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Biola Azeez
Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq at the weekend formally received the medical equipment and hospital-related items donated to the Kwara state government by some indigenes of the state, who are living in the United States of America.
The formal presentation of the medical equipment to the state government took place at the state Ministry of Health, Ilorin with speakers at the event submitting that this had been made possible because the governor has brought the government ‘closer to the Diaspora community’.
Giving his speech, the governor, who was represented by the Commissioner for Health, Dr Raji Razaq, said he had from the beginning of his administration prioritized public health while noting that he was pleased to be associated with the Kwarans living abroad, who had made the donation possible.
Abdulrazaq said he was highly impressed and thanked the donors ‘for providing succour to our people in Kwara state’ while submitting that his administration had always prioritized public health.
‘On our part, the health sector has remained one of the priority areas and the means through which we have reached out to the majority of our people in respect of the dividends of democratic governance. I am happy to inform you as well that the resources and strategies that we have deployed at addressing the multiple gaps and unacceptable health indices that we had met upon the assumption of office have since yielded positive results.
‘The human resource challenges are also being addressed through routine recruitment to replace and provide appropriate strength of workforce while their salary packages have been duly improved and made regular.
Infrastructure-wise, we are still on course as over 50 healthcare facilities have received the transformation touch of this administration. Basic and social medical equipment and gadgets have also been procured to enhance the treatment of common ailments and diseases of all public health importance. We are elated to say both the primary and the secondary health systems have been reinvigorated while we have repackaged and upscaled infrastructure, equipment and services at the Ilorin General Hospital in readiness for tertiary medical healthcare at the state-owned teaching hospital’ he said.
The governor also noted that collaboration and partnership with relevant stakeholders and consequent payment of counterpart funds had since enhanced healthcare services.
‘Some of these include the malaria elimination programme, the accelerated nutrition result in Nigeria, immunization, basic healthcare provision fund and of recently, the aim act project where at least one primary healthcare in each of the 193 wards shall receive N4.6m direct funding from the World Bank-coordinated programme.
At least, about N887m has been allocated for this project. In this same vein, we are optimistic that our collaboration with your association and the donations you have made will further strengthen what we have been doing in the past four years and shall be made to fill identified gaps.
In our resolve to improve the healthcare system and in keeping with goal 17th of the United Nations, which is sustainable development goals, we shall continue to work and collaborate with public-spirited Nigerians to complement what we are doing and change the narratives for good.
On this note, I am pleased to accept and unveil the medical equipment/items donated to our state by our friends and compatriots, who are currently making a living in Diaspora and are based in Seattle, and the benevolent healthcare foundation Project Cure. Once again, on behalf of the good people of our state, I commend your contribution to the health sector through this marvellous gift’, he added.
One of the donors, Dr Lateef Olaniyan, who attended the event and gave a speech on behalf of others, noted that they had thought been giving necessary support to the people back home before now but were, however, encouraged to take a decision that this should increase in volume owing to the steps taken by Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq.
He also promised that the Kwarans living abroad will continue to support the state government and continue to impact lives back home.
‘Actually, the origin of what we are doing today started in 2019 when our governor was elected. Before even taking office, we, in the Diaspora, invited him to the United States, and we asked, ‘please tell us how you’re going to rule. What are you going to do for our people in Kwara State? What do you have in stock for them? So he came, and he responded to us. After telling us his vision for this wonderful state of harmony, we were extremely impressed that this is the person we need to follow.
‘So after he left, we were in the Seattle area. We have eight family groups in Seattle. We decided to look at what we can do to follow this up. What are we going to do to help this man to achieve his aims and objectives? All these things he said he was going to do. He talked about agriculture, education, health, and a lot of other things that we were so impressed with. So, the thing is what we are going to do to help this government. We in Seattle have been doing things not just for Nigerians.
‘And again, we’ve been doing this even before the emergence of this administration. We have renovated classrooms in Omu-Aran, in Pakata, Esie. Now that we have a new governor, who wants to help his people, who are fully committed to helping his people, what are we going to do to help him?
