Governor Uba Sani of Kaduna State has lamented that his administration met 32 General Hospitals across the State that have not been renovated in the last 20 years. He said the situation had made citizens travel to neighbouring states for medical care.
Speaking to stakeholders from the 23 Local Government Areas of the state in Kaduna, the Governor said that over 1,500 schools in the Eight frontline Local Government Areas of the state, were without a fence.
He said although most of the hospitals were in a sorry state, his administration has resolved to remodel, reconstruct and re-equip six of the General hospitals, two in each of the three senatorial zones of the state, in the first phase.
According to him, as part of efforts to complement the government’s commitment to implementing the Safe School Initiative, two Kaduna-based business moguls, Alhaji Adamu Atta of Fifth Chucker and Alhaji Bukar Shettima of Barbados, are to build fences for 100 schools.
“One of the major areas of focus of our government, is the healthcare. In the last one month, I have received reports from our Deputy Governor, who is one of the most prominent, established public health specialists in Nigeria, that most of our 32 general hospitals in Kaduna as we speak, are not functional. Because of that, most of the patients from Kaduna have to travel to some neighbouring states for medical attention. This is unacceptable. And that is why we have decided to remodel and reconstruct at least six of the 32 general hospitals. This project will be starting by the grace of God on Monday, that is in the next few days.
“These general hospitals that we are remodeling and reconstructing are; General Hospital Rigasa, General Hospital Maigana, General Hospital Gwantu, General Hospital Kafanchan, General Hospital Giwa and General Hospital Ikara.
“The reason we believe we have to invest in the healthcare, particularly at the secondary healthcare level is simply because most of these hospitals I mentioned have not been given attention in the last 20 years, and that is the reason they are in their current situation.
“We are also focusing on education because we believe education is the greatest enabler. That is the only thing we can give to the children of the poor and they would be anything they want to be.
This is why we are also investing heavily in the area of education. But because of the unfortunate incident that happened in Kuriga, where about 137 children were kidnapped, we saw the situation of the school, then we embarked on the assessment of all our schools, particularly our junior secondary schools and primary schools, and the result was very pathetic, because before us today in Kaduna state, we have over 1,500 schools that need to be fenced in line with Safe School Initiative.
“For this reason, I approached some well-meaning citizens of the state, particularly in the private sector and as we speak, two of our prominent citizens here in Kaduna, that is Kashim Bukar, the owner of Barbados, as well as Adamu Atta, the owner of Fifth Chucker, have decided to fence 100 schools. We thank them for their effort and support.
“Most of those schools I mentioned are very important, but they are only in about eight local governments of the state; we are only talking about eight local governments that have problem of insecurity, not the entire 23 local government areas. This is why as a government, we believe we must protect our schools, we must protect our children and we will ensure we adhere to the Safe School Initiative.
“Most of the people that spoke here talked about some of the important roads in the state that need to be completed. I want to announce here that, our brother, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Tajudeen Abbas, approached me a few days ago and promised as the Speaker, to take some of the crucial roads in Zaria that have not been completed and complete them. That is his own contribution and we must commend him. That is why all of us supported him to ensure his emergence as the Speaker of, the House of Representatives and we are proud of him.
“We have also started attracting other support from development partners, the German embassy is also supporting us, African Development Bank is supporting us and the office of the Vice President only three weeks ago, intervened to support our ginger farmers who lost a lot of produce because of the epidemic that destroyed most of their farms.
“We are also partnering with other development partners to enhance agriculture value chains and support our farmers, so that they can have access to credit. Close to that, we made it clear at the inception of administration that, we would focus on rural revitalization, that is because we believe we must construct roads in our rural communities, so that our farmers can take their produce from the farms to the market”, he said.
