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From Tony John, Port Harcourt
The Niger Delta Rights Advocates (NDRA), a socio-political pressure group based in the Niger Delta region, has praised the conceptualization of a state-of-the-art medical facility in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, the heart of the Niger Delta region.
The project was an initiative of the
Nigerian Correctional Officers’ Wives Association (NICOWA), under the leadership of Mrs Victoria Nwakuche in partnership with Bokolo HSIC Group Limited
NDRA, in a statement signed the
Director, Research and Development, Chucks Alozie, said the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, exposed the urgency of such a project in the region.
The group expressed dissatisfaction with the regional interventionist agency for lack of vision to invest in the health sector.
It stated: “Let it be clear, that the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 exposed the dearth of facilities in our region for which we strongly condemned the regional interventionist agency, the NDDC, for a lack of focus and vision to meet one of its core objectives of providing medical care to its mandate area covering 27 senatorial districts.
“In the light of these obvious medical gaps recorded in the region and the concomitant economic effect of managing oncological and other specialized health situations, our organisation is proud of the initiative by the NICOWA leadership and are grateful for the choice of Port Harcourt, to site the Medical Village, as setting up such a strategic health facility will in no small measure, cover the medical gaps in the region and by extension, the nation.”
According to NDRA, the siting of the $145 million medical project will also provide jobs for teeming unemployed youths and reduce mortality rate in the region.
Alozie continued: “Conceptualizing a $145million project in the Niger Delta will stimulate both immediate and long term benefits as the youths will also be meaningfully engaged from site construction workers to actual employment opportunities for our people who are professionals in the health sector.
“Instructively, delivering a 120-bed space hospital and diagnostic centre by NICOWA under Mrs Nwakuche will promote expertise in health delivery which will increase our people’s chances at surviving marauding oncological diseases, reduce complication rates and cut down mortality rates.”
The NDRA noted with regret that the absence of such well thought-out specialized health facilities with modern facilities, robs the populace of the benefits of experiencing “molecular profiling which should help tailor therapies, incorporate latest research in chemotherapy, immunotherapy, targeted therapy and precision medicine and starves our people of effective symptom and palliative management.
“We do believe that this initiative by NICOWA will cut down on the pressures mounted on the Naira by several Nigerians sourcing forex for medical tourism.”
