Obaseki restates commitment to primary health care in Edo

Governor of Edo State Godwin Obaseki has restated his administration’s commitment to a strong primary health care system that will deliver quality services to Edo people.
According to Obaseki, the health care system in Nigeria would be a mirage if government did not invest in the primary health care sub-sector, which is the foundation of a growing society.
Obaseki, who said this during a courtesy visit by the executive director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Faisal Shuibu, at the Government House in Benin City, assured that the visit would enable the state government align with the federal agency to ensure that a work plan is agreed upon to domesticate the activities of the National Primary Health Development Agency.
He added that the state government would soon roll out its Primary Health Care models in the three Senatorial Districts, 18 Local Government Areas and 200 wards.
He maintained that the activities of the state School of Health Technology in Benin City would be reviewed to enable the state government ascertain its mode of operation with a view to strengthen its structures, while work was ongoing to fine-tune the commencement of the Community Health Workers’ Scheme.
In his remarks, Shuaibu said the state was doing very well under the leadership of Obaseki and shed light on the gains of the primary health care reform targeted at strengthening the management system, resources and capacity building.
Meanwhile, worried by the dwindling contribution of oil palm to the nation’s economy, Obaseki said his administration was set to sign a multilateral memorandum of understanding with the Nigerian Institute for Oil Palm Research (NIFOR) and private investors to add oil palm in the basket of export earning products.
Obaseki, who was at NIFOR for an on-the-spot assessment of its activities, expressed hope that it was still possible for the country to bounce back to its place of pride in the production and exportation of oil palm.
He said his administration was ready to make the paradigm shift and go back to the old order through collaboration to boost oil palm production in the country.
During a tour of the institute located in Ovia North-East Local Government Area of the state on Tuesday, he expressed sadness that the country had over the years undermined a natural resource such as oil palm, which has the potential to grow the Nigerian economy.
Obaseki said: “The country is yet to maximize the potential of this institute, we should go back to the drawing board and retrace our steps and fix that which we missed years ago. We will be travelling to Indonesia in a few weeks’ time to see how the country used oil palm to develop its economy; there are areas we have comparative and competitive advantage as a country, but there are certain things that we need to improve upon.”
He further said that the state would need to collaborate with the institute in sharing expertise with civil servants in the state and urged the country to use the God-given resources for the benefit of the country and future generations.
Earlier, the acting executive director of the research institute, Napoleon Aisueni, said the institute had huge potential that could be tapped into to boost oil palm production and make the business very profitable.
Aisueni said that the institute has the capacity to produce about 10 million sprouted oil palm seeds on an annual basis and was able to raise 9 million sprouted seeds for the Agricultural Transformation Agenda, and urged every state in the country to key into oil palm production to create employment for the teeming youths.