Joe Effiong and Ekpedeme Essien, Uyo
The joy of natives of Eyulor community in Urue Offong Oruko Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State cannot be quantified.
Their dream of more than half a century to own a functional health facility was recently realised. The dream came true as one of the numerous micro projects assisted by the World Bank and the Akwa Ibom state government under the Community and Social Development Projects (CSDP) for
communities in the state.
Chairman, Eyulor Community Project Management Committee (CPMC), Mr Francis Onobo, expressed the feelings of the people during the official inauguration of the community clinic. He said the community would eternally remain grateful to AK-CSDP and World Bank for coming to their
rescue.
“Prior to this time, the communities had lost women to childbirth due to the distance of the community to the nearest health care facility.
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“Notably, today’s event highlights the fulfilment of the yearning and agitation of Eyulor Oro Community to have a functional health facility. From my brief interaction with the elders and rural fathers, I was made to understand that Eyulor village had tried in the 1950s to build a health clinic.
“The only one they could was a make-shift facility for leprosy infectious diseases in the swampy
area of Udim-Oro near the bridge at the entrance of Eyulor. But the building had since been washed away as they were temporary structures with no solid foundations.
“Today, we have an ultra modern health facility with clinic furniture equipment made possible by the World Bank grant program. The goal is to provide antenatal care and delivery services to women in Eyulor and surrounding communities to reduce the incidence of maternal and child mortality and the resultant number of orphans and vulnerable children.
“We are particularly excited today as this primary health Clinic is being commissioned at the time politicians are using free medical care to flag off their campaigns. We therefore invite them to come and make use of our facility,” he said.
Chief Esio Ante Esio who spoke on behalf of the village head of Eyulor thanked the Almighty God for answering their prayers.
“I thank God that he had answered our prayers. Today we have a health centre in Eyulor. We also have motorized borehole and culvert constructed for our community and we are indeed grateful. I also thank the World Bank, the state Government and CSDP for doing these projects for us. We say may God bless them and keep them fit for us,” he said.
Madam Ikwo Etim Akadu, a petty trader, said the motorised borehole had improved the economic life of the Community. Commissioner, Ministry of Economic Development, Labour and Manpower Planning, Mr. Ekong Sampson thanked the ccommunity for standing with the government to build this project.
He said the present administration in the state has performed creditably well and the situation on ground confirmed the actualization of the five-points agenda of the present administration.
He said between January 1, 2015 and October 30, 2018, governments has completed the construction 171 quality micro projects in 89 communities across the states with the total sum of
N686,903.177.31 to touch lives of the people of Akwa Ibom state.
The general manager of CSDP in the state, Mr. Ishmael Akpan explained that CSDP is an Akwa
Ibom State Government’s project which is only supported by World Bank. He said that the agency has so far recorded wide acceptability and overwhelming enthusiasm by the people in the state.
He said the agency is committed to touch the lives of the poor and vulnerable people in order for
an improved standard of living in the state.
“I want to use this opportunity to thank President Muhammadu Buhari who collaborated with World Bank and brought this project to Nigeria and it was magnanimous enough to allow the project to go to States. I also thank our amiable Governor Mr Udom Gabriel Emmanuel who graciously fulfilled all the requirements which enabled the state to come on board the programme of Community and Social Development Projects Additional funding (CSDP-AF) which is why we have come this far. As I am talking now, we are already in 89 communities and we provide these quality Micro-Projects which you have seen for yourselves.
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“One funny thing about CSDP is that it is inclusive and this is an example of inclusive development whereby everybody in the community is involved. This ensures that one is watching the other and its makes way for transparency and accountability implementation of the micro-projects and of course, it makes for ownership.
This means that you people did it. All that we did was to give you money and as such you people
own the projects.”
Akpan expressed happiness that the Akwa Ibom State government and the Urue Offong/Uruko Local Government Area were all working together to ensure that the project was utilised.
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