The Governor of Bayelsa State, Senator Douye Diri, has recommended an increased collaboration between the federal and state governments as the best step towards attaining the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Diri made this known at the inauguration of a 100-bed mother and child hospital built through a partnership between the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on SDGs and the state’s SDGs office at Azikoro Town, Yenagoa.
According to him, neither the federal nor state governments could function in isolation without the support of the other.
He said: “There is no level of government that is standing alone. The federal government needs the states just as the states need the federal government. So when we partner, we are going to address a lot of the sustainable development goals.”
“This is not the first mother and child hospital in the state. Chevron built a similar facility at the Bayelsa Medical University but during the height of COVID-19, we had to convert it to a COVID-19 hospital. Since then, we have had the need to provide for our mothers and children till this opportunity came and we grabbed it.”
“Even when the temptation came for me to site this project in my community, l looked at the indices of the population and its proximity to our mothers and I said it must be domiciled in Yenagoa.”
“This facility will be very beneficial to us as a people. In fact, for me, this is one of the best things that have happened to us as a state. But like Oliver Twist, we look forward to collaborating for more” he added.
“Now our women and children have a place for safe delivery. They will no longer patronise traditional practitioners but take modern treatment and medicines.”
“The facility is equipped with state-of-the-art equipment you can find anywhere in the world. That is why I am very happy. Please express our appreciation to Mr. President for this collaborative effort and for doing this for our mothers and the children.”
Thereafter he commended President Muhammadu Buhari for approving the health facility in the state which is named Dr. Aisha Buhari Mother and Child Hospital to address infant and maternal mortality.
Diri believed that the facility would be beneficial to the people of the state, describing it as one of the fruitful results of the state’s collaboration with the federal government.
He thanked the Senior Special Assistant to the President on SDGs, Dr. Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, for ensuring the completion of the edifice.
In her remarks, the Senior Special Assistant to President on SDGs, Dr. Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, appreciated the president for providing the necessary support that ensured collaboration with the Bayelsa State Government, which fast-tracked the projects under the SDGs.
She equally thanked Governor Diri for supporting, cooperating, and implementing SDGs in the state, adding that the hospital is equipped with an ultra-scan room, ICU for both children and mothers, and laboratories among other facilities.
In his address, the State Focal Person and Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on SDGs, Dr. Ebiwari Wariowei, thanked the governor for providing the state’s counterpart funding for all SDGs projects and programmes, which according to him, amounted so far to N3.5 billion.