Edo State Government is irrevocably committed to advancing quality healthcare for citizens- Communications Commissioner.

The  Commissioner for Communication and Orientation in Edo State, Hon. Andrew Adaze Emwanta JP has said that the health care sector in Edo State under the present  administration has received tremendous boost within the last five years. This he said is evident in the commitment shown by the Governor towards giving priority to the health needs of all residents in Edo State.  The Commissioner made this assertion in response to the recent media attack by the Assistant Publicity of Edo APC Victor Osehobo on the planned structural reforms to be carried out by the Edo State Government within the premises of the Edo Central Hospital.

According to the Commissioner, the goal of the present Edo State Government is not to outrightly demolish the Central Hospital as currently being canvased by Osehobo and other social media hirelings of the APC in Edo State. Rather the ultimate aim is to improve the environment in which healthcare will be provided to the good people of Edo State.

“For the purpose of achieving government’s developmental plan in the hospital premises, adequate arrangements are been made to ensure that all Edo people who access care at the Central Hospital are adequately catered for while certain services are been re-located.”  He noted that the COVID-19 pandemic is still very much a challenge to the health sector in Nigeria and the world at large. The ongoing reforms in the health sector by the Godwin Obaseki-led administration of Edo State recently received a very generous financial grant of N2.5 billion from the Abdul Samad Rabiu Africa lnitiative, a non-governmental organisation. The aid is to assist the State Government in jumpstarting a tertiary health support scheme.  The grant is meant to equip the Stella Obasanjo Hospital, Benin City, in order to fully actualize the upgrade of the health facility.

“It is worth emphasizing that the accolades we got both locally and globally, as a result of our COVID-19 response between last year and this year is a manifest testimony of the determination of the Edo State Government to continuously walk the talk and give a human face to health care services in the State, irrespective of the toll the pandemic had on the State’s revenue

He reiterated the fact that “Governor Godwin Obaseki remains committed to progressively improving the state of infrastructure around health care delivery in Edo State.”  The Commissioner further said that “on September 19 last year, Edo people gave the Governor a mandate under the MEGA Manifesto to develop Edo State. The ongoing infrastructural development and institutional reforms within the health sector of the State are clear thematic pillars of the MEGA Manifesto of the Godwin Obaseki-led Administration.”

“The recent approval and provisional accreditation of the programmes of the re-built Edo State School of Nursing/Midwifery by the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria, is a clear testament of the Governor’s commitment in walking the talk. So, there is no retreat or surrender on the developmental mandate freely given by Edo people to our beloved Governor, for which the health sector is not an exception.”