Senator Seeks More Funds For Healthcare

The Chairman, Senate Committee on Health, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, last Monday, said the nation’s primary healthcare sub-sector was underdeveloped due to inadequate funding.

Okowa, (PDP-Delta North), who made the remarks at the Illah Day 2013 celebration at Illah in Oshimili North local government area of Delta State,  said the sector, being the bedrock of every society, had suffered because there was little or no attention paid to it.

Okowa said adequate attention should be paid to the development of primary healthcare as the only way to touch lives of people at the grassroots.

He said this could be achieved through allocation of certain percentage of funds on annual basis to develop the sub-sector and attract development to the grassroots.

Okowa commended the Illah Development Union of Nigeria (IDUN) for its commitment to the development of the communities.

The senator said he would partner with the union to establish a befitting health and skill acquisition centres for youths in the community.

The President-General of IDUN, Prof. Lawrence Ezemonye, said the union had recorded tremendous achievements through the support of some individuals and philanthropic organisations.

He said that the union had assisted in building a primary healthcare centre, providing palliative measures at controlling floods, and upgrading of Illah Girls Basic School to full-fledged secondary school.

He added that the union would turn attention to furnishing/equipping the Youths Skill Acquisition Centre in the town.

Ezemonye pointed out that the union would revive the entrepreneurial spirit in youths to tap from the gains of cottage activities in the area of textile, welding and carpentry.

The traditional ruler of Illah, Obi Nwabuenu Mebu, said the community had witnessed some levels of development in the last few years.