Abia community decries dilapidated health facility, calls for help
By Ugochukwu Favour
The people of Ukaegbu community in Ogbor ancient Kingdom, Abia state, have called for help over the dilapidated health facility in the area.
The residents opened up on their inability to access quality healthcare during a town hall meeting organised by Connected Development (CODE), an international non-governmental organisation.
Speaking during the meeting, the Ward Development Committee (WDC) chairman of the community, Mr. Chinedu Azuka, lamented the fact that the area does not have a functional health centre.
He said: “The community does not have a public health care facility. We gave out our town hall to be used as a health centre which does not even have access to clean water, toilet or electricity.”
Chinedu said the poor condition of the health centre is because the facility is yet to get support from the Basic Health Care authority in the state.
He, therefore, asks the state government to come to the aid of the community by completing the health care facility which was started over three years ago.
In his remark, the Lead, Abia state Follow The Money chapter, Mr. Ugochukwu Favour Kelechi stated that a research conducted by his team, as part of the Covid-19 Transparency and Accountability Project (CTAP) on the primary health care (PHC) facilities in the state shows that six primary health care centres in three senatorial districts of the state are struggling to meet up to the minimum standard set by the Nigerian Primary Health Care Development Agency.
Mr. Ugochukwu said the health care centres fall below standard and therefore unfit to be used for administering COVID-19 vaccines.
He seized the opportunity of the town hall meeting to call on the government agencies, stakeholders and the general public to work to ensure that the community primary health care centre is completed and equipped for better and quality healthcare delivery in the state.
Follow The Money is the brainchild of Connected Development (CODE) which is a social accountability platform that tracks government spending across Africa.
CODE is a non-government organization [NGO] whose mission is to empower marginalized communities in Africa by strengthening local communities to create platforms for dialogue; enabling informed debate, and building capacities of citizens on how to hold government accountable through Follow The Money.
CODE provides marginalised and vulnerable communities with resources to amplify their voices with independence and integrity while providing the communities with information that ushers social and economic progress.
