Speech :“No One is left Behind and Nothing is Left Untouched” Reconstructing Fractured Health Infrastructure.

 

 

By 

Rt. Hon. Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri 

Executive Governor 

Adamawa State 

A Speech Delivered at the Flag-off of the Upgrade and Expansion of Fufore Cottage Hospital, Fufore LGA, Adamawa State – Nigeria, Tuesday, 31st - August, 2021 

 

Protocol, 

It is with great joy and gratitude to Almighty Allah that I welcome you to Fufore town to formally flag-off the upgrade and expansion of the Fufore Cottage Hospital. Fufore town and its environs is a part of Adamawa that holds a rich history of the Fombina Emirate with a sense of pride. Its enterprising people and vast and lush arable land are prized assets to the State and the Nation at large. Therefore, keeping a dilapidated health facility amidst such a combined assets and potentials for human capital development is a mistake every responsible government should be angry at. As an administration, today's flag-off is part of our demonstration of such anger.   

Health is central to our administration’s 11 Point Agenda. We are committed to revitalizing the sector by building new facilities, improving infrastructure in the existing facilities and uplifting the quality and standard of services in all the hospitals across the State. Today, we are constructing over seven Cottage Hospitals, comprising 5 new, 1 completion and 3 upgrades and expansions and rehabilitating and renovating all the General Hospitals across the State. This policy is a carefully crafted road map, aimed at providing unhindered access to quality healthcare services for our people. It is also aimed at shrinking the needless gap between our Primary Health Care Centers and the Secondary Health Facilities in the State. The strategic objective is to lessen the burden of referrals on our people and decongest the Tertiary health facilities which are in short supply and most importantly distant and costly for our people.  

Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, last week, we were at Dumne in Song Local Government to inject life back to the abandoned uncompleted 40-year-old health facility. This is in line with our project slogan of ensuring we have an Adamawa State where no one is left behind and nothing is left untouched. At that event, I took time to espouse the central role a good, accessible and affordable health care plays in the wealth and well-being of a people. While we continue to deliver creditably well on the other development agenda, health is one sector we shall continue to invest in, with obligatory comfort because it directly translates to our collective wealth.    

   

The formal flag-off of the upgrade and expansion of the fufore Cottage Hospital is yet another ground-breaking event of our commitment to serve the good people of Adamawa State. It is one project our administration is happy with. It is a project carefully selected and strategically earmarked to serve the good people of Fufore and its surrounding communities. Once completed, it is expected to lessen the pressure of referrals on the Specialist Hospital and even the Federal Medical Center, both in the State capital, which are by design, primarily conceived to provide tertiary health care services. It is tactically conceived with a futuristic innovation as a mitigative measure to manage the anticipated difficulty which the people of this area are likely to encounter when the Federal Medical Center in Yola is operationally converted into a Teaching Hospital of the Modibbo Adamawa 

University, Yola.  

After a careful procurement process, the contract is awarded to Messrs Yaks Solutions at the cost of ₦186,000,000. The project terms comprise of reconstruction and expansion of the male and female surgical wards, reconstruction and expansion of the male and female wards, redesign and construction of the hospital entrance, physician offices and consulting rooms and reconstruction of the hospital perimeter fence and gate. It is expected to be completed and commissioned in the next 6 months, everything being equal, Insha Allah.  

For the good people of Fufore and its environs, like any other part of Adamawa State, I want to assure you that our best is yet to come. This is just the beginning of the good things coming your ways. As an administration, we are eternally guided by the dictates of our oaths. With the mandate of 2019, the people of Adamawa State have vested on us a debt we consider a burden we can never finish paying back. I profoundly appreciate you for the mandate and the support to this administration. You will never have a reason to regret. This is more than a promise. It is a deal.  

In a democracy, the greatest weapon of the electorates is their individual votes. INEC is conducting its Continuous voters’ Registration exercise, I want to use this medium to call on all citizens who are not registered to go out and register and obtain the voter’s card. Your vote is your right.  

Considering your size and the dynamics of your geopolitics, I have deliberately been sensitive to your representation in my administration.  you are one of the few Local Government areas with two representation in the Executive Council. I want to tell you that I am happy working with the two of your sons – Barrister Afraimu Jingi, the Attorney General and Commissioner of Justice and Umaru Daware the Commissioner of Agriculture. They have been of tremendous support and resourceful part of a team for changing the narrative of the State.  I am equally grateful to you for the gift of some of your other sons and daughters who are serving the government in other capacities, more profound are my good friends, the member representing Vere Constituency, Hon. Abdullahi Umar Yapak and the member representing Fufore Gurin Constituency, Hon. Shaibu Babas who have been performing creditably well at the State Assembly which is an integral partner in these success stories.  

Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, the enterprise of peaceful coexistence is indeed an expensive one. But more expensive is the absence of it. I call on all citizens to embrace peace for it is the foundation of every meaningful development. For us as an administration, we shall continue to dedicate our thoughts, energy and resources to the overall development and security of our people. We must not go to sleep until we ensure that no one is left behind and nothing is left untouched. 

Thank you and God bless.