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From Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan
In a bid to attract and sustain foreign investors in Nigeria, President Bola Tinubu, has been told to fix insecurity that has been scaring potential investors away from the country, and challenges with regular electricity supply, increasing carbon emissions and strangulation of business growth and development in the nation.
The advice was given by two leading Nigerian medical doctors, based in the United Kingdom, and Canada, who have invested billions of naira into the Nigerian economy via hospitals and hospitality in Oyo and Ogun states.
The medical doctors are Dr. Abib Olamitoye, the Chairman of Ibadan Central Hospitals in Oyo State, and Academy Suites in Ibadan and Abeokuta, as well as the founder, Coxwell Hospital, Abeokuta, Prof Leke Badmos, an obstetrician and gynaecologist, who works in the University of Toronto.
They spoke at the grand opening of a multimillion naira Coxwell Hospital, Abeokuta, Ogun State, yesterday which also featured health outreach for scores of pregnant women in Abeokuta, towards reducing maternal and infant mortality rates in Nigeria.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) put the latest figures of maternal mortality rate in Nigeria at 576 per 100,000 live births, which is rated the fourth highest on earth. The report stated further that each year, approximately 262,000 babies die at birth in the country, which is also rated the world’s second highest national total. Infant mortality, according to UNICEF, currently stands at 69 per 1,000 live births.
Olamitoye, a prolific writer and motivational speaker, told the gathering that Badmos established the specialist hospital with modern day equipment for residents of Abeokuta, adding that the founder has spent more than 30 years abroad and he decided to give back to the society.
He said many wealthy Nigerians that are based abroad have not been coming back to the country to invest because of insecurity and the challenge of epileptic electricity in the nation. If the Federal Government could fix the two issues, he said, wealthy Nigerians abroad would not need to be told to come and invest in the country.
“Prof Leke Badmos hails from Abeokuta in Ogun State. He attended primary and secondary schools in Abeokuta. We both studied Medicine in the University of Ibadan. We were course mates. Then, he travelled to the United Kingdom and then Canada, where be became a professor. He has come back home to Abeokuta to give back to the society. He is made already. He is rich. He did not establish this hospital for pecuniary gains, but as a payback for Nigeria and Abeokuta in particular,” Olamitoye said.
Badmos, who led journalists on facility tour of the hospital, said the project would reduce medical tourism, as some medical doctors, based in Canada have indicated interests to come to Nigeria N work in the hospital, with the purpose of gaining more knowledge.
Nigeria, according to him, will be great, saying: “Rome wasn’t built in a day. If you look at countries outside Nigeria, most of what they did there, were done by the citizens. The government just made rules, laws and created enabling environment. If all these things are put in place, people will do so many things. I trust this current government and I am sure they will do their best.
“As a Nigerian, we should be thinking about how to help and contribute to national development because I believe that we are the government. I am sure this will go a long way to improve the health care facility. Coxwell Hospital is special because it is a specialist hospital. It is located in Abeokuta, which is a cradle of knowledge, because the people would benefit from it and also because it is going to bring a lot of Western inputs.
“This is also a general hospital, but it is going to have obstetricians and gynecologists with a lot of stuff that can be compared with what we have outside in Canada and United States. There will be a lot of orthopaedic opportunities and internal medicine. We hope people would be coming from overseas to work here.
“With this development, it will reduce the number of people that will be traveling outside the country for treatments. People don’t have to think that they have to pay through their nose; we are going to make everything simple. My late father, who was a man of the people, conceived the idea, and my dear friend, Dr. Abib Olamitoye, has been so supportive. We are going to make sure that it is affordable. Of course, I am a man of the people and my aim is to give back to Abeokuta and this country. It has to be affordable and we are going to make sure that we make it affordable.
“The Federal Government is trying their best in terms of health facilities and I want to use this medium to advise the government to continue trying and the citizens should also continue to try their own.”
