When Suliat Oyetunji went into labour, the health facility closest to her home in Oore, a village near Iragbiji in Osun State’s Boripe Local Government Area, could not provide the care she needed.
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For months, she had struggled to access reliable antenatal care at the Oore Primary Healthcare Centre (PHC). Health workers, she said, were rarely available whenever she visited, leaving her to seek medical attention in Iragbiji, a town about four kilometres away.
When the time came to be delivered of her set of twins, there was no dependable care at the facility. She eventually gave birth at home.
“Whenever I went to the PHC, nurses were not always available,” she told DevReporting.
Her experience points to a troubling reality for residents of Oore where having a health centre does not necessarily mean having access to healthcare. When DevReporting visited the facility, it was locked up.
Oyetunji Suliat, Oore
Across Osun, similar concerns emerged in communities DevReporting visited. Yet, between January 2025 and June 2026, the state’s 30 local government areas received more than N238 billion in allocations.
During the period under review, Boripe LGA received N8.41 billion, averaging about N467 million monthly. Ife East received the highest allocation, totalling N9.56 billion, while Ifelodun received N6.53 billion.
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Despite the billions of naira allocated during the period under review, residents in several communities continue to decry deteriorating basic amenities. Some have resorted to providing or repairing basic infrastructure themselves, while others struggle to access essential services.
An exterior part of the Irepodun Local Government Secretariat
Like Oore, like Okebode
At Okebode in Atakunmosa West LGA, the challenges facing the Abebi Afilaka Health Centre include drug shortages, inadequate personnel, and unreliable electricity. Ayoola Odunayo, a healthcare worker at the facility, lamented the difficulties staff members encounter when attending to pregnant women, particularly during childbirth.
“In fact, we use the flashlight of our phones to deliver pregnant women because there is no power supply,” she said. “We also do not have the necessary equipment or drugs. In addition, we need more beds for our patients.”
The secretary of the Okebode palace, Adebowale Adeorike, said a community indigene paid for the repair of the maternity centre after a storm damaged it in 2019.
“When it happened, we wrote to the government requesting assistance, but all we received were promises. Nothing was done,” she said.
The indigene, he said, later renamed the facility Abebi Afilaka Maternity Centre after his mother.
In Olugunna, Osogbo LGA, Folasade Adeleke said residents had lost confidence in their local health centre because of drug shortages and the absence of qualified personnel.
“This health centre is not a health centre. They cannot administer medications to our children if we take them there for treatment,” she said.
Ms Adeleke, who said she had lived in the community for more than 35 years, added that none of her children was delivered at the facility because residents no longer considered it a reliable option for maternal care.
Roads that leave communities stranded
For residents of Odofin, a community in Ifelodun LGA, rainfall can bring everyday movement to a halt.
Sulaiman Adeyemi, who has lived in the community since 2002, said the absence of proper drainage makes the road vulnerable to flooding.
“There is no drainage in this community. That’s why floods take over the road. Whenever it rains, vehicular movement stops for the flash floods to wash away,” he said, adding, “Only community efforts of sand-filling the road have kept it in this shape”.
He recalled that the road connecting Odofun to Inisa, a community in Odo-Otin LGA, was last repaired over 15 years ago, when former council chairman Bola Ajao intervened.
“There are big houses down the road, but bad roads have forced many residents and property owners out,” he said.
A segment of road in Arinkinkin area of Ilobu
Isa Afolabi, a commercial motorcyclist, said the community’s difficulties extend beyond roads to water supply, electricity and access to healthcare.
With limited public intervention, residents have also had to contribute money to replace stolen electricity cables. The community, he added, has no public health centre and depends on private facilities for medical care.
In Ikire, Irewole LGA, Oni Oluwaseyi said floodwater swept away a bridge on a road linking the high court area to Apomu in the town, leaving it in poor condition and forcing farmers to take longer routes to transport their produce to market.
Isa Afolabi, motorcycle rider at Odofun
“If the government can fix this road that links Apomu to Ikire, this area will rapidly develop,” he said.
In Ilobu, the headquarters of Irepodun LGA, Taiwo Ishola, who has lived in the Konda area of the town for more than 40 years, said the community has remained in poor condition for over a decade, with rainfall worsening the situation and exposing properties to flooding.
“Whenever it rains, we are not able to use the road, and the bridge is also bad. When it rains, it destroys people’s properties,” he said.
Schools struggling to keep pupils
The difficulties extend to public education, where some communities say inadequate staffing and deteriorating facilities are undermining children’s access to learning. Our reporters also found public schools littered with faeces and dirt.
At Oore village, DevReporting observed that the only public school had recently been renovated but continued to face a shortage of teachers.
The Baale of Oore, Adekunle Mudashiru, said the community’s renovated school lacked enough teachers to cater for its pupils.
