Nigeria’s Short Life Expectancy: A Grim Mirror Of Neglect & Lost Potential

By HAUWA MAGANA

NIGERIA’S latest ranking as the country with the lowest life expectancy in the world is not just another statistic — it is a national indictment. The 2025 United Nations global health report places the nation’s average life expectancy at 54.9 years, a figure that underscores decades of policy failure, systemic neglect, and widening inequality.

This number—barely half the global benchmark of 73.7 years—means that millions of Nigerians are dying too young, too often, and from preventable causes. It paints a portrait of a country where poor healthcare, poverty, malnutrition, insecurity, and environmental decay have become normalized realities.

While other African nations have made slow but steady gains, Nigeria has stagnated. In 2019, the UN put our life expectancy at around 55 years. Six years later, there has been virtually no improvement. This stagnation tells a painful truth: Nigeria’s citizens are not reaping the benefits of its vast human and natural resources.

At the heart of this crisis is the collapse of public health systems. Chronic underfunding, poor infrastructure, brain drain, and recurring strikes by health workers have crippled access to quality care. Millions remain without basic medical insurance or the means to pay for treatment. Maternal and infant mortality rates remain among the highest globally, while preventable diseases—malaria, cholera, and tuberculosis—continue to thrive.

Yet the problem runs deeper than healthcare. Life expectancy reflects the sum total of a nation’s wellbeing — the state of its economy, education, housing, and governance. When insecurity displaces farmers, when hunger stalks children, and when the environment becomes toxic from unchecked pollution, life expectancy inevitably falls.

This crisis demands more than token reforms or political speeches. It requires a national health emergency plan backed by clear accountability. Nigeria must invest aggressively in healthcare infrastructure, workforce retention, and universal access. It must also tackle poverty, nutrition, and security with equal urgency, for health outcomes are inseparable from social justice.

The UN’s warning should not be dismissed as routine international data. It is a mirror held up to Nigeria’s conscience — a reflection of lost potential and wasted lives. As the world prepares for upcoming global health and development summits, Nigeria must decide whether to remain a tragic outlier or to confront, finally, the rot that shortens its citizens’ lives.

Because life expectancy is not just about numbers — it is about dignity, opportunity, and the right of every Nigerian to live long enough to see hope fulfilled.