‘So, we in Seattle chose two programmes for 2022/23. For the first programme, we randomly selected 10 students at the University of Ilorin and we offered them scholarships. Glory be to God, we were able to provide 10 randomly selected students with full scholarships covering tuition fees, accommodation and everything, we were able to do that and the money went directly to each of the students. We received acknowledgements. After that, the next project we wanted to do was Project Cure. This Project Cure just quickly I should tell you a little bit about it. It’s the largest organization in the world that supplies medical equipment and they’ve touched over 130 countries in the world including Nigeria, Ghana and Zimbabwe.
That was why we embarked on this programme. So, we contributed money, we said we’re going to make this happen. Basically, why are we doing this? We are doing this just to support the governor. Mallam Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, as we all know, he is not the first governor in Kwara State. We’ve had so many governors and we’ve invited them all but this one is different. Because of his commitment, because he wants to help not just the elite, not just a selected group, he is interested in spreading love and happiness and good quality of life to every part of Kwara State.
That was why we decided to help him. Believe it or not, this is just the beginning. We still have a lot of things to do because the governor is doing his best. He’s trying and we just want to continue to help him.
‘I appreciate the state government and especially our governor who has been doing a wonderful job. I’m sorry he’s not here today but I’m sure he has a compelling reason for not being here. Nevertheless, we appreciate him for the reception we’ve gotten and like I said, we are willing to do more. This is just the beginning. So on behalf of the Seattle group and people in the Diaspora, I want to thank the governor.
One other thing I need to thank the governor for is his vision of appointing somebody as the representative of the people in the Diaspora because as you know people in Australia, in Canada, in America, everybody cannot be calling Ilorin that I want my road done, I want borehole, I want this and that. The governor chose a vocal person, Dr Omolola-Aje Sawyer as the Diaspora’s representative. So this appointment alone was part of why this was able to take place. Otherwise, it may be difficult or disjointed. It may be disorganized. I want to thank the governor for that appointment. There are so many things the governor is doing that I need to thank him for but time will not allow us to go step by step’ he said.
Commissioner for Health, Dr Raji Abdulrazaq, who had his speech read on his behalf by Dr Johnson Oyeniyi, Director of Medical Services, Ministry of Health, thanked the donors for supporting the Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq administration noting that ‘this kind gesture by the Kwarans living in Seattle and the Benevolent Health Care Foundation‘s Project CURE was in tandem with the policy thrust of the current administration in the state in respect of making qualitative, affordable, accessible and acceptable healthcare available to Kwarans’.
He added that the donation of the medical equipment by the public-spirited Kwarans was done in the spirit of collaboration which had been one of the effective strategies adopted by the state government since the beginning of the Abdulrazaq administration.
‘You will recall the successes recorded in the Malaria Elimination Programme following the payment of N82 million as a counterpart fund in the year 2019 which enabled the state to benefit from 2.3 million long-lasting insecticide-treated nets (LLIN) worth over 3.3 billion nairas.
Members of every household in this state became owners of the nets that were distributed in the year 2020.
The cumulative payment of about 340 million nairas within the past four years as a counterpart fund has also eased the full implementation of the Basic Health Care Provision Fund. The statewide programme for the first time ensured that at least one accredited primary health care centre per ward received direct funding through the primary health care and the health insurance gateways.
Many more interventional programmes including the Accelerating Nutrition Results In Nigeria (ANRIN) programme and the recent IMPACT Project have been achieved through effective collaboration with relevant stakeholders’ he said.
While commending the Kwarans living in Seattle /Project CURE for donating medical equipment and hospital-related items to the state to complement the numerous Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq s giant strides in the health sector, he also emphasized the need to support the governor’s re-election bid.
Elerin of Adanla, Oba David Adedunmoye while delivering his goodwill message submitted that Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq has done the people of the state proud saying Kwarans have had it so good under him.
The governor according to him cares about the traditional rulers in the state and other Kwarans hence the decision to support his re-election bid.
He also noted that the governor has continued to touch lives, especially the people living in the rural areas.
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