The Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate in the 2023 election, Peter Obi, says Nigeria has the resources to provide basic necessities but often fails to do so because of poor leadership and misplaced priorities.
In a series of posts on X on Tuesday, the former Anambra governor recounted an encounter with a young Nigerian who had recently completed nursing school in the United States and was visiting Nigeria for the first time with her parents aboard an Air Peace flight.
Obi said the young woman expressed her “sadness and confusion” about the state of the country, questioning why access to basic services remains difficult.
According to Obi, she shared an experience at a government-owned hospital in Nigeria following a domestic accident involving her sister.
“On arrival, even though her sister’s hand was bleeding, the hospital staff insisted that payment must be made before any treatment could begin,” Obi wrote.
“Shocked, they asked the hospital attendant whether he truly did not see the urgency of the situation. In response, they were shown other patients with even worse conditions who were also being left unattended because they had not paid.
“They eventually paid, and it was time for the blood test. Traumatised, they realised the hospital had only one blood-testing machine for all patients, and it was not being sterilised between uses.
“When she raised concerns that the equipment had not been properly sterilised, they were bluntly told to stop asking questions if they wanted her sister to be treated. Despite their payment, they had to buy all the items needed for her treatment.
“She found it hard to believe because, according to her training and every hospital she had visited, treatment comes first – payment comes later.
“She told me they had considered organizing a GoFundMe to support healthcare back home, but relatives warned them that any money raised would likely be embezzled.
“Then she said something that struck me deeply: ‘I now understand what happened to Boxer Joshua. This is why there was no ambulance to rush him to a nearby hospital’.
“She wondered aloud whether it was simply because the country is poor. Yet she added that she would willingly offer her skills and service for free and help raise money to make things better.”
‘FUNDS SPENT TO RENOVATE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE CENTRE CAN BUY 400 AMBULANCES’
Obi said he encouraged the young woman not to give up hope after listening to her concerns.
He argued that funds spent on refurbishing the International Conference Centre in Abuja and the residence of Vice-President Kashim Shettima would have been better used to purchase ambulances for emergency services.
“I painfully replied by encouraging her not to lose hope. The country is not poor, but it is poorly governed,” he added.
“Nigeria can afford basic necessities, especially critical and necessary ones, but they are often not considered priorities due to incompetent leadership.
“A standard ambulance costs about ₦150 million ($100,000). Nigeria spent ₦39 billion refurbishing the National Conference Centre in Abuja and ₦21 billion rebuilding the vice president’s residence.
“Those two projects alone—₦60 billion—could have provided about 400 brand-new ambulances, roughly 11 per state, including the FCT. Had 11 functional ambulances existed in Ogun State, one might have been available for Joshua.
“Building a primary healthcare centre in a community costs about ₦75 million. Yet we spent about ₦300 billion ($200 million) on an additional presidential jet – money that could have built over 4,000 primary healthcare centres, about 110 per state.
“The only visible value the jet adds is the ability of the president to occasionally disappear without the public knowing where he is, as is the case now.”