Editorial
Medical Tourism: The Rivers Initiative
Plans by the Rivers Government to upgrade and standardize its health facilities aimed at making the state a hub of medical tourism in Africa is capable of limiting, if not totally making unnecessary the frequent overseas medical trips by Rivers people and other Nigerians. This is an uncommon initiative that deserves commendation.
Only recently, the National Coordinator of International Trauma Care Centre (ITCC), Dr. Sydney Ibeanusi told journalists during a facility tour of the Kelsey Harrison Hospital in Diobu and the Dental and Maxillo-Facial Specialist Hospital at Garrison, all in Port Harcourt, that the facilities have world-class medical equipment and experts to handle critical matters.
Said he: “Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi has provided for Nigerians two world-class medical facilities. The hospitals are equipped with state-of-the-art equipment that cannot be found elsewhere in sub-saharan Africa.”
“With these hospitals fully open for service,” Dr. Ibeanusi continued, “Rivers State will become a tourism destination for Nigerians seeking medical attention as a lot of Nigerians will prefer coming to the state and will no longer like travelling overseas for medical treatment.”
The ITCC coordinator had hinted that while the Kelsey Harrison Hospital has taken off, with only out-patients, the Dental and Maxillo-Facial Hospital would take off fully before the end of February, 2013. Both hospitals, he further hinted, would be managed by the ITCC with its own foreign experts for a period of 20 years, during which it would train its local personnel to take over from the foreign experts.
That Rivers State was becoming a new hub for medical tourism has eminently corroborated the promise of the state government to make some unmistakable statements with the health sector in the state.
The Tide notes with satisfaction that while the standard of both hospitals compares favourably with the best anywhere in the world, the Karibi Whyte Specialist Hospital being built at the Greater Port Harcourt Area would provide for our people the services for which some people go to seek medical attention overseas.
We also applaud the Rivers State government for the re-assurance by the State Health Ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Dr. Godwin Mpi that the idea behind the two hospitals was to ensure quality medicare for the people at minimal cost.
Indeed, these efforts, in addition to the hundreds of model health centres across the state and the training of medical personnel, will position Rivers State for a giant leap in healthcare supply for which this administration cannot be commended enough.
The Tide expects other states of the federation to borrow a leaf from Rivers State as knee surgeries and MRS Scan that often take people out of the country are now done in Port Harcourt. This is in addition to the health support for the young and the elderly in the state.
This worthy transformation of the health sector in Rives State is not only heart-warming but re-assuring, as those who would not be able to afford overseas treatment for some critical cases can now be saved locally. Not only that, local manpower would be developed, foreign exchange saved and the image of the country lifted.
The Tide, believes that healthcare is holistic and no aspect, including the quality of drugs presented in its facilities should be less than the best. This way, the world will come to Rivers State for treatment and attract to the state such benefits that would make every Nigerian proud.
There are moments in the life of a legislature when plain speaking becomes a public service. Senator Adams Oshiomhole provided such a moment on the floor of the Senate when he accused the Minister of Works, Senator David Umahi, of manifestly neglecting critical federal arteries in Edo and Delta States, and implored his colleagues to prevail on the Minister to adopt a more equitable and genuinely national approach to road infrastructure delivery. It was blunt, it was uncomfortable, and it was necessary.
The specifics of his complaint deserve restating. Drawing attention to the recent approval of some 20 new road projects despite the parlous state of existing ones, the former Edo State governor lamented that Nigerians cannot travel from Benin to Warri, Benin to Asaba, Benin to Auchi, or Auchi to Okene without encountering severe distress. He alleged a deliberate omission of these corridors from the national budget in the last three years, save for palliative interventions directed by President Bola Tinubu through tax credit arrangements. His question — “What have we done wrong?” — resonates far beyond the chambers of the National Assembly.
We lend our full and unequivocal support to that call. The Auchi-Benin Road, for instance, has been in a deplorable and near-impassable condition for several years, turning what should be a two-hour journey into an all-day ordeal of broken axles, extortionate fares, and despondent commuters. The media have, on multiple occasions, chronicled the suffering of motorists, traders, and students who ply that route. To describe it as a federal road today is to stretch the meaning of the term beyond recognition.
