In line with the earlier announced decision to diversify into the medical sector, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has commenced the construction of a N21 billion medical facility in Katsina State.
NAN reports that the construction of the 200-bed Emergency and Infectious Disease Hospital was flagged off on Saturday in Kaita, Katsina state.
The facility is one of the 12 hospitals which the corporation intends to construct across the six geo-political zones in the country.
According to the Group Managing Director (GMD), Mallam Mele Kyari, who laid the foundation for the multi billion Naira project on Saturday in Kaita, the project is billed to be completed in 18 months.
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“The initiative is meant to strengthen the country’s national healthcare delivery facilities in combating the ravaging Covid-19 pandemic.
“Katsina State is among the 12 states selected for this humanitarian project for the fight against COVID-19 and other infectious diseases for generation yet unborn.
“We are doing this kind of project in 12 states in the six geopolitical zones of the country and these projects were practically funded by the Federal Government of Nigeria through the NNPC,” he said.
Kyari also added that the hospital, estimated to cost N21 billion, was being executed in collaboration with Total and other oil and Gas companies operating in the country, and meant to provide services to patients in the North West zone.
The budget for the hospital covers the construction of the facility, provision of medical facilities, logistics and support to patients.
According to the GMD, NNPC had also donated one Toyota ambulance, 10,000 pieces of face masks and full set of ventilator kits to the Katsina State Government to support its ongoing war against COVID-19.
This is fearfully distressing. Is Nigeria really this far of a FAILED STATE as represented by Harvard University that NNPC which has not been able to successfully run one oil refinery independently in her entire life is now the National Organ System that is going to build a Health Care System for Nigeria? This in a Nation that does not now have a semblance of a credible Health Care Delivery System as attested to by the fact that the Nation’s Head of State gets his health care needs serviced in England. Where does the Managing Director of NNPC get the idea that he is in a position to spend NNPC funds in this manner? And where is the outcry from the Nation’s Medical Society, the Nursing Society, the Hospital Administrators Society, the “knowledgeable” public. Is NIGERIA DEAD ALREADY?
The Guardian Business Week News 12 June 2020:”NIGERIA HAS HIGHEST PERSONNEL COST IN GLOBAL PETROLEUM INDUSTRY”. And NNPC the Government Unit so described is now embarking on building Hospital Centers for the Nation? A Nation that already has wasted the life-time productivity of every one of her generations since 1960 cannot continue this way. It is dead end into perdition.