MORE than a decade has passed, but a proposed cottage hospital in New Kutunku, Gwagwalada, meant to be completed within a year, has remained an abandoned structure despite significant investment and its supposed health benefits to the community.
Bosede Olosa was elated when she learnt that the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) had begun the construction of a hospital in her community, but her joy began to fade a year after the project failed to reach its completion.
After several years of staying in the area, she thought her prayers had been accepted and would now stop going several kilometres to access secondary healthcare, but the project has remained uncompleted for over a decade.
She has given up on the hospital but now worries about her and her family’s safety as the building sometimes houses smokers and ‘criminals.’
“I know that if they build a hospital, it will surely help those who are sick and also help in emergencies. The government should try and complete the project since they already started it. The abandoned building has also led to many people hiding in the place and causing harm to people staying in that area.”
For the people of New Kuntunku, a town tucked away in Gwagwalada, this medical facility was not just a structure; it was a lifeline and an economic booster. However, the initial excitement that surged through the community gradually faded into frustration and despair after their efforts to get the contractors back to the site proved abortive.
As the years passed, residents of this community watched how the building began to rot away.
If Muhammad Jafar, 31, had been informed that the hospital wouldn’t be operational in 2023, he would have found it hard to believe, given the swift progress showcased by the contractor at the commencement of construction.
“When the contractors first started the project, it was fast, and they were able to take it up on time. We were so happy when we knew it was a hospital of that size and believed it would help the town grow, but what can we do?”
Although Jafar could not ascertain if the house owners on the hospital’s land violated the Abuja master plan, he said some houses were demolished when the government wanted to start executing the project, displacing some people.
“Some people already built houses in the place where the hospital is now, but they demolished them, so it would be unfortunate and unfair if they, at the end of the day, did not complete the construction,” he added.
Background to the project
In 2010, during the first early term of former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, the Federal Government proposed a cottage hospital project being spearheaded by the Health and Human Services Secretariat (works unit) of the Federal Capital Development Authority.
This was according to a document published on Issuu, a digital publishing platform that allows users to share and upload their publications online, by the Federal Ministry of Information in May 2013.
The project was awarded to The Solid Concrete Nigeria Limited at a contract sum of N677 million (N677,879,466.60) on November 18, 2010, with the scope of the work being the construction of a 60-bed main hospital building.
The hospital was also expected to comprise several wards, a theatre, a pharmacy, a laboratory, an accident & emergency unit, antenatal, and maternal and residential quarters.
According to the document, the project commenced in February 2011 and was expected to be completed in 2012. However, as of 2012, when the then minister of the FCT, Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed, presented reports on the FCT projects to commemorate National Democracy Day 2012, the project has only reached 15 per cent.
The picture embedded in the document showed that the building was still under construction.
Meanwhile, the budget allocations of the hospital project were not on the Public space as checks by The ICIR on Budget Office for the budgetary allocation to Federal Capital projects between 2010-2015 did not include the details of the cottage hospital.
This was despite some activities on the project site.
It was gathered that the contractor was last seen on the site in 2020 during COVID-19, but the site has been visibly abandoned as there was no project office and plant of equipment on the site.
Hospital rots away, turns farmland
At the abandoned Cottage Hospital, situated at the back of the abattoir of the new Kutunku area, there are already five roofed and plastered buildings, consisting of two-story buildings, one-story building and two structures of what looks like a flat.
When The ICIR visited the project’s location, some of the buildings had begun to peel away, while tiles in some of the structures were also confirmed to be in a bad state. The roof of one of the story buildings was in tatters, depicting total neglect from the authority in charge.
Shockingly, the hospital premises have been transformed into farmland and a fishing pond. The land that once served as a beacon of hope for the community is now utilised for agricultural activities.
In an interview with The ICIR, Aliyu, who identified himself as the on-site engineer, said he and the security men were responsible for turning the hospital vicinity into farmland due to its inactivity.
According to him, the hospital has been laid to waste for over three years now with no activity on the project, stressing that they keep the place secure and cultivate some farm products.
