Stephen Ukandu, Umuahia
Member representing Aba South state Constituency in the Abia State House of Assembly, Hon. Obinna Ichita, has decried the deplorable condition of the health sector in the state, alleging that “Abia has more mortuaries than functional hospitals.”
The lawmaker who made the claims while addressing Local Government and Ward Chairmen of the All Progressives Grand Alliance APGA at the party’s state secretariat Umuahia, ahead of their three-man congress, said that “Abia is under the bondage of bad governance.”
He accused the State Government of abandoning the health care sector, a development, he said, posed existential threats to residents.
According to him, “the number of mortuaries and funeral homes in Abia is more than the number of hospitals in the state. Go and check, from Osisioma to Umuahia what you will see along the expressway are mortuaries.
“Check again from Umuahia to Aba through the old road, all that you get on the way are mortuaries and funeral homes except only one health centre at Mbubo.
“In Abia State, Thursdays and Fridays have now been converted to burial days. Why wouldn’t people die like chicken when workers and pensioners are owed, and the economy of the state is comatose?
“Go to Abia State University Teaching Hospital Aba, and you will confirm that the only functional unit in that hospital is the mortuary department. For 25 months, the staff are owed, and they have been on strike for 18 months.
“Why will you be surprised that the ABSU medical school lost NUC accreditation? It’s no longer a question of Hon. Ichita criticising Government, even the Nigeria Medical Association is also lamenting over this devastating development.
“Those who survive in Abia are surviving by miracle because the Government has almost abandoned the people to their fate.”
The lawmaker who also decried the level of infrastructural decay in Aba renewed his call for the State Government to account for how it deployed the $ 56.4 million (an equivalent of N27.4 billion) largesse it received from the World Bank for infrastructural development in Aba.
Hon. Ichita said the call had become necessary as there was nothing on ground to suggest that such humongous amount of money was spent on infrastructure in the commercial city.
He also expressed concern over the sanitary condition of the state and wondered where the monthly allocations for the state’s environmental sanitation agency goes.
The lawmaker who charged APGA members to remain committed and steadfast in their support for the party, predicted that “APGA wave will sweep through the state in 2023.”
He accused the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, in the country; and the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP; of having no plans for the South-East.
According to him, the inability of both parties to zone their presidential tickets to the South-East despite the zone’s sacrifices in both parties, is a confirmation that the zone is not in their agenda.
He, therefore, urged Ndigbo to embrace APGA as their regional party to recover their lost political grounds and re-negotiate power with other geopolitical zones and regions.
“I can declare without equivocation that PDP and APC have no good plans for the Igbo. APC is exceptionally tribalistic. PDP failed woefully after many years of being in charge in the South-East.
“So, PDP and APC have nothing in stock for the South-East; the only alternative is APGA. APGA will field its first 11 to reclaim South-East in 2023.
“With what is already happening in Anambra under Professor Chukwuma Soludo, we need technocrats and Igbo best 11 to take over all the states in South-East and rebuild our economy like the late Michael Okpara era.”
The lawmaker also bemoaned the fate of traders in Ahia Ohuru Market Aba whose shops were demolished by the State Government for nearly a year now without any indication it would be rebuilt any time soon.
He said he had advised against the planned demolition then, but his advice fell on deaf ears.
“When Government was pulling down the market then we shouted but they suppressed our voices and promised to get the market ready in six months time but it’s almost one year down the line.”
