Why Orji prioritised healthcare in Abia

Health, they say, is wealth, and that is why Governor Theodore Orji made it one of the priority areas of his administration. He also believes that one has to be alive to enjoy the benefits of democracy. Consequently, the administration committed enormous resources to the health sector to ensure that the health of Abians and non-Abians alike are adequately taken care of.

To ensure that it realises its plans for the health sector, the state government, through its Planning Commission worked with the office of the presidency, to set up health centres in all the electoral wards in the state, to bring medical services closer to the people. The administration built 750 health centres across the state.

It is also worthy to note that the health centres were equipped to ensure that they are functional. According to Governor Orji, “We want every ward to have a health centre to make health care available to all.” The government set up a new building at the diagnostic centre, Umuahia, which houses the dialysis centre.

The installed dialysis machine will help people with renal problems. They would no longer go to Teaching Hospital, Enugu, Lagos or Zaria for dialysis. To reduce infant mortality rate in the state, the state government under Governor Orji (Ochendo Global), established children specialist centres in Amachara General Hospital and the Abia State University Teaching Hospital (ABSUTH), Aba.

The children specialist centres are currently operational. The rehabilitated Amachara General Hospital, also houses a state-of- the-art eye centre, which was commissioned by the former minister of health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu. The state government under Ochendo also erected an amphitheater at the Abia State University Teaching Hospital, Aba, to aid teaching and learning in the institution.

For His Excellency, Governor Orji, health is an important sector, because he believes that one need to be healthy to know what dividend of democracy is and he wished to preside over healthy people. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNI- CEF) field office, Enugu, supervising the South East and parts of the North Central zones of the country, in their report in 2011, revealed that Abia State government implemented fully the intervention programmes embarked upon in the state.

Such intervention programmes, according to Charles Nzoki, chief of field office, UNICEF, Enugu, include the eradication of cholera outbreak in Bende Local Government Area of the state, immunisation programmes, among others. Nzoki, who led a team from UNICEF to sign the 2012 implementation agreement between the Fund and the Abia State government, held at the executive chambers of the Government House, Umuahia, noted that the development was a sign of commitment to delivering programmes that are targeted at women and children in the state.

According to him, “One of the interventions we did in 2011, which I want to thank the state government for is the checking of cholera outbreak in one of the local government areas of the state. “We got excellent support from the government and that helped in stopping the spread of the virus in the area.”

In spite of the State Teaching Hospital in Aba, general hospitals and health centres scattered across the length and breadth of the state, the state government also entered into partnership with an investor to establish an ultra modern hospital at Obuaku city, Ukwa West Local Government Area of the state.

Already, a certificate of occupancy had been issued to the investor, while the project is expected to take off soon. To ensure that the less- privileged ones in the state are not left out in the health programme of the government, the wife of the governor, Mercy Odochi Orji, in conjunction with the Ministry of Health and an Abian in Diaspora initiated free medicare for hypertensive patients in all the local government areas of the state, aimed at combating the dreaded disease in the area.

Okechukwu Ogah, commissioner for health, Abia State, who supervised the programme revealed that it was targeted at about 31 percent of adults in the state that suffer high blood pressure. “If you go to most of our hospitals today, you’ll find out that the commonest problems that we have is stroke, followed by heart and kidney failure,” he revealed.

“Many people die from these ailments, which most of the time is attributed to spiritual attacks, but that is not the cause. Most of these sudden deaths were as a result of complications of hyper- tension and high blood pressure. “And this is why we have risen up to the situation. We want to screen our people, and those identified, we want to treat them.

We want to also give them health education, which is paramount in the control of this illness,” he affirmed. The health programme of the state government has also attracted Abians in Diaspora, who have at different times partnered the state to deliver free medical care to the people. The administration of His Excellency, Governor Theodore Orji, did tremendously well in the health sector.

The health loving governor, who believes in the maxim ‘Health is Wealth’ gave a lot of attention to the health sector to make Abians stay healthy and enjoy the dividends of democracy. And his efforts at deepening the health sector are being acknowledged by stakeholders.

Consequently, the governor won many awards on health, including the prestigious BusinessDay Good Governance Awards as the best performing governor in healthcare.