Shehu Danjuma Umar, a Niger State resident, is mourning after doctors at Jummai Babangida Aliyu General Hospital in Minna operated on Ummi Yusuf Maksudi, his wife, without a reliable power supply resulting in her death on Thursday.

The couple got married on October 14, 2023. On that day, medical officials were conducting a fibroid operation on Maksudi.

The hospital was named after Jummai Babangida Aliyu, wife of Muazu Babangida Aliyu, a former governor of Niger.

Medical staff at the government-run hospital commenced a surgical procedure on Umar’s wife using power supply from the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company.

Public power supply across Nigeria is known to be inconsistent and erratic. Distribution companies (DisCos) could restore power in one second and interrupt it next second.

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Consequently, many hospitals don’t rely on public power supply when performing life-threatening surgical procedures.

In the case of Maksudi, Jummai Babangida Aliyu General Hospital relied on a public power supply to carry out the surgery.

“Thirty minutes into my wife’s operation, NEPA [an acronym for the National Electric Power Authority colloquially used to refer to DisCos in Nigeria] interrupted the light,” Umar narrated on his Facebook account on Saturday.

“And no fuel in the generator attached to the theatre at the hospital. Minutes later, they brought fuel and poured it into the generator. But it refused to start.”

While they were battling with the generator, Umar’s wife was lying helplessly in the theatre.

“They had to look for a mechanic. My wife was still inside the theatre. One of the nurses told me not to worry as they had continued with the operation even without light,” Umar added.

“The mechanic arrived. When he ran checks on the generator, he discovered that there were some spare parts he needed to run to buy at the Ogbomosho area in Minna.

“My wife was still inside theatre. An hour later, power was restored. The generator had not come up and mechanic was still on it. So the operation continued.

“An operation that was not supposed to last for 90 minutes had taken hours, from 4 pm to 7 pm.

“I had waited for 11 hours (8:44 am minutes to 7 pm) outside the theatre, optimistically praying for a successful operation.

“A sight at my wife was a very devastating experience, more devastating than my mum and I experience inside the ward.”

Umar said that he did not narrate that preventable incident to target anyone, but to save lives.

He added that he had left everything to God to judge, saying that the deceased would be buried on Sunday at his family house in Hayan Gwari, off Awwal Ibrahim Road, Bosso, Minna.

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“My elder brother has ordered me to stop posting [online] and I have no choice than to obey. If not, the remaining story is more disheartening,” the widower said.

“The narration is not to target anybody. [It is] just to save lives and to avoid future occurrences. I had reported my case to Almighty Allah already.”

Friends have described Maksudi as a respectful and humble lady whom they would sorely miss.

When contacted for more details, Umar said he was still mourning and could not grant any interview at press time.