20/07/2025
Monument of waste: N41bn Akwa Ibom specialist hospital with rotting facilities
Touted as Nigeria’s answer to medical tourism and commissioned in 2015 by the administration of former Governor Godswill Akpabio amid pomp in the twilight, the N41 billion Ibom Specialist Hospital in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, was built to offer world-class medical care to the people of the state and beyond. A decade later, PUNCH Healthwise investigations show that the hospital is currently plagued by non-functional equipment, abandoned wards, poor working conditions, and crumbling infrastructure. SODIQ OJUROUNGBE reports
In April 2025, John Essien (not his real name) was rushed into the Ibom Specialist Hospital emergency unit. He was gasping for air, his chest heaving violently, his lips tinged with the purplish hue of oxygen deprivation. His relatives clung to hope, believing they had brought him to the best health facility in Akwa Ibom State, where the best of medicine and modern care could save him.
After all, this was the same facility that former Governor Godswill Akpabio, now Nigeria’s Senate President, had proudly commissioned in 2015 with international fanfare and political flourish. Built to house 308 beds and outfitted with the latest diagnostic and treatment equipment, it was designed to eliminate the need for foreign medical trips.
But on that April day, and for Essien, all the glamour dissolved into a harrowing reality.
At first, everything seemed to fall into place. Doctors and nurses moved with urgency, rushing him into the Intensive Care Unit. A quick check showed his oxygen levels had dropped to dangerously low levels. He was placed on oxygen immediately and hooked up to a monitor.
Nearby, another patient, a woman in her late 60s, lay on a separate bed, also struggling to breathe. Both were tethered to oxygen tanks, their lives suspended on the steady hiss of gas.
But even as the machines worked, the staff knew they were on borrowed time.
Punch Newspapers
