Senate majority leader laments poor access of Nigerians to quality healthcare

The Majority Leader of the Nigerian Senate, Opeyemi Bamidele, on Friday disclosed that the weak primary healthcare system being run in the country contributes substantially to rising mortality rate among Nigerian citizens.

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Mr Bamidele said most citizens often died of treatable diseases on account of poverty and poor access to robust medicare, saying this propelled him to offer free medical intervention for constituents in Ekiti Central Senatorial District to rescue them from afflictions.

He said this in Ado Ekiti, the state capital while rounding off the second phase of his free medical outreach across the five local government areas in Ekiti Central Senatorial District, where 9,400 people benefited.

A total of 6,600 residents of the district had earlier benefited from the first phase of the programme undertaken in partnership with the Industrial Arbitration Panel, thereby increasing the tally of beneficiaries to an aggregate of 16,000.

Treatment

The beneficiaries were diagnosed and treated for ailments such as hepatitis, hypertension, hernia, visual problems, diabetes, and were offered free eye glasses for those suffering all manners of visual impairments.

Lamenting poor access of many Nigerians to quality healthcare, Mr Bamidele, who was represented by his Senior Legislative Assistant, Bunmi Oguntuase, posited that the trend had brought a snag in the attainment of the the Universal Health Coverage.

To tackle the recurrence of the dangerous scenario, Mr Bamidele appealed to state governors to prioritise the health needs of those at the grassroots, where he noted that over 70 per cent of the population reside.

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He said: “What we are doing is to give succour to those being afflicted by diseases and they don’t have the means to seek medical treatments. Let me advise our governors to invest more in the primary healthcare sector that remains the closest to the poor masses.

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“Going by what some of the beneficiaries said, most of them had been experiencing the sicknesses for years, but today, they have been treated.

“Those with chronic health issues had been referred to better hospitals and Senator Bamidele is ready to foot the bills to give our people the dividends of democracy they deserve”.

He promised that the programme is going to be continuous to provide safety nets for some of his poor constituents.

Applause

Applauding the Senator for the free health programme, the Ewi of Ado Ekiti, Oba Rufus Adejugbe, said what Mr Bamidele was achieving for Ekiti further buttressed the fact that having a ranking federal lawmaker can be beneficial to the state.

Oba Adejugbe saluted the robust working partnership between Governor Biodun Oyebanji and Senator Bamidele, saying this has helped in giving the state a facelift in all spheres of the economy, especially in human capital development as a pillar of this administration.

The monarch stated that through Senator Bamidele’s unflagging commitment, the Ekiti Central Senatorial District had benefited road infrastructures, healthcare delivery, scholarship programmes, bursary awards to students and building of hostels for the Ekiti State University, Ado Ekiti, to give students affordable accommodation.