Pa Andrew Olagbaye is a knight of the Anglican Church and a retired civil servant, not given to sycophancy. He had been part of the creation story of Kogi State and as such, when he speaks, one cannot ignore him. He has seen many government-military and civilian.
Most of his friends never knew the private sorrow this quiet man was bearing, until recently when he busted into a new song on Facebook, celebrated and commended the good work that went on at the General Hospital, Kabba, now re-designated Zonal Hospital.
Olagbaye was dramatic with the swell of happiness, first showed the pictures of the previously embattled hospital: “This was the hospital that we knew about, which was like a slaughter slab; then suddenly…something happened…call it dividends of democracy offered by Captain Idris Wada, Governor of Kogi State since January 27, 2012 -2016”.
The knight is not alone. He and other inhabitants of Kabba are rather a metaphor for how the Wada administration in Kogi State, touched people where it counts with well-thought out projects, targeted their basic needs.
Access to good healthcare facilities have always been a problem for the people of the state. Past governments, of course, tried to address this problem, in small measures and left no impact.
When Capt Wada took over as the helmsman of the state, he knew there was a problem and was determined to address the problem. Health facility, he knew, was sacrosanct to the people’s wellbeing and he was prepared to go the whole hog to provide quality healthcare in all the nooks and crannies of the state.
Is there anything the governor was so passionate about and robustly committed to, it was to end the circle of poor healthcare services across the length and breadth of the state. It costs money to do so.
Even when it was obvious that the state hasn’t got the money to achieve all his vision for the health sector, his spirit was not been dampened, not a bit. His approach to healthcare may be described, was total healthcare.
Like most projects he embarked on, people described his health projects as revolutionary because of his holistic approach to the development of health infrastructure in the state.
With emphasis on touching lives of the people, especially the vulnerable classes, he formulated a health policy that would provide for the greater majority of the people at affordable cost and periodically, experts was brought in to provide free medical services for all ailment with the government picked the bills.
As was his trademark, he confronted the challenge of broken down and sub standard infrastructure with a very ambitious policy framework, to rebuild the entire health system, from primary to tertiary levels to avail the people of the state of quality healthcare at home.
To this end, the government undertook the refurbishment of healthcare centres across the 21 local government areas of the state during his first term .
As a matter of fact, every locality in the state can boast of at least, a health centre which was expected to serve as a mini disease control centre, and their class places the state in a pole position to being, perhaps, the only state in the country that might realize goal four, five and six of the Millennium Development Goals, MDGs under review.
At the tertiary level, the government of Captain Wada awarded a 250-bed teaching hospital in Ayingba. This had boost provision of healthcare services and also boost inward medical tourism as facility was being developed in conjunction with Indian consultants.
There was also the construction and equipped of a Diagnostic and Imaging Center at the State Specialist Hospital in Lokoja. The project was practically completed and commissioned. It was the first of its kind, in this part of the country.
As stated earlier, after being elected and sworn-in as governor, Captain Wada made it a point of duty to organize periodic free medical services for majorly the poor. No fewer than 120,000 indigenes of the state have benefitted in this quarterly exercise, in his first term .
Captain Wada also placed premium of routine immunization for all ailments that required immunization. Indeed, this came with a lot of cost on the government, but the cost implication was not enough to deter the government .
Little wonder, the state was the winner of the Bill Gates Foundation award for Best performing state in North Central on Immunization.
The Captain Wada led administration identified some iconic hospitals, selected them across the three senatorial districts and renamed the selected hospitals to Zonal Hospitals.
What this implies was that their facilities was upgraded to befit the new status. The selected hospitals have steadily grown in structure and competency.
Determination is an energizer. In other words, what money cannot give you, determination will.
This was the driving force for Captain Wada in his first term in office . If he looks at what accrues to the state monthly, he would not take a step.
In spite of all the achievements in the health sector, he felt he was not done yet. He started and completed on the multi-million naira 65-bed Odu- Orthopedic Hospital.
Again, there was the construction of 30-bed Model Community Hospitals across the three senatorial districts of the state- Ofugo, Ihima and KotonKarfe, alongside the upgrade of the Central Medical stores in Lokoja.
Lest we forget, the administration also bought and distributed ambulances to major health institutions in the 21 local government areas.
Drugs are essential to healthcare and for this reason; the government established a revolving fund for drugs and went ahead to also upgrade the National Blood Transfusion centere in Lokoja and facilitated the procurement of dialysis machine for use in the state.
The achievements of former governor Wada in the health sector, would not be complete without a mention of the upgrading of facilities and accreditation of College of Nursing, Obangede, State College of Health Sciences and Technology,Idah.
The healthcare policy thrust of the Captain Wada administration was to ensure that everybody who lived within the shores of the state irrespective of where he or she comes from, must have access to healthcare within a maximum of between 10 and 20 kilometres from where he or she reside. And, this was the philosophy behind the location of the healthcare centres…to allow every person have access to primary healthcare.
Those legacies and robust health policies was eroded in the last four years,hence his desire to return to Lugard house address the ailing health and human services sector
– Abubakar Yusuf writes from Lokoja.
