Residents of the Bari-Bari community in Gurdi ward, Abaji Area Council of the FCT, have cried out over the dilapidated state of their primary health centre.
Community members report that reptiles have taken over the facility, which has been abandoned by health workers for over six years.
This neglect has forced patients to seek medical treatment in neighboring states.
The primary health centre, built in 2011 by the defunct office of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of the FCT Administration, has become a “ghost of itself,” causing significant hardship for those in need of care.
Musa Dangama, a community leader, told our reporter that when insecurity worsened due to bandit attacks in the community and neighboring villages years ago, the personnel manning the facility were forced to flee.
He noted that even though the security situation has since improved, the facility remains grounded and in a deplorable state.
“I think it was about six years ago, when bandits were moving from one village to another, that the personnel left,” Dangama said. “The health centre has remained closed to the extent that the entire facility is now in a state of total decay.”
Another community member, Zakari Gimba, added that the health centre was in poor condition even before the insecurity began, noting that windstorms had previously blown off the roofs of both the clinic and the doctors’ quarters.
“The situation became worse when bandits started attacking; that was when the condition of both the hospital and the primary school deteriorated,” Gimba said. “The roofs are gone.”
The lack of local care has forced patients to travel to Gulu General Hospital in neighboring Niger State. Pregnant women are the hardest hit, especially during the rainy season, as a poor road network makes traveling for antenatal care nearly impossible.
“Our pregnant women take the risk of delivering at home because they cannot access the roads to travel for care,” Gimba said.
The village head of Bari-Bari, HRH Adamu Waikili, emphasized that despite the community’s population of over 4,000—including Gbagyi, Tiv, and Fulani residents—they have no local alternative for medical care.
“Unfortunately, our people now travel far to Gulu. Our women have to travel on motorbikes for antenatal care,” Waikili said.
He added that hoodlums took advantage of the abandonment to loot valuables. “If you go there now, you will see it has become a home for reptiles. The roofs and the doctors’ quarters are falling apart.
The village head stated that his palace has made several efforts to reach the area council authorities to refurbish the facility, but those efforts have yielded no response.
“I cannot remember how many times the palace has written to the area council… asking them to renovate the facility. Nothing has happened up to this moment,” he said.
During a visit to the site, our reporter observed that parts of the roof and the doctors’ quarters were missing. Inside, ceilings had caved in, walls were cracked, and cobwebs covered empty wards. No medical equipment remained on-site.
Beyond the health centre, the village head lamented a severe water shortage. The community’s only solar borehole broke down years ago, forcing residents to fetch water from the River Gurara during the dry season.
He appealed to the council authorities to renovate the health centre and repair the borehole to alleviate the community’s suffering.
An official from the council’s works department, speaking on the condition of anonymity, claimed that the renovation of rural clinics and boreholes has been captured in the current budget.
“Bari-Bari village has already been captured in the budget, where the health facility and the rehabilitation of the broken borehole will be considered,” the official said.
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