy and human rights activist writes from Akure
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