Nigeria records over 127,000 new cancer cases and roughly 79,000 cancer-related deaths every year. To treat that burden properly, the country needs about 280 radiotherapy machines. It has fewer than 10, for over 200 million people.
That gap is not an accident of nature but the outcome of choices about where public money goes, whose voices shape policy, and whether commitments outlive the announcements. Making those choices visible is the purpose of The Nigerian Life Compendium, a research-driven editorial series from Zikoko Citizen whose first edition is devoted to health.
The Health edition brings together eight contributors on crises that shape millions of Nigerians lives but rarely enter political conversation. A patient in Ibadan spent 13 hours being shuttled between hospitals in search of antivenom that should have been in stock. Twenty-eight of Nigeria’s 36 states have zero federal psychiatric presence, meaning a mental health crisis means a bus fare to another state, or nothing at all. The failures fall hardest on women, young people, low-income families, rural communities, and those whose conditions remain stigmatised.
“When we started working on this compendium, the issues dominating Nigerian commentary concerned which parties would produce which candidates for which elections. Several months on, that conversation has barely moved,” said Afolabi Adekaiyaoja, Coordinating Editor of the Compendium. “Nigerians have lived through an unresolved fuel subsidy hangover, rising food prices, and a federal health ministry that received ₦36 million of a ₦218 billion capital budget. The opportunity cost is not the political activities that will inevitably happen as we trudge towards 2027, but the actual welfare systems millions of Nigerians depend on to survive.”
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“Nigerians are constantly told to wait for institutions to explain the country to them,” said Anita Eboigbe, COO of Big Cabal Media. “They deserve evidence they can point to and demand action on. The Compendium is our attempt to build that evidence base, in the open, for anyone to use.”
Chigozie Victor, Senior Editor at Zikoko Citizen, puts it plainly: “You send this to someone when they ask you to prove it’s that bad.”
In the health edition, contributors are asking critical questions. Chime Asonye examines the gap between mental health law and the experience of seeking care. Hassana Maina asks who truly holds power over women’s bodies. Temie Giwa-Tubosun shows that emergency survival depends on systems that coordinate in time, not individual courage. Adam Abdullahi asks whether Nigeria is preparing before the next epidemic. Oyeronke Oyebanji weighs repeated false starts on vaccine manufacturing. Luke Alade examines two decades of donor-funded projects and local ownership. Omei Bongos links fiscal policy to unequal access. Vivianne Ihekweazu closes on the central question: if health is a political choice, is Nigeria prepared to choose differently?
We praise Nigerians for resilience but resilience should never excuse institutional failure. People should not have to be extraordinary to receive ordinary care, and survival should not depend on where you live or who you know.