Like the cases of previous victims of systemic failures in Nigeria, the case of Ms. Ifunanya Nwangene, the stunning singer who died in Abuja from the effects of neurotoxins from snake bites, may eventually fade, but one thing is very important: her case will add to the numerous reminders of how Nigerians have been let down by those in positions of power.
Professor Muhammad Ali Pate, Nigeria’s Coordinating Minister for Health and Social Welfare, will gladly list the health-related accomplishments of the Renewed Hope Agenda today, but an avoidable death happened right at the seat of power when hospitals failed to act quickly enough to save the life of a singer who, in defiance of all odds, dragged herself to medical facilities in order to survive.
According to sources, Ifunanya was meant to live, but the system had other plans for her. The corruption in the system and the ignorance of the ruling class wanted her to die, which was clearly preventable if the nation’s hospitals were prepared for emergencies.
Sam Ezugwu, the director of Amemuso Music, the organization to which Ifunanya belonged, stated that it took the singer more than half an hour to get from her home to the two medical facilities. This suggests that she might still be alive today if anti-venom had been administered right away.
According to what I understand, Ifunanya visited a hospital in Lugbe after being bitten by a snake, and they informed her that they did not have anti-venom. Thus, she drove a Bolt to FMC,” Ezugwu remarked.
It’s roughly thirty minutes away. When she arrived at FMC Jabi, she was still active and described what had happened to them. She even gave them a description of the kind of snake.
Ezugwu claims that a doctor later informed him that the poison had spread by the time Ifunanya got to FMC.
“The main thing that annoyed me was that a hospital like FMC would not have the necessary care. He remarked, “It is sad to lose her in that way.”
According to a different report, Ifunanya was bitten by the snake at around 8 a.m. and arrived at the FMC through the first hospital by 10 a.m. Her survival of the venom lasted approximately two hours, which is sufficient to preserve her life in a nation where the safety of its residents is of utmost importance.
Ifunanya’s decision to go to the two hospitals to survive emphasizes the fact that she would still be alive today if she had received treatment right away.
The Federal Medical Center, the second hospital she went to on her own, claimed to have injected her with anti-venom, but it was assumed that this was a face-saving tactic because Ifunanya was only given a drip.
It was clear that FMC didn’t do that, according to our correspondent, a doctor at a federal facility in Abuja who wished to remain anonymous.
He explained, “Look, anti-venom is not something you just keep without the necessary temperature, otherwise it loses its potency.”
Anti-venom, like the majority of vaccines, needs to be stored consistently between 2°C and 9°C in order to stay effective.
Because of the FCT’s inadequate power supply, I doubt any hospital, especially government institutions, can afford such.
Because of this, I’m not sure if they had anti-venom when the woman was admitted to their hospital. But her death should serve as a lesson, the doctor remarked.
The emergency response of people who should have known was more wicked than the fact that she was unable to obtain anti-venom.
The first establishment she went to, Divine Health Hospital, was really unprofessional. Snake bites are being treated as emergencies everywhere in the world.
The hospital failed to provide an ambulance for Ifunanya’s next trip after acknowledging that they lacked anti-venom. Additionally, they neglected to provide her with a trained guard who would keep an eye on her at each stop till the next. Additionally, they didn’t try to stabilize her condition. Instead, they let a cobra-bitten person make her way to another hospital.
Although the venom was slowly shutting down her system, a woman who had been bitten by a snake was compelled to ride normally. Even though it was a private facility, the first hospital would have handled her case as an emergency in a rational nation as snakebite causes an urgent emergency response, activating an ambulance service with oxygen on hand. In developed nations, these instances are referred with medical escorts present to guarantee the victim’s stability.
This is due to the fact that snake venom targets the neurological system and immediately stops breathing, paralyzing breathing muscles, causing abrupt respiratory failure, and depriving the brain of oxygen. Even though such mobility would cause the venom to spread quickly, Ifunanya was still allowed to find her way to the FMC.
Ifunanya’s situation serves as a depressing reminder of how Nigerians’ healthcare system has failed them. One of the main causes of preventable fatalities in the nation has been shown to be this kind of healthcare shortage.
Nigeria is among the nations with the highest rates of maternal and infant mortality worldwide, according to studies and reports that show about 1.2 million lives are lost every year as a result of deficiencies in emergency medical services, which are beset by persistent underfunding, substantial brain drain, and inadequate infrastructure.
