Posted on: Wed 07-05-2025

It is nothing short of a humanitarian crisis unfolding in the nation’s capital. For three days, the general hospitals in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have stood still, paralyzed by a warning strike from the Association of Resident Doctors — and the consequences have been devastating. Patients are stranded, hope is fading, and the healthcare system is teetering on the edge of collapse.

Let’s call this what it is: a preventable tragedy caused by leadership failure, bureaucratic insensitivity, and institutional neglect. The doctors did not go on strike on a whim. They were pushed to the brink after 127 health workers — including doctors, nurses, lab scientists, and pharmacists — were abruptly sacked by the FCT Civil Service Commission in what appears to be a shocking display of administrative recklessness and disregard for due process.

How does a government agency justify laying off such a vital workforce without explanation or adherence to procedure? These are not disposable workers; they are the backbone of a system already stretched to its limits. The sacking was not only unjust — it was inhumane.

Meanwhile, the general hospitals in Maitama, Kubwa, Asokoro, and others were reduced to shadows of themselves. Residents who sought medical help were turned away, met only with silence in waiting rooms and locked doors in consultation wings. Only critical cases were grudgingly attended to by consultant doctors, who are not part of the strike. Everyone else — including pregnant women, the elderly, and the seriously ill — were left to fend for themselves. Is this the kind of healthcare the government promised its people?

Even more damning is the fact that primary health centers in the area councils have also been on strike for over a month over unpaid minimum wage arrears and allowances. In essence, the people of FCT have been abandoned at every level of care. No functioning health centers. No resident doctors in hospitals. No urgency from those in power.

A woman from Dei-Dei, Rebecca Daniel, summed it up in anguish: “I don’t know where to go from here.” Her local clinic has been closed for weeks. The hospital turned her away. Must a citizen beg to survive in her own country?

In places like Abaji, Kwali, and Kuje, the situation is no better. Nurses have been left alone to provide skeletal services, often beyond their training and capacity. Pregnant women, accident victims, and chronically ill patients have no choice but to rely on what little support they can get — or be referred to expensive private hospitals. That’s if they can afford it.

The doctors, led by Dr. George Ebong, have made their demands clear: immediate reinstatement of the 127 sacked workers, full payment of their April salaries, and the removal of the FCT Civil Service Commission chairman, Dr. Emeka Eze, whose actions they say triggered this chaos.

And they are not bluffing. If their demands are not met, this warning strike will turn into a full-blown, indefinite shutdown. Can the system survive that? Can the people?

This is not just about doctors. It’s about governance, accountability, and the sacred duty to protect life. When leadership turns a blind eye to the cries of its workforce and abandons its citizens in their time of need, it loses moral authority.

The time to act is now. Before more lives are lost. Before more mothers are turned away. Before another patient collapses in a waiting room where no doctor will ever arrive.

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