Much Ado about ₦41 Billion Akwa Ibom ‘World Class’ Hospital

In times of great fear and fervour, it is not uncommon for the society to look to its leaders for solace or sympathy. (Then most of them remember that said leaders are cows and crooks, and promptly look elsewhere). It is during this time that they take a closer look at what this leader said and that the government did.

Amidst scares of the Covid-19 virus, folks have started to take notice of certain ghosts lingering where they should not. Put differently, people are starting to ask why such and such a project or facility – that would otherwise be essential to managing the crisis – is not available, not operational, or not in existence at all. The ‘World Class’ hospital that was proposed and commissioned in Akwa Ibom under the peerless directive and government of Senator Godswill Akpabio is one of these.

One of the most discussed and evaluated projects of Senator Godswill Akpabio, while he was Akwa Ibom Governor, was the commission of a Grade-A, first-class and World-Standard hospital, the first of its kind in the State and in Nigeria. The project sunk about N41 billion and was publicized to be the zenith and beginning of contemporary healthcare in Nigeria, a relief for most people who had to undergo the inconvenience of travelling abroad just so they could get a physician’s counsel. Akpabio’s hospital enjoyed the cheers and salutations of the Nigerian people and sat on the pedestal, waiting to be called to action. And now that Covid-19 has come knocking, Akpabio’s hospital is nowhere in sight.

Numerous people are of the opinion that even if the research from a purported N41 billion World Class hospital cannot provide a cure, then it should have holding centres and areas for bed-rests and the quarantine of infected Nigerians. None of that is forthcoming.

As a result, it is now being alleged that Senator Akpabio’s project was nothing but a waste of cash. Other quarters have taken the whole debacle to the extreme by stating that it was a half-baked, white elephant, with the elephant’s tusk bearing a sizable fraction of the cash into Akpabio’s strongholds.

Understandably, folks are afraid and disgruntled and have begun to realize that there is nothing they can do against the Covid-19 virus, except stay idle and away from people – the very attitude that Akpabio’s hotel appears to have adopted.