The Kebbi State government on Saturday reacted to the MAWA Foundation story exposing a terrible community hospital, saying approved monies are not meant for hospital renovation alone.
In a telephone conversation with Mr. Abubakar A Kaoje, a medical Doctor, the Executive Secretary, Kebbi State Primary Health Care Development Agency, Kaoje said the state is not happy with the report while accusing the foundation of working with the opposition to make the state look bad.
Kaoje who works for the government pointed out that the approved money is not meant for the renovation of hospitals alone but to do other things. He blamed MAWA for not coming to his office so he can tell the story of what the state has done.
According to Kaoje, a huge chunk of the monies provided for his agency go to programming and administrative cost which hospital renovation is not part of them.
A budgeting system in Nigeria that allows for a large percentage of public funds to go into recurrent expenditure, not allowing for capital expenditure that usually benefits the public.
He accused MAWA Foundation of creating a bad expression about the state Kebbi state government by exposing such a terrible hospital to the world.
Kaoje while in an angry tone, said the way the report was done, shows MAWA organization is working for the opposition.
“The way you have done this report, shows you working for the opposition,” Kaoje said.
Kaoje who did not deny the existence of the deplorable community hospital said MAWA foundation was not fair to the Kebbi state government by exposing such a picture to the public without hearing from the government.
MAWA Foundation had earlier reported how the Kebbi State Primary Health Care Development Agency in 2021 got N3.03 billion budget approval, which is largely meant for rural health intervention, and Unguwan Madi community hospital is this terrible.
A report the state government is very much unhappy with.
Residents of Unguwan Madi community located in the Mayaima Local Government Area of Kebbi State are going through hell trying to access medical care as a government hospital in their area has since become terribly dilapidated.
The entire community hospital has only two beds and two drips stand for over 50 patients that visit daily for medical care. With over 3,000 persons relying on it for healthcare delivery.
Miss. Monica, a community resident who spoke to MAWA via a telephone conversation on Thursday, described the hospital as highly deplorable.
Monica who claims to have visited the hospital severally for medical care, says it lacks medical equipment and health personnel to attend to many patients that rely on it to get treated for their respective illnesses.
“There are many patients that depend solely on this hospital for their healthcare, but unfortunately, it has become deplorable and lacks the capacity for effective healthcare delivery”, Monica told MAWA.
This is the situation in Unguwan Madi hospital even as the Kebbi state government through its Primary Health Care Development Agency approved N3.03 billion to address issues of community health.
Kebbi example appears to be a common practice in Nigeria, governments at both Federal and State levels, every year, allocate huge sums of monies to the health sector. But, rather than improving the sector, the monies are misappropriated leaving the citizens to suffer poor healthcare service delivery.
In a society where accountability is upheld and those that are entrusted with public funds are held responsible, N3.03 billion will go a long way to make significant improvements in community health.
Tracka, a public accountability organization that exposed the terrible nature of the hospital has since appealed to the Kebbi state government to help fix it so that the residents will have access to decent healthcare delivery.
MAWA Foundation is a non-for profit organisation that works to ensure public accountability by holding authorities and powerful individuals accountable.