The Nasarawa State Government has been urged to give maximum support to the Ogbere community in the Toto Local Government Area of the state in order to revive its dilapidated Healthcare Centre.
Arewa PUNCH reports that the dilapidated healthcare centre
had led to the growing concerns of health related challenges in the area.
A Youth leader in the Toto LGA of the state, Musa Jameel, while speaking with Arewa PUNCH correspondent in Lafia on Thursday, described the Ogbere community’s healthcare centre as a death trap that has claimed several innocent lives, especially those of pregnant women and children.
He lamented that the healthcare centre, once a beacon of hope, has now turned into a place of despair and avoidable deaths.
“Our mothers are dying while giving life. Our people are suffering in silence. The healthcare centre that should save lives has become a graveyard,” he said.
Jameel, therefore, appealed to Governor Abdullahi Sule to as a matter of urgency, direct the Nasarawa State Ministry of Health, and the State Primary Health Care Development Agency to look into the matter with a view to reviving the healthcare facility in order to guarantee the health of residents of the community.
He lamented that the PHC currently lacks essential facilities, medical staff, and equipment, forcing residents to travel long distances to access healthcare.
“There are no doctors, no nurses, no drugs, no electricity, nothing. The building stands, but inside, there is no life. We can not continue like this.
“I am, therefore, appealing with the Executive Governor of Nasarawa State, Engr. Abdullahi Sule to use his good office to urgently rescue the hospital and restore hope to the community,” he pleaded.
Musa Jameel on behalf of the Youths of the LGA, also demanded the immediate renovation and proper equipping of the healthcare facility; deployment of qualified medical personnel to provide essential services; and the establishment of 24-hour emergency care, especially for maternal and child health.
Jameel, while also appealing to the Chairman of the Toto LGA, Pharm. Ahmed Baba Yahaya on the renovation of the healthcare facility, acknowledged the chairman’s past achievements in other parts of the local government as such urged him to extend similar attention to Ogbere, saying that the community has been “forgotten wfor too long.”
Continuing, he pleaded with all the sons and daughters of Ogbere, both home and abroad, to speak up and support the movement until the government’s attention gets to the community.
Meanwhile, Arewa PUNCH gathered that in a bid to ensure improved healthcare for residents of the state, the federal government of Nigeria in partnership with the World Bank have commenced the revitalisation of 58 Primary Healthcare facilities across Nasarawa State.
The Executive Secretary of the Nasarawa State Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr. Usman Iskilu-Saleh disclosed this recently while hosting members of the Correspondents’ Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists at his office in Lafia, the state capital.
According to him, the FG had planned to revitalise at least one PHC in each of the 147 electoral wards in the state, but decided to commence with the revitalisation of 58 healthcare centres in some of the wards in the state.
He said, “The Nigerian government has shown commitment to revitalise these healthcare facilities across the 147 electoral wards of the state. So far, we have 58 facilities in Nasarawa State that we have already commenced revitalisation.
“When I say revitalisation, I simply mean that the facilities will work for 24 hours in a day. There is no time that the facilities will be closed for any reason.”
Iskilu-Saleh further reiterated the commitment of the Nasarawa State government under the leadership of Governor Abdullahi Sule to provide quality healthcare service delivery to the people of the state.
He further expressed the state government’s commitment to renovate and upgrade dilapidated Primary Healthcare Centres in communities across the state facing some form of challenges or the other, assuring that the government will look into addressing their concerns in the shortest possible time.
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