From Adamu Abdullahi
Despite substantial government allocations to the health sector, many Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs) across the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) continue to lack essential medicines, basic equipment, and adequate staffing.
At the Sabo Primary Healthcare Centre (PHC) in Kuje Area Council, the absence of a ceiling tells a silent but powerful story. Inside the facility, a few dusty boxes of paracetamol sit beside scattered syringes and empty cartons. A damaged bed with torn bedding faces both nurse and patient—equipment long overdue for repair or replacement. These are the remnants of a pharmacy that once served its purpose.
Seven years after Nigeria launched the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF) to guarantee access to essential medicines and affordable healthcare, residents of rural FCT communities are still confronted with harsh realities: insufficient drugs, poor infrastructure, and rising out-of-pocket expenses.
Between 2020 and 2025, the Federal Capital Territory consistently allocated significant portions of its annual budget to the health sector. However, poor implementation has undermined meaningful improvements in healthcare delivery.
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In 2024, for instance, the Senate approved ₦1.282 trillion for the FCT, with sizeable allocations directed toward infrastructure, health-sector improvement, and workers’ welfare. The FCT Administration highlighted a 61 percent increase in health-sector funding.
Similarly, in September 2025, FCT Minister Nyesom Wike announced that the Bola Tinubu administration had allocated ₦25 billion in the 2025 capital budget to overhaul healthcare projects across the FCT.
Yet, the gap between what is approved and what exists on the ground remains stark.
Many PHCs remain under-equipped and understaffed, forcing vulnerable patients—especially in rural areas—to either go without care or spend scarce resources on private alternatives. Despite steady inflows from the BHCPF, facilities like the Sabo PHC have effectively been reduced to referral points for private chemists.
The only primary healthcare centre in Sabo, which serves over 800 residents across more than five farming settlements, is in a state of near collapse. The facility lacks a ceiling, running water, functional beds, and basic medical equipment. Residents describe it as unfit for human use, let alone healthcare delivery.
For hundreds of rural dwellers unable to afford transport to the city, this clinic remains the first—and often only—point of medical contact. Pregnant women, sick children, and elderly residents arrive with hope, only to be met by a building that cannot protect them, much less heal them.
Health workers are overstretched and under-resourced, forced to improvise under unsafe conditions.
“I go to the PHC first whenever I’m sick, but there are no drugs—only prescriptions,” said Ibrahim Tijjani, a 29-year-old farmer in Sabo community. “Each time, I end up spending between ₦1,500 and ₦3,000 at private chemists, sometimes even buying drugs from hawkers who carry them on their heads.”
In nearby Kuchinobo community, Sarah Yohana, a mother of three, recalled a frightening medical emergency involving her youngest daughter.
“About a year ago, my daughter Awetu was vomiting and having diarrhoea,” she said. “At the PHC, they gave her Lomotil and ORS, but wrote injections for us to buy outside. We had to rush to chemists to save her.”
Community members say the clinic meant to serve them has become little more than a signpost, directing patients elsewhere for even the most basic medicines.
Their experience underscores a troubling reality: while healthcare budgets grow, rural communities in the nation’s capital remain dangerously underserved.
