A series of harrowing cases of allegations of medical negligence, including the death of novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s 21-month-old son, has ignited a fierce debate about patient safety within Nigeria’s healthcare system.
Following the outcry, the health minister has admitted “systemic challenges” and announced the creation of a national task force on “clinical governance and patient safety” to improve the quality of care and patient safety.
The family of the internationally acclaimed author says her young son, Nkanu Nnamdi, died last week at a private hospital in the main city, Lagos, following a short illness.
They allege the child was denied oxygen and excessively sedated, leading to cardiac arrest.
The hospital extended its “deepest sympathies” but in a statement denied any wrongdoing, stating its treatment met international standards.
The Lagos State Government has ordered an investigation into the death, as public outrage spread over the state of healthcare in Africa’s most populous country.
Just days later, anger surged once more after the death of Aisha Umar, a mother of five who ran a business from home, selling incense and fish in the northern city of Kano.
Her family alleges a pair of surgical scissors was left inside her abdomen during an operation in September at the state-run Abubakar Imam Urology Centre, leading to four months of severe pain and her eventual death.
“For four months, they only gave her pain relievers,” her brother-in-law, Abubakar Mohammed, told the BBC.
“Scans finally showed the scissors were inside her,” he said.
The family says they plan to sue the facility for negligence.
The Kano State Hospitals Management Board said it had “suspended three personnel directly involved in the case from clinical activities with immediate effect”, and has referred the case for further investigation and disciplinary action.
“The Board reassures the public that it will not condone negligence in any form and will continue to take decisive actions to safeguard the lives, dignity, and trust of patients across all state health facilities,” a spokesman added in a statement issued on 13 January.
These high-profile cases have given voice to widespread grievances that often go unheard.
Lagos-basedproducts manager Josephine Obi, 29, recounted how her father died in 2021 at the state-run Lagos University Teaching Hospital after what she says was a surgical error during a routine procedure for a goitre – a lump or swelling at the front of the neck caused by a swollen thyroid.
“They cut a major artery… it was a very minor surgery,” Obi told the BBC.
She said a supervising doctor apologised, admitting a mistake had been made.
The family chose not to sue to avoid a potentially costly and protracted legal battle.
“You will just waste money and the case will linger… we just let it go,” Obi said.
The BBC sent an email to the hospital seeking comment, but has not yet received a response. The BBC also phoned the numbers listed on the hospital’s website, but they failed to go through.
In Kano, prison facility officer Abdullahi Umar is still mourning his wife, Ummu Kulthum Tukur, who died three years ago at the age of 27 after giving birth to twins at the state-run Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital.
He believes a timely Caesarean section would have saved her life.
“She was in labour for over 24 hours… she lost a lot of blood and died,” he said, adding that the hospital still refuses to provide a death certificate.
Efforts to get the hospital to respond were unsuccessful as the spokesperson Hauwa Inuwa told the BBC she was on leave, instead sending the number of another member of staff, which did not work.
Joe Abah, a former boss of Nigeria’s Bureau of Public Service Reforms, claimed on social media platform X how a private hospital in the capital, Abuja, urged him to undergo immediate surgery for an ailment. Unconvinced, he sought further opinions, including consultations abroad, which concluded no surgery was necessary, he said.
Complaints about treatment in Nigeria’s private hospitals are rare, although that is where Adichie’s son was treated. They generally have a better reputation than government-owned hospitals, but only a minority can afford to go to them.
“Private hospitals are out of the reach of many Nigerians because they are expensive but without doubt offer better care compared to government-owned hospitals which carry more load and have manpower and equipment issues,” Dr Fatima Gaya, who works at a public hospital, told the BBC.
Many wealthy Nigerians also go abroad for treatment, including President Bola Tinubu and his predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari, who died in a clinic in London in 2025 after he stepped down from office.