Nkanu Nnamdi, the 21-month-old twin son of internationally famous Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, passed away in a Lagos hospital on January 6. In 2024, eight years after the birth of their first child, a daughter, Adichie, who lives in the United States, and her husband, doctor Ivara Esege, had Nkanu and his twin brother via surrogacy. After a brief illness, he passed away in Euracare Hospital, a private hospital in Lagos.
A day before Nkanu was scheduled to be medically evacuated to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, which is close to the couple’s US residence, he reportedly passed away. An echocardiography and a brain MRI were among the diagnostic tests for which he was referred to Euracare from another hospital in Lagos.
The parents filed a lawsuit against Euracare, claiming medical negligence due to errors made during the child’s admittance and the absence of basic resuscitation equipment.
A school headmistress in Ibadan was reported dead early last week after hospitals in the capital of Oyo State refused to respond to her emergency.
A relative of the woman, Mrs. Ajayi Omowunmi Fajuyigbe, headmistress of the Nigerian Army Officers’ Wives Association (NAOWA) Model Nursery and Primary School, Letmuck Barracks in Mokola, reportedly gave up the ghost after being turned down by multiple hospitals to which she was taken in critical condition, according to a report our correspondent was able to obtain.
According to a family member of the dead, Fajuyigbe, she was transferred overnight between hospitals in the Mokola, Adeoyo, Oluyoro, and Basorun regions of Ibadan. She was refused admittance for various reasons until around 1:00 a.m., when she was accepted for a substantial fee at a private hospital in Idi-Ape, where she subsequently passed away.
The nation’s leaders, both past and present, have failed, as these tragedies highlight. Muhammadu Buhari’s more than 200 days in foreign hospitals for medical care, followed by his death in a London hospital, is an indictment on his regime for failing to live up to standards after overseeing Nigeria for an incredible eight years.
Femi Adesina, a former assistant, was cited as defending his nearly monthly medical tourism by claiming that it was required due to the lack of specialized knowledge in Nigeria, so confirming his boss’s failure.
A presidential spokesperson won’t do much to defend the fact that the majority of African heads of state use their nations’ medical facilities.
Former President Nelson Mandela was admitted to the Mediclinic Heart Hospital in Pretoria prior to his passing; even throughout his active years, he frequently visited this facility.
According to our correspondent, state-run medical facilities, particularly military hospitals, are the primary source of healthcare for South African presidents and high-ranking government officials.
It was discovered that both presidents and high-ranking government officials are served by establishments such Military Hospital in Wynberg, Cape Town, and Thaba Tshwane, Pretoria.
According to sources, even the best government hospitals in Nigeria lack the essential equipment needed to treat medical issues. This has been the case with both current and former administrations.
Aisha Buhari, the First Lady at the time, expressed concern in 2017 about the appalling condition of the Aso Rock Clinic, which was constructed specifically to care for the first family and other prominent State House occupants.
Despite significant annual funding being allocated for the clinic, the then-first lady was extremely direct in pointing out that the institution lacked even a syringe and an x-ray equipment.
“I want to be truthful when I express a few words about Nigeria’s health care system. “I regret to inform you that it is extremely impoverished,” she added at the start of a two-day stakeholders forum on nutrition, adolescent, newborn, maternal, and reproductive health and nutrition held in the Presidential Villa’s banquet hall.
“Having the MD from Aso Clinic here makes me happy. I am glad to see you here, Dr. Manir.
When I was ill a few weeks ago, they suggested that I take a plane to London, but I declined.
Since there is funding for a designated clinic to care for us, I stated that I must receive my treatment in Nigeria.
We must be aware of how the N100 million budget is being used. Along the way, I persisted; they called Aso Clinic to check on the X-ray equipment, but they stated it wasn’t operating; they were unaware that I was supposed to be at the hospital at that very moment.
“I was forced to visit a hospital founded by foreigners.
“What does that signify? I believe that the moment has come for us to act morally. Of course we have policies, but the issue is always how to put them into practice. Thus, we must adopt a new perspective and act morally.
What does it signify when there are numerous construction projects underway at that hospital but not a single syringe? The building will be used by whom? Then, she said.
The facility’s annual budgets without corresponding inputs highlight the system’s innate corruption.
As of right now, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has been in France for almost 60 days, according to his advisers, for diplomatic and commercial purposes. Inside sources, however, have consistently suggested that the president’s trip is mostly for medical examinations, which is a criticism of the government’s pledge to improve the health sector.
