Nigeria currently has one of the highest neonatal and maternal mortality rates in Africa, yet efforts by the government to curb the crisis continue to be undermined by failures within its own control.

The Patient

It’s past midnight on a Friday in September 2025. Esther Nicholas's water has broken, and there is an urgent need to move her to the hospital for delivery. With no means of transport apart from their legs, her husband walks with her for about fifteen minutes under the light of the moon.

Esther, in her late twenties, lives in a two-bedroom apartment in a grey-painted block in Ogbere Resettlement, a rural community in the Ona-Ara Local Government Area of Ibadan, Oyo State. Near the main junction in her neighbourhood, a church member of theirs, who had a car, came to their aid and drove the young couple to the hospital, about 20 minutes away. Hours later, the cry of a baby echoed from the labour room.

“I wept,” she recalled, “until there were no tears left in me.”

Esther had been expecting twins. Only one was delivered alive; the other died from complications. While people came to congratulate them, she carried both joy and pain. One day, she would have to explain to her surviving child how he lost his sibling.

Esther married immediately after her National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in 2022. She and her husband started building their lives, and during one of her antenatal sessions, she was confirmed to be pregnant with twins.

On the night she went into labour, Esther walked by a certain “ultra-modern hospital” that was close to her house. She described it as a gigantic medical landmark, beautified with a plethora of flowers and lighting. The hospital was built as part of a Federal Government-funded project four years ago and was named after Muhammadu Buhari, who was president at the time. The hospital’s name, Muhammadu Buhari Mother and Child Hospital, Ibadan, is written in bold letters at the top of the building’s front.

“If only it were working; maybe David (her son’s name) would have his twin,” Esther said in a faint voice, close to tears. The distance to the hospital where she was registered for care was one of the factors she believes contributed to the loss of her child. Still, she remains grateful that she survived.

Over 15 months, this investigation examined the non-functionality of the facility. On repeated visits, we found it idle. Residents initially thought it would address maternal and infant mortality in the area, but that expectation remains far-fetched.

Nigeria has one of the world’s highest maternal mortality burdens and the highest number of maternal and neonatal deaths in Africa. About 20,811 maternal, neonatal, and under-five deaths were recorded between January and September 2025 alone, according to the Nigeria Health Statistics Report. The infant mortality rate for the country in 2026 is 51.54, a slight improvement from 2025 but less than the United Nations’ standard, which is to be met before 2030.

This investigation traces what happens when government intervention stops at the construction of a building and does not extend to the people, personnel, equipment, and systems required to make that building a functioning hospital.

Community members are confused

In May 2025, when we first visited the Muhammadu Buhari Mother and Child Hospital in Ibadan, many residents were unaware of the facility’s origin, while a few believed its continued closure was connected to the state’s political leadership.

Kunle Daisi, a resident, said, “The facilitator is an APC (All Progressives Congress) member, and the state government is PDP (People’s Democratic Party); what do you expect?” he said, offering his own political interpretation of the situation.

But the uncertainty among residents goes beyond politics; many simply do not understand why a fully constructed hospital has remained closed for years. When it was commissioned, Shola Ajayi, a resident, was early in her pregnancy and eager to be among the first set of women to register for antenatal care there. However, that did not happen.

“To the glory of God, as you can see,” she said, turning towards her baby, who was eating from a little green bowl, “my baby is two years and a few months old now… while the hospital is still there and useless.”

The hospital’s inactivity has also affected businesses that sprang up around it. Facing the hospital is an array of shops built by private individuals simultaneously with the hospital project. The landlord and tenants had thought the opening would bring economic activities which would help their pockets. Little do they know that the hospital facilitators were not party to their beautiful plans, as in the case of Muslimat Durojaiye.

“Out of excitement, I started a baby-items store to be best aligned with the purpose and operations of the hospital here. However, since the hospital is locked, business is a struggle,” Muslimat lamented in May last year. During a visit in June 2026, we found her shop locked.

More than a dozen women residents of the Ogbere Resettlement whom we met said they would appreciate the hospital opening and functioning because it would provide access to maternal, child, and general healthcare. The nearest hospital is far away, they said, forcing some women to give birth at a nearby mission house.

