THE STORY OF LAU GENERAL HOSPITAL: FROM LIFE-SAVING CENTER TO RAIN-DRIVEN RUINS

In 2010, I stood inside the primary operating theatre of Lau General Hospital. Back then, it was not just a building; it was a fully functional, highly competitive healthcare center. The floors were clean, the surgical lights worked, the roofs were solid, and lives were saved daily. It was an institution of hope and structural pride for the people of Lau Local Government Area.
Today, that same operating theatre is a ghost of its former self. After years of abandonment, the roof is completely shattered. When the heavy mid-year rains come, the wards flood, the infrastructure collapses, and a place meant for healing becomes a damp, hazardous breeding ground for disease. To speak plainly and with a heavy heart: In its current state of decay, I would not even feel safe taking my livestock to this hospital for treatment, let alone a human being.
Yet, when we beg for repairs, we are met with silence or told we are being "disrespectful" to leaders. It is not an insult to ask for the right to stay alive.

Lau LGA is populated heavily by rural, hard-working village farmers and fishermen who live miles away from the state capital, Jalingo. When an emergency strikes, a complicated childbirth, a severe farming injury, or sudden childhood malaria, these families absolutely cannot afford the expensive costs of private clinics or the long, dangerous journey to Jalingo.
Lau General Hospital is their only choice. When this facility is left in ruins, we are directly sentencing our most vulnerable citizens to suffer or die in silence.

Are our pregnant women and children dying away from preventable complications because our surgery unit is filled with rainwater?
How many more lives must be lost before our leaders realize that a collapsing hospital is a community emergency ?

 Relevant Facts & Budget Statistics 

We know that funding is available, and we know that structural transformation is possible in Taraba State:

The State Health Mandate: The Taraba State Government under Executive Governor Dr. Agbu Kefas recently launched a massive unified health sector budget reform. This system uses a bottom-up facility-driven model to address local community health needs directly from the facility level upward.
The "Demonstration" Budget: The state approved an unprecedented N653.5 Billion Budget. This fiscal plan explicitly allocates 70% (N457 Billion) toward capital and infrastructural development, with a core focus on health and infrastructure.
Active Precedents: The administration is successfully executing a total, world-class reconstruction and remodeling of the Taraba State Specialist Hospital in Jalingo, expected to open soon. We applaud this vision, but we insist that Lau LGA must not be left behind in this administration's developmental agenda.
Federal Constituency Funds: Our federal representative, Senator Shuaibu Isa Lau, receives annual multi-million Naira constituency project intervention funds specifically earmarked to fix emergency infrastructural failures within his immediate senatorial district.

 Our Three Specific Demands

We, the united citizens, voters, and allies of Taraba North, are channeling our collective signatures into both this online portal and an extensive offline signature drive across our rural wards. We officially call upon our leaders to execute the following actions:

To Governor Agbu Kefas & Health Commissioner Dr. Bordiya G. Buma: Immediately deploy a Ministry of Health engineering assessment team to Lau General Hospital. Formally include our facility into the ongoing state-wide emergency hospital rehabilitation framework.

To Senator Shuaibu Isa Lau: Match the executive's health vision by allocating immediate constituency funding to completely fix the leaking roofs, structural ceilings, and drainage systems before the worst of the rainy season peak hits us.
To All Decision Makers: Provide the community with a transparent, clear execution timeline so the citizens of Lau can hold contractors accountable.

This petition is not a political attack; it is our community shield. We are writing this with heartbreak over what our hospital has become, but with absolute steadfastness that we will never back down until healthcare dignity is restored to Lau LGA.

Add your name, share the link, and protect the poor village farmers of Lau!