Yahaya Bello, 34, a resident of the community, also explained that the project has been wasting away for years, with no health and economic benefits to the host communities.
Just as The ICIR observed, he also explained that bushes have taken over the hospital while part of the two-story building has deteriorated.
“As you can see, the building houses bushes and all sorts of farm products. The hospital has since been abandoned and left to waste away for no reason. I do not understand how a project of this status will be abandoned by the government.”
Abandoned project raises security concerns
Some residents in the community have voiced their concerns that the site poses a threat to the community’s safety as unauthorised individuals gain access to the premises, according to residents who spoke to The ICIR.
Nuhu Talhanu, a resident of New Kutunku, said, “The government refused to continue with the project. They left this project after Goodluck’s administration. It has been eight years since he left, and the project is still here. We are hoping for the current administration to help us continue the hospital and finish the project. The hospital would help the people here.
“Since it’s uncompleted, we are having security issues when it is nightfall as people enter into the uncompleted building. We are hoping for this current administration to help us with the hospital as everyone would be happy.”
Also, another resident, Hassan Lawal, shared his frustrations, saying, “If actually, it is a project that is meant for the benefit of humanity, it is meant to have been completed since, but unfortunately, I do not know what is hindering its completion.”
He stated that the project would significantly improve the socioeconomic potency of the community if completed and put to use.
“If this project is completed, the socioeconomic potency of this area will improve significantly because a facility like this is supposed to bring people across the country. If you look at the facility, you will understand that it is meant to accommodate more than 300 patients, and you will see patients coming from Niger, Kaduna, Kogi, and Kwara. And it will definitely promote the socio-economic aspect of the community.”
Our women are dying- District Head
Amidst the growing concern over maternal mortality birth, the District Head of New Kutunku, Mohammed Sabiu, said they have lost many pregnant women during delivery due to the long distance of commute the specialist hospital and the nature of the road.
He said, despite their attempts to draw attention to the dire need for a functioning hospital, their pleas have fallen on deaf ears, with the government seemingly unresponsive to their concerns.
He said,“It has affected us very well because sometimes, if our women want to deliver or have malaria, or whatever, especially pregnant women, before we got to the hospital, we lose many women. We lost many of them.
“The hospital is far from here; we have to go to a specialist, and it’s about three kilometres away from this place. You know there’s a bad road, and before we got to the hospital, some of them died.”
According to him, the community visited the FCT Minister’s office at the beginning of former president Mohammadu Buhari’s office to complain about the long-abandoned hospital and was promised that the project would be completed, but has not seen any positive results.
“At the beginning of Buhari’s tenure, we went to the Minister’s office, and they promised us that. So they later came to check the hospital, and since that time, we haven’t seen them again. The community has been trying their own, but the government is not listening to us. “
“At that time, they started the project; they mentioned a few other places they were doing the same project, the one for Kwali, one for Gwagwalada here, one for Abaji, and another for Zuba. They finished Zuba and Abaji own but abandoned the one here in Gwagwalada for almost 15 years now.”
This situation also mirrors some other cases of maternal mortality in Nigeria. World Health Organisation (WHO), in 2020, revealed that 788 women and children died per thousand in India, while 540 women and children per thousand died in Nigeria.
In its 2023 report, WHO also showed that there were a combined 4.5 million maternal, stillbirths and newborn deaths in 2020.
Sub-Saharan Africa and Central and Southern Asia are the regions experiencing the largest number of deaths across all regions. India and Nigeria lead with 17 per cent and 12 per cent of global maternal and neonatal deaths and stillbirths, respectively.
On the plausible causes of the mortality rate, the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), listed inadequate health facilities, shortage of critical human resources, inadequate power or water supply, commodity stock-outs, equipment inadequacy, weak standards/quality, and very low demand for critical services primarily driven by the loss of confidence in the system as the causes.
FCDA flouts FOI Act, hides project details, reason for delaying project completion
The Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) boasts of having the responsibility of overseeing “the infrastructural and physical development (planning, design and construction) of the new Federal Capital. It seeks further to ensure conformity to the global standards of new Capital cities around the world, while paying special attention to inclusivity, functionality, design and aesthetics.”