One of the landlords, a respected community leader who asked not to be named for fear of attacks, speaking mostly in Yoruba proverbs and with a distinct Ibadan accent, described the concerned politicians as “playing with the hearts of the people” and said they had “dashed the hope of the community members”.

“When we gathered as elders of the community to visit the senator, his workers said he was not around,” he said, letting out a deep sigh, his expression one of disappointment.

But who is the senator, and what does he have to do with the hospital?

The senator

Teslim Kolawole Folarin, a three-term senator representing Oyo Central and a gubernatorial candidate for the 2023 election under the APC in Oyo State, initiated the Muhammadu Buhari Mother and Child Hospital in Ibadan. We confirmed this attribution via signage at the facility.

The 100-bed facility, Folarin said during the launch in May 2023, is “equipped with state-of-the-art facilities, including operating theatres, recovery rooms, private and general wards, a scanning room, consultation rooms and a laboratory, an ultra-scan machine, a vacuum extractor delivery set and an emergency cart with full complements”.

At the time, he said that the facility would become operational immediately after a management board was appointed. Three years later, it remains closed.

Although we were unable to reach the senator directly, his media aide, Yekeen Olaniyi, said the hospital’s functionality had always been a major concern to the senator.

“The distinguished senator wrote to the Federal Ministry of Health for the hospital to be run by them, but the reply was that medical personnel were not available and also had no budgetary allocation,” Yekeen said. According to him, Folarin also approached the University College Hospital (UCH), the teaching hospital of the University of Ibadan, which he said had been involved in the project from its inception, to take over the facility’s operations. The response, he said, was the same.

“[They said] UCH itself does not have the required personnel to run effectively, not to speak of adding a new specialist facility.”

The media aide said his principal is currently in talks with the Federal Ministry of Health. “Hopefully, they will provide us with the way out,” he added.

He claims that the senator also wanted to speak with the state government, but a look at the state-operated general hospitals is an eyesore. “So, no bother.”

To confirm the media aide’s claim that the senator reached out to the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare and to learn the ministry's plans for the network of abandoned, well-equipped mother-and-child hospitals, an FOI request was sent to the ministry's publicly available email address on its website. They failed to respond.

A review of its website also found no clear indication that the ministry currently operates or manages the mother-and-child hospitals built across the states of the federation. A click on “Projects” on their website also led to a gaming site, an apparent technical or security issue unrelated to the ministry’s operations.

More than ₦1.20 billion was released by the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on the Millennium Development Goals (OSSAP-MDGs, now known as OSSAP-SDGs), the facilitating agency, to multiple contractors for the project between 2021 and 2023, according to GovSpend, a platform that tracks federal government spending.

The physical infrastructure was completed, but taxpayers in the community have yet to receive the healthcare service the investment was intended to provide.

One too many

The Muhammadu Buhari Mother and Child Hospital in Ibadan is one of many. A web search of the exact name shows other facilities in every state of the federation and the FCT. The results helped to map out 10 hospitals to physically visit in seven states. What we found was not different from the situation in Ibadan.

Nine of the 10 facilities we inspected were either closed or not functioning as intended, while two in Ogun State were operational in different capacities. The hospitals have the same architectural structure, same colours, and mostly similar bed capacities, with interlocked flooring and large, fenced compounds. The network of hospitals could be considered an organisation with multiple branches across various states, except that it serves neither the medical practitioners nor the patients it was built to serve.

Adjacent to the Oyo hospital is a compound of eight apartments meant to house doctors working at the hospital, a feature shared by some of the other hospitals that we visited. The front view of the residential space is already overgrown with bushes.

The hospital itself has begun to deteriorate. Behind the building, part of the fence has fallen, exposing the facility to potential theft and further damage. A large solar panel structure intended to serve as a car shed has also collapsed.

During a visit to the facility, a guard confronted and assaulted the reporter for taking photographs of the facility from outside. He created a scene, hurling curses and insults, and attempted to seize her phone before members of the public intervened.

Despite the hospitals being unused, each branch has a guard who is paid monthly to protect the facilities.

Inside the other branches

As it is in Ibadan, so is it in Osogbo. In Osun, the facility remains stagnant and is overgrown with bush.

