• Community Suffers As Facility Gathers Dust, Becomes Symbol Of Broken Promises
Imagine walking past a newly built 40-bed Primary Healthcare Centre (PHC) paid for with taxpayer money, yet remain unused for two years, thus, making the facility overgrown with weeds. This is the reality in Akesan, Alimosho Local Council.
Since its completion in May 2023, and two years and four months after, the PHC, constructed and equipped by Office of the Special Adviser to the President on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at a cost exceeding N280 million, has idled away.
Public funds have been expended, but the intended beneficiaries, the ordinary Lagosians, remain without care. But the people are left to suffer: maternal crises, childhood illnesses, and avoidable deaths.
To some residents, this is not just a failure of policy or planning, it is a failure of humanity especially as the community has taken efforts to augment the facility provided by the government.
The residents were highly excited when the project started especially when many of them got to know that it was a PHC that was being built. When the project was completed, they said that it was like a half empty cup overflowing with water.
However, two years after completion, many residents are unhappy with what gave them joy and excitement initially, because they cannot access care in the facility.
Commenting, Chairman of one of the Community Development Association (CDAs) in Akesan, Chief Ismaila Aberuagba, said every right thinking member of the community was not only happy but also saw it as a good development coming into the community.
“We wanted a functional PHC in the community because after the General Hospital in Igando, it is the only available public hospital for Akesan residents and surrounding communities, like Obadore. The other one that is close by, it will cost nothing less than N200 transport to connect it.”
Aberuagba, however, is disappointed, like many other residents of the community, that two years after it was completed, the facility is not being put to use.
He said many politicians have promised them that it would start operation soon but two years down the line, it is still soon including the politician that facilitated the hospital to the community.
“We are still waiting two years after. It is not only her, many of the politicians promised but we have not contacted the lawmaker representing the community on it. All that is needed to make it functional is available it is just for them to commence work. There is a generator and even a 33kva transformer was provided, it is just for the transformer to be energised.”
A resident who pleaded anonymity revealed that a concerned community member provided a borehole that aid water supply to the facility. It is just to channel water from the borehole into the facility. “This is to tell you how the residents cannot wait for the hospital to become functional.”
When The Guardian contacted the Public Relations Officer of the Lagos State Primary Healthcare Board on the complaint of residents that the PHC has not been opened for use more than two years after it was completed, she asked that the details be sent to her which was complied with. She promised to get a feedback but she is yet to as at press time.
