- President Tinubu pledged sustainable energy solutions for hospitals, stressing that no Nigerian should die from power outages in healthcare facilities.
- Despite subsidies and solar projects, many hospitals still have unreliable electricity, which forces reliance on generators and disrupts critical care.
President Bola Tinubu has placed Nigeria’s failing hospital power supply at the centre of his health sector reforms, warning that lives must no longer be lost because of electricity outages.
At the National Stakeholders Dialogue on Power in the Health Sector, held on Tuesday, September 9, in Abuja, Tinubu, represented by Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator George Akume, said unreliable power in hospitals has become a national emergency.
“In surgical theatres, maternity wards, intensive care units, laboratories, and emergency rooms across the country, power outages too often compromise safety, interrupt care, and cost lives,” Tinubu said. “These outages cannot continue. Lives are at stake, and we must act now.”
Furthermore, the president tied the reforms to his Renewed Hope Agenda, which seeks to decentralise energy solutions, cut dependence on the national grid, and attract private sector participation. He pledged that hospitals would be among the first to benefit from renewable and hybrid energy projects backed by the federal government.
Recent government steps show a gradual shift toward that goal. In August 2024, the administration announced a 50% electricity subsidy for hospitals and schools, though medical associations later complained that many facilities still paid full tariffs.
In February this year, Health Minister Muhammad Pate confirmed that the budget included solar projects for teaching hospitals, citing the 100-day blackout at University College Hospital, Ibadan, that disrupted surgeries and training.
The government followed up in March with a national dialogue and created a multi-agency committee to draft an energy policy for healthcare. By August, Tinubu approved ₦100bn for the National Public Sector Solarisation Initiative to equip hospitals and other public institutions with solar power systems.
Yet many hospitals, especially outside major cities, remain dependent on flashlights and diesel generators when outages strike. Health workers warn that patients remain at risk until the government’s promises translate into functioning systems.
Decades of underfunding, poor infrastructure, and policy delays have left Nigeria’s health sector fragile. The power crisis has become its most visible failure, symbolising why doctors continue to leave the country and why medical tourism drains billions of naira annually.
Tinubu’s latest pledge raises expectations, but Nigerians will judge success not by speeches or subsidies, but by whether hospital lights stay on when lives depend on them.