Power Cuts In Nigerian Hospitals Put Lives At Risk, Tinubu Orders Urgent Action
For too many Nigerians, a trip to the hospital can be a gamble between life and death.
Power outages regularly plunge operating theatres, maternity wards, intensive care units, and laboratories into silence, leaving critical machines useless and patients’ lives hanging by a thread.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has now declared this crisis a national priority, warning that unreliable electricity in health facilities is “life-threatening” and must end.
The president, represented by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator George Akume, at the National Stakeholders’ Dialogue on Power in the Health Sector in Abuja, said: “These outages cannot continue. Lives are at stake. We must act now.”
The President pledged reforms under his Renewed Hope Agenda to ensure hospitals get stable and sustainable power through off-grid solar, hybrid systems, and private sector partnerships.
Health Minister Professor Muhammad Ali Pate admitted that without power, Nigeria’s health transformation cannot succeed, while the Minister of State, Dr Iziaq Adekunle Salako, warned: “Every time a hospital is plunged into darkness, lives are put at risk.
Powering health is not optional, it is essential for our survival.”
The dialogue, themed Powering Health Through Public-Private Synergy, ends today with concrete proposals expected to transform energy supply to hospitals across the country.
