Halima Abubakar Says Her Colleagues Left Her To Die
Lagos · Saturday 12 September 2026
The actress Halima Abubakar has said that colleagues in the entertainment industry neither visited nor sent anyone to check on her during a long illness. "They just left me to die, but God said I will live," she said, adding that she contacted the music executive Don Jazzy more than nineteen times without a response.
She thanked Patoranking, Mercy Eke and Regina Daniels, and said she does not hold a grudge.
The part that is not about any individual
Abubakar publicly appealed for 25 million naira toward surgery in early 2025. That an actress with a long screen record had to make a public appeal at all is the structural fact here, and it applies to almost everyone in the industry.
| What a Nollywood actor typically has | Reality |
|---|---|
| Employment contract | Per production, with no continuity |
| Health insurance | Almost never included |
| Union medical fund | Limited, and dependent on dues |
| Fallback when seriously ill | Personal savings, then a public appeal |
The appeal is not a failure of dignity. It is the only instrument available.
The uncomfortable middle
Nobody owes a colleague a hospital visit. An industry that leaves a hospital visit as the only available form of support has a bigger problem than manners.
Naming individuals turns a systemic failure into a personal one, which is satisfying and fixes nothing. The people she thanked helped because they chose to. The people she named did not, and there is no mechanism that would have required anything of either group.
What would actually change it
A funded medical scheme attached to guild membership, paid into from production budgets rather than from members' fees alone. Versions of this exist in other film industries and have been discussed in Nigeria for years. Every time an actor gets seriously ill in public, the conversation restarts and then stops.
Reporting: Punch Newspapers, LEADERSHIP, New Telegraph and Naija News.
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