Abuja Breathes Again: The Woman, the Movement, and the Clean Air Revolution in Nigeria

Abdulrahman Aliagan

When Dr. Adedolapo Fasawe walks into a room, she does not simply appear—she transforms the atmosphere. Her presence radiates the warmth of empathy and the precision of a scientist, the firmness of a reformer and the compassion of a healer.

A physician by training and an environmental strategist by destiny, Dr. Fasawe—now the Mandate Secretary of the FCT Health and Environment Secretariat—embodies a philosophy that has become the soul of a national awakening: environment is life. When it fails, healthcare fails. When it collapses, society collapses. And when it is ignored, hope itself begins to suffocate.

This conviction led to one of Nigeria’s most ambitious public health and environmental transformations: Project Breathe Clean Air Abuja. The movement did not begin in a boardroom but with a simple domestic discomfort—a father inhaling the sharp fumes of charcoal incense inside his Abuja home. If something so small irritated him, what of the millions of Nigerian women who inhale dense smoke while cooking?

What of infants strapped to their mothers’ backs, inhaling toxins before they speak their first words? That relatable discomfort inspired a far-reaching realization about Nigeria’s hidden epidemic: household air pollution, the silent killer in smoky kitchens across the country.

This realization converged at the newly unveiled Bola Ahmed Tinubu International Conference Centre in Abuja, where the Federal Capital Territory Administration, under the leadership of Minister Nyesom Ezenwo Wike and supported by the political vision of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, launched a historic clean-cooking and clean-air transition initiative.

The programme, powered by the strong partnership of IHS Nigeria, immediately stood out not as another government pronouncement but as a turning point in Nigeria’s fight against respiratory diseases, environmental degradation, rising cancer prevalence, poverty induced by energy costs, and the gender inequities long embedded in traditional cooking methods.

To understand the fire behind this movement, one must trace Dr. Fasawe’s path back to Ile-Ife, where she was raised under the gentle firmness of a mother whose discipline shaped her academic and moral foundation. Her journey through Obafemi Awolowo University Staff School, Federal Government Girls College Ido-Ani and Obafemi Awolowo University—where she earned her MBBS with distinction—instilled her with the excellence, order and empathy that now define her leadership.

Further studies at Lagos State University, the Liverpool School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, King’s College London, and the University of Cambridge expanded her mastery of public health, international health consultancy, mental health, and circular economy strategies.

As a young clinician, she discovered that most patients in the hospital suffered not from unavoidable ailments but from preventable conditions created by failing environments. This insight compelled her to step beyond hospital walls into the broader arena where health and environment intersect.

Her transformative leadership in Lagos, especially at LASEPA, turned environmental regulation into a people-centered movement, proving that waste could become wealth, that data could become policy, and that public health could not exist without environmental justice. Today, she brings that clarity, courage and innovation to the FCT.

The launch of Project Breathe Clean Air Abuja unfolded as a national spectacle of urgency and hope. The FCTA announced its plan to distribute 5,000 LPG cylinders—each accompanied by six months of free refills—to households across the six area councils. This initiative, designed to replace firewood and charcoal with safer alternatives, aims to combat the staggering reality that over 120 million Nigerians still rely on smoky biomass fuels.

The World Health Organization estimates that 3.2 million people die annually from household air pollution, with Nigerian women and children carrying the heaviest burden. Against this grim backdrop, the launch became a declaration that Nigeria is done cooking with death.

FCT Minister Nyesom Wike’s political will elevated the initiative from a concept to a coordinated intervention. His support aligned the programme with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, which prioritizes environmental sustainability, improved living standards, and energy transition.

The Permanent Secretary of the FCT Health Services and Environment Secretariat, Dr. Babayena Adams, underscored the economic implications, affirming that healthier households are more productive and that environmental protection directly strengthens the FCT’s GDP. He emphasized that beneficiary selection covered women, men, persons with disabilities and vulnerable groups, ensuring inclusivity and fairness.

From the private sector came a powerful reinforcement. Mohammed Darwish, the CEO of IHS Nigeria, described the initiative as life-changing, particularly for the women and children constantly exposed to toxic kitchen smoke. He reminded the audience that beyond the cylinders lies the real value: helping families breathe again and escape the silent dangers of traditional cooking fuels. His colleague, Ayotade Oyinlola, Executive Vice-President of IHS Nigeria, highlighted the economic relief the programme would bring, as cleaner cooking dramatically reduces medical expenses and improves overall household well-being.

Medical experts deepened the urgency. Dr. Ayuba Usman, Consultant Radiation and Clinical Oncologist at the National Hospital Abuja, warned that clean cooking is one of the most effective preventive interventions against respiratory diseases and cancer.

His insights echoed the critical question raised by cancer prevention specialist Dr. Ramatu Usman: Why are more women who never smoked dying from lung cancer? The answer, she said, is found not in cigarettes but in smoky kitchens where firewood burns daily. With cancer treatment costing as much as ₦7 million monthly, prevention becomes not only lifesaving but economically essential.

The National Assembly’s presence at the event transformed the project from aspiration to policy. Hon. Dr. M. A. Oriyan, Chairman of the House Ad-hoc Committee on FCT Health, issued a directive that reverberated across the hall: the 2026 national budget must not be presented without provisions for this programme. With that pronouncement, clean air moved from advocacy to legislation, from speech to enforceable national agenda.

As environmental groups, development partners, student associations and community-based organisations applauded the initiative, a moment of pure hope emerged when a child poet, Isabella, took the stage. Her soft but resolute voice carried a message that captured the soul of the movement: “Abuja, our hope will breathe again—free from smoke, free from pain.” The hall erupted. In her youthful words, the future found its innocence—and its courage.

The climax of the event came when LPG cylinders were handed to women from all six area councils, symbolizing not just distribution but liberation: liberation from respiratory disease, from economic strain, from deforestation-driven environmental decline, and from generations of smoky kitchens. It marked the beginning of what promises to be one of the most transformative clean-energy interventions in modern Abuja.

Yet, despite the scale of the celebration, Dr. Fasawe remains grounded. She continues to mentor young women, uplift communities, and preach the values of recycling, sustainability and environmental stewardship. Her belief that “everybody’s waste is somebody’s raw material” reflects a worldview that sees potential where others see problems, and solutions where others see obstacles.

The vision ahead is bold: a Nigeria where every household cooks safely; where children breathe clean air without fear; where environmental education becomes instinctive; where green corridors shape cities; where waste becomes industry; and where clean energy is accessible to all. But Dr. Fasawe warns that environment has no boundaries. If Abuja succeeds and Nasarawa fails, she says, the nation has not won. Clean air must spread from the FCT to all 36 states.

Today, Abuja stands not only as the political capital of Nigeria but as a rising Environmental Capital of Africa—an emerging model of modern public policy, compassionate leadership and sustainable innovation. At the heart of this transformation stands a woman who treats not only the human body, but the breathing soul of a city; a leader who understands that the fight for clean air is the fight for life itself.

Nigeria is breathing again. Abuja is leading. And the future—at last—smells clean.

*Aliagan wrote in from Abuja.