WHERE are the materials that Honorable Ibrahim Abdullahi Sa’ad donated to Umaisha General Hospital, Toto Local Government Area of Nasarawa State? Unfortunately, questions about the whereabouts of items released to the public are becoming common in Nigeria. Sa’ad, who represents Umaisha/Ugya constituency in the Nasarawa State Assembly, recently visited the hospital and was upset when he could not find the mattresses and ventilators he had donated for the patients. In a video that went viral, he demanded explanations from hospital officials. Reports quoted him as saying he had provided about 50 orthopedic mattresses, more than 50 ceiling fans and about 40 floor fans. Sa’ad later clarified that the materials had been donated more than two years ago and acknowledged a disparity between the amounts he mentioned in the viral video and what was supplied. He said he was informed that some materials had been kept in the hospital warehouse while others were used in staff quarters.
If the materials were donated to improve conditions in hospital wards, why were they not identifiable more than two years later? What items were received and how many? Which ones were left in the store? Which ones were moved to staff quarters, under whose authority, and for what purpose? Reports quoted a hospital official as saying that some mattresses had been temporarily allowed to leave the facility with discharged patients. Where is the record documenting such movements? Every public hospital must maintain an asset register showing what it receives, where each item is deployed and when it is transferred or disposed of.
The Nasarawa State Hospitals Board of Directors constituted a committee to investigate the matter. Governor Abdullahi Sule also ordered the Commissioner of Health to investigate and said anyone found responsible for the diversion should be removed and prosecuted. That response is commendable. But the findings should be made public as soon as possible. What happened in Umaisha touches on a deeper Nigerian problem: our increasingly destructive relationship with everything considered to belong to everyone. Nigerians rightly complain that governments are not doing enough. Hospitals lack beds, medicines and equipment. Schools lack books and furniture. Roads and bridges are deteriorating. The electrical infrastructure is destroyed. However, when government, philanthropists, legislators, communities, or private citizens provide what they can, someone within that same society removes it, diverts it, damages it, or appropriates it. How do you demand more public goods and at the same time destroy the few that you already have?
In May alone, the University College Hospital (UCH) in Ibadan confirmed a case of diesel theft. UCH spokesperson, Funmi Adetuyibi, confirmed the robbery depicted in a viral video. Let’s imagine the contradiction: someone who makes a living in a public hospital can steal the fuel necessary for its operations. There is an even more terrifying example. The Federal Government recently ordered CCTV cameras to be installed on the First Niger Bridge after vandals removed bolts, iron bars, expansion joint components and other parts. What reasoning leads someone to steal screws from a bridge over which he, his family and fellow citizens will be able to travel tomorrow?
The same mentality appears in different forms. In 2023, Kano authorities discovered a warehouse containing palliative food allegedly diverted from intended beneficiaries, leading to arrests and an investigation. The ICPC has also investigated allegations of diversion of funds and COVID-19 palliatives. The health sector presents particularly painful examples because lives are at stake. A published study on self-referral by doctors in public hospitals in Nigeria found cases where patients were redirected to private facilities associated with public sector doctors. The researchers found both direct and indirect ways of diverting patients. There are also cases of public hospital workers diverting hospital materials.
Nigeria certainly has a political leadership problem. Politicians mismanage resources, public institutions frequently fail, and corruption at the highest levels deserves relentless scrutiny. But politicians cannot entirely explain the national failure. We cannot build a responsible country by demanding accountability only from the people above us. There is also an important institutional lesson in the Umaisha episode. Donations to public institutions should never depend on memory. Each donated asset must be formally received, numbered, labeled, and entered into an auditable inventory. Transfers between rooms, warehouses, offices or staff accommodation must be recorded. Periodic verification must reconcile the record with what exists. Technology makes this economical. A QR code or asset number on each item, linked to a digital inventory, would allow management, auditors and donors to establish where an asset is supposed to be. Hospital boards should publish annual summaries of major donations and their utilization. That accountability is important for another reason: Nigeria must not discourage generosity.
Why should a legislator, a community association, a diaspora group, a company or a private citizen donate beds, computers, books, medicines, ventilators or medical equipment to public institutions if there is no guarantee that the donations will continue to serve the public a few years later? Each unexplained disappearance destroys trust and discourages the next donor. Sa’ad deserves praise for coming back to see how his intervention was being used. Too often, politicians commission projects, distribute materials, take pictures and never look back. But monitoring is part of management. His clarification is equally important: hospital officials must properly account for donated materials, but accusations must also correspond to verified facts. Nasarawa’s investigation should resolve the matter transparently. Let the public know what was donated, what remains, where it is, and if anything was improperly disposed of. Bad actions must have consequences. If poor records, communication, or inappropriate implementation caused the controversy, that should also be noted and corrected.
The issue is broader than Umaisha General Hospital. How do you build a country when some steal from the country they say has failed them? Nigeria cannot be repaired by Aso Rock, state government houses or the National Assembly alone. It must also be repaired in hospitals, schools, ministries, warehouses and communities, where citizens decide if something that belongs to everyone belongs to no one or everyone and should be protected.
Public property stolen today becomes the public service that Nigerians say will be missing tomorrow.
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