For Faustina Onyenwe, January 2025 nearly ended in tragedy. Her three-year-old daughter had been vomiting uncontrollably, and in desperation, she rushed her to the nearest primary healthcare centre (PHC) in Bwari, Abuja.
By the time they arrived, the child had been weak and barely responsive. The only nurse on duty assessed the child but delayed treatment for nearly 20 minutes.
The facility didn’t have intravenous fluid, which was urgently needed.
“I thought my child had already died,” Onyenwe said.
“The health centre did not have all they needed to administer care and I was asked to wait. I wanted to rush her to a general hospital but it was a bit far. I was afraid as I watched my child get weaker and weaker,” she said.
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“It was just God who intervened in the situation that day,” she added.
For Clara Nweze, the outcome of seeking care at a public hospital has been far more devastating. A mother of two residing in Lugbe, Abuja, she felt persistent pain in one of her breasts for weeks and visited a general hospital.
After a scan and examination, the doctor told her it was an infection and handed her a prescription, but the pain persisted for several weeks. When Nweze could no longer bear it, she sought help at a private hospital. The test revealed stage two breast cancer, and her world came crashing.
“I was in shock. The first hospital misdiagnosed me, otherwise my situation wouldn’t have got this worse,” she recounted.
Clara and Faustina’s experiences mirror those of thousands navigating the country’s overburdened public health system. The experience of patients seeking care is often one of waiting, frustration, and emotional exhaustion.
The complaints have remained consistent: long waiting times, lack of equipment or outdated equipment, overstretched facilities, rude staff, and medical negligence. Specialist departments in some hospitals have practically turned into ghost towns due to the exodus of trained professionals.
Lack of drugs
In 2023, a woman, Nneamaka, lost her four-month-old pregnancy at Iboko, a small town in Izzi Local Government Area of Ebonyi State, due to a lack of basic drugs by a primary healthcare centre.
Though her town did not have a primary health centre, she managed to visit one at a neighbouring town named Okpoduma. Yet, essential medicines for a pregnant woman were lacking.
Drugs such as Paracetamol were not on the shelves and no doctor attended to her – only nurses.
“I lost my child because I did not get the adequate medical attention I needed, she said.
At Ndingele Primary Healthcare Centre, also in Ebonyi State, only one nurse was on duty. Oxytocin, used in inducing contraction in pregnant mothers during labour, was absent.
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Alleged negligence
Last month, a video surfaced online where a man was heard lamenting that he rushed some accident victims to the accident and emergency unit of the Federal Medical Centre, Abuja, but the staff were indifferent and slow in attending to them.
Some medical personnel said they didn’t have hand gloves, but he alleged that he had spent 15 minutes despite the emergency situation.
Lack of equipment
The federal government boasts 40,184 health facilities. Of these, 31,815 (79.17 percent) are primary health facilities, while 8,128 (20.22 percent) are secondary facilities.
The remaining 241 (0.59 percent) are tertiary health facilities, according to data from Federal Ministry of Health.
A 2023 National Health Facility Survey (NHFS) found that merely 29.9 percent of public primary health centres had the basic functional medical equipment needed such as weighing scales, thermometers, stethoscopes, and BP apparatus.
Aisha Wada, a retired nurse at the FMC Keffi, Nasarawa State, recounted that until her retirement in early 2025, nurses still used torchlights to attend to patients, including during delivery. She also narrated how the lack of bed spaces forced patients to sleep on the floor sometimes.
“Sometimes you see patients lying on mats or floor because of lack of beds. And yes, nurses still use torchlights even in operating rooms,” she said.
In rural areas, the situation is worse. PHCs often lack electricity, running water, and even chairs.
According to the State of Health of the Nation Report 2024, about 53 percent of respondents did not believe the nation’s health system had improved over the past two years. Only 19 percent of respondents felt that the current health system worked ‘pretty well,’ with only minor changes needed. About 27 percent said the health system needed to be completely rebuilt.
Doctors speak
A resident doctor in Bwari General Hospital said, “We don’t enjoy seeing patients suffer, but when the theatre has no power or you have to delay surgery because there’s no oxygen, you begin to question what you’re even doing here.”
Another doctor, who attends to patients in a general hospital and PHC in Ondo State, said: “Unless the government takes the issue of healthcare funding seriously, we are not going anywhere.”
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Healthcare funding
The federal government allocated N1.34 trillion to the health sector in the 2024 budget, representing 4.6 percent of the total budget of N28.77 trillion. The figure rose to N2.48 trillion in 2025, representing 5.18 percent of the total national budget.
At the state level, the State of Health report shows that budget allocations varied significantly, with only three states (Abia, Kaduna and Kano) allocating more than 15 percent of their total budget to health, eight states allocating between 10 percent and 15 percent, while the remaining states fell short.
Vietnam, an emerging market peer, allocated over $23 billion to healthcare, representing about 15 percent of the nation’s GDP, not just total budget.
Lack of policy implementation
In a bid to make its healthcare facilities run better, the federal government had, in August 2024, awarded 50 percent electricity subsidy to public hospitals. But a communique published in May by the Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria revealed that this policy had not been implemented as at that time.
Power cuts
By the first quarter (Q1) of 2025, nearly all of Nigeria’s 73 federal health institutions experienced severe power outages, driven by their inability to meet financial obligations to electricity distribution companies (DisCos).
This also raises concerns about the government’s commitment to salvaging the situation.
Health funding has seen some increase in recent years, but is yet to translate to improved healthcare for the average Nigerian.
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Philip Ekpke, former chairman of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) FCT chapter, said the health sector needs more funding. According to him, if the government can implement mandatory health insurance, there will be significant funds in the healthcare sector.
Olayinka Oladimeji, former director, primary healthcare systems development at the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, explained that healthcare facilities lacking essential medicines cannot deliver quality care.
“If you go to a healthcare facility without essential medicines, what kind of care would you get? They can only provide sub-optimal care. The lack of essential medicines reduces healthcare facilities to mere consulting centres,” he said.
