Setting the Records Straight on Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu Teaching Hospital
At the funeral of the late Chief Medical Director (CMD) of Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu Teaching Hospital yesterday, incumbent Gov. Willie Obiano, as usual, laid claim to projects executed by Mr. Peter Obi at the hospital.
What is paramount about projects is that they serve the people, but when the Chief Executive starts claiming projects he did not execute as his, it raises suspicions and questions about their motives. This is particularly so as Obiano administration, in its twilight, is desperately making efforts to write off the mindless squander of over N75 billion bequeathed it as well as the over N200 billion debt it has plunged a debt–free Anambra State it was entrusted with. However, whatever their ulterior motives, it is always illuminating to set the records straight.
At the said funeral, Gov. Willie Obiano falsely claimed credit for three critical developments at the Teaching Hospital:
- The Private Ward was built by the administration of the then Gov. Peter Obi when Professor Ikeakor was the Commissioner of Health. We challenge the Obiano administration to publish the relevant Memo with which the project was approved and funds released.
- The Mega Laboratory was wholly sponsored by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).Need we inquire from that reputable Donor Agency?
- Accreditation of the Hospital was granted during the tenure of Peter Obi as Governor. Even the lowliest clerical officers at the State Ministry of Health, the National Universities Commission (NUC) and the Teaching Hospital itself can provide information on the Accreditation Dates to the general public.
Of course, Gov. Willie has also done his bit. To his credit is the Oxygen House shaped like a Boys Quarters, but certainly no major structure in the complex.
On Commissioner Adinuba’s Vague Rejoinder to Professor Pat Utomi and Other Matters:
Professor Pat Utomi had questioned the rationality and justification of building an air-port by the Obiano administration; identifying it more of vain-glory than an economic exigency, which is what some States witness when they have shallow and small-minded men in power.
Instead of responding directly to Pat Utomi, Obiano’s Information Commissioner, C. Don Adinuba linked the air-port to Peter Obi as the one that conceived it, but lied that the then Governor Obi did not pay compensation after acquiring the land. The truth, which the relevant communities will corroborate, is that the Obi administration paid compensation for all the lands it acquired.
Peter Obi pursued the air-port project because it would be useful to Orient Petroleum and other critical investments coming into the State. Today, without paying attention to Orient Petroleum the air-port would have served better, all Willie Obiano desires is to have an air-port to his name. In his nearly 8 years in office, he and his team are still trying to link Peter Obi to their fraudulent schemes.
Beyond these, there are many things to question, including the justification of constructing three collapsing fly-overs even when a strategic road funds were set aside for is yet to be completed. There is also the construction of wasteful Conference Centre, when the State has an existing, under-utilised International Conference Centre, among others.
If Commissioner Adinuba is obsessed with what Peter Obi did, he should tell us about the money Obi left, many projects he started that Obiano abandoned, the increase in security votes from the average of N200 million to over N1.2 billion per month, the abandonment of support for community security, the reversal of Anambra State to non-payment of gratuities for which the Obi administration was never in arrears. Need we go on?
