What used to be one of Northern Nigeria’s leading tuberculosis and leprosy centres is now a ghost facility. The Tuberculosis and Leprosy Health Centre in Narayi, Chikun LGA, Kaduna State, has been left to rot, with cracked walls, rusted roofs, and erosion channels swallowing parts of the compound. Patients who once got care behind hospital walls now queue for drugs in the open.
Since the centre collapsed, 42-year-old Musa Ibrahim and dozens of other TB patients have been forced to collect medication at the nearby Narayi Primary Health Care Centre. But the PHC was never built for TB cases. So treatment happens under trees, beside solar panels, and in open corners where everyone can see. For Ibrahim, the hardest part isn’t the disease. It’s the stigma. “Now, even children point fingers and say you have TB,” he said, adjusting the turban he uses to hide his face.
The exposure is driving people away from care. Health worker Chibi Gandu, who still attends to patients in the open, said many have stopped showing up entirely. Others come before dawn or after dusk just to avoid neighbours seeing them. “Tuberculosis treatment is not something you should interrupt,” she warned. The officer in charge of Narayi PHC, Phoebe Joseph, said regular patients are also avoiding the facility now, fearing infection after seeing TB patients collect drugs in public view.
The abandonment is physical too. Deep gullies have cut behind the hospital buildings. Goats wander through overgrown wards that once trained medical students from Ahmadu Bello University. Gandu recounted how her son fell into an erosion pit on the premises and got injured. At night, the area becomes deserted. The Village Head of Narayi, Sule Sarki Garba, said government officials keep visiting, taking photos and making promises, but nothing changes. The community gave the land for the hospital when others rejected TB centres, and he insists they still have space for rebuilding instead of relocating.
Nigeria’s TB burden makes the neglect more dangerous. The Federal Ministry of Health said over 400,000 TB cases were recorded in 2024, the highest ever documented. WHO warns that one untreated patient can infect 12 to 15 people yearly. Experts at the Stop TB Partnership have stressed that specialised centres provide privacy, counselling, and uninterrupted care, all of which collapse when patients are treated under trees. WHO’s March 2026 report noted rising case detection, but that progress means little if stigma keeps patients home.
Kaduna State Primary Health Care Board and the state Ministry of Health had not responded to enquiries as of press time. For patients like Ibrahim, each clinic visit means another round of lowered eyes and quick steps. For health workers like Gandu, it means watching a disease they can cure spread because people are too ashamed to be seen getting help. The Narayi centre was built in 1967 as a refuge for the most vulnerable. Today its silence is filled with suffering, and the community is begging Governor Uba Sani to step in before more lives are lost.