Exterior View of the Muhammadu Buhari Mother and Child Hospital, Oke-Onitea, Osogbo. PC: Abdullah Ajibade

The state’s APC raised issues about certain equipment being moved from the 100-bed facility to the Osun State University Teaching Hospital (UTH). But the Chief Medical Officer at UTH disputed the allegation, he said, “The equipment at the hospital is battery-based and was already deteriorating. For our accreditation process, we needed them. We did not loot any property.”

Ipetumodu, a rural community in Ife North LGA, is also home to an 80-bed hospital that has yet to open since its commissioning in 2023. Residents said there have been robbery attacks on the facility. A community leader said, “More than five air conditioners were carted away.”

In Ogun, two of the hospitals were built within Ikenne LGA. The Iperu building follows the prototype but differs from many of the others because it is now operational. For a period, it was not functioning, but it was eventually brought back into use. It now provides general healthcare services and has a functioning pharmacy and active staff.

Ikenne’s branch is also a mother-and-child hospital; however, it is a bit different in architecture. It is also located behind a state-owned general hospital in the area.

The facility is functioning, but the upper floor of the two-storey building is currently disused because of structural or other reported issues. Both facilities are operational under the General Hospital.

There is also a discrepancy in the reported capacity of the Ikenne facility. Contrary to information published on the website of former Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, which stated that it has 250 beds, our findings indicate that it has a 100-bed capacity. Osinbajo visited Ogun State in 2024 to commission both projects.

In Kwara State, two mother-and-child hospitals were also established. The one in Igbaja, in Ifelodun LGA, remains stagnant and devoid of human activity. Residents say insecurity may be one reason for the facility’s continued closure. The other is in Oro, in Irepodun LGA, and has remained unused for years. The facility was recently reactivated, but operations are extremely slow.

The facility was under lock and key despite huge infrastructural investment when we visited on a Saturday in August. Grown bushes and sounds of crickets overwhelm the medical project by the highway.

The Muhammadu Buhari Mother and Child Hospital in Gidan Dabat, Quan’pan LGA, in Plateau State, also remains moribund. In 2025, a news report stated that the State Assembly had finalised plans to take over the project. However, a physical visit showed no evidence that the intervention had successfully returned the hospital to operation.

Taraba also has another facility in a state of disrepair. Residents complain that the hospital has been stagnant for years despite its size and potential. Parts of the structure have deteriorated. Residents said some government officials had visited twice in 2026, but the visits had not resulted in any visible change.

In Akwa Ibom, the project is named differently. 'The Renewed Hope Mother and Child Hospital', which is the slogan for the current administration. In June 2026, an investigative report was published on how the 100-bed specialist facility was locked after a year of its commissioning.

The pattern is difficult to dismiss as a problem peculiar to one state, one political party, or one administration. Across locations, the same central problem of public money produces a building, but not necessarily a functioning hospital.

Each of these projects was funded by the Federal Government of Nigeria, which borrows trillions of naira every year, with a substantial portion allocated to capital projects such as this network of Muhammadu Buhari Mother and Child Hospitals.

Yet, even as some of these facilities remain unused, new ones continue to be commissioned.

In May 2026, for instance, another 100-bed Renewed Hope Specialist Hospital in Zaria, Kaduna State, was commissioned. The project, which was also facilitated by OSSAP-SDGs, was established because “every mother deserves a safe delivery and every child a healthy start to life", according to Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, who heads the office.

Lack of infrastructure leads to increased mortality

In 2025, research revealed that Nigeria contributes the highest number of global maternal deaths from postpartum haemorrhage, the commonest cause of maternal deaths. Others are hypertensive disorders of pregnancy and sepsis.

“All these causes are clearly preventable because there are evidence-based interventions that are effective in preventing and managing these conditions,” says Professor Adebayo Akadri, head obstetrician and gynaecologist at Babcock University Teaching Hospital, Ogun State. Prof. Akadri said low rates of institutional deliveries and lack of skilled assistance during delivery contribute to the poor maternal numbers Nigeria has.

In an article published in the Journal of Global Health Reports, Mopelola Ajegbile, a public health professional, identifies poor healthcare infrastructure as a significant factor. Prof. Adebayo said the challenge is particularly pronounced in rural communities and urban slums, where access to quality maternal health services is often limited.

The majority of community health needs can be effectively addressed through a health care financing model that eliminates out-of-pocket payments for health care services and provides well-equipped and functional Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs).

“Therefore, strengthening primary health care should be the starting point for improving health infrastructure and reducing maternal mortality in Nigeria,” he added.

