The Director-General of Voice of Nigeria (VON), Mr Osita Okechukwu, has hailed the First Lady, Hajiya Aisha Buhari, for the upgrade of Aso Villa State House Clinic and bringing it to an enviable international standards.
Okechukwu said on Sunday in Enugu that it was gratifying that the upgrade of Aso Villa State House Clinic had made the clinic to have functional capacity to take and serve 35,000 Nigerians.
He gave the commendation while answering questions on diverse political issues, which included: the crisis in local chapters of All Progressives Congress (APC), the NYSC imbroglio of Dr Peter Mbah, the National Assembly leadership tussle, Blinken’s call to President-elect, Sen. Bola Tinubu, among others.
Okechukwu, a foundation member of the APC, said that without downgrading any news item; Her Excellency, Aisha Buhari’s initiative to upgrade the Aso Villa State House Clinic and pushing to see it completed recently remained highly commendable and exceptional.
According to him, methinks before any other news item, one first and foremost have to commend Her Excellency, Aisha Muhammadu Buhari, for her initiative back in 2017, which led to the upgrade of Aso Villa State House Clinic.
It would be recalled that in October 2017, Mrs Buhari, at a stakeholders’ meeting on Reproductive, Maternal, Nutrition, Child Advocacy and Health and Nutrition, RMNCAH+N, at the State House, Abuja, told her own story when she fell ill and was advised to travel to London for treatment, but she refused.
“I called the Aso Clinic to find out if they have an X-Ray machine; they said it is not working. In the end, I had to go to a hospital owned and operated by foreigners 100 per cent.
“There is a budget for the Hospital and if you go there now, you will see a number of constructions going on but they don’t have a single syringe there. What is the purpose of the buildings if there are no equipment there to work with?
“You can imagine what happens across the states to governors’ wives if this will happen to me in Abuja,” the VON DG quoted the First Lady as saying.
Okechukwu noted that this singular experience spurred Her Excellency to push for the upgrade and completion of the Aso Villa State House Clinic.
He said that it was quite gratifying to hear the first Lady say that “she is quite happy and feeling fulfilled; We thank God that the project has come to reality”.
He said that the upgraded project, which started six years ago, would now make a great impact on the health of the first family and other Nigerians as we have all the experts in Nigeria. “We only needed a good platform.”
“The hospital that is supposed to serve the First Family is serving about 35,000 people, which is quite much. However, the first lady insisted and made provision of a VIP wing within the clinic, which is close to the Presidential Villa,” he said.
Okechukwu also lauded the First Lady for all her initiatives, programmes and projects that had made useful impacts in lives of millions of Nigerians in the course of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
“I give kudos to the First Lady because of the useful and impactful inputs she made in the course of her husband’s fruitful administration.
“It is worthwhile for Nigerians to appreciate the milestones of her pet programme – ‘Future Assured’, which pioneered many projects that advanced the well being of women and children in the country,” he added. (NAN)
