Ondo at 50: Burden of Governance and Unrealised Potential

Fidelis David reports that by any historical measure, Ondo State at 50 is a paradox of promise and paradox of performance, a land richly endowed by nature and history, yet still wrestling with the burdens of governance, uneven development and unrealised potential.

The jamboree, glamour and high-powered ceremonies of Ondo State’s 50th anniversary have come and gone. The speeches have been delivered, the drums have been beaten, the fireworks have faded, the music has gone silent and the dignitaries have returned to Abuja, Lagos, Ibadan and other places. What remains is a deeper question that cannot be masked by pageantry: what has five decades of statehood truly delivered for the Sunshine State and its people?

From its birth in 1976 out of the old Western State, Ondo was conceived as a political answer to a people’s demand for dignity, identity and proximity to power. The agitation led by the Ondo Provincial Movement under Chief G.B.A. Akinyede and his contemporaries was not about cartography but about control of destiny. Their success affirmed Ondo as a moral and intellectual project, not just a geographical one.

Long before statehood, Ondo Province was an economic nerve centre of the Western Region. Cocoa, palm produce and timber from its soil financed regional structures such as Cocoa House in Ibadan. That productive heritage translated into a culture that prized education, discipline and public service.

This intellectual DNA was echoed by Prof. Taiwo Oyedele in his Golden Jubilee lecture in Akure titled “Ondo State: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow – Agenda Setting for the Next 50 Years” when he described Ondo as “a deliberate creation rooted in a rich heritage of culture, exceptional intellect, and unwavering courage.” He reminded the audience that the founding vision placed education at the centre of development, noting that Ondo once earned the reputation of having “the highest concentration of educated elites in Nigeria.”

That tradition produced figures who shaped Nigeria’s political, legal, economic and cultural life, from Chief Adekunle Ajasin and Chief Adebayo Adefarati in governance, to Gani Fawehinmi and Akinola Aguda in law, Joseph Sanusi in finance, and cultural exports like King Sunny Ade, Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde and Mo Abudu. Ondo became not only a state but a supplier of national excellence.

President Bola Tinubu, represented by the Minister of Interior, Dr. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, acknowledged this civic pedigree. He commended Ondo citizens for their “resilience, industriousness and civic responsibility,” noting their disciplined participation in the last general elections. “Every citizen counts, and every voice matters,” the President said, framing Ondo’s democratic culture as part of its national contribution.

Recent administrations have also expanded roads, schools, hospitals and security frameworks, while the current government’s five-point agenda on security, infrastructure, economic diversification, human capital and transparent governance seeks to consolidate gains.

Yet Ondo’s story is also one of arrested promise. Despite vast endowments in oil, gas, bitumen, forests and coastline, the state remains fiscally dependent on federal allocation. Industrialisation has been fragmented, lacking the scale to absorb labour or drive exports.

Infrastructure development has been uneven. While highways link major towns, many rural communities remain isolated, and public transport systems are weak. Education and healthcare, once proud symbols of Western Region governance now struggle with underfunding and manpower gaps.

Youth unemployment remains one of the state’s gravest burdens. Ondo produces graduates faster than it produces opportunities. Migration to Lagos and abroad has become a silent development policy.

Even Prof. Oyedele, while praising Ondo’s human capital investment, warned that reforms must deepen. Though the state ranks favourably in poverty reduction and fiscal transparency, he noted that Ondo still lags in ease of doing business. “This is an opportunity,” he said, “to set a target to be among the top five states in Nigeria within five years.”

Perhaps the ugliest contradiction lies in Ondo’s oil-bearing communities. In Ilaje and Ese-Odo, crude flows, but poverty remains entrenched. Environmental degradation persists alongside weak infrastructure, making resource wealth a source of grievance rather than prosperity.

It is this contradiction that drew scathing criticism from rights activist and former presidential candidate, Omoyele Sowore, who dismissed the Golden Jubilee celebrations as hollow. “Ondo @50 has been reduced to little more than spectacle and fluff under Hon. Lucky Orimisan Aiyedatiwa’s watch,” Sowore declared.

“There are no refurbished schools to showcase, no bridges built, no completed roads to commission, no hospitals to open, and no concrete security achievements to speak of except Amotekun commander shooting at his men. Instead of milestones, citizens are offered pageantry; instead of progress, some physical dance performance.

“At 50, Ondo State is not marking development or renewal, but merely dancing around its own stagnation while thuggery thrives and governance remains conspicuously absent,” Sowore concluded.

Politically, Ondo has endured periods of instability, impeachments, succession crises and abrupt policy reversals that stalled long-term planning. Development has too often been reduced to short-term projects rather than enduring systems.

Corruption and abandoned projects have further eroded trust. Each incomplete hospital or half-built road stands as a monument to squandered opportunity.

President Tinubu’s message framed the jubilee as “not only a celebration of the past but a vision for the future.” He pointed to agriculture, education, technology, tourism and the blue economy as sectors where Ondo could excel, pledging federal support under the Renewed Hope Agenda.

Addressing the youth, the President described them as “the architects of the next fifty years,” urging them to drive innovation and civic responsibility. His words underscored a central truth: Ondo’s future will be shaped less by its soil than by its systems.

Oyedele echoed this in his personal reflection, recalling how a N500 village scholarship enabled his secondary education decades ago. That story, he said, illustrated Ondo’s true strength community investment and shared upliftment. He challenged the state to move from subsistence agriculture to agro-industrial processing, from raw bitumen to refined value chains, and from analogue governance to digital efficiency.

If Ondo’s first 50 years were about survival and identity, the next must be about systems and scale. Economic diversification must be real cocoa into chocolate, bitumen into industrial parks, coastline into a blue economy hub. Human capital must translate into enterprise. Oil communities must receive justice, not just derivation.

Youth empowerment must move beyond token programmes to sustainable industry-backed innovation hubs. Governance must outlive administrations, anchored in continuity, transparency and digital delivery.

As Oyedele concluded, the next phase demands “audacious vision, meticulous planning and disciplined execution.” And as President Tinubu pledged, the Federal Government will stand as partner, not spectator.

The question, however, remains: will Ondo finally turn memory into machinery and promise into prosperity? If it does, Ondo @ 100 will not merely be a celebration.