His argument exposes the central contradiction in the abandoned hospital projects, which is that infrastructure matters, but infrastructure without people, financing, equipment, and a functioning system cannot save lives.

One agency, many abandoned medical projects

The hospitals listed in this investigation not only share the same names and architecture but were also facilitated by the same agency, OSSAP-SDGs.

In 2005, the Office was created to implement the then-Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), now known as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Both United Nations initiatives aim to address issues relating to humanity. The SDG Office serves as the secretariat to the Presidential Committee on the Assessment and Monitoring of SDGs. There are 17 goals, and one of them is SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being, directly targeting maternal and infant health. More specifically, Target 3.1 aims to reduce maternal mortality, while Target 3.2 focuses on ending preventable deaths of newborns and children under 5.

That provides the policy rationale for projects dedicated to maternal and child healthcare. In media reports covering commissioning events for the facilities, officials repeatedly linked the projects to the pursuit of SDG 3.

Adejoke, the current Senior Special Assistant to the President on SDGs, has been spearheading the agency and is seen at every commissioning of the projects established across different senatorial districts within the federation.

A Freedom of Information (FOI) request seeking information on why the facilities remain abandoned was physically sent to her office in Abuja on June 30, 2026, but no response has been received. This is contrary to the FOI Act 2011, which requires public institutions to respond to requests within seven days.

‘Empty spaces do not attend to people’

Dr Biobele Davidson, who leads the Strengthening Health System Unit at BudgIT Foundation, an organisation aimed at holding the government accountable to ensure service delivery, believes that universal health coverage could be improved by bringing healthcare closer to people in rural and urban areas.

“The primary healthcare centres should be strengthened for better healthcare service delivery,” she said, echoing Professor Akadri’s thoughts.

With a strengthened PHC system, the “Three Delays Model”, developed by Sereen Thaddeus and Deborah Maine in 1994, could be addressed. The model identifies three critical barriers, namely: delays in deciding to seek care, including financial barriers; delays in reaching a medical facility, including distance and transportation problems; and delays in receiving adequate treatment, including shortages of skilled health workers, weak referral systems, and inadequate medical supplies and equipment.

To transform this theory into reality, Dr Davidson advised stakeholders to treat the absence of healthcare workers as a national crisis with potentially disastrous health outcomes. “Better political will, better remuneration, better facilities and an enabling environment for health workers to do their jobs,” she said, will motivate the people within the system to become active and dedicated to their country and their people.

“More than infrastructure, what we need is human resources. We cannot be having beautiful buildings all over the federation without thinking of humans who would work in them,” said Dr Davidson. “Empty spaces do not attend to people.”

The exodus of health workers

The explanation offered by Senator Folarin’s aide — that there were not enough medical personnel to operate the Ibadan facility — prompted another question: if Nigeria is building hospitals, where are the people who will work in them?

We followed that question to the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, which trains healthcare workers but, according to reports, is itself struggling with staffing shortages. In 2022, Jesse Otegbayo, the hospital’s Chief Medical Director, disclosed that about 600 doctors left UCH within two years.

Health workers going on strike is also a recurring problem at the respected tertiary hospital, with power outages, unpaid salaries, and other poor working conditions cited as challenges.

However, the contradiction is that there are underemployed doctors in Nigeria, yet some of its public hospitals report severe staffing shortages, while qualified health professionals continue to leave the country.

“While it is true that Nigeria faces a shortage of qualified health care personnel, particularly in relation to its rapidly growing population, the greater challenge is the maldistribution of the available workforce,” said Prof. Adebayo. “The lack of meaningful incentives for health workers to serve in rural communities has led to a disproportionate concentration of specialists in urban areas.”

“It is also important to note that improving the remuneration, working conditions, and career development opportunities of health workers is essential to reducing the emigration of skilled personnel and strengthening Nigeria’s health system.”

This means that the problem cannot be solved simply by constructing more hospitals. The government must also answer the harder questions of who will staff them, how those workers will be retained, how facilities will be supplied, and how the hospitals will be integrated into the wider healthcare system.

This investigation was supported by the Budeshi Media/Mini Grant, an initiative of the Public and Private Development Centre (PPDC).

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8 Buhari-named mother and child hospitals abandoned after billions in public spending

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