This pattern of sidelining is not confined to Edo or Delta. Even here in Rivers State, the disposition of the Federal Ministry of Works has left much to be desired, particularly along the Eleme axis of the East-West Road. That road, which ought to be a flagship of federal presence in the Niger Delta, has remained in a wretched state for long. Those who use it daily — workers at the Eleme Petrochemical Complex, the two refineries, Onne Port, and the countless ancillary industries — can attest to its deterioration. Work has proceeded in fits and starts without the sustained urgency such a strategic road demands.
The Eleme stretch is not a mere intra-state byway. It is the gateway to the nation’s economic jugular. According to the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing’s 2023 Highway Condition Survey, only about 35 per cent of the country’s 36,000 kilometres of federal roads are rated as being in good or fair condition, with the remainder classified as poor or very poor. The East-West Road, conceived in the 1970s to bind the entire Niger Delta, remains unfinished in critical sections more than four decades after. If it had been treated as a priority, the perennial gridlock, carnage, and economic loss on the Eleme-Refinery junction would have long been consigned to history.
The irony is as painful as it is glaring. The Niger Delta remains the goose that lays the golden eggs. Data from the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative [NEITI 2023 Oil and Gas Audit] show that the region still accounts for over 78 per cent of Nigeria’s federally collected export earnings and about 65 per cent of total government revenue. The National Bureau of Statistics [NBS Foreign Trade Report Q4 2024] similarly confirms that crude oil continues to dominate export receipts. By every metric of equity and economic logic, a region that sustains the national purse deserves first-rate consideration in the allocation of infrastructure, not afterthoughts and tokenism.
Road infrastructure is not largesse to be dispensed by favour; it is the skeleton upon which commerce, cohesion, and citizenship hang. When contracts are concentrated in one geopolitical zone while other zones are left to contend with craters, it erodes trust in the federation itself. The World Bank’s Nigeria Development Update [June 2023] estimated that poor transport connectivity inflates the cost of moving goods by up to 40 per cent and costs the Nigerian economy an estimated $1.5 billion annually in lost man-hours and vehicle maintenance. If we profess to be one country, then equity must be the compass that guides key institutions before any project is executed. Development must spread round, not pool in one place as though other regions do not matter.
There is also a grave security dimension that can no longer be ignored. The deplorable condition of federal roads has become a veritable enabler of criminality. The NBS Crime Experience and Security Perception Survey reported over 2.5 million incidents of kidnapping-related occurrences nationally, with transport workers identifying bad road spots as prime ambush points. When vehicles are forced to crawl at 10 kilometres per hour through failed sections at Auchi, Sapele Road, or Eleme, they become sitting ducks for armed gangs. Fixing bad roads, therefore, is not merely about convenience; it is about safeguarding lives.
By his intervention, Senator Oshiomhole has hit the nail on the head and reminded Minister Umahi of a fundamental constitutional truth: public office is held in trust. The Ministry of Works is not a personal estate where contracts are awarded according to whim or political convenience. It is a national institution funded by the collective resources of Nigerians, including the oil and gas rents from the very communities whose roads are now neglected. The Minister must demonstrate balance, transparency, and a pan-Nigerian outlook in the distribution of projects that impact the daily existence of citizens. Selective neglect breeds suspicion, and suspicion is corrosive at a time when the nation is preaching unity, oneness, equity, and justice.
Consequently, the National Assembly must go beyond rhetoric and assert its oversight powers with vigour. Sections 88 and 89 of the 1999 Constitution [as amended] empower the legislature to investigate and expose any maladministration in the execution of federal projects. If an office holder is not acting rightly, it is the duty of the Senate and the House of Representatives to call him to order. Oversight must not be reduced to budget approval ceremonies; it must translate to field verification, public hearings, and insistence that the Federal Character principle, as enshrined in Section 14(3) of the Constitution, reflects in road awards.
Let the Auchi-Okene, Benin-Warri, Benin-Asaba, and Eleme East-West gangways be restored to motorable dignity. Let priority be given to completing existing, economically vital roads before embarking on new ones. If those who, through their resources, sustain the federation are sidelined in the distribution of tangible dividends, it tells poorly of our nationhood. Bad roads must be fixed, and they must be fixed now, with fairness as the guiding standard.