In an attempt to investigate the reason the project has been abandoned and uncompleted thirteen years after it was awarded, The ICIR sent the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA), requesting the project details and the current status of the hospital.
In the letter, which was dated March 28, 2023, The ICIR wrote in pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act (FOI) act and requested information on open and competitive bidding, budget provision, approved threshold, amount paid, and level completion, among others, for the Cottage hospital, situated in New Kutunku, Gwagwalada, that was awarded in 2010 by the FCDA.
However, six months later, the Agency, under the FCDA, has failed to respond to the FOI.
In another attempt to get the details of the project, The ICIR sent another FOI request to the Ministry, in which FCDA is domiciled, Federal Capital Territory (FCTA), on May 2, 2023, but has gotten no response.
This was despite the FOI act that mandates all ministries, Departments and Agencies to respond to such requests. The FOI act emphasised the right of both individuals and organisations to obtain information from government ministries, agencies, and departments, as outlined in its different sections.
Section 1, subsection (1) of the FOI act, states that “Notwithstanding anything contained in any other Act, law or regulation, the right of any person to access or request information, whether or not contained in any written form, which is in the custody or possession of any Public official, Agency or institution howsoever described, is established.”
Also, section 2, subsection 4, of the same act mandates Public institutions to ensure that information requested by an individual or organisation is widely disseminated and made readily available to members of the Public through various means, including print, electronic and online sources, and at the offices of such Public institutions.
Should there be a valid reason for denying a Freedom of Information (FOI) request, the act stipulates that the respective Agency must provide written notification to the requester, clearly stating the denial and referencing the specific section of the FOI act under which the refusal is based.
Beyond the FOI requests sent, The ICIR also sent several reminders which stressed the importance of the information and why the Ministry must adhere to the FOI Act.
Similarly, The ICIR reached out to the chief press secretary (CPS) of the FCTA, Tony Ogunleye, on three different occasions to seek a reaction on why the Ministry and its Agency failed to respond to its FOI requests and why the project was abandoned but he asked that the request be sent via text which was done promptly, but he is yet to respond.
Contractor evades scrutiny, shifts blame
Solid Concrete Nigeria Limited was subjected to a public search via the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) portal, but the result displayed three companies with similar names.
Even though the company name above was the contractor’s appellation as contained in the on-site signpost, the addresses therein were not of Kaduna but rather of Lagos, Bauchi and Benue states.
It is, however, uncertain if the company was delisted by the CAC or didn’t register in the first place.
Sadly, the contact number provided in the contractor signpost was unreachable as the service provider indicated it was out of service.
Meanwhile, The ICIR reached out to Aliyu (earlier mentioned), but he refused to provide the contractor’s contact details.
After multiple unsuccessful attempts to convince Aliyu to share the contractor’s contact number, he instead asked that the reporter speak to the contractor via his (Aliyu) phone. However, the contractor declined to answer all questions or grant The ICIR an interview.
He directed The ICIR to the FCDA, stating that he didn’t have any information to provide as he hadn’t been mobilised in the past three years.
Also, a source familiar with the project construction said the government is yet to pay the contractor money used to fix tiles and ‘other things’ in 2020.
“Before the previous administration handed over, the contractor asked me to take pictures. They do come and evaluate, and if they don’t owe you money, they won’t come to do that. If they come and evaluate, the contractor will be hoping to hear an alert. They even told him to continue his work and that they would pay him, but he said no, they had to pay him the one they owed him first. They came for an evaluation early this year and even wanted to come for the second time before they asked the contractors to send pictures instead. The fault is not on the contractor,” the source said.
This investigative story is produced with support from Safer-Media Initiative under The Collaborative Media Engagement for Development, Inclusiveness, and Accountability Project of the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ), funded by the MacArthur Foundation.
Usman Mustapha is a solution journalist with International Centre for Investigative Reporting. You can easily reach him via: umustapha@icirnigeria.com. He tweets @UsmanMustapha_M