Acts of Akpabio
Adeola Akinremi writes that with just a few days to the end of his tenure as the governor of Akwa Ibom State, Godswill Akpabio continues to unveil people-oriented projects
In the surging crowd, a woman held up a frame bearing his photograph and called out to him. He looked back and waved his hands in appreciation. Then, he continued his journey into the expansive community hall beaming with smiles. It was an old site, where a prison yard was once standing and causing fear and trepidation in the hearts of the people. But last Thursday, freedom replaced fear at the old site. A new community centre for the empowerment of women, built and named Independence Hall by the Akwa Ibom State Governor, Godswill Akpabio changed all that. So at the unveiling of the hall last week, the people of Abak—a district of Uyo, the capital of Akwa Ibom State—called Akpabio their hero. They rolled out the drums to welcome him into the community.
Yes, in line with the uncommon transformation of the state through massive development, the governor decided to turn the old prison to something of a monument, because the location of the old prison according to him was by the road and in a neighbourhood where schoolchildren see nothing to inspire them to greatness.
Last year, Akpabio told a gathering that, “we are building a brand new prison in Abak Local Government Area and the construction is ongoing. We would change the entire terrain of the old site of the prison, and from here we can have a magnificent view of the suspended bridge in Abak. We would also dualise from here to East-West Road, and that would be completed by the next administration.
“An independence hall would be built at this site of the old prison. The hall would be for meetings and for women to have their quarterly celebration. The hall will come with modern facilities and the site would also include a new roundabout, a new road that would be linked to the suspended bridge and street lights from here to Uyo.”
For Akpabio, that dream has become a reality with the unveiling of the multipurpose hall last week. But that seemed just a drop in the ocean as the governor continues to go round the state in the twilight of his administration to commission 165 other projects that have been completed in the state in recent weeks.
Among those projects are world-class specialist hospital that costs about N30 billion and five-star hotel that will be inaugurated today according to schedule of activities in the state.
The 308-bed international specialist hospital, billed for inauguration on Monday, May 25, is an ultra-modern medical facility with six fully integrated modular theatres that will redirect medical tourism to Akwa Ibom State and the country.
The hospital that is equipped with 640 slides CT scan, digital mammography, endoscopy surgery, highly sophisticated intensive care units and medical gas plants is sitting on a large landmass with paperless and fully automated laboratories. It also has a helipad to facilitate easy emergency movements to and from the hospital. The entire hospital system is also hooked up to a global system for best practice.
In an interview Akpabio discussed the idea behind the establishment of a hospital of this magnitude. He said: “We lose billions of dollars every year to medical trips abroad. We have also lost a lot of people, not because we don’t have the expertise in the country. We needed a hospital that can run at international standard. I decided to build general hospitals in local governments that did not have and in areas that are very populated, even if the local government already had one. I found out that what we have here can go for a teaching hospital.
“We also decided to have a hospital that would answer to the needs of Nigerians in terms of advance health management and that was why we built the Ibom Specialist Hospital. It is not like a teaching hospital, it is like a quaternary hospital, it is higher than a teaching hospital. We are starting it with about six modular theatres with equipments, that if for instance you are doing a cardiological investigation on a patient, cardiologists from around the world can hook up to the theatre and see real time what is going on and make their contributions to the examination and operation.
“That kind of hospital cannot be run by government; we needed to hand it over to a private sector. That is the one that will be a revenue earner. So, instead of rich and wealthy Nigerians and nationals of other West African countries going abroad, it is easier to come here. Sometimes, people die in the air while being transported abroad for treatment. We wanted to shorten travel time for patients going abroad and at the same time get revenue for the state from health tourism. It is a beautiful concept, it