A short dance video recorded in a hospital corridor has cost one final-year student her place at Madonna University and left 14 of her coursemates suspended. The case has split opinion online, and it has put a hard question in front of Nigerian students and the institutions that train them: where does social media play end and professional conduct begin?
Madonna University has suspended 14 nursing students and expelled one over a viral video recorded in a hospital environment. The clip shows the students joking and dancing, and its caption reads “No sick o, na Gen Z full hospital.”
What the video shows
According to Prestige News, the students are seen dancing in a hospital waiting area, on a staircase and inside a campus bus. The report adds that the footage was shot at the Elele campus of Madonna University and uploaded to TikTok in August. The clip sat online for weeks before the school’s reaction pushed it back into the spotlight.
The student who was expelled is a 500-level nursing undergraduate, reportedly the one who appears at the start of the video, dancing in a hospital corridor. Because she is a private individual, this article does not name her.
Expelled or suspended? The confusion explained
The first wave of reports said every student in the video had been expelled. That was wrong. The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) later clarified that 14 students were suspended and only one was expelled. Fellow Press reports that the expelled student is the one who reportedly posted the video.
The decision first became public through a medical influencer known as Nurse Girma. She posted a video on Friday saying the school’s senate had expelled one student and suspended 14. The university’s spokesman, Chima Achu, then confirmed the action. He spoke to Premium Times on Saturday and said the school would release a formal statement on Monday. That statement was still awaited at the time of writing.
NANS asks for mercy
The student body did not defend the video. NANS president Akinteye Afeez said the students’ conduct was unacceptable and fell short of the discipline expected in a university community. He still asked the school to go easier, saying management should replace expulsion with a stern warning.
The association also argued that punishment should correct students instead of ending their careers. It asked the school to allow the affected students to continue their studies under strict disciplinary conditions. As of the latest reports, the university has not said whether it will review the expulsion or accept the appeal.
Nursing is a clinical course, so students spend long stretches on hospital postings. Their training includes clinical postings and hospital-based learning. A ward or a waiting room is a workplace where people are sick, frightened or grieving. That is why critics say a dance video there is out of place, whatever the students intended.
There is also the money. Newscentral TV reports that nursing tuition at Madonna runs to about ₦1.5 million to ₦1.8 million per session. For a student in her final year, expulsion wipes out years of fees and effort in one stroke.
Social media has not settled on a verdict. Some say the students disrespected the nursing profession and broke the rules of a faith-based university, while others call expulsion too extreme for a dance video.
One widely shared reaction on X, quoted by NewsTimes, asked why the school did not simply query the students, suspend them or add extra postings. The writer called expulsion over “content” too heavy a price after years of study. Gistlover noted the same split, with some Nigerians believing the students crossed a line by making content in a hospital, and others saying the punishment is excessive.
Not the first time a viral video has led to discipline
Nigerian institutions have faced this before. In March 2025, Delta State’s health commissioner ordered a nursing college to withdraw a query issued to a student over a viral video, after public criticism. That case ended in the student’s favour. Madonna’s case has gone much further, and whether the school moves in the same direction will depend on its formal statement and any appeal.
