•It is sad that such iconic institution could be in darkness for 101 consecutive days
There is something awe-inspiring about the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan. It is physically imposing and architecturally attention-commanding. It also has a history that is almost mythical regarding the dazzling medical expertise and professional exploits of its personnel. This is a hospital which, history has it, had a distinguished clientele of patients who included the Saudi Royal Family.
It was therefore nostalgic and a cause for cheer when the Minister of Health, Professor Muhammed Ali Pate, was reported in ‘The Nation’ Newspaper in a story titled “Patients from U.S., UK now patronising Nigeria’s health facilities, says Pate”, to have said: “‘You can see that, piece by piece, we are rebuilding our health infrastructure. We are not just improving basic healthcare at the frontline, but also strengthening our tertiary institutions with critical equipment,’’ Pate said.
‘The Nation’ further reported: “The minister stressed that Nigeria’s growing healthcare capabilities were already drawing international patients. ‘This is already happening, including people from faraway places like the United Kingdom and the United States. Despite what we may want to believe about Nigeria’s healthcare system, there are good things happening. The transformation that the President promised is beginning to happen, and we need to sustain it,’ he said.”
As cheering as this news item should ordinarily have been, it has generated some cynicism and skepticism. This attitude has been largely due to the slew of unedifying news headlines about UCH in the media. The most image-degrading of them include this January 23, 2025 one from TVC News: “Medical students protest prolonged power outage at UCH Ibadan.” The key message is that UCH owes the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC) N378 million and the company has requested the hospital to pay 60% of this debt before it could be reconnected to the national grid.
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Going by the parlous financial situation of our tertiary medical institutions in general, this is indeed a tall order.
President of the demonstrating students, Bolaji Aweda, presented their demands as follows: (1) that the Federal Government should take measures to restore light to the hospital, because the Band A classification of the hospital has hiked the electricity tariff beyond the hospital’s ability to pay; (2) the Federal Government’s policy of 50% electricity subsidy for the federal teaching hospitals, as promised since August 2024, should be implemented expeditiously; and (3) a general reform of the health sector should be undertaken.
So, as UCH continues to be unable to appreciably offset its indebtedness to IBEDC, and the hospital continues to be without electricity to perform its core functions, resulting in the restiveness of the students and patients of the hospital and their relatives, the hard-earned reputation of UCH continues to slide. Being an iconic tertiary health institution, any unsavoury experiences the hospital may have has the potential to be seen as the symbol of what obtains in, or what awaits the other teaching hospitals in its category nationally.
Should that be the case, such ordinarily commendable developments and on-going efforts to enhance the equipment in the nation’s tertiary health institution, as the Minister of Health has announced, could only attract skepticism.
In fact, that the UCH electricity disconnection problem has gone on for over 100 days indicates that the hospital’s stakeholders and our national elite are appreciably incapable of outrage. There is therefore the critical and urgent need for all and sundry to pay optimum attention to finding an effective and enduring solution to the UCH electricity crisis.
In this regard, it is hope-inspiring that the Minister of Power, Bayo Adelabu, visited the hospital on February 10. As reported by the Premium Times issue of that day, “Students of UI staged another protest carrying placards with messages such as “+100 Days of Darkness: Save UCH” and “Medical School Is Hard Enough—Give Us Light”, demanding urgent action from the government.” The paper further reported the students union president as addressing the minister as follows: “‘Honourable Minister, you are standing before the presence of 36,000 UI students. We are here to register our displeasure and ask why you have decided to do this to the heritage of Ibadan. The greatest medical institution in Nigeria has experienced a blackout for over 101 days,’ he said.”
Premium Times then reports: “Following a closed-door meeting between the minister, the UCH Management, and IBEDC, Mr Adelabu addressed the students, assuring them that power would be restored within 24-48 hours.” We hope that this promise would be kept timeously, and that, in fact, the UCH unedifying development would warrant the declaration of a state of emergency in the health sector of the country, to save the nation the trauma of seeing a national pride transform to a national shame.
Meanwhile, we note the Federal Government’s decision to provide some of our tertiary institutions like UCH, University of Lagos, etc. with mini-grid solar power as a way of reducing their electricity bills. This is another good initiative but it must not end at the level of intention; it must see the light of day. Nothing is too much to save these iconic institutions the embarrassment of power outage for over three consecutive months as witnessed at UCH.
