A member of the House of Representatives representing Ado/Irepodun/Ifelodun federal constituency of Ekiti State, Honourable Sola Fatoba has said the frequent travellings of citizens to other countries for medicare is killing the nation’s health sector.
Fatoba noted that Nigerians have no reason to travel abroad to seek medical help owing to the enormous resources available to build the sector in the country.
The All Progressives Congress(APC) lawmaker, also described as apt and expedient, the agitations by Nigerians for state police and legislative autonomies for States, saying both agitations were critical to the country’s socio-political and economic development.
He spoke in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, on Thursday, while commissioning N450 million worth of projects he built and donated for use by his constituents.
He said it is high time the country built the health sector to a standard that could take care of all ailments, rather than trooping to other nations to build their economies at our own expense.
According to him, “Medical tourism is one of the things I condemn in totality. Nigerian forefathers didn’t do that. We can’t continue to kill our own health sector and be trooping to another man’s lands to build their economies.
” Look at what Chief Afe Babalola(SAN) did in Afe Babalola University with the multi-system hospital. People are coming all over Nigeria to seek medical treatments there. These are things that should be happening in our state and our country.”
Supporting the agitations for state Police, Fatoba said the level of insecurity in the country has gone beyond what the federal machinery can unilaterally tackle and bring to a halt.
“What we are witnessing now regarding the level of insecurity is a phase that will soon pass away. But we should not leave our security in the hands of the government. The criminals are not spirits. If you are waiting for the government in Abuja or Ekiti to know what is happening in your domains, then we will all fail in that regard of having the protection of lives and property.
“That was why we are all supporting constitutional amendments for the creation of state police. The country is ripe to have state police and the National Assembly has been backing this agitation,” he said.
The Lawmaker added that financial autonomy that has caused unrest and strike across the 36 states of the federation was right, saying the measure would help in deepening the country’s democracy if eventually granted.
The projects provided by the lawmaker were; Hospital built and donated to Irewolede/Fajuyi Estate in Ado metropolis, ICT Centres in 10 secondary schools, instructional materials to schools, and three cancer screening equipment to the Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital, Ado Ekiti.
Fatoba stated that some of his projects centred on health and education because of the high priority placed on the two pivotal sectors by residents of Ekiti State.
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