What Is Federal About the Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital Kware?
By Bolaji O. Akinyemi
Injustice wears many robes in Nigeria. Sometimes it comes clad in tribal garments, other times in the cold, calculated cloak of bureaucracy. But perhaps none is more galling than when it parades in the holy name of federalism—denying qualified Nigerians the opportunity to serve the nation on the sole basis that they are not “indigenes,” even in the place of their birth or decades-long residence.
The Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital in Kware, Sokoto State, is today a graveyard of merit. Its Medical Director position has become a tragic theatre where tribal sentiments dance upon the tombstones of excellence and professionalism. And it begs the uncomfortable question: what is federal about a hospital that cannot look beyond ethnicity to appoint its leadership?
The idea that Nigerians born and raised in Sokoto, or those who have spent over 20 years contributing to the state’s health system and human development, can be sidelined in favour of someone who merely traces their roots to the state—often from outside, and in some cases having been away for as long as those rejected—is a direct affront to justice, equity, and the very spirit of our constitution. When we relegate citizenship to a game of ancestral lottery, we undermine the nation we claim to build.
Citizenship in a true federation should not be a matter of tribe, but of loyalty, contribution, and competence. Yet, time and again, our system punishes those who have dared to love and serve a place that refuses to claim them. We have created a nation where place of birth, years of service, and commitment to a state’s development count for nothing unless one’s bloodline is tethered to its soil.
This is not just about Sokoto. It is about a broken citizenship framework in Nigeria that sees Nigerians in the diaspora rise to the top of global medical systems—because those countries value merit over ethnicity—while back home, the same excellence is scorned by an unholy fixation on “state of origin.”
The contradiction is cruel. Sokoto State authorities reject resident professionals in the name of indigeneity, yet they call home their own “sons” who have lived for just as long outside the state. Are they more Sokoto than those who have built their lives, careers, and communities there? What sense of fairness sanctions such hypocrisy?
Federal institutions are not tribal properties. They are funded by all Nigerians, built for all Nigerians, and should be led by the most competent Nigerians, regardless of the language they speak or the land their ancestors called home. The idea that a federal hospital in Sokoto can only be headed by someone with Sokoto ancestry, regardless of competence, is a dangerous distortion of both federalism and fairness.
And if we must return to the drawing board of nationhood, then let this injustice be a rallying point. Let the Federal Character Commission stop being a quota-sharing bazaar and become a merit-defending institution. Let the National Assembly revisit and redefine what it truly means to be a citizen. Let us give new life to the constitutional debate on residency rights, so that every Nigerian, born or rooted in a place, can dream of equal opportunities within it.
Our democracy is on a collision course with damnation unless we anchor it on meritocracy. The absence of fairness will continue to breed the presence of resentment. And the silence of the just will only deepen the wounds of the denied.
The time has come to stop asking “Where are you from?” and start asking “What have you done?” Until then, our federal institutions will remain federal only in name, but tribal in spirit—and that is a crisis Nigeria cannot afford.
I remain yours in the spirit of Nation Building; The Bold, Inspiring and Dynamic; Bolaji O. Akinyemi, Apostle and Nation Builder. The President Voice of His Word Ministries and Convener Apostolic Round Table. BoT Chairman, Project Victory Call Initiative, AKA PVC Naija. A strategic Communicator and the C.E.O, Masterbuilder Communications.
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