At death’s mercy: Inside Sokoto community where residents endure nightmare to access healthcare

By Jabir Ridwan

Health, they say, is wealth. Globally, access to quality healthcare is one of the fundamental rights of citizens.

But for residents of Saketa, a village in Dinawa ward, Wurno Local Government Area (LGA) of Sokoto state, getting good healthcare has become a nightmare.

The community’s only primary health centre is in shambles with sagging roofs and lack of essential facilities.

CRISPNG gathered that pregnant women, children and others in the village travel for about 3-4 km to Achida, a neighbouring community, to get healthcare whenever they are sick.

Ahmad Saketa, a resident of the community, said they have been suffering due to lack of facilities at the hospital.

According to him, several times politicians have made promises to fix the health centre but none walked the talk.

He said: “There are lots of issues regarding the healthcare centre. Honestly, the health personnel are always available but they are of no use since there are not facilities to work with. If we have patients, we have to take them to the neighbouring community”.

Another resident who simply identified himself as Ibrahim called on the government and relevant stakeholders to come to their aid, describing the condition of the hospital as “moribund”.

“The hospital is about to collapse as you as you can see. What we are appealing is that the government should revive the hospital,” he said.

“Our people are living at risk due to lack of functional hospital. We’re forced to travel to far places to access healthcare which is not easy because the roads are in bad condition.

“We have complained severally nothing concrete as been done about the situation. The hospital only has a generator, nothing else is inside and that is why it remain locked for a while.”

It is understood that the federal government rehabilitated about 10,000 primary healthcare centres across the country but that of Saketa was abandoned.

Bashir Umar,  son to driver of the hospital’s ambulance, said the vehicle has not been functioning for about two years.

He added that women in the community no longer give birth at the centre due to lack of necessary infrastructure.

Umar said several people usually die in the community whenever there is a disease outbreak because of no functional health centre to fight it.

According to him, about 40 people died during the last outbreak that occurred in the community.

“It is very unfortunate during that outbreak, we lost about 40 people inside our community due to poor state of the primary healthcare. All those that lost their lives either died in neighbouring hospital or on their way back home after treatment, we face a lot of challenges,” he said.

“We will appreciate if the government and other community leaders can help to confront the challenges facing the health centre. Health is indeed wealth.”

Below are photos of the dilapidated facility: