Reported by: Oahimire Omone Precious | Edited by: Oravbiere Osayomore Promise.
The residents of Shere community in the Bwari Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory have lived with a cruel irony for the past 15 years. A multi-million naira general hospital, meant to serve over 10,000 residents across Shere and neighbouring communities including Igu, Kawu, and Piko Panda, stands as an empty shell—abandoned since construction began in 2011. On August 12, 2026, the civic accountability platform Tracka (@TrackaNG) shone a harsh spotlight on the abandoned facility, calling on FCT Minister Nyesom Wike and the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) to complete the project and open it for use.
The post, which has since gone viral, describes a health centre that has become a monument to wasted public resources. "This health centre has been abandoned since they started the project in 2011. This facility which should have been serving over 10,000 residents of Shere including Igu, Kawu, and Piko panda communities is now standing as a waste of public resources," Tracka wrote. The platform's appeal to Minister Wike and the NPHCDA, tagged with the hashtag #FixOurPHCs, reflects the growing frustration of a community that has been forced to travel to Mpape, Bwari town, or Wuse general hospital for even basic healthcare for a decade and a half.
The story of Shere's abandoned hospital is not new. As early as 2014, official documents indicated that a cottage hospital in Shere was under construction [7†L7-L8]. By 2016, investigative reports painted a grim picture of a community abandoned by successive governments. A Blueprint Newspapers investigation published in May 2016 described Shere as "an Abuja community in abandonment," noting that the healthcare centre was an "eyesore" [6†L9-L10]. Residents told reporters that in cases of emergency, they had to refer patients to Bwari General Hospital, a journey that has remained a daily reality for over a decade [6†L13-L14].
The plight of women in the community has been particularly harrowing. In 2017, Caracal Reports documented the story of Habiba, a resident of Shere who had to endure a one-hour motorcycle ride over a deplorable road at 2 a.m. to deliver her baby at a hospital in a neighbouring community [6†L28-L32]. The report noted that the only good hospital was in Bwari, a journey that has cost lives and caused untold suffering. In 2023, The Whistler reported that the commute time between Pmalogo and Shere – where a Primary Health Care Centre is sited – is a 35-minute motorcycle ride, and about two hours on foot [7†L22-L25]. Pregnant women have been forced to trek miles to access care, with some losing their babies along the way.
Shere Ward, which encompasses multiple communities, has been plagued by a complete lack of healthcare infrastructure. A 2018 report by the Collaborative Media Project noted that infant deaths and miscarriages had become repeated experiences for women in Pmalogo and Dnakulu communities within Shere Ward [6†L16-L18]. The only primary healthcare facility in Shere Koro was described as dilapidated, lacking equipment, with just a nurse to serve the entire population [9†L6-L9]. In 2017, the Japanese government handed over a 15-bed capacity clinic, fully equipped with solar-powered panels, to Shere Community, but that facility appears to have been insufficient to address the scale of the need [0†L42-L44].
The federal government's own data confirms the scale of the problem. In May 2026, the NPHCDA reported that no fewer than 3,715 Primary Healthcare Centres across 19 states and the FCT are currently non-operational, with the FCT accounting for 62 dormant centres [10†L5-L8]. The Shere general hospital is part of a broader pattern of abandoned health projects across the country. Tracka, a civic tech platform that tracks government projects, has previously reported that federal government projects worth billions of naira were either never executed, abandoned, or fraudulently delivered [2†L12-L14]. In its 2024/2025 report, Tracka found that of 107 projects tracked, eight were abandoned while four were fraudulently delivered [2†L31-L32].
Minister Nyesom Wike has acknowledged the challenge of abandoned projects in the FCT. In July 2026, he promised new hospitals and bus terminals in Bwari and Gwagwalada, noting that nearly 70 per cent of the projects delivered by his administration were inherited from previous governments but had been abandoned [5†L10-L14]. He has also initiated work at the abandoned Utako Hospital and is carrying out rehabilitation at Gwarimpa Hospital [5†L17-L18]. However, for the residents of Shere, these promises have yet to translate into action. The hospital that was supposed to serve them remains incomplete, a testament to the gap between political rhetoric and the lived reality of ordinary Nigerians.
The Shere community's 15-year wait for a functional hospital is a damning indictment of governance in Nigeria's capital city. The multi-million naira facility, built with public funds, is now a rotting shell, its potential to save lives wasted by bureaucratic inertia and political neglect. The residents of Shere, Igu, Kawu, and Piko Panda have been forced to travel miles for healthcare, often with fatal consequences. The Tracka post has brought renewed attention to this long-standing injustice, but whether it will finally spur action remains to be seen. For the over 10,000 residents of Shere and its surrounding communities, the message to Minister Wike and the NPHCDA is simple: complete the hospital. Open it. Let the people of Shere finally have access to the healthcare they have been denied for 15 years.
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