Yes, travel insurance is worth having for a trip to Calabar, a coastal city in Cross River State in southeastern Nigeria known for its December carnival season and its Cameroon-border trade links. The honest case for coverage here rests on distance from major national medical centers and the value of checking current guidance before you travel, rather than any single dramatic risk specific to the city itself.
Calabar has local hospital facilities for routine care, but anything serious is typically referred toward Lagos or Abuja, Nigeria's two largest medical hubs, both a flight away rather than a short drive. Confirm your policy covers medical evacuation and domestic transfer between Nigerian cities, since that referral step is the part most likely to involve real cost and delay, and a routine clinic-visit benefit alone will not cover it.
Malaria is a genuine risk across much of Nigeria, including Cross River State, and travelers should discuss preventive medication with a doctor before departure; insurance still matters for the treatment side of things if prevention fails, so confirm your policy covers illness acquired during the trip rather than only accident-related claims. Given how much conditions can vary by region within Nigeria, checking your home government's current travel advice for the specific area you are visiting is worth doing shortly before departure rather than relying on general assumptions about the country as a whole.
The carnival season around December brings heavier crowds and busier local transport around Calabar, which is worth factoring into trip-delay expectations if your visit falls in that window. Keep any clinic paperwork, receipts for treatment or medication, and documentation of any inter-city transfer, since claims involving referral to Lagos or Abuja need clear records of both legs. Check whether your existing health cover extends abroad and specifically to Nigeria before assuming it applies, and confirm your policy's evacuation benefit explicitly covers domestic transfer within the country.