By Daniel Kanu
In keeping to his promise to engage in issue-based campaigns for the 2019 governorship election, Chief Ikedi Ohakim, the immediate past governor of Imo State and 2019 governorship candidate of Accord Party, will on Thursday, January 10, kick off his governorship campaign with a town hall meeting.
The town hall meeting which is the first in a series will hold at the popular All Seasons Hotel, Owerri, at 10 am.
A statement by his chief press secretary, Mr. Collins Ughalaa, said Ohakim will “unveil his comprehensive policy on health, which will be community driven with the appointment of a surgeon general for the state,” during the town hall meeting.
“Ohakim will also unveil his draft bill for the healthcare sector,” the statement added revealing that the former governor was saddened at the high mortality rate of about 39% and the dearth of healthcare facilities and services in the state as a result of deliberate actions and inactions of the Rochas Okorocha-led government since 2011.
“He is also saddened that the 19 general hospitals and 46 healthcare centers were all sold and the buyers stripped the assets while the 36 medical consultants and medical doctors were sacked.”
Ohakim lamented that the high mortality rate in the state had led to funeral enterprise being the most lucrative business in the state as evidenced by the mushrooming of mortuaries, from 18 when he was governor to over 180 now, and ambulance services in the state.
The statement said Imo people may recall that Ohakim had through his Health for All policy during his first tenure provided free medicare for pregnant women, mothers, infants and the aged.
“He had also rehabilitated the primary healthcare centers in the 27 local governments, fenced the 46 primary healthcare centers and provided gates with resident security men. He had also provided boreholes in all the hospitals, drugs, 27 ambulances, 46 pieces of 40KVA sound-proof generators; recruited 27 resident medical doctors and 36 medical consultants, built staff quarters, maternity wards, ambulance bays and placenta pits, etc. It was such a fantastic health policy that with a phone call an ambulance would evacuate a patient to the nearest medical facility in time of emergency.
“HIV/AIDS and other deadly diseases were also vehemently tackled as the Ikedi Ohakim administration provided diagnostic centers and free drugs to HIV/AIDS patients. He also systematically fought stigmatization and discrimination against people suffering from HIV/AIDS. These deliberate government actions in turn reduced the mortality rate in the state to about 15%.”
The statement said the former governor, therefore, invites all stakeholders in the health sector and the general public to the epoch making event, the unveiling of his comprehensive healthcare policy, which he assured will reduce the mortality rate in the state by 60 per cent.
