Showers of blessings, praises on Governor Tambuwal, as his government’s world-class diagnostic centre launched in Sokoto

*Building a tertiary health centre not an easy task, Delta Gov Okowa says as he commissions centre

*”To put up such an advanced diagnostic centre, Tambuwal has shown his love for wellbeing of his people”

*You have written your name in history of Sokoto State by carrying out people-oriented projects – Sultan

By OUR REPORTERS

Explaining how the project started, Sultan Abubakar said, “There was a time I called the Governor and told him to consult the Governor of Zamfara, and Kebbi to form a synergy to build a centre of excellence that will take care of numerous health challenges of our people.”

The world-class Sokoto Advanced Diagnostic Centre, Farfaru in Sokoto State, a giant stride by the statement government of Rt. Hon. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, has been commissioned.

Visiting Governor of Delta State, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, inaugurated the multibillion naira centre, during his visit to the state, on Wednesday, as earlier reported by The DEFENDER.

At the commissioning ceremony witnessed by officials of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Governor Okowa lauded Governor Aminu Tambuwal for executing a project that had direct bearing on the lives of the people, stressing that building a tertiary health centre was not an easy task.

He stated that for Tambuwal to put up such an advanced diagnostic centre, he had shown his love for the health and wellbeing of his people.

Lauding Sokoto State governor’s humility and leadership style, Okowa said for Tambuwal to have successfully presided over the affairs of the House of Representatives as Speaker, it is an indication of his sterling leadership qualities, adding by praying that God would further elevate him.

He also said the amount of money spent on such advanced diagnostic centre attests to the prudent management style of the governor.

Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, said Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, the Mutawallen Sokoto, had written his name in the history of the state by carrying out people-oriented projects.

Describing the health facility as one of the legacy projects of Governor Tambuwal, the Sultan said it was borne out of the governor’s commitment and foresight to ameliorate the plight of those, who could not afford to travel for better health care services.

Explaining how the project started, Sultan Abubakar said, “There was a time I called the Governor and told him to consult the Governor of Zamfara, and Kebbi to form a synergy to build a centre of excellence that will take care of numerous health challenges of our people.”

“A staggering number of Nigerians seek healthcare services abroad, it has been reported that 5,000 Nigerians travel overseas for medical treatment monthly, with an estimated bill of over $1 billion annually. This has been as a result of non-availability of advanced healthcare technology in our health facilities,” Dr Inname said.

The project, which is a multibillion naira investment built by the Aminu Waziri Tambuwal led Administration of Sokoto State, was on Wednesday 1 December 2021 commissioned by the Governor of Delta State, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa assisted by the Mr. Performer, the host governor in the presence of other government dignitaries and officials of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA).

The DEFENDER reports that Governor Okowa, himself a medical doctor, was visiting Sokoto to take part in a meeting of the NMA holding in the state and which coincided with the commissioning of the indisputably world class diagnostic centre that promises to make the Seat of the Caliphate the medical tourism destination of choice for the rest of Nigerians and Africans particularly people in the West African sub-region.

The make-up of the Diagnostic Centre

Sokoto State Commissioner for Health, Dr Mohammad Ali Inname, had in a press statement disclosed on Monday that the diagnostics facility is world-class and a milestone in the history of medical diagnosis in Nigeria.

The medical facility has highly sophisticated equipment such as a Radiology Unit, Laboratory Unit, Out-Patient Clinics, Dental Unit, and ENT Unit, which places the diagnostic centre in better position to offer a variety of services, including Medical Investigations, Radiological Investigations, and Laboratory Investigations.

The centre has provision for ECG, Stress ECG, Echocardiography, and Vascular Doppler, Gastrology, Endoscopy, Neurology, and EEG. So, also it has wide range of capacity for MRI, CT scan, Fluoroscopy, Digital X-ray, Mammography, Chemical Pathology, Histopathology, Microbiology, and Hematology.

Already, medical consultants, medical officers, laboratory scientists/technicians, nurses and other personnel required for the smooth running of the centre have been and are still being hired to take charge of the place, which has been described by more surprised admirers as an all-encompassing medical laboratory industry.

Pointedly explained, the centre is said to be managed by Healthfield Medical Services Limited for efficiency reason, and that will be done through a Public-Private Partnership model, The DEFENDER gathered.

More appreciably is the fact that there is the pride of no-capital-fight as the state government patronized local contractors, both in the building of the diagnostic centre and many other of its awarded contracts meaning that what the contractors make from working for their country or state is ploughed back to developing local economy, directly or indirectly.

Although it may not have been specifically spelt out anywhere in its policies, the lack of capital flight emanating from the style of governance the former Speaker of the Nigeria’s House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, chooses as head of government, has been described as a non-betrayal of the trust reposed in him and the contractors, particularly the two that handled both building and supply of equipment that make up the Sokoto State Advanced Diagnostic Centre, fulfilled their own part as they delivered to time and without breaches.

The medical diagnostic centre was executed for approximately N3.2 billion, with about N824 million spent on construction and N2.4 billion expended on equipping the centre. Katuru & Partners Limited handled construction, while Minjiriya Medical Services Limited executed the supply and installation of diagnostics equipment.

According to Dr Inname, the Health Commissioner, the centre will provide high-quality cutting edge medical diagnostics services for the people of Sokoto, other Nigerians and nationals of neighbouring countries.

“There are 860 public and private health facilities in Sokoto State.  For this number of health facilities to provide effective services for a population of over five million in the state, they must adopt advanced technologies that are used globally. Because of this consideration, the Sokoto State Government under the leadership of Rt. Hon. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal designed, constructed and equipped this new Advanced Medical Diagnostics Centre to provide high-quality cutting edge medical diagnostics services comparable to any other place in the world.”

 

“A staggering number of Nigerians seek healthcare services abroad, it has been reported that 5,000 Nigerians travel overseas for medical treatment monthly, with an estimated bill of over $1 billion annually. This has been as a result of non-availability of advanced healthcare technology in our health facilities,” Dr Inname said.

He continued, “There are 860 public and private health facilities in Sokoto State.  For this number of health facilities to provide effective services for a population of over five million in the state, they must adopt advanced technologies that are used globally.

“Because of this consideration, the Sokoto State Government under the leadership of Rt. Hon. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal designed, constructed and equipped this new Advanced Medical Diagnostics Centre to provide high-quality cutting edge medical diagnostics services comparable to any other place in the world.

“The overall objective here is to provide healthcare services for our people and make Sokoto a hub for medical tourism, so the services provided by the centre are designed in such a way that they are affordable to the people.”

With the commissioning, on Tuesday ¬¬– first day of the last month of two thousand and twenty one years After Christ – the many huge projects massively embarked upon by the Tambuwal’s government, which The DEFENDER recently disclosed were either completed or ongoing, have taken off.  Like it was mentioned in the special project report published by this globally read Nigeria-based online newspaper, The DEFENDER, by the time all of the projects will take off fully across the Four-Point Agenda vision and mission of the governor, Sokoto State will be reckoned with as one of most economically viable industrial hubs, not only in Nigeria but also, across the West Africa sub-region and beyond.

Other photographs from the centre: