Sommie Maduagwu: Time to Criminalise Hospital Negligence in Emergency Cases
In Nigeria today, one of the most heartbreaking realities is not just that citizens are falling victim to armed robbery, kidnapping, and violent crimes, but that many of them die not from the injuries inflicted by criminals, but from the cold indifference of our healthcare system.
Time and again, hospitals have turned away victims in critical condition, demanding police reports or identity verification before administering life-saving care. This systemic rot and gross insensitivity has no place in a society that claims to value human life.
The tragic case of Arise News reporter and anchor, Ms. Sommie Maduagwu, illustrates this rot with chilling clarity. Just yesterday, she was attacked alongside others in Abuja. Instead of being offered immediate medical attention, she was left to bleed to death because medical personnel insisted on a police report and identity before treatment. A young, promising life was cut short, not only by the bullets of robbers, but by the inhumanity of those sworn to save lives.
How can such barbarism be acceptable in Nigeria of today? How long will we allow hospitals to play bureaucratic games with human lives? This practice, which seems to be uniquely Nigerian, has been condemned repeatedly, yet it persists. It must stop, and now!
Medical ethics and basic human decency demand that saving lives comes first. Demanding a police report before treatment in an emergency is not only wicked and insensitive; it is wilful negligence. It is tantamount to complicity in murder. A victim in critical condition does not need paperwork, he or she needs urgent medical help.
This is why the National Assembly must act decisively. It is time to criminalise the refusal of hospitals or medical personnel to treat victims of violent attacks or accidents brought in under emergency conditions. Any medical personnel or institution that hides behind bureaucracy while a Nigerian bleeds to death should face stiff penalties, including criminal prosecution. The law must make it clear: attend to victims first, then ask questions later.
Lives must come before protocols. Humanity must triumph over red tape. In today’s Nigeria, where insecurity is already claiming too many innocent lives, it is unacceptable for hospitals, the very places meant to preserve life, to become execution grounds for negligence.
The blood of victims like Sommie Maduagwu cries out for justice. We must ensure that never again will a Nigerian die on a hospital floor because of a “police report.” The National Assembly has the responsibility to act, and the time is now.
To Sommie Maduagwu and her co-victims of Nigeria’s many inefficiencies, I pray that God grant your beautiful souls eternal rest.
From: Chief Chidi Omeje in Abuja
