It Started with Soil: My Awakening in Badagry

I didn’t always know I would become an environmental scientist.

Growing up in Nigeria, I had dreams-yes-but they didn’t always have names. I just knew I wanted to understand the earth and help people. I just didn’t know how the two would connect until the day I found myself in Badagry, holding a soil sample in one hand and watching a quiet health crisis unfold around me.

It began when my supervisor, Professor O. Oshin, called my attention to a news report from Badagry. A rural community along the coast was experiencing a surge in goiter, a swelling of the thyroid gland. Some believed it was because they did not use cup to drink. Others assumed it was medical. But something in me asked a different question:

What if the land was part of the story?

So, we took the initiative to investigate.

Armed with only basic field tools, I began collecting soil and water samples from around wells, cooking areas, and farmlands. The land was calm but it was speaking.

We conducted some basic water parameter testing, pH, temperature, conductivity, and salinity. But we quickly realized that to fully understand what was happening, we would need specialized chemicals and laboratory tools to analyze both soil and water. And more than that, we would also need to test vegetables, local salts, and dietary sources to trace the root causes of the iodine-related illness. The research began to expand faster than our resources could carry it.

With no funding and limited access to materials, we had no choice but to pause and ultimately abort the project. It was one of the hardest things I’ve experienced: having a real environmental question, a passionate team, and real people affected, and yet not being able to finish what we started.

But something had already taken root in me.

That trip to Badagry didn’t just shape my curiosity, it gave me purpose. It showed me the gaps that exist in environmental research and how important it is to ask hard questions, even when you don’t have all the tools to answer them.

It wasn’t just geology. It wasn’t just public health. It was environmental science where land, water, and people meet.

Now, every time I sample groundwater, model discharge zones, or run soil analysis, I think back to Badagry. The field may be different. But the purpose is the same.

Science isn’t separate from society. Sometimes, the soil tells stories we’ve forgotten to hear.

Have you ever started a project you deeply believed in, but couldn’t finish? What did it teach you?

Drop a comment, I’d love to hear your story too.

Until next time,

– Oluwatunmise Akanmu

Environmental Scientist | Geologist