Most Nigerians do not know that since 2014 a powerful federal law has granted every citizen the right to free emergency healthcare and basic medical services, and this ignorance continues to cost lives. This law, the National Health Act (NHA) 2014, was signed by President Goodluck Jonathan in October 2014, yet ten years later many hospitals disregard it and the funds meant for its implementation are routinely mismanaged.
Under Section 20, Section 27, and Section 29 of the National Health Act, no hospital in Nigeria has the right to reject anyone during an emergency, whether the person has money or not. Accident victims, pregnant women in labour, gunshot victims, stroke and heart-attack patients, asthma patients, and children in critical condition must be treated immediately. It is illegal for any health facility to demand payment before saving a life. This applies to government hospitals, private hospitals, clinics, mission hospitals, specialist centres, teaching hospitals, CHEWs, and PHCs. All health facilities are legally bound to stabilise emergency patients before raising any issue of payment. This is not advice. It is federal law.
The Act further guarantees every Nigerian access to a Basic Minimum Package of Health Services (BMHS), which includes free immunization, free antenatal care, free childbirth services, free family planning, free treatment for common illnesses at PHCs, free healthcare for children under five, and free emergency stabilization. These are not promises or favours. They are legal entitlements for which citizens can hold both hospitals and government accountable.
To fund these rights, the law created the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF), which must receive at least one percent of Nigeria’s Consolidated Revenue Fund every year. This funding is mandatory even when budgets are tight or politicians claim there is no money. The fund is designed to support primary health centres, drugs and medical supplies, health insurance for the poor, emergency medical systems, maternal and child healthcare, and services across all 774 local government areas.
Yet people continue to die at hospital gates because hospitals ignore the law, government agencies refuse to enforce it, Nigerians do not know their rights, corruption drains the BHCPF, emergency care is monetised, PHCs are neglected, and many private hospitals operate with impunity. Patients are turned away for a mere twenty thousand naira. Women in labour die because nurses insist on a folder fee. Accident victims bleed to death on floors. Gunshot victims are rejected without a police report, even though that practice is also illegal.
Nigeria does not lack good laws. It lacks enforcement and public awareness. Most citizens do not realise they have these rights, which is why hospitals continue to get away with actions that amount to preventable deaths. A Nigerian can die today at a hospital gate simply because the facility refused treatment without payment, even though the Act clearly states that “A health care provider shall not refuse a person emergency treatment for any reason whatsoever.” That phrase “shall not” is not a suggestion. It is a legal command.
If the law exists, if the funding exists, and if the obligations are clearly stated, why are Nigerians still paying with their lives? Why do private hospitals behave as though they are above the law? Why do government hospitals violate rules they are funded to follow? Why does the Ministry of Health look away? Why are we still losing mothers in labour, accident victims, and innocent children?
Until Nigerians begin to demand these rights, and until hospitals face real consequences for rejecting emergency cases, this nation will continue burying people who should still be alive.
