In October 20, 2025, Hadiza Musa, a registered nurse, was kidnapped and later thrown out of a bus by “one chance” assailants in Kaduna State on her way home.
Across the country, it is frightening to know that the very people who took an oath to preserve lives now have their own lives under threat. BusinessDay gathered that Hadiza never made it home, as her body lay lifeless even before she was rushed to Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital (ABUTH), Zaria.
“Hadiza was a hardworking registered nurse, but we lost her to ‘one chance’ assailants,” Ibrahim Fatai, an eye witness, shared.
Amid the ongoing shortage of healthcare professionals, health workers have raised concerns about how insecurity and equipment gaps are endangering their lives, disrupting patient care, and creating painful voids for families and loved ones of the victims.
The National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) has just reported the deaths of 10 doctors in the last five months across the country, further straining patient care and increasing the workload created by their absence.
From Salome Oboyi, a senior registrar in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology who passed away on February 2 after battling Lassa fever she contracted while caring for a patient at Bingham University Teaching Hospital (BHUTH), Jos, Plateau State, to Abu Babatunde, a medical doctor on housemanship who was kidnapped at his residence alongside his younger brother in Auchi, Edo State, on January 2, 2026, health workers continue to face threats to their lives due to insecurity and equipment gaps. While Babatunde was later released, his younger brother was killed.
“Of the 9,000 resident doctors at the federal level and another 1,000 at the state level, 10 have lost their lives in less than five months,” Muhammad Suleiman, NARD president, stated.
In a country where one doctor attends to about 10,000 patients, the demise of these caregivers puts approximately 100,000 patients at risk of poor care, experts say.
Implications for healthcare
Brain drain, fear, disruption in patient care, and shortages of health workers are the imminent implications of the killing and kidnapping of health workers.
“When health workers die, it should be seen as a national crisis because patient care is disrupted,” the NARD president noted.
There are approximately 25,000 to 30,000 doctors currently practising at various levels and across different strata of patient care in Nigeria. To adequately cover the entire population, Nigeria needs over 300,000 doctors. When a vacuum is created, it means a heavier workload for the remaining health workers.
Segun Bello, founder and chief executive of Klinix Limited, also highlighted poor working conditions and equipment gaps as major threats to the lives of health workers.
“Poor working conditions and the lack of necessary tools make patient care more hectic, and this can lead to burnout and possibly brain drain,” he noted.
What can be done?
Tackling the insecurity crisis in the country, safeguarding the lives of health workers and citizens alike, providing the necessary tools for efficient patient care, and creating a safe and enabling environment for health workers to perform optimally are major strategies to curb this crisis going forward.
“Nigeria must safeguard the lives of its health workers to avoid worsening a crisis in a system that is already overstretched,” Bello noted.
The NARD president also advised that Nigeria should focus on real solutions to these challenges to encourage health workers and improve job satisfaction among them.“If anything should worry Nigeria now, it is that it should start focusing on real solutions to these challenges so that strike actions will not be the only option left,” he noted.
