Nurses at Uwani General Hospital in Enugu State have released a viral video exposing conditions that no patient should ever have to endure and no health worker should ever have to explain. In the footage, they detail a long list of failures at the facility including the complete absence of electricity during night deliveries, no running water, no oxygen supply, widespread mosquito infestation, and an environment so unclean that it poses a direct threat to the lives of mothers and newborns. The video was not made for attention. It was made out of desperation.
The women who walk into that hospital to deliver their babies are doing so in conditions that offer them almost no protection. Childbirth is already one of the most physically demanding and medically vulnerable moments in a woman’s life. Doing it in total darkness, without oxygen on standby, without clean water for basic hygiene, and surrounded by mosquitoes turns what should be a managed medical event into a survival exercise. The nurses who recorded the video made clear that they are working with nothing and watching the consequences every shift.
Nigeria’s maternal mortality figures tell the rest of the story. A 2023 World Health Organization report placed the country’s maternal death rate at five hundred and twelve deaths per one hundred thousand live births, a figure that towers over the global average and ranks among the worst in the world. The report identified infrastructure deficits in public hospitals as a key driver of those numbers. Uwani General Hospital is not an exception to that finding. It is a textbook example of it.
Public reaction online has been fierce, with much of the anger directed at Enugu State Governor Peter Mbah. Critics have accused his administration of misplaced priorities, pointing to the state government’s heavy investment in smart city branding and technology-driven urban projects while basic healthcare facilities crumble. The contrast between glossy development announcements and a hospital that cannot keep its lights on during a delivery has not been lost on residents or the wider Nigerian public.
Comments across social media reflected a mix of outrage and exhaustion. Many users called for immediate audits of healthcare spending in the state, demanding to know where budgeted funds have gone and why a general hospital in a state capital lacks essentials that even the smallest private clinic would consider non-negotiable. Others broadened the criticism beyond Enugu, noting that the conditions shown in the video are replicated in public hospitals across the country and that the failure is systemic rather than isolated….See More
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