This is Part 1 of a two-piece series on community-led development in Nigeria. In Part 2, we meet the communities stepping in and pooling their resources to fill the gaps left by the government in local hopsitals.
ENUGU STATE, Nigeria — It was mid-2018 when Ndubuisi Eleje, town crier for the village of Ogbozalla Opi in southeast Nigeria, called his community to the village hall for a meeting.
The purpose was to discuss their collective development priorities. “When we met, our traditional ruler allowed us to speak our mind about the kind of project we wanted,” smallholder farmer Eleje recalled. “[The] majority said they wanted a hospital because we have to drive for more than one hour to another community when we are sick.”