How Zulum’s Unannounced Visit Remedied Ugly Situations in 2 Borno Hospitals
Until Governor Babagana Zulum’s late-hour visit on Friday, patients in two general hospitals in Maiduguri, Borno State, have been left languishing in darkness for many days due to power failure.
Governor Zulum who arrived in Abuja late in the night after some days had to stop by the Umaru Shehu Ultramodern Hospital which is situated along the road to the airport. He stopped by to confirm some earlier hints that some hospital operates without electricity due to a lack of diesel to power the generators.
He went there and saw things for himself.
Isa Gusau, the Spokesman of Governor Zulum had explained in a statement shared with The Humanitarian Times that many hospitals “relied on generators because of lack of electricity supply from the national grid since Boko Haram destroyed electricity equipment along Maiduguri-Damaturu highway, in response to which frantic efforts were still being made by federal and state officials to restore connections to areas yet to have electricity, including parts of Bulumkutu axis.”
Mr. Gusau, who is an adviser to the governor on Public Relations and strategy said the governor “had to engage the persons in charge of generators at both hospitals with some technical questions, which led to his confirmation that the generators had no problems at all. They were fully functional, but lacked diesel to power them.”
Governor Zulum was quoted to have expressed his sadness over the ugly situations patient were made to cope with.
“It is very unfortunate that no official either from the Hospital Management Board or the Ministry of Health drew my attention to this outage” the governor queried.
“If we can power our streetlights constantly, I see no reason why we cannot power our hospitals” Zulum lamented as he consoled patients and their loved ones for being in darkness despite dealing with illnesses.
To remedy the situation temporarily, the governor had to direct that „available diesel meant to power generators at the Government House, Maiduguri, where he lives, be immediately transferred by trucks to both hospitals, pending his meeting with officials of the state’s Ministry of Health the following day, to find a sustainable solution.”
To ensure sustainability, the Governor further directed an upgrade of existing solar-powered buildings at Fatima Ali Sheriff Maternity Hospital and USUMH.
The big question?
The question yet unanswered, which every discerning mind might want to ask is what went wrong?
The issue of power outage has been with Maiduguri city and its environs since January 2021. And Governor Zulum whom everyone knows may have provided adequate funding to cater for the electricity requirement of the hospitals. So what went wrong? Who has been the derelict on this matter?
