“Health is first and health is wealth.” When Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed assumed responsibility as the executive governor of Bauchi state, he immediately sought a stronger and sustained collaboration with the World Health Organization and over 20 other International Development Partners and Donor Agencies working in the state. This collaboration had yielded a positive result, which included the actualization of a robust infrastructure for polio eradication and immunization, fight against Tuberculosis, Leprosy project and other diseases.
Moreover, Senator Bala has renovated and completed the State’s College of Nursing and Midwifery. The College was built to stand the test of time, equipped with sophisticated facilities and provided with necessary infrastructure for the smooth operations.
Similarly, the present administration under the able leadership of Senator Bala Mohammed has renovated 126 primary health care centers, constructed 12 new world class hospitals and a primary health care center in Dorawar Dillalai, Bauchi. Additionally, a number of general hospitals across 6 local government areas are currently under renovation.
On the issue of perpetual power supply in Hospitals in Bauchi state which was bedeviling the smooth conduct of medical affairs, the Governor has changed the narrative by ensuring 24hr uninterrupted power supply in all Public Hospitals across the state with a view to enhancing effective health care delivery.
With the coming of the Covid-19 pandemic, considering the difficulties being experienced by health officials in tackling the virus, where sample had to be taken to Abuja and later to Plateau for testing, Governor Bala Mohammed struggled all he could in collaboration with the North East Development Commission (NEDC) and the Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC) to actualize a Molecular Laboratory in the State for testing of COVID-19, Lassa fever, Yellow fever and other hemorrhagic diseases. This development, henceforth, brought to an end the daunting tasks and the challenges of taking Covid-19 samples to Abuja and Jos.
In his determined strides to boost agriculture and actualise food security in the state, Governor Bala launched an agricultural policy document covering key sub-sectors of agriculture such as irrigation development, quality supply, crop pest and disease control, commodity livestock and fisheries development among others. To complement this, the governor is committing a huge sum of money to the procurement of farming needs including pesticides and enhanced seedlings which will yield more produce to the farmers.
On annual basis, the governor procures over 18,000 metric tonnes of assorted fertilizer for farming season and he has always directed the state fertiliser blending company to sell the commodity at a subsidised price and directly to the farmers to save them from the trouble of shylock marketers. This unprecedented development attracted the attention of Farmers in Bauchi state to express explicitly their support to the newly introduced revolving scheme of distribution of fertilizer during the farming season.
Maijama’a, Faculty of Communication, Bayero University, Kano
sulaimanmaija@gmail.com
