By Falade Gbenga Tayo
An effective Health Care Delivery System is one of the cardinal means through which government can endear itself to the people in general and the electorates in specific terms.
In the past, Kwara State had earned itself a bad name and image courtesy of bad governance which had closed all eyes of reasoning to implementation of impactful strides in the health sector.
No wonder, most of the Primary Health Care facilities across the three Senatorial Districts of the State were functionally and structurally in a bad condition that can least be imagined as meeting the dire health needs of the populace.
The electoral victory of Mallam AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq in the March 2019 election, was therefore the answer to a divine cry for help in favour of the masses. It was through the divine intervention of God that He changes the story of the oppressed which invariably changed the story of the State of Harmony for good.
The people's choice can no less be described with the emergence of our vibrant and humble Governor, His Excellency, Mallam AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq. A Governor, who has demonstrated his focussed concerns for changing the plight, welfare and wellbeing of his people to that of fulfilment and satisfaction.
Taking a cursory look at the winning strategy that he has been using, effective partnerships seem to stand out clear as a formula that many would have struggled to match.
Effective partnership is working miraculously as an essential solution for advancing health care delivery in the State through a shared vision and value concept in meeting set objectives by all parties involved in the relationship.
Kwara has now become a new market where a number of partners are now suddenly interested in demonstrating their concerns for the downtrodden masses.
These partners, on account of the enabling environment created by the new administration, are now able to deploy their respective uniqueness by providing additional resources to play a variety of roles in providing community-based solutions for all healthcare related challenges in the State.
It is, however, on record that early in the life of this administration, His Excellency had approved payment of Counterpart Funds for not less than three key healthcare interventions in the state's Health Sector without any plea from any quarter. Subsequently, the sum of N232 Million Naira was paid as Counterpart Funding in August 2019 for the State Malaria Elimination Programme to key appropriately into the Global fund support, the Basic Health Care Provision fund of the Federal Government and the National Nutrition intervention.
The N82 Million Naira counterpart fund for the Malaria programme in the State for instance, has attracted the supply of 2.3 million units of Long Lasting Insecticide treated Nets (LLIN), worth over N3.3 billion from a partner agency, the Global fund through the Society for Family Health and Catholic Relief Services who are stakeholders in the 2020 LLIN campaign. In addition to this, the project would be facilitating jobs for over 5,000 ad hoc staff who would be remunerated by the partners.
The benefits of engaging appropriate stakeholders and partners in ensuring that the dividends of democracy gets to all, is manifested in the area of training of the human resources used in healthcare delivery services which has been the subject of interest in the relationship with the Management Sciences for Health.
Infrastructural development in the State especially in the rural communities, also got a boost with the thriving bond of partnership between the State's Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control Programme and the Damien Foundation of Belgium. The foundation had committed itself to the rehabilitation of the people affected with leprosy. This was the basis for the building of both the first and second phases of the construction of modern edifice to replace the dilapidated and collapsed mud-houses where the already alienated people suffering from leprosy had been housed for many years at the Oke-Igbala Leprosarium, near Omu-Aran, headquarters of Irepodun Local Government.
Worried by the plight of the people affected with leprosy in the State, Damien Foundation in collaboration with the State Government recently constructed a total of 25-rooms at Oke-Igbala Leprosarium. The building, comprised of 10-rooms in the first phase was completed and commissioned in October, 2019 while another 15-rooms in blocks of 5 separate buildings with toilet facilities, overhead tank and link routes, was also commissioned in August 2020.
As if this was not enough, the foundation also donated both means of mobility (motorbike) and medications to facilitate a house-to- house treatment concept for members of this community who could hardly access the hospital because of wounds and sores at the sole of their feet.
In conclusion, sustaining effective partnerships and collaboration is not only working and projecting the image of the current administration ably led by Mallam AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, but also made Kwara State a world compliant in a bid to make the benfits of Sustainable Development Goals accessible and attainable by the entire citizens of the State of Harmony.
Falade Gbenga Tayo is the Press Secretary, Kwara State Ministry of Health
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