Governor of Rivers State, Siminalayi Fubara, has declared that his administration places premium on healthcare delivery and has taken deliberate steps to provide medical facilities that will ensure, people have access to quality healthcare across the state.
Key Highlights:
- Governor Fubara said healthcare is a top priority of his administration.
- He unveiled the 105-bed Zonal Hospital in Omoku, equipped with modern medical facilities.
- The hospital will serve Omoku, Egbema, Ndoni and surrounding communities.
- Fubara urged residents to protect the facility from vandalism and theft.
- The Oba of Ogbaland praised the governor’s infrastructure projects and urged him to sustain the development pace.
Governor Fubara made the assertion on Friday, while unveiling the remodeled and fully furnished 105-bed Zonal Hospital in Omoku, Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area of the state.
The governor said the importance attached to the project was driven by the understanding that while lost wealth could potentially be recovered, lost health was much more difficult to regain.
“If you lose wealth, you have lost nothing, because so long as you’re alive, opportunity might come back and you might gain what you have lost. If you lose your health, you have lost something. It’s not an easy thing to regain a health lost,” he said.
He noted that healthcare was among the fundamental responsibilities of government, alongside the protection of lives and property and the provision of essential services.
The governor said the new health facility would serve communities beyond Omoku, Egbema and Ndoni, describing it as a strategic healthcare facility for the wider Rivers West Senatorial District.
“We know the importance of this, and that is why we pay very serious attention to the well-being of our people as a government.
“What are the primary functions of government? To protect life and property, and provide services. These services include healthcare, housing, and even the issue of the road.
“This facility is not just for Omoku. It is a facility that will also cater for the people of Egbema. It can also cater for the people of Ndoni, in serious cases. It can even take care of some part of people in this other side of Ahoada,” he said.
Governor Fubara also appealed to residents and community leaders to take ownership of the facility and protect its infrastructure and equipment from vandalism and theft.
He also urged the traditional rulers, chiefs and community youths to take responsibility for its security.
The governor said the facility was particularly important given Omoku’s position as the oil and gas hub in the state.
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“We need a good health service at this point in Omoku, considering the kind of developments that are coming up here. This is the oil and gas hub of our dear state,” he said.
Governor Fubara said his administration was committed to completing projects to standards that would withstand scrutiny, while urging the media and the public to avoid circulating unconfirmed reports about government projects.
He said the administration had deliberately ensured that projects were completed with the necessary finishing touches before commissioning any of them.
Special Guest of Honour, the Oba of Ogbaland, Nwachukwu Nnam Obuoha Obi III, who performed the inauguration of the health facility, commended Governor Fubara for what he described as tangible development projects across the area.
The royal father recalled that the Elele-Omoku Road commissioned on Thursday, was in a terrible state for many years, adding that the intervention of Governor Fubara has changed residents’ perception of their apparent disconnection with the state.
“It was a place where we did not feel the presence of government, neither did we know that we are part of Rivers State,” he said.
He also recalled the completion of the Ahoada-Egbema Road and the commissioning of the 33.5-kilometre Elele-Omoku Dual-Carriageway, describing the projects as evidence of government presence.
On the hospital, the monarch took exception to the description of the Omoku Zonal Hospital as merely a remodeled project, arguing that completing an unfinished facility amounted to building it.
The monarch linked the facility to the healthcare needs of communities in the area, particularly in a region associated with oil and gas activities.
He said that life and good health were inseparable, adding that the people in his domain had experienced several health challenges that had resulted in unnecessary deaths.
Obi urged the governor to sustain the pace of infrastructure development during the remaining period of his tenure. The royal father urged Governor Fubara to remain courageous in order to leave behind lasting legacies.
The facility includes outpatient clinics, a pharmacy, ECG and ultrasound rooms, accident and emergency services, a dedicated surgical theatre and radiology services on the ground floor.
The first-floor houses laboratories, two operating theatres, a Central Sterilising Services Department, Intensive Care Unit, paediatric wards and a newborn intensive care unit.
The second floor contains obstetrics and gynaecology wards, delivery suites, a nursery, female general and private wards, while the third-floor houses male general and private wards, administrative offices, a library and conference hall.
The project also includes a kitchen and cafeteria, recreational garden, laundry, mortuary, generator house and staff accommodation comprising six one-bedroom units, 12 two-bedroom units and 12 self-contained apartments.
For power supply, the government provided a 500kVA transformer, 350kVA and 150kVA generating sets, as well as the 90KVA solar panels and inverter batteries.
