The abandoned federal hospitals in Oyo State

IN a country where health facilities are grossly inadequate and where the doctor-to-patient ratio is as low as a doctor to over 9000 patients, it sounds very strange that health facilities built by public-spirited individuals and handed over to the Federal Government have been left to rot, but that is precisely the case in Oyo State. In one terrible case, the Federal Government’s 80-bed Mother and Child Specialist Hospital in Pakiotan, Ogbomoso North Local Government Area of Oyo State, has suffered extensive vandalism at the hands of criminals, having never been put to use since its inauguration. The facility equipped with beds, drugs, laboratory tools, and other essential medical supplies was facilitated by former Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Sunday Dare, and inaugurated on May 27, 2023. Envisioned as a vital urban health centre, it was handed over to the Federal Ministry of Health through the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan.

Leading journalists on a tour of the vandalised facility recently, the traditional ruler of the community, the Onipakiotan of Pakiotan, Oba James Ojo, said: “This infrastructure was meant to serve our people. Its destruction is a serious concern and demands urgent action. We must ensure that those who willfully destroy or vandalise public property are held accountable. As the saying goes, offenders must be brought to book or the book brought to them. There’s no security presence, and no operations have begun. Recently, we noticed signs of intrusion. However, non-utilization is no excuse for criminality. The fact that the hospital hasn’t started operations does not justify the looting and destruction. It’s a painful loss for the entire community.” As the king recalled, some cables had been vandalised and replaced by Dare even before the hospital’s inauguration, but the latest damage is mind-boggling. Oba Ojo urged the Federal Ministry of Health to either activate the hospital immediately or hand it over to the community for proper management. He was joined in that call by the Chairman of Ogbomoso North Local Government, Ogunlade Gbadegesin. Said the chairman: “So many valuable medical items have been looted, and others are at risk. We will engage security personnel to protect what remains until the hospital is finally put to use. When one of Dare’s aides joined us for inspection, we were shocked to find that all the cables, 150 solar batteries, electrical appliances, ceiling fans, and other valuables had been stripped.”

But the hospital in Pakiotan is not an isolated case. The 100-bed Muhammadu Buhari Mother-Child Hospital located in Abonde community in Ona Ara Local Government Area of Ibadan, Oyo State, is similarly in a state of disuse. It has remained under lock and key since it was inaugurated in 2023. The hospital is one of the Mother and Child hospitals approved for the six geo-political zones in the country by the Muhammadu Buhari administration. As a mark of the importance attached to the facility then, it was in fact inaugurated with fanfare by the then Vice President Yemi Osinbajo. A former Senate leader, Teslim Folarin, reportedly facilitated its location in Ibadan. The two-storey hospital with four blocks of eight flats for resident doctors is said to be equipped with state-of-art equipment comparable to the standard of any other teaching hospital in the country. The hospital has 159 KVA Solar mini grid to prevent cases of epileptic power supply, just as there are modern communication gadgets, air-conditioned consultation rooms, private and general wards.

It is indeed distressing that hospitals built to address maternal mortality, taking their inspiration from similar facilities built by the Olusegun Mimiko administration in Ondo State as part of a system that received global acclaim, have been left to rot while residents of the communities they are meant to serve are in dire need of their services. As their name implies, the Mother and Child hospitals were established to address Nigeria’s high mother-child mortality rate. In addition, they were aimed at making health care accessible to people in the outer local government areas of Ibadan. It is a tragedy that the purpose is not being served. In a country battling with generally poor access to healthcare, it is befuddling that fully equipped federal health centres in Oyo State remain under lock and key. Even more disturbing is the fact that criminals now exploit this negligence, invading and ransacking the hospitals. Sadly, one of the greatest tragedies of governance in Nigeria is the tendency to invest heavily in public projects, only to abandon them subsequently. The federal hospitals in Oyo State have become a painful reminder of governmental irresponsibility. What should be centres of healing are left to rot while ordinary citizens in desperate need of medical care, continue to suffer from and die of preventable illnesses.

Billions of naira went into equipping these facilities, yet they serve no one. Instead, patients are crowded into overstretched hospitals where hospital staff battle to cope with surging crowds. This is not merely an administrative lapse; it is a betrayal of the people’s right to healthcare. When life-saving equipment is allowed to gather dust in sealed buildings, the government sends a dangerous message, namely that the welfare of citizens is not its priority. Indeed, nothing illustrates governmental negligence more starkly than the sight of deserted hospitals. For how long will the hospitals languish in abandonment?

If the Federal Government cannot run these hospitals, it should hand them over to the Oyo State government. This shameful neglect cannot be tolerated any longer.

READ ALSO: Nigeria’s federal hospitals face crisis as health workers leave for greener pastures