by Kissinger Ikeokwu
For nearly a week ago I devoted my time on social media blogging about the Anambara election and how I felt Igbo integrity demanded that APGA won the election. My interest was however drawn back to events in my darling state after in company of friends few weeks ago I interacted with a supposed student Union leader in one of the higher institutions of the state. The guy was quick to tell us that Governor Owelle Anayo Rochas Okorocha has massively transformed the infrastructural landscape of Imo state since assuming office. According to him, they just concluded a tour of all LGAs in Imo State and were astonished at the level of infrastructural development in the entire nook and cranny of this state.
When challenged to enumerate the infrastructures he witnessed, the young man was proud to mention that he saw 27 Hospitals built by the Owelle Anayo Rochas Okorocha administration, and with that I interpolated because I couldn’t take that anymore.
My dear brethren in Christ, I was ashamed and disappointed that the leader of the Student Union Government of one of the most reputable higher institution in Imo State does not know what a “Hospital” is. That open show of ignorance led me to write this essay to review the promise of 27 modern hospitals by the present Imo State government, vis a vis its performance at the health sector.
To set the records straight, what we have in the 27 Local government areas of the state are uncompleted buildings and proposed sites for hospitals by the state government. Though the monies for the hospitals were derived from the monthly allocations of the various local governments, yet barely 550 days to go, Imo people are still witnessing construction in the 27 proposed new hospitals.
I tried to educate the young man that what makes a hospital is not how gigantic or superfluous the building is. It is not the blocks that make a hospital. It is the facilities and man power resources (medical personnel and expertice) that makes for the name “Hospital” and properly so called. You don’t need a huge, gigantic structure to be called a hospital. Even in Syria and other war fronts in history, people get treated in tents as long as the basic supplies and expertise are there. It doesn’t take so much to achieve success in the health sector.
Only a moron would say he saw 27 hospitals in the 27 LGAs of Imo State where I live and do business everyday? If they are truthfull they should tell the world that they have 27 sites (uncompleted buildings) for proposed hospital. They should also be truthfull to tell the world that the money is coming from deductions from the various local government allocations, so why the hullabaloo.
Now does Okorocha need to struggle to achive success in the health sector? The answer is a capital “NO”.
Only recently, workers of the Imo State General Hospital held a protest against the continuous owing of their eighth months salary arrears. The permanent site of the Imo General Hospital was built by A. MICHELLETTI LTD a reputable Italian company with over decades of track record in Nigeria. That is a legacy worth bequeathing. Udenwa did not contract the job for the new General Hospital in Umuguma to Mushroom companies yet you will hear clowns say this government has done more than every government in the past 12 years. Governance is not about show man and noise making. Governance is not about bravado and shenanigan. The process should be as sweet as the delivery. No reasonable man who goes round the Imo State General Hospital Umuguma can fault the quality of job done there. Sadly, the facility is less than 50% utilized. The doctors are not paid, equipments are failing from Udenwa days. Poor funding has been its case. Yet someone is telling a gullible citizenry that 27 new hospitals are coming on stream less than 543 days for him to go.
Immediately upon assumption, this government in its usual style renamed the Imo General Hospital Imo Specialist Hospital and that was all we heard of the hospital. Till date the hospital is operating at an underutilized capacity. The Imo State University Teaching Hospital has not received any special touch from the way Chief Udenwa left it many years ago. For nearly three years Imo people have been managing the rickety 11 General Hospitals while waiting for the 27 new hospitals which are coming at the last few months to the end of this administration, probably when his second term campaigns have set out rolling.
May I state without equivocation that one well equipped, well funded, and well staffed hospital delivered to the people of Imo State at the right time for enjoyment is far greater than 27 on going modern hospitals that will be used as a campaign gimmick for a second term. All a sincere government requires is to equip Imo General Hospital and Imo State University Teaching Hospital which are operating at minimum capacity with the state of the art medical facilities, qualified medical personnel and adequate funding, including the 11 General Hospitals which were leased to Messrs Lantech Solutions LTD and we would have been singing and reporting the success of this government in the health sector.
My analysis here would have also been different if this government delivered some of the 27 Hospitals in phases. Assuming four or five of the said 27 Hospitals are in operation today, we would have been in a good position to judged the intentions of this government.
In a situation where barely one year and six months left of the four years of this administration and we are still begging 27 Contractors to deliver the hospitals shows that this government has failed in an exam it set for itself. Assuming the 27 hospitals are delivered within the next six months, another six months will be devoted to recruitment of nurses, medical doctors and other personnel. You can agree with me that this government has nothing to show in the health sector. I know that after this piece, they will run around Imo State trying a quick fix to score points in the health sector. But we have scored this government low in the health sector.
With the Imo State University Teaching Hospital and Imo General Hospitals operating at low level, and with the 11 General Hospitals now leased by this government on account that Imo State government could no longer manage them and keep them at optimal level. With the 27 modern Hospitals yet to come on stream barely one year and six months into the end of this administration’s tenure I would like to leave it to all Imolites including the supporters and apologists of this government to award it a score in the health sector.
Or will anyone be surprised if I score this government ZERO in the health sector. I need to hear
