From: BillyGraham Abel, Yola
The Presidential Committee on the Northeast Initiative (PCNI) says it would soon begin the reconstruction of hospitals, clinics, and veterinary facilities destroyed by Boko Haram insurgents in seven local governments of Michika, Madagali, Maiha, Gombi, Mubi north, Mubi South and Hong in Adamawa State.
PCNI vice chairman, Tijjani Tumsa, said the intervention has become critical in order to make basic healthcare services available to thousands of returnee Internally Displaced Persons in northern Adamawa and to revive the livestock industry which has been the economic may stay of most of the residents of the area, a sector that has been upended by activities of Boko Haram insurgents in the state.
Tumsa made the remark, on Thursday, following a courtesy visit of a high-powered delegation of members of House Representatives from northern Adamawa, led by Hon. Abdulrahman Shuiabu and Hon. Yusuf Buba accompanied by the state commissioner for health, Fatima Atiku, and Commissioner of Livestock and Production, Alh. Salihu Isa.
Tumsa said the visit and subsequent presentation of the Adamawa delegation was in line with the laid our programmes of the initiative towards ameliorating the hardship faced by returnee IDPs in the northeast region of the country.
He commended the delegation for its presentation and for showing concern for the welfare of the IDPs in Adamawa state.
The commissioner for health, Fatima Atiku in her presentation said, about N1.5 billion would be required to rebuild health infrastructure and upgrade the capacity of health institutions to train adequate human resources to run healthcare centers destroyed by Boko Haram insurgency in northern Adamawa State.
Halima said, “The state of health infrastructure and man power in northern Adamawa state is dire and requires immediate and substantial intervention in order to save lives and effectively deal with medical challenges of the returnee IDPs.”
She stressed that the condition of health facilities in northern Adamawa was that of an already fragile health system brought to its knees by the insurgency.
The commissioner noted that the school of Health Technology with campuses in both Mubi and Michika will require classrooms, laboratory, office complex, hostels, among many other basic infrastructure destroyed or carted away by the insurgent group and the school of nursing and midwifery which is the only institution for training health workers has most of its courses yet to accredited a situation which leads to low intake of students.
Halima noted that rebuilding infrastructure in these schools would close the wide gap that exists in available health workforce and raise the minimum required personnel to run essential health services.
She said, “Adamawa has a unacceptable ratio of 1 doctor to 21,500 population and 1 nurse/midwife to 2847 population as against world health organization’s recommended 1 doctor to 6000 and 1 nurse/midwife to 150 population.
Making a presentation on the challenges facing the livestock industry in the state, the Deputy director, Adamawa Ministry of Livestock and Production, Dr. Abdulrahman Tukur said, “The Northeast Recovery and Peace Building Assessment shows that Adamawa state economy is driven by the livestock sector which accounts for 37.1% GDP of the state’s economy.
He said, livestock production has been greatly hampered by the activities of the insurgency and it has caused a significant strain on the economy.
Abdulrahman said the near total collapse of veterinary and livestock production in the state has had a significant impact on the life and economy of the state and the sector would require about N1.06 billion immediate intervention in order to revive the ailing industry.
Tukur stressed that the sector has suffered a major setback as the boko haram insurgents destroyed veterinary facilities and carted away livestock worth hundreds of millions of naira.
He noted that majority of the people in the seven local governments affected by boko haram are involved in livestock production and most of them now have nothing to fall back to.
Tukur said restoring livestock production would give most of the returnee IDPs a fighting chance and boost the economic profile of the state.