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Makurdi is waking up to a healthcare crisis this morning. As of 7 a.m. on Monday, December 8, 2025, the Benue State University Teaching Hospital (BSUTH) has no single doctor or nurse on duty. Consultants, resident doctors, house officers, and nurses have all withdrawn their services in protest over eighteen solid months of unpaid salaries and allowances.
Patients who arrived at the hospital gates this morning met locked wards, empty corridors, and only the signboard still boldly proclaiming “BSUTH.” Security men and a handful of administrative staff are the only ones around, turning back ambulances and pleading with relatives to seek help elsewhere.
The strike, which sources say started in the early hours of today, is total. Pharmacy, laboratory, and radiology units are also shut. Even the emergency unit that usually runs on a skeleton staff during industrial actions is completely deserted.
Eyewitnesses say some patients on admission who could be moved have been hurriedly discharged themselves overnight when news of the impending strike filtered in, while those too critical to be moved are now at the mercy of relatives providing whatever care they can.
The medical workers, under the umbrella of the Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria (MDCAN), National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), and the Nigerian Nurses and Midwives Association, have accused the Governor Hyacinth Alia administration of abandoning them despite repeated appeals, promises, and verification exercises that never translated into actual payments.
“Eighteen months without salary is not a joke. Many of us have collapsed financially. Some have lost houses to banks, children have been sent out of school, and we are borrowing to eat,” one striking doctor told our correspondent on condition of anonymity. “We are humans too. We held on for as long as we could because of our patients, but we have reached the breaking point.”
Social media is boiling with anger. The trending hashtag #WhyFatherHabaHwande is a direct jab at Governor Alia, a Catholic priest, with many asking how a priest-turned-governor could watch healthcare workers suffer this long without pay while still going to church every day.
As it stands, BSUTH, once the pride of medical training and tertiary healthcare in the entire North-Central, is effectively shut down.
The state government is yet to issue any official statement as of the time of filing this report, but sources inside Government House say emergency meetings are ongoing.
For now, the message to Benue people is clear and painful: do not bring your sick to BSUTH. There is literally nobody to attend to them.
This is a developing story. We will bring you updates as events unfold.
