Nigeria: Pastor Eno Wastes Taxpayers’ Money on Land Cruisers for Political Allies While Akwa Ibom Hospital Collapses

Misplaced priorities are unfolding in Akwa Ibom State as it celebrates 38 years, with the N41 billion Ibom Specialist Hospital remaining non-functional for nearly a decade. At the same time, Governor Pastor Umo Eno’s administration spends lavishly on luxury perks for the political class.

Amid a worsening healthcare crisis marked by broken equipment and stagnant wages for medical staff, the government recently gifted brand-new Land Cruisers to former deputy governors and increased welfare packages for traditional rulers. These choices represent a dangerous disconnect, prioritising political loyalty over life-saving infrastructure.

Once hailed as Nigeria’s answer to medical tourism, when commissioned in 2015 under Governor Godswill Akpabio, the Ibom Specialist Hospital has instead deteriorated. Once cutting-edge diagnostic suites now lie abandoned, with critical equipment gathering dust. The state Health Commissioner, Dr Ekem John, admitted the facility has been non-functional for over eight years, confirming that vital systems remain idle.

The 640-slice CT scanner and Catheterisation Laboratory, once central to cardiac and stroke care, have been out of service for months. Patients in urgent need are forced to seek care elsewhere, often with fatal consequences. The hospital’s so-called Intensive Care Unit, with only four beds, houses broken ventilators that staff say are props rather than life-saving devices.

The collapse of the facility’s oxygen plant has been especially deadly. Designed to ensure self-sufficiency, it shut down in 2024, directly leading to preventable deaths. The Electronic Medical Records (EMR) platform has collapsed, forcing staff to revert to error-prone paper files, and the once-vaunted pneumatic tube system for medications now lies abandoned.

Yet even as doctors and patients struggle in a crumbling hospital, Governor Eno’s administration has diverted public funds to lavish political spending. Former deputy governors were rewarded with Land Cruisers as “tokens of appreciation,” while allowances and personal assistants for traditional rulers were upgraded.

The contrast between taxpayer-funded luxury for elites and a decaying ₦41 billion hospital where patients die for lack of oxygen shows a reckless misplacement of priorities.

Ibom Specialist Hospital is no longer a beacon of progress but a chilling reminder of what happens when politics and vanity eclipse the basic needs of the people.

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