Yesterday my friends and I decided to visit this state of the art hospital located in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria.
This hospital was founded in 2015 by Senator Godswill Akpabio during his tenure as the governor of Akwa Ibom State. The hospital started it's full operation 6 months after it was lunched.
It has a world class standard of 302 beds in it. You can imagine how big this building is. The hospital is operated by 150 professional medical personnels mostly the Indians, and it's being funded by the state government.
This gargantuan and magnificent building you see here is worth 41 billion naira. Wow! You can imagine its content which includes equipments etc.
The former governor said he wanted this hospital to be better than the university teaching hospitals we have in Nigeria. And he fulfilled that promise.
But guess what!
This multi-million dollar structure was shut down September 2017. All its managers was said to have terminated their contract with the state government due to poor funding by the state government.
Mr Ukpong, a medical personnel said
"their excuses have been that government didn't meet its own part of the obligation. But I am a witness to the huge amount of money the government has given to the service provider to run the hospital. And we haven't had much to show for it"
Presently, apart from the security officials that are always there to safeguard the building, not a single person is inside this massive building. Visitors are not also allowed inside.
I believe if this building was still functioning, it would have created more opportunities for this young folks graduating from school. My opinion is that the government should look for a way of reopening it.
References
ā [N41 billion Akwa Ibom 'world class' hospital shut down]
https://www.google.com.ng/amp/s/www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/245176-n41-billion-akwa-ibom-world-class-hospital-shut.html/amp