Full text of Gov. Yahaya Bello’s speech at a town hall meeting on cholera outbreak in parts of Kogi state »

… Represented by the Deputy Governor, Chief Edward Onoja.

Protocols

We thank God Almighty for life and health. There is nothing we can give in exchange for the former, so we focus on all we can do to improve and sustain the latter. This is partly why we are here today – to chart a path forward through another public health challenge which has arisen in parts of our State and needs to be aggressively contained and eliminated before it spreads further.

Health is the second thematic area of my New Direction Blueprint in order of priority, and my administration has never taken the health of Kogites for granted or toyed with any programme or activity which can protect or enhance it. Our gathering this afternoon to review the activities of this Government in the health sector generally, and in particular our response to an ongoing national outbreak of cholera which has found its way to some corners of our state further underscores the great importance we place on the health of Kogi people.

May I seize this opportunity to once again commend our healthcare personnel and institutions ably guided on my behalf by the Honourable Commissioner of Health, Dr. Saka Haruna Audu, for the good work they have done so far in combating the outbreak of various deadly diseases which rear up their ugly heads from time to time in the nation or the state, or both. This includes the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic which, by the grace of God, we have contained and continue to contain via a constantly evolving synergy between science and common sense on the one hand, and between governance and medicine on the other.

My administration has always placed very high premium on health matters since we came into office in 2016 because we strongly believe that health is wealth and for us to create wealth in our society, our people need to be healthy. This mindset is behind our massive investments in the health sector from early on in our first term till date. Today, our achievements in the health sector stand on a solid foundation of scores of newly constructed or heavily renovated Primary Health Centres (PHCs) across the length and breadth of our State to provide first-line medical care to the vast majority of the populace who do not often require more than primary healthcare. These facilities all testify to our regard for human health and wellbeing in Kogi State.

We were also careful to deepen the impact of these costly investments in health infrastructure by corresponding investments in the appropriate human resources to man every part of our health sector. Again in the first term of this administration, we conducted massive recruitment of different categories of health personnel into our workforce including, medical doctors, nurses, pharmacists, laboratory scientists, health attendants etc to bridge the huge manpower gaps we inherited in this critical sector.

In order to further motivate our health workers and enhance their commitment to servicing the health of our people, this administration approved and implemented the Revised CONMESS salary structure for our doctors. This makes Kogi one of the few states that have so far implemented the revised CONMESS for her doctors. I am also glad beside approving and implementing the new payment regime for our health professionals, this government has made it a point of honour to pay the salaries of all workers on or before the last day of each month. This has generally been the case since we concluded our staff screening and verification exercise over 2 years ago. I am also glad that we have so far seen some of the expected quid pro quo in enhanced job performance from our health sector personnel. Still, like Oliver Twist, we ask for more from them.

As a necessary corollary to our efforts in addressing identified primary healthcare and general manpower challenges, we also moved to upgrade our secondary and tertiary health infrastructural development. Some of our enduring legacy efforts in this direction are the construction of a 300-bed Reference Hospital in Okene which will be equipped with ultramodern equipment for diagnosis and treatment of most diseases occurring in our society. When completed, it is projected to be the best of its kind in the country. We are also renovating and remodeling the Specialist Hospital, Lokoja including the construction of a brand new ultramodern administrative block. We are also building brand new General Hospitals in Badoko, Ajaokuta LGA and Gegu Beki in Kogi LGA. At the same time Construction is also at an advanced stage at a new clinical complex in Prince Abubakar Audu University Teaching Hospital, Anyigba. In addition, we are constructing an advanced clinical complex in the General Hospital, Isanlu simultaneously with serious overhauls of Zonal Hospital Idah and Adavi Eba Cottage Hospital. All of these projects are proceeding as fast as the contractors can move without jeopardising the integrity of the structures under construction.

