An appeal has gone to Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State to stop paying lip service to the health sector and be about making the State General Hospitals perform optimally.

 

An organisation known as Change Agent Movement, made this appeal in a statement made available to newsmen, saying that the energy dissipated by the governor to sustain the hospital built for his wife, ABC Hub, should be used to turn around the health sector in the state.

 

The statement signed by the Chairman and Secretary of the body, Messrs Abolaji Adeosun and Malik Adehun, respectively, explained that the commitment of the governor and his wife to the ABC clinic was excellent, while the Adeoyo General hospital, Ring Road, which is a few miles away had been in a sorry state, since the inception of Ajimobi administration in 2011.

 

Adeosun and Adehun said that it was worrisome that the General Hospitals in the state are in a bad state, while the private clinic of the wife of the governor, ABC, is being adjudged as one of the best in the country by its proprietor. This ABC clinic was constructed during the first term of the governor, with the claim that it was privately funded with monies sourced from both local and international support groups.

 

“However, it is painful that the same international and local support groups cannot be used to turn around the State General Hospitals. For over three years, the governor has promised to renovate the hospitals through public-private partnership, but up till now, nothing has happened and the Governor’s wife’s hospital is being upgraded every time.

 

 

“It is very pathetic that the immediate past Commissioner for Health in the state, who was seen as a right peg in a square hole, being a Ph.D. holder in neuroscience couldn’t help the state hospitals to get out of their appalling state. Even, the General Hospital in the commissioner’s town, Okeho, now harbours rams, goats, et al instead of patients.

 

“The governor’s mantra of treating over 500,000 patients through the free health medical mission was a fluke. The said free health mission was last heard of in 2012. Is the governor saying people no longer need treatment?

 

“The governor also claimed to have employed 1, 000 medical staff out of which 300 were doctors. These figures seem to be fabricated as the General Hospitals are seriously in need of medical personnel. The claim about the employment of medical personnel was also faulted by an opposition party in the state and till today, neither the governor nor his team has given us the statistical placement of the personnel employed by them.

 

“These phony employment and rehabilitation of the State General Hospitals should stop. The saying that health is wealth should be taken seriously in the interest of the people. Their belief on the government of the people should be upheld by Governor Ajimobi and he should stop sacrificing state apparatus for family business.

 

“We want to remind Governor Ajimobi that he should not sacrifice the health institutions of the state for the pet project of his wife. We appeal to him to make concerted efforts to turn the State General Hospitals around, for the sake of the less- privileged like us who rely on affordable government institutions for our daily lives,” the group said.

 

By: Daily Time