Due to the system’s inability to maintain their expertise, the nation’s top medical experts are currently working overseas, offering services that the nation lacks.
Almost every industry in the nation is pleading for attention, so the systemic failure is not just in the healthcare sector.
Nigeria has fared worse in terms of insecurity because so many of its residents have perished. As the phrase goes, many Nigerians have experienced kidnappings and murders on the roads and even in their homes.
For example, the rise of one-chance criminals has resulted in numerous deaths in the nation’s seat of power. One-time thieves in Abuja last month killed Chigbo Mediatrix, a lawyer, and Chinemerem Chuwumeziem, a nurse.
Chuwumeziem was employed in the medical field, and Mediatrix was the former treasurer of the NBA Abuja Branch. The bodies of the two women were eventually discovered in various areas of the country’s capital after they were allegedly attacked by criminals acting as commercial transport operators.
Today, a number of communities in the Plateau, Benue, Niger, Kwara, and numerous other places are abandoned due to terrorists robbing their residents.
Infrastructure is in poor shape, and criminals use poor road conditions and cover to wreak havoc on innocent Nigerians. Due to the kidnapping or murder of their breadwinners, numerous families have been left defenseless. Twenty individuals were slain by terrorists in Katsina this week amid a ceasefire agreement where security personnel were in close proximity.
In the meantime, analysts have connected the increase in insecurity to a number of factors, chief among them being the mishandling of defense budgets, where money intended for the acquisition of contemporary weapons, armored vehicles, and surveillance equipment is regularly embezzled, leaving front-line soldiers outfitted in comparison to insurgents with superior weaponry.
Additionally, there is the problem of personnel allowance diversion, in which senior officials are suspected of withholding operational allowances, incentives, and wages, which seriously undermines military morale and dedication to the mission.
Additionally, there are several cases where soldiers leak operational intelligence to rebels due to low morale and other circumstances, which results in an ambush of soldiers and their eventual murder.
Additionally, there have been cases where high-ranking employees have been connected to the transfer of supplies and weapons to terrorist organizations.
There were also accounts of officers purposefully destroying or abandoning armored personnel vehicles and other critical military equipment in order to aid insurgent advances.
All of these are the result of a broken system in which Nigerians’ lives are being sacrificed by the government’s ongoing misdirected priorities.
The All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) founder, Chekwas Okorie, acknowledged that Ifunanya is a victim of a broken system, acknowledging that her death was not caused by snake bites but rather by the system’s failure to provide her with timely treatment. He conversed with our correspondent.
“Our health budget is insufficient. The inadequate medical system killed her. He claimed that she would have survived if she had received timely medical attention, making her a victim of subpar healthcare service.
Regretfully, it’s not just anti-venom. Many essential medications that Nigerians require are currently unavailable in our hospitals, and if you visit, they will advise you to buy them elsewhere.
Do we need to wait until another Ifunanya passes away before we find out? Nigeria’s system is incredibly depressing, and something needs to be done.
This is a result of leadership failures, so we need to reconsider how we choose our leaders. This is crucial, he stated.
Speaking on his social media page, well-known netizen Egemba Chinonso Fidelis, also known as Aproko Doctor, an actor, health influencer, and physician by trade, concurred that Ifunanya died not from snake bites but rather because the system she may have trusted failed her.
“Everywhere, snakes bite humans, but they don’t always die like this. They do not perish simply because they visited two hospitals and were informed directly that antivenom was not available in a snake-infested nation in 2026, not 1980 or 1970.
When you consider it, Nigeria has created a specific antivenom for Nigerian snakes. It’s known as “Echitab.” Why wasn’t this antivenom in the refrigerators of the hospitals she visited? merely because we’ve forgotten the fundamentals.
“Where there are no ambulances, our politicians are constructing flyovers. The primary healthcare center, which ought to be the initial point of contact in any functioning nation, is neglected while we concentrate on constructing ultramodern hospitals.
Dele Farotimi, a human rights advocate and attorney, lamented the circumstances and thought back to the time when foreigners were receiving assistance from Nigerian secondary healthcare facilities.
During the late 1950s and early 1960s, the Saudi royal family favored the University College Hospital in Ibadan. It was really good.
However, in 2026, Nigerian hospitals are losing lives due to a dearth of basic antivenoms, and all of our doctors are overseas. We have failed in this endeavor.
