The Senate has mandated its joint Committees on Health, Primary Health Care and Communicable Disease, Works, and Housing to investigate the abandoned N400 billion naira National Primary Health Centre (PHC) project initiated by former President Olusegun Obasanjo across the 774 Local government areas in the country.
The resolution was reached yesterday during plenary by the Senate after it considered a Motion to that effect.
The Motion, titled: Need to investigate the abandoned Four Hundred Billion Naira National Primary Health Center Project, was sponsored by Senator Yahaya Oloriegbe (Kwara-Central).
Senator Oloriegbe, in his presentation, noted that the National Primary Health Center project was initiated by the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo in 2006.
According to the lawmaker, the project was to build in each of the 774 Local Government Areas in Nigeria, a sixty (60) bed Primary Health Center to be complemented with a three-bedroom flat, doctors quarters, an ambulance, all basic hospital equipment and drugs.
Contributing, Senator Sadiq Suleiman Umar (Kwara North), said that the delivery of good health care to Nigerians is an aspect that can ensure the development of the country.
He observed that the recorded successes in health care delivery in developed climes are directly tied to the quality of primary health services.
He lamented that the National Primary Health Centre projects dispersed across the various constituencies have been abandoned by the contractors, some of whom are unknown.
On his part, Senator Matthew Urhogide (Edo-South), said the merit of the National Primary Health Centre project cannot be downplayed given its importance to health care delivery in Nigeria.
He added that the project was supposed to be the basis for the establishment of primary health centres in the 774 local government areas.
He disclosed that recently, some of the representatives of companies who were awarded the contracts appeared before some of the Senate Committees to claim that they have not been paid for the execution of the projects.
He added further that there are several committees of the Ninth Senate that have been inundated with several complaints about the projects.
Senator Biodun Olujimi (Ekiti South), said the abandoned project was a commitment to primary health gone wrong.
Accordingly, the chamber mandated the Committees on Health, Primary Health Care and Communicable Disease, Works, and Housing to investigate the abandoned N400 billion naira National Primary Health Centre Project initiated by former President Olusegun Obasanjo across the 774 Local Government Areas in Nigeria.
It resolved that the investigation must determine the status of the 100 percent project funds warehoused with the then Bank PHB (now Keystone Bank); determine the level of progress and status of the projects in each of the 774 local government areas; carry-out evaluation of the consultant, contractor and sub-contractors that participated in the project; carry-out a schedule of dilapidation on the projects; and recommend ways of completing the projects nationwide.
The Joint Committee was given six weeks to complete the investigation and report back to the chamber in plenary.
