By Ozioruva Aliu

BENIN CITY – FORMER President Olusegun Obasanjo; former First Lady of Nigeria, Dame Patience Jonathan; former governor of Sokoto State and Senator for Sokoto South, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal and former governors of Edo State, Chief Lucky Igbiendion and Odigie Oyegun were among the leaders that on Wednesday took turns to pour encomium on the Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, for his impactful leadership in Edo State over the last eight years.

They spoke when the Governor led them to the commissioning of the newly rebuilt and expanded 250-bed Stella Obasanjo Hospital, the Crèche, and Food Court at the State Secretariat Complex, among other projects, in Benin City, the Edo State capital.

Obasanjo while commending Obaseki for his multi sectoral reforms described him as a builder who has impacted on the lives of his people.

He said, “I want to thank you for remembering my late wife Stella Obasanjo. I was here before and coming here now, what I see is wonderful. You are not only a builder but you are a reformer who has positively impacted on the lives of his people.

“I commend you for improving on some of the things your predecessor did like Stella Obasanjo Hospital. When this hospital was established 17 years ago, it was to keep the memory of my late wife. By honouring her, you are also honouring me.”

On her part, the former First Lady of Nigeria, while commending the governor for the project, said he has restored hope to the people of the State while repositioning Edo as a hub for quality and affordable healthcare services in the Country.

Speaking, Governor Obaseki said it was the COVID-19 pandemic that exposed the poor state of health facilities in the state:  “I didn’t know how bad our healthcare system was until COVID-19 hit the world. It was the turning point for us as nobody could move, even the wealthiest amongst us. I said to my God that if he helps us through COVID-19, I will do something remarkable for our healthcare system and our people in Edo State.

“We thought through a health improvement plan for Edo during COVID-19 with a plan to be the healthcare hub. COVID-19 helped us mobilize over 5,000 doctors within our vicinity to help us respond to the pandemic but what was missing was a plan to tie our health facilities together.”

Obaseki continued: “Healthcare is not just about hospitals or just the facilities but also about human capital to help people. It’s expensive but we must find a way of financing it. We redesigned our healthcare programme through our health improvement scheme.

The governor further stated, “We focused on health financing and started the Edo Health Insurance Scheme and today we have the most viable health insurance scheme in Nigeria. We have over 300,000 citizens under our health insurance programme.