Abia State Governor, Dr. Alex Otti, has disclosed that his administration has completed the rehabilitation of 120 out of the 200 health centres under Project Ekwueme, which is aimed at revamping primary healthcare delivery across the 17 Local Government Areas of the state.

Speaking on Friday evening at the Banquet Hall of Government House, Umuahia, during the August edition of Governor Alex Otti Speaks to Abians, the Governor explained that completed facilities have already been commissioned in five local government areas.

“In Infrastructure, we had flagged off towards the end of last year the Project Ekwueme which speaks to about 200 Health Centers rehabilitation within three to four weeks. That has been on and we were able to finish quite a lot of them and we chose to commission one per Local Government. We have commissioned in five Local Government Areas.

“120 out of the 200 have been completed. In the process of this rehabilitation we found that some of these health centers do not have accommodations for staff and we decided to expand the scope to ensure that at least one of the primary health centers per ward has accommodation for staff,” Otti stated.

The Governor further highlighted progress on general hospitals across the state:

“We are also fixing all the General Hospitals. The Obingwa General Hospital is completed and so will be commissioned. The Umunneato General Hospital is nearly completed, the General Hospital in Abayi Aba has also been completed and I believe will be commissioned soon. The Amachara, Ohafia, Okpuala Ngwa and Arochukwu before the end of this quarter will be ready for commissioning.”

On education, Otti said his government is tackling the dilapidation of public schools head-on:

“We continued to work and upgrade education in the state, both at the primary and secondary schools. 20 Smart Schools are being built as we speak and I understand one has already been completed in Umuahia. 60 others are also being completed, we have identified 51 schools and another 70 schools are receiving attention in the first phase of rehabilitation of schools.

You are also aware that from the beginning of this year, we made education free and compulsory and that gave rise to mass enrollment. As we get into some places, we find that existing structures were not fit to be rehabilitated and we found that we have to erect new ones. It is also sometimes better to start afresh and not to pan beat an already dilapidated structure.

We also came under pressure on the teachers and I am sure you are all aware that we have onboarded 5,000 teachers and I have given instructions that people should be posted where they could deliver their best.”

On tertiary education, the Governor expressed optimism:

“I am happy with what is happening at Ogbonnaya Polytechnic in Aba and I have been informed that we are beneficiary of ₦2billion Tertiary Education Fund and I want to use this opportunity to congratulate the Rector and his team for working hard to get such benefit.

We have introduced contemporary courses, the Polytechnic is able to offer Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, etc. that are relevant in today’s world.”

The Governor also disclosed that 771 healthcare professionals would be recruited to strengthen service delivery in the rehabilitated hospitals:

“We have received over 2,000 applications and 1,000 were shortlisted. The whole idea is that as we are getting our hospitals to work, we won’t be caught unawares.”

On infrastructure and power, Otti reiterated his resolve to improve electricity supply:

“The Light Up Abia Project remains in force. All the roads we are building, we will ensure that we light up the roads. We are working very hard to ensure that night economy works here. We have also fixed the first phase of electricity at Abia State University. We are moving to the next phase of setting up a turbine that will supply power to the University and its environs.”

The Governor also spoke on transportation and urban renewal, noting that bus terminals in Umuahia, Aba and Ohafia are near completion with new buses expected before year-end.

On youth empowerment, he emphasized his administration’s departure from the culture of handouts:

“There is a new culture of handouts, that’s not our culture but it was imported. We continue to invest in our young people. The Talent Hunt and Leadership Training that started a while ago where 1,000 of our young people are being trained by government and funded by government, we believe that not too long from now, we will see our people occupying positions based on the kind of training they receive.”

He also dismissed rumours that he plans to defect to another political party:

“For now I am where I am. For now it can be categorized as part of the rumours people come up with.”

In a strong-worded remark to critics, the Governor advised a Former Commissioner in the state Eze Chikamnayo that he will not be negotiated with no matter what he does .

“To Chikamanyo, this is a different Government and my response to his request that he wants to be part of this administration is NO. If he likes let him hang on the transformer, this Government will not call him. To the people that sponsored him, they sent the wrong person to talk about such.”

Closing the session, Otti reassured Abians of his administration’s commitment to governance:

“I want to apologize in advance that for those who want to be called, that negotiation will not happen. You will also notice that we ignore a lot of tantrums coming from them. We are focused on our destination.” He concluded.

Credit: PUO Report