Eat your apples, kids!
Nigerian hospitals are running without electricity
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- Margaret
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Let’s get into today’s edition:
Nigerian hospitals are running without electricity
Trump’s food aid is back…kinda
The Big Deal
Nigerian hospitals are running without electricity
If an apple a day keeps the doctor away, you might need a whole basket if you live in Nigeria, where doctors work in hospitals without electricity.
This story may be getting to you now, but it didn’t start today. It began on October 26, 2024, when the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC) cut off the power supply to the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, over an unpaid electricity bill of about ₦400 million, a fraction of the hospital’s total ₦3.1 billion debt owed IBEDC, which has been piling up since 2019.
The teaching hospital remained without electricity for 102 days before the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, finally decided to step in. After a closed-door meeting between Adelabu, the electricity distribution company, and the teaching hospital, on February 11, IBEDC agreed to restore electricity to some parts of the hospital within 24-48 hours.
Why is this a big deal?
You’d think the power outage in UCH lasted 102 days because nobody cared but that’s not the case. In November 2024, the families of UCH patients organised a protest to amplify the issue. Some of them said they were tired of watching their loved ones suffer or die because of the unnecessary power outage in the hospital. Other eyewitnesses added that some UCH doctors had to perform serious medical procedures in the dark because they had no choice.
Months after the first protests, medical students who are supposed to be training to become doctors had to organize a separate protest on February 10 before the federal government finally intervened.
Even though UCH has gotten a temporary fix, it’s just one of several other hospitals running without electricity in Nigeria. Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), for instance, also has a history of power outages. Even primary healthcare centres in the country’s capital city, Abuja, are not free from the chokehold of poor power supply.
Just last week, popular medical doctor Chinonso Egemba tweeted that families of patients in Nigerian hospitals were allegedly bringing generators to a teaching hospital (which he chose not to name) so their loved ones could receive treatment. While Nigerian authorities haven’t confirmed this claim, many social media users have shared similar experiences, some dating back to 2022.
It makes you wonder why only 5.18% of the 2025 budget was allocated to the health sector, even though Nigeria made a commitment to spend at least 15% of its national budget on the health of its citizens. When you add this to the fact that there are only 55,000 licensed doctors left in Nigeria, you’ll realise how much of a mess we’re in.
With foreign aid from the United States out of the equation, we might be entering what could be the worst year for the Nigerian healthcare sector.
Trump’s food aid is back…kinda
If "never let them know your next move" were a person, it would be Donald Trump. After putting a pause on food aid in January, he has changed his mind and is allowing America to donate food to other countries again.
On Sunday, February 9, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) confirmed the resumption of US-funded food supplies under USAID agreements.
Why did Trump stop food donations?
Trump has an “America first” agenda, and he’s been making decisions that fit that agenda lately, including suspending foreign aid, which will affect millions of Nigerians. The suspension of food donations was part of Trump’s bigger attempt at figuring out which U.S. foreign aid deserves to stay or go.
What does this mean for Nigeria?
The U.S. has been one of Nigeria’s generous donors for years, and honestly, we’ve needed all the help we can get. Hunger has been a long-standing problem in the country, especially in the northeast, where 4.1 million people struggle with severe food shortages.
Back in 2017, the U.S. donated as much as $100 million to fix the Northeast’s food shortage problem, but by August 2024, the donations slowed down to about $27 million. It’s a big slash but we’ve never been entitled to America’s money. It’s the primary responsibility of the Nigerian government to fix Nigerian problems.
With Nigeria’s economy already dragging us through the worst, losing U.S. healthcare aid and food aid was probably the worst thing that could have happened to us, and it sucks that this is Nigeria’s reality.
But while we wait for the day Nigeria’s leadership takes proactive measures, this latest update is a big relief—maybe even a small sign that Trump isn’t completely done with his giveaway to Nigeria.
This Week’s Big Question
What do you think about Nigeria possibly getting 31 new states?
Benita’s response - “I read somewhere that a lawyer was proposing that they add one more state to the 31 new states. Is there something in the air, or is everybody just crazy?”
You can also share your response here, and if it’s as interesting as Benita’s, we’ll feature it in the next edition.
The Big Picks
Senate Committee Raises Alarm Over 3,900 Missing Firearms: The Senate Public Accounts Committee is concerned about several issues related to the Nigeria Police Force, including missing guns.
Nigeria Ranked 140th Out Of 180 On 2024 Corruption Index: Nigeria has been ranked 140th out of 180 countries in the world on the 2024 Corruption Perceptions Index, according to Transparency International.