“We have only one teacher in the school who is also the headmaster. We need at least five teachers,” he said.
According to him, Oore has about 1,200 residents, while the school previously had approximately 120 pupils. However, some parents have withdrawn their children and enrolled them in private schools because of the shortage of teachers.
Omotayo Timilehin, a former pupil of the school, said the absence of basic learning facilities made it difficult for him to continue his education there. His parents eventually transferred him to a school in town, about 10 miles away.
In Abiri-Ikoyi, Isokan LGA, the condition of CAC Primary School has also raised concerns among residents. Tajudeen Olowookere, who finished from the school in 1999, said its condition had deteriorated considerably.
An abanoned classroom in Cummunity primary school, Oore
“This school was beautiful before I graduated in 1999, but the situation on the ground now is worrisome. I feel really bad. From the building you see, you cannot say this is a school now,” he said, appealing to the government to rehabilitate the school so pupils can learn in a conducive environment.
The Odofin of Ikoyi land, Adejare Abdulfatai, also decried the bad state of public schools in the community, saying many are roofless and dilapidated. He appealed to the government to come to their aid.
The situation is the same at Okebode, where residents said the community’s primary and secondary schools are also struggling with shortages of government-employed teachers.
Other irregularities
Beyond roads, healthcare and education, access to clean and reliable water remains a concern in several communities visited by DevReporting.
In Ikoyi, Ajisafe Abdulafeez said the town had not had public water supply since 2010. For years, residents have depended on wells, streams and boreholes provided through community efforts to meet their water needs.
He added that some communities in the area had also gone without electricity for two years.
At Okebode, Mrs Adeorike said a government water project had stopped functioning, forcing the community and its traditional ruler to provide an alternative.
The consequences of failing water infrastructure are also evident in local markets, where traders and customers struggle with inadequate public toilets.
Adetomiwa Bolanle, the Iyaloja of Oba Oyegunle Market in Ikire, said the market’s public water system no longer functioned properly, while its public toilet had stopped working.
“The toilet that the government made for us no longer works. There are no general toilet facilities in this market, and that’s not fair enough,” she said.
Some traders have made private arrangements to access water, but these are insufficient to meet the needs of the wider market, DevReporting gathered.
Adesokan Adeola, a trader at Obada market in Ikire, said: “People who need to defecate in this market will have to go to their houses or neighbouring houses to do so,” adding that some resort to a nearby landfill.
“The market’s access road also needs reconstruction and widening,” she added.
For traders, these infrastructure problems exist alongside declining sales and financial pressures. Mrs Adesokan, who sells textile materials, said she had diversified into other goods because of low demand.
“I sell textile materials, but I now also sell salt and condiments to prevent hunger. Everyone is complaining that there’s no money,” she said.
She recalled a time when increased commercial activity in the market provided an informal indication that public workers had received their salaries or that government allocations had arrived. That pattern, she said, had changed.
Meanwhile, the Babaloja of Olobu market, Azeez Ajagbe, said roads within the market had been washed away by floods, while public toilets and water facilities were inadequate.
BudgIT reveals gaps
The concerns raised by residents are reflected in findings by BudgIT, a civic organisation that monitors public spending and service delivery.
Between January and June 2026, the organisation tracked 28 primary healthcare centres across 10 LGAs in the state. None of the facilities met all the standard benchmarks.
Joshua Osiyemi, Head of Tracka at BudgIT, said only one of the 28 facilities had an ambulance, three had laboratories, and just four had doctors. 12 had functioning water facilities.
Mr Osiyemi said the findings were particularly concerning given the increased funding available to primary healthcare facilities through the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF). According to him, funding had increased from about ₦300,000 to ₦600,000, while facilities with high patient volumes received approximately N800,000 quarterly.
Iyaloja of Ikire Market
“These are monies that should go into more service delivery, more improvement in terms of the quality of healthcare that you get,” he said.
BudgIT’s monitoring of school projects also raised questions about project delivery. Of the 13 projects monitored, eight had been completed, two were ongoing, and two had not been carried out. The organisation also reported a case in which payment had been made for the construction of a school pit latrine, but the facility had not been built.
Mr Osiyemi said BudgIT had submitted a Freedom of Information (FoI) request to the Osun State Government seeking an explanation for the project, but had yet to receive a response at the time of the interview.
Beyond the projects tracked, he said the organisation had found schools without roofs or furniture, with some pupils still sitting on the floor to learn.
Background
Beyond the service-delivery gaps identified by residents and monitoring organisations, local government administration in Osun has been hampered by a prolonged political and legal crisis over who controls the councils and their finances.
The dispute dates back to the local government election held on 15 October 2022, which produced APC chairmen and councillors across the state. The Federal High Court in Osogbo subsequently nullified the election, ruling that it contravened Sections 29 and 32 of the Electoral Act 2022.