As God would have it, what we started to do as part of our routine responsibility to provide all-round good governance proved fortuitous indeed when COVID-19 hit the world in Q1, 2020 without any warning whatsoever. Our response to the highly controversial pandemic was aided in no small measure by what we already had on ground and by cognate skills developed in battles with earlier outbreaks. In other words, our efforts to cope with the ever increasing challenges of emerging and reemerging diseases in our society stood us in good stead when Covid-19 arrived and tried to position itself as an Extinction Level Event on the Earth. We came out of the early gory days of that pandemic with the most minimal disruption to lives and livelihoods of any State in the federation. Actually, till date, we did not record even one verifiable cum undisputed case of the disease.

All of the foregoing interventions in the health sector are visible for every person of goodwill to see and evaluate. However, I will not fail to direct anyone who may still be unaware of them to visit our e-Compendium at www.kogipedia.net and verify for themselves. I will also urge such people to take a tour to the sites of these various projects to cure their doubts. Perhaps, if they are honest, they will thereafter help us spread the message far and wide. My promise is that even though we have done as much as the time we have had and the available finance have allowed, we also have an unwavering resolve to continue doing more in line with our 2nd term manifesto.

It is also important to remind us that I signed the Kogi State Health Insurance Agency Law in mid-2019 and inaugurated the Board later. Our health insurance scheme will enable our people to benefit from quality healthcare with minimal amounts. It is important that Organised Labour and all stakeholders in the health sector sensitise a d encourage the people who look up to them to enroll into the scheme. This will help them to avoid paying back-breaking sums to acquire healthcare services that could have been theirs for just the pittance they would have paid to get insured. A word

This foregoing narrative is principally to establish that this administration has become highly skilled in rapid response to disease outbreaks since we got to Office in January 2016. We have handled multiple Lassa fever outbreaks with huge success. Our Lassa Fever Treatment Centre was established in 2018 complete with a biosafety laboratory where our health team handled all Lassa fever cases with 100% success rate. The treatment was not only among the best in the world for the predominantly Nigerian disease, but it was also 100% free for all patients managed at the Centre.

In similar manner we have handled two episodes of Yellow fever outbreaks in the state, in 2018 and again in 2020, with all the seriousness it deserves. We successfully vaccinated the entire state against the disease in 2018 and had a reactive vaccination in Olamaboro LGA in 2020 following a single reported case of Yellow fever in the Local Government.
It is against this background of heightened success rates against the aforementioned communicable diseases that we confront the reported outbreak of suspected cholera in some local government areas in the state. Affected individuals and communities have received tremendous and timely support from the state government in terms of rapid response, prompt case investigation, effective case management, supply of response commodities, robust surveillance and community sensitization.

As is often the case with these cyclic outbreaks, casualties usually occur even before the Government becomes aware of what she is dealing with exactly. As of today therefore, we have had several loss of lives, and I do extend the heartfelt condolences of the Government of Kogi State to the families of the bereaved. We are working round the clock to ensure that the last fatality recorded will indeed be the last in this outbreak. We are not just convinced, but we know for sure that our level of preparation, personnel and facilities have indeed started to reverse the outbreak with admirable success. We will continue to do everything humanly possible to keep Kogites safe from ALL infectious diseases.

I therefore implore each of the stakeholders here to be vanguards of personal and environmental hygiene in your localities. This is because outbreaks of most diseases in our society, cholera in particular, are traceable to poor hygiene. As you are all well aware, Government cannot do it all alone.

So, while Government will continue to play all of its roles, including ensuring adequate supply of portable water to urban and rural communities to forestall waterborne diseases, leaders and stakeholders who are present or represented here must become earnest evangelists of safe public health and personal hygiene practices to their various communities and peoples.

I want to thank the World Health Organisation (WHO) and our other partners. You wonderful people and organisations have become integral to all of our success stories in all our public health response activities. We appreciate your technical and logistical support in our drive to keep Kogi safe from preventable diseases, and we cannot thank you enough.

I also appreciate our Royal Fathers from the 21 Local Government Areas of the State, our Religious leaders, the women and youth groups, community development associations and all other stakeholders who have always joined hands and influence with us in the crucial tasks required to keep our people healthy.

Thank you one, and all.

God bless Kogi State.

God bless Nigeria.

YAHAYA BELLO
Governor of Kogi State.