- Says Covid-19 Prompted Decision
By Kolawole Ojebisi
The outgoing Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, has said that he has no scintilla of regret for demolishing the Edo Central Hospital located in Benin City.
Obaseki revealed that his experience during the Covid-19 pandemic prompted him to invest heavily on the healthcare system of the state. He noted that the decision did not go down well with his detractors and critics adding that their sentiments mattered but little in the grand scheme of things for his administration.
Obaseki stressed that while he brought down the Edo Central Hospital, many health facilities that cater to the medical challenges of the residents of the state were built in its place.
The governor made the remark on Wednesday in Benin City while inaugurating the remodelled School of Science and Health Technology and matriculation ceremony of the new students of the school.
“I have to bring down the Edo Central Hospital to give way for primary healthcare centre across the state and I have no regrets bringing it down.
“In place of Central hospital, we have built over 10 primary healthcare centres serving the population one hospital (Central) used to serve.
“Go and see what we have done in Oredo, Amagba, Evbotubu and around other places across the state,” he said.
Obaseki stated that the lesson he learnt during the COVID-19 pandemic forced him to revamp the healthcare system and institutions in the state.
“In 2020, during COVID19, I then said if God made me to survive it, I will refurbish all health institutions in the Edo state,” he added.
The governor explained that COVID-19 opened his eyes to the poor state of the healthcare system in Edo State and Nigeria, adding that he wasn’t scared about the pandemic itself but the ability to respond to it.
“The lesson I learnt from the COVID-19 is that we must build our own healthcare system, and healthcare is not only about hospitals or infrastructure, but about the people who must be trained to deliver the service to the people,” he said.
He noted that the school of Nurses and College of Health Science Technology that would have trained the state health workers then was closed down without accreditation.
“If the primary healthcare centres are functioning well in the country many illness would have been taken care of before getting to a state that would warrant travelling abroad for medical treatment.
“Nigeria has more than 12,000 political wards. The policy is that there must be a minimum of one healthcare centre in each ward. So when you are sick, you will not have to spend more than 15 to 20 minutes before reaching a healthcare centre in your community for treatment. That is what we are doing in Edo state now.
“With almost 200 wards in Edo, if we have to employ an average of 10 health workers in a primary health centre, we need minimum of 2,000 and where do we have to train them, no where. But, now we have places to train health workers,” the governor added.
He said in 2016, when he became governor, young people in the state did not have the opportunities he had created for them now, saying “there was no one to care for them, it was only about politics and not development.”
Also speaking, the Governor of Zamfara State, Dauda Lawal, commended Obaseki for uplifting the State College of Health Sciences and Technology for the training of health workers.
He however appealed to the management of the institution to initiate a students’ exchange programme for the students from sister health schools in Zamfara State.
