RVHA May Recommend Dissolution Of Primary Healthcare Board

The Rivers State House of Assembly may recommend the dissolution of the Primary Healthcare Management Board as well as repeal the Rivers State Primary Healthcare Law of 2010 following the inability of other collaborators to meet the expected quotas.
The Chairman of the ad-hoc committee on health which is currently probing the Primary Healthcare Management Board, Hon Robison Nname Ewor, who disclosed this last Wednesday after meeting with the board of the Rivers State Primary Healthcare Board, said the law passed by the Assembly and signed into law by the State Executive Governor, Rt. Hon Chibuike Amaechi was not being implemented as stipulated.
Hon Ewor said he and other members of the committee were not satisfied with the explanations given by the board members, noting that when a law is passed, it is expected to be implemented in its totality.
According to him, ’’where a law is not implemented and a body set up to do so is not bordered, then there is no need for that board’’.
‘’We are not satisfied by the presentations of the board today (Wednesday), investigation is ongoing by the time we conclude, we will know whether to repeal the law or not. But the fact remains that we are not satisfied with what is happening now’’, he said.
He noted that the assembly has the powers to make laws for the good governance of the state, and added that whatever laws that were made for the local governments should be implemented.
“We have made this law that covers both the local government and the state, so, they opt to implement the law and where they refused, they should come to the floor of the house and explain why they should not implement it,” he said.
He, however, regretted that after three years of their inauguration, the board has not been to the Assembly, stating that this is an opportunity to evaluate the performance of their work.
Ewor noted that the board was not implementing the law, and said, ‘’we will also invite the All Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON),Rivers State chapter to state their own side of the story,” adding that “this will enable the committee to know where it is going and balance its reports.”
The River State Primary Healthcare Management Board is being headed by the former Chief Medical Director of UPTH, Dr Uriel Etawo as chairman, Dr Claribel Abam, the executive secretary and other members.
Speaking after the exercise, the Executive Secretary of the Rivers State Primary Healthcare Management Board, Dr Claribel Abam, expressed happiness that the board was called to explain the difficulties and challenges they are experiencing in implementing the laws which they passed.
Abam said that she believed that by the time they conclude, they may see that certain parts of the law, which they know have challenges in implementing,  may be addressed conclusively.
According to her, ‘’this was a good exercise, we met with the Assembly informally, through the Deputy Speaker, Hon Leyii Kwane when the challenges came up, but may be in this formal setting, we may get better results’’.
It would be recalled that the Speaker, Rt. Hon Otelemaba Dan-Amachree appointed an ad-hoc committee to probe the activities of the board.
This followed the motion moved at the floor of the House by the Deputy Leader, Hon Robinson Nname Ewor, who alerted the house of the failing standard of the primary healthcare service in the state.
Ewor while presenting the motion, noted that the board was not implementing the law and has refused to promote and relate to community health workers.

L-R: Director, Nigeria Sustainable Development Solutions Network (NSDSN), Prof. Ikenna Onyido, Director, Centre for Sustainable Development (CESDev), Prof. Labode Popoola, President ,African Sustainable Development Network (ASUDNet), Prof. Ndowa Lale and a guest speaker, Prof. Sola Olopade, at the annual Ibadan Sustainable Summit in Ibadan recently