By Tony Adibe
The Dictor-General, Voice of Nigeria (VON), Mr Osita Okechukwu, has lauded the Nigeria’s First Lady, Hajiya Aisha Buhari, for upgrading the State House Clinic in Aso Rock, stressing that her intervention has brought the hospital to an enviable international standard.
NewsBits learnt that before Mrs Buhari’s intervention, the condition of the clinic in Nigeria’s Aso Rock Villa, which was nothing to write home about, though huge budget was made for it. But the situation became a subject of rumour and or controversy. The VON DG, who spoke on Sunday in Enugu, said that it was gratifying that the upgrade of Aso Villa State House Clinic has improved its capacity to now serve 35,000 Nigerians.
Okechukwu, a foundation member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), said the initiative to upgrade the Aso Villa State House Clinic and pushing to see it completed recently remained highly commendable and exceptional. He said, “I want to commend Her Excellency, Aisha Muhammadu Buhari for her initiative back in 2017, which led to the upgrade of Aso Villa State House Clinic.
“It will be recalled that in October 2017, Mrs Buhari at a stakeholder meeting on Reproductive, Maternal, Nutrition, Child Advocacy and Health and Nutrition, RMNCAH+N, at the State House, Abuja, told her own story when she fell ill and was advised to travel to London for treatment, but she refused.
“She said she called the Aso Clinic to find out if they have an X-Ray machine and that they said it was not working. In the end, she had to go to a hospital owned and operated by foreigners 100 percent.”
Okechukwu further quoted the first lady as saying, “There is a budget for the Hospital and if you go there now, you will see a number of constructions going on but they don’t have a single syringe there. What is the purpose of the buildings if there are no equipment there to work with? “You can imagine what happens across the states to governors’ wives if this will happen to me in Abuja.”
The APC Chieftain further said that that singular experience spurred Mrs Buhari to push for the upgrade and completion of the Aso Villa State House Clinic. He said that it was quite gratifying to hear the first Lady saying that “she is quite happy and feeling fulfilled”, adding, “We thank God that the project has come to reality”.
Okechukwu explained that the up-grade project, which started six years ago, would now make a great impact on the health of the first family and other Nigerians “as we have all the experts in Nigeria but all we only needed is a good platform.
“The hospital that is supposed to serve the First Family is serving like 35,000 people, which is quite much. The first lady insisted and made provision of a VIP wing within the clinic, which is close to the Presidential Villa,” he said.
Okechukwu also lauded the First Lady for all her initiatives, programmes and projects that had made useful impacts in lives of millions of Nigerians in the course of President Buhari’s administration.
The VON DG said, “I give kudos to the First Lady because of the useful and impactful inputs she made in the course of her husband’s fruitful administration. “It is worthwhile for Nigerians to appreciate the milestones of her pet programme – “Future Assured”, which pioneered many projects that advanced the well being of women and children in the country.”
