The hope of quality healthcare fades behind a closed clinic, where expectant mothers are left to face life-threatening labour at home without skilled help.
“I prayed for this child for eleven years,” Mariya Sani, a member of the community, said.
“But when labour started, our clinic was locked. I turned to other women for help. They gave me herbs and advice, but I didn’t know I had obstructed labour. After two days of pain, I was taken to Suleja. My baby didn’t make it. I had planned to name her after my mother.”
The Late Alhaji Yakubu Adamu Aso Memorial Clinic, a Level 1 primary healthcare (PHC) facility in Wambai ward, Suleja Local Government Area (LGA) in Niger State was once a lifeline for over 2,000 residents across four communities: Anguwan Gayan, Anguwan Galadima, Anguwan Tudu, and students at the Government Girls Secondary School, Wambai.
Built in 2010, it offered vital services including immunisations, antenatal care, and malaria treatment. Today, it has remained under lock and key for nearly six years, opening only for occasional routine immunisations.
With no healthcare personnel on site, pregnant women must travel over 700 metres through harsh, unpaved terrain to Dije Bala PHC in Suleja, a facility already overstretched and serving at least six other communities. This situation leaves the Wambai community stranded which is contrary to the minimum service provision package for health facilities and the revitalisation strategy of the government to ensure a functional level 2 PHC across all the electoral wards in the country.
According to Baba Tanko, Chairman of the Ward Development Committee (WDC), “We successfully delivered over 50 babies at this clinic before it was abandoned. We do not have any healthcare providers here since the one we had initially left. Now women walk for hours in labour. Our repeated letters to the authorities to recruit personnel in this facility go unanswered.”
Wambai ward’s story mirrors wider national health system challenges such as underutilised facilities, inadequate staffing, and abandoned infrastructure.
As Nigeria strives to revitalise PHCs and deliver quality healthcare through the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF), communities like Wambai must not be left behind. The second pillar of the 2023–2026 Nigeria’s Health Sector Renewal Plan aims to ensure equitable, accessible, and quality care. Without urgent action, maternal and infant mortality will continue to rise, while existing facilities become overwhelmed.
The people of Wambai community are hereby calling on relevant authorities and stakeholders to;
- Renovate and expand the Yakubu Adamu Aso Memorial Clinic to meet the growing health needs of the community.
- Deploy permanent healthcare workers.
- Include the clinic under the BHCPF programme.
“We are willing to contribute our own money to fix the building,” Baba Tanko, stated. “But we need the government to do its part, deploy trained staff and provide equipment. Our women deserve to deliver safely and with dignity.”