By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The federal government has agreed to develop the Bauchi State health sector after the Governor, Mr Bala Mohammed, pleaded for assistance.
The Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, who gave the assurance on Friday, August 28, 2020, said the national government was ready to localize and indigenize human capital development for the health care sector.
He also urged the Bauchi Governor to buy into the programme of One General Hospital per Local Government and support the general hospital with the staff of tertiary hospital like the Federal Medical Centre (FMC) to have the FMC adopt the General Hospital.’
Mr Ehanire further sold the idea of his pet project, the Emergency Ambulance Service (NEMSAS) to the Bauchi State government.
In his remarks, Governor Mohammed, who visited the Minister with his Commissioner for Health and others, said the state already has 108 Primary Health Care (PHC) Centres in place with help from Development Partners – European Union and UNICEF.
However, he said his administration was aspiring to have one PHC per political ward of the state, noting that the state government has already deployed not less than 16 per cent of the state’s annual budget to the health sector.
The Governor praised the Minister for bringing the issues of the health sector to “something that has been of concern to every one of us.”
He said, “It takes another thing for another to happen”; identifying the COVID-19 challenge, bad as it is made it possible for you and your team to show that Nigeria can do as much as any other country in the world.”
“We want to look at all our inadequacies and limitations, take our political inventory, our human capital and approach our partners to find a way of closing the gaps,” he added, noting that until the health sector had been a neglected sector until Mr Ehanire was appointed,
He asked the Minister to be a part of the forthcoming Bauchi State Health Summit at a future date, which Mr Ehanire accepted.
Adedapo Adesanya 
Aduragbemi Omiyale