THE former Abia state Commissioner for information, later Trade and Commerce, Chief John Okiyi Kalu, has publicly cried out for the urgent help he and his gang desperately need.
In his 2 paragraph lame cynicism about the Ngwu, Uzuakoli Primary Healthcare Centre used as a point of contact by His Excellency, Dr. Alex Chioma Otti, OFR, to commission a total of 16 Primary Healthcare Centres renovated, upgraded and retrofitted in Bende LGA, JOK started with an exclamation, “God Have Mercy!!!” and ended with an appeal for help, “We need help!!!”.
Yes! JOK and his gang of demented Lootocrats need help to remember the job specifications of a Local Government Chairman just barely 2 years after leaving office.
They need help to recollect how many Primary Healthcare Centres that were commissioned by Local Government Chairmen and Councillors under their Boss.
Who would blame JOK who just over 2 years ago saw nothing wrong with the wicked abandonment of the 948 Primary Healthcare Centres across the State.
JOK did not disappoint the public as no one expected him to understand the impact and critical place of functional Primary Healthcare facilities to Abians especially, rural communities after the Government he served left them in ruins, despair and dilapidation.
We all watched the televised National embarrassment and disgrace where his boss boasted to a global audience that his Government gives postpartum mothers ‘Five Hundred Naira (N500)’ as delivery gift and JOK was proud of the record and went to every radio station to justify the shameful outing of his boss
To JOK, ‘Five Hundred Naira’ given to postpartum mums by the Government he served was worthy of global attention but commissioning of 16 Primary Healthcare Centres just in Bende LGA alone must be swept under the carpet.
This is exactly what the erstwhile Chief Press Secretary and Spokesperson of JOK’s Boss, Bar. Onyebuchi Emamanka (Ururu-Aja) once described as practising witchcraft.
The project Ekwueme initiative of Governor Otti where the first 200 Primary Healthcare Centres across the 184 Electoral Wards of the State were selected for major renovation and upgrade to make access to quality healthcare delivery to all Abians seamless was succinctly captured by a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter and an influential figure in the history of Western art, Vincent Van Gogh when he wrote, “Great things are done by a series of small things brought together”.
However, it is not out of place for JOK and his gang not to appreciate the import of the ongoing massive transformation in the healthcare sector; from Primary, Secondary and Tertiary (Referral Centres).
They cannot give what they do not have. Access to healthcare services was never important to them and they preferred to pocket the public funds earmarked for the needed interventions in the healthcare sector.
The whole 948 Primary Healthcare Centres across the State was left in ruins, despair, dilapidation and unaccessible to the people under their government.
All the 22 Secondary Healthcare Facilities (General Hospitals) across the State were abandoned and became abodes for reptiles and wild animals, and the only State owned Tertiary Healthcare Institution was left in dilapidation and lost accreditation to train medical professionals.
Now that JOK has admitted that they need help to overcome their depression, bitterness and desperation caused by post election loss disorder (PELD), they can seek medical attention at the Primary Healthcare Centre nearest to them.
We now have 200 functional Primary Healthcare facilities across the State and another 200 to be renovated and retrofitted will be selected soon.
Ndi Abia, indeed, help is here!
Ctz. UKOHA NJOKU UKOHA, is the Chief Press Secretary to the
Executive Governor of Abia State.
