Buhari Mother and Child Hospital Rots Away in Jalingo Eight Years After Completion
By Taraba News
A multimillion-naira Mother and Child Hospital built by the Federal Government in Jalingo, Taraba State, has remained largely unused for years after its completion, raising fresh questions over abandoned public investments and access to maternal and child healthcare in the state.
The Muhammadu Buhari Mother and Child Hospital, located at Wuro Sembe in Kachala Ward of Jalingo Local Government Area, was conceived as a major intervention to improve healthcare services for women and children.
However, a fresh nationwide investigation published by TheCable on August 28, 2026, found that the Jalingo facility remains in a state of disrepair, with parts of the structure deteriorating instead of serving the population for which it was constructed.
The investigation identified the Jalingo hospital among several federally funded Mother and Child Hospitals across Nigeria that have failed to become fully functional despite substantial public investment.
Residents Wait as Hospital Deteriorates
The latest findings reinforce concerns previously raised by residents and local media over the fate of the facility.
A 2025 investigation by Taraba Truth and Facts reported that the hospital was completed in 2018 as an 80-bed facility, funded by the Federal Government through the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Sustainable Development Goals, OSSAP-SDGs.
According to that report, the hospital was designed to have two operating theatres, recovery rooms, private and general wards, consultation rooms, a laboratory and scanning facilities.
But instead of becoming a major centre for maternal and child healthcare, the facility remained locked and without medical personnel.
The latest TheCable investigation says residents reported that government officials had visited the hospital twice in 2026, raising hopes that something might finally be done, but there had been no visible change at the facility at the time of the investigation.
Hospital Once Considered During Specialist Hospital Renovation
Significantly, the facility has not been completely forgotten by the Taraba State Government.
When renovation work necessitated the temporary closure of the Taraba State Specialist Hospital, state officials inspected alternative medical facilities around Jalingo. The Muhammadu Buhari Mother and Child Hospital was among the facilities visited alongside the Federal Medical Centre and other hospitals.
That development had raised expectations that the abandoned hospital could finally be activated to provide healthcare services.
Yet the latest investigation indicates that it has still not been transformed into a functioning hospital.
A Bigger Question for Taraba
The continued non-utilisation of the facility comes at a time when the Taraba State Government itself is intensifying efforts to improve maternal, newborn and child healthcare.
In July, the government reactivated the Taraba State Accountability Mechanism for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health, bringing together government agencies, civil society, development partners and the media to strengthen accountability and healthcare delivery.
The situation therefore presents an uncomfortable contradiction: while new programmes are being introduced to address maternal and child health challenges, an already constructed specialist facility remains unavailable to the public.
It also comes as the Federal Medical Centre, Jalingo, expands its infrastructure. FMC Jalingo commissioned six healthcare projects earlier this month, including a high-dependency unit and kidney centre.
Who Takes Responsibility?
One of the biggest unresolved issues surrounding the Mother and Child Hospital is responsibility for its operation.
Earlier local reporting indicated that the facility had not been formally handed over to the Taraba State Government or another institution for management.
TheCable’s latest investigation also raises broader questions about the federal Mother and Child Hospital programme, noting that several facilities constructed under the initiative across Nigeria have remained unused even as government continues to commission new healthcare projects.
For Taraba, the questions are now straightforward:
Who currently has responsibility for the Jalingo facility? Why has it remained non-operational since its reported completion in 2018? What will it cost to equip and activate it? And when will the Federal Government and Taraba State Government resolve whatever administrative obstacles have prevented residents from benefiting from the investment?
Until those questions are answered, the Muhammadu Buhari Mother and Child Hospital will remain a striking example of public infrastructure that exists physically but has yet to deliver the service for which it was built.
