… Your hospitals are dying; and so are Nigerians
Nigeria is in dire straits — and our leaders are busy booking flights. Once again, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN), which held its plenary session from September 11–19 in Ikot Ekpene, has told the harsh reality about the state of this nation. And once again, the government has no excuse not to listen. For eight days, the bishops put the nation under moral scrutiny, spotlighting our failing healthcare, broken education system, crumbling infrastructure, runaway insecurity, and worsening poverty. They did not mince words.
They called out the mass exodus of doctors, the decay of our hospitals, and the scandal of medical tourism — that elite pastime where public officials who preside over a collapsing health sector rush to foreign hospitals at the first sneeze. This is not just hypocrisy; it is an outrage. When billions of naira are spent abroad on private treatments while citizens die in understaffed, under-equipped hospitals, we are no longer dealing with a health crisis — we are dealing with a moral collapse.
Nigerians are not statistics. They are human beings — fathers, mothers, children — dying from malaria, infections, pregnancy complications, and other illnesses that should not be a death sentence in a 21st-century nation. If our leaders were compelled by law to seek treatment in the same hospitals ordinary Nigerians use, we would have world-class facilities by next year. Instead, we are treated to photo-ops of VIPs boarding planes for London, Dubai, or India while their constituents queue outside decrepit hospitals for paracetamol. Enough is enough.
The bishops are right: medical tourism is bleeding Nigeria dry. It is not merely an embarrassment; it is an abdication of responsibility. President Bola Tinubu, state governors, ministers, and legislators must make Nigeria’s health sector their top priority. It is time to put money where the mouth is — fund hospitals, equip them, pay and retain doctors, and create a system that serves all, not just the rich. But healthcare is not our only crisis. The bishops’ call for “integral education” is a warning bell we cannot afford to ignore. Our schools are collapsing under the weight of poor infrastructure, unmotivated teachers, and outdated curricula.
Education is the foundation of every great nation, yet Nigeria continues to treat it as an afterthought. The new national policy on non-state schools is a step in the right direction, but policy is meaningless without enforcement and proper funding. If we want a future where Nigerian children can compete globally, we must fix our classrooms now — not in some distant election year. Agriculture, too, was rightly highlighted. The bishops reminded us that farming is the backbone of our economy and could be our path to prosperity if we would only make it safe and profitable.
But what farmer will till the soil when bandits roam freely, kidnapping for ransom and killing with impunity? If the government is serious about food security, it must first secure the farmers. Even the Church turned the spotlight on itself, warning against the creeping commercialisation of worship. That kind of honesty is rare — and it is exactly the kind we need from our leaders. Government must admit that things are not working, stop the endless spin, and face the problems head-on.
This is not the first time the CBCN has raised these alarms. For years, they have been a moral voice, warning of the dangers of corruption, bad governance, and indifference to the plight of the poor. The question is: will anyone in power finally act? Nigerians are running out of patience. We do not want more “strongly worded condemnations,” more panels, more promises. We want results — hospitals that work, schools that teach, roads that are safe, jobs that pay. We want a government that justifies the trust and taxes of its citizens. Leadership is not a photo opportunity. It is not an entitlement. Those who offered themselves for public office must rise to the occasion.
Nigeria is at a breaking point. What we need now are leaders who can think, act, and deliver — not those who hide behind excuses while the nation crumbles. The CBCN has done its duty by speaking truth to power. It is now the turn of those in Aso Rock, in state capitals, and in the National Assembly to do theirs. Stop the medical tourism. Fix the hospitals. Secure the farms. Rescue the schools. Build the institutions. The time for speeches is over. Nigerians are waiting for action. And history will remember those who stood up to fix this country — and those who fiddled while it burned.
