In July 2018, Mrs Emeka Jacinth lost her son, Wisdom at the tender age of 13.

The widow said her son may not have died of an enlarged spleen, popularly called ‘Apa-afo’ or ‘Nwapa’ among the Igbo, if she was able to afford medical care.

“I tried managing his deteriorating health traditionally until his body system could no longer fight this bloodsucking illness,” she bitterly flashed back, still mourning the young lad’s death after many weeks he had passed away.

Ironically, Mrs Emeka’s house is just a stone-throw to the Imo government’s uncompleted and abandoned Ezinihitte Specialist hospital located at Iho community in Ezinihitte Local Government.

If functional, the hospital could have given the family a ray of hope on the ailing boy before he died.

Bereaved of her husband since 2007, Mrs Emeka, a mother of four boys and one girl, and a peasant farmer, would have fought harder if a seer had told her she would later lose her first son after seven years of the father’s death.

To avert such fate, sixty-year-old Sylvania Nwoke in July 2018 resorted to spiritual help when her only daughter Stella started manifesting signs of illness in mid-year 2014.

Her face dimmed with distress, at the same time glowed with faith when this reporter met her and Stella at Living Faith Church in Amanze community, Obowo Local Government Area.

All hopes are now cast on the ‘great physician’ to cleanse her daughter as she could barely afford their feeding let alone pay medical bills.

‘In 2014, I returned to the village (from Plateau state) with my sick daughter who has been suffering mental illness. I first thought she was possessed of Ogbanje (water goddess) and went to several churches in search of deliverance’, recounts the old woman.

READ MORE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/imo-residents-suffer-as-government-hospitals-are-abandoned-privatized/

This is common amongst Nigerian government... They will start up a project.. To finish up their project na war