WHERE are the materials Honourable Ibrahim Abdullahi Sa’ad donated to General Hospital, Umaisha, in Toto Local Government Area of Nasarawa State? Unfortunately, in Nigeria, questions about the whereabouts of things provided for the public are becoming common. Sa’ad, who represents Umaisha/Ugya Constituency in the Nasarawa State House of Assembly, recently visited the hospital and was disturbed when he could not find the mattresses and fans he had donated for patients. In a video that went viral, he demanded explanations from hospital officials. Reports quoted him as saying he had provided about 50 orthopaedic mattresses, more than 50 ceiling fans and about 40 standing fans. Sa’ad later clarified that the materials had been donated more than two years ago and acknowledged a disparity between the quantities he mentioned in the viral video and what was supplied. He said he was informed that some materials had been kept in the hospital store while others were being 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? Which items were received and how many? Which remained in the store? Which were transferred to staff quarters, by whose authority, and for what purpose? Reports quoted a hospital official as saying some mattresses had been allowed to leave the facility temporarily with discharged patients. Where is the register documenting such movements? Every public hospital should 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 Management Board constituted a committee to investigate the matter. Governor Abdullahi Sule also directed the Commissioner for Health to investigate and said anyone found responsible for diversion should be dismissed and prosecuted. That response is commendable. But the findings should be made public as soon as possible. What happened in Umaisha touches a deeper Nigerian problem: our increasingly destructive relationship with anything regarded as belonging to everybody. Nigerians complain, justifiably, that governments do not provide enough. Hospitals lack beds, medicines and equipment. Schools lack books and furniture. Roads and bridges deteriorate. Electricity infrastructure is vandalised. Yet, when government, philanthropists, legislators, communities or private citizens provide what they can, somebody within the same society removes, diverts, damages or appropriates it. How do you demand more public goods while destroying the few you already have?
Only in May, the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, confirmed a case of diesel theft. UCH spokesperson, Funmi Adetuyibi, confirmed the theft depicted in a viral video. Imagine the contradiction: somebody earning a living from a public hospital can steal the fuel needed to support its operations. There is an even more frightening 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 kind of reasoning makes someone steal bolts from a bridge that he, his relatives and fellow citizens may travel on tomorrow?
The same mentality appears in different forms. In 2023, Kano authorities uncovered a warehouse containing palliative food allegedly diverted from intended beneficiaries, leading to arrests and an investigation. The ICPC has also investigated allegations involving diversion of COVID-19 funds and palliatives. The health sector presents particularly painful examples because lives are involved. A published study of physician self-referral in Nigerian public hospitals found instances in which patients were redirected towards private facilities associated with public-sector doctors. The researchers found both direct and indirect forms of patient diversion. 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 national failure cannot be explained entirely by politicians. We cannot build an accountable country by demanding accountability only from people above us. There is also an important institutional lesson in the Umaisha episode. Donations to public institutions should never depend on memory. Every donated asset should be formally received, numbered, tagged and entered into an auditable inventory. Transfers between wards, stores, offices or staff accommodation should be recorded. Periodic verification should reconcile the register with what exists. Technology makes this inexpensive. A QR code or asset number on every 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 deployment. Such accountability is important for another reason: Nigeria must not discourage generosity.
Why should a legislator, community association, diaspora group, company or private citizen donate beds, computers, books, medicines, fans or medical equipment to public institutions if there is no assurance that the donations will still serve the public a few years later? Every unexplained disappearance destroys trust and discourages the next donor. Sa’ad deserves commendation for returning to see how his intervention was being utilised. Too often, politicians commission projects, distribute materials, take photographs and never look back. But follow-up is part of stewardship. His clarification is equally important: hospital officials must properly account for donated materials, but accusations must also correspond to verified facts. The Nasarawa investigation should settle the matter transparently. Let the public know what was donated, what remains, where it is, and whether anything was improperly removed. Wrongdoing must have consequences. If poor records, communication or inappropriate deployment caused the controversy, that too should be stated and corrected.
The question is larger 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 only in Aso Rock, state government houses or the National Assembly. It must also be repaired in hospitals, schools, ministries, warehouses, and communities, where citizens decide whether something belonging to everybody belongs to nobody or to all of us and must be protected.
The public property stolen today becomes the public service Nigerians complain is missing tomorrow.