Folarin: Exclusive List Hindering Nigeria’s Devt

Kemi Olaitan in Ibadan 

The All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate in Oyo State, Senator Teslim Folarin, Tuesday said the country would not to work so long as the exclusive list is in the constitution. 

This is just as he lamented that the health sector in the state was in shambles in terms of infrastructure, equipment and intolerable working conditions of health workers.

The senator representing Oyo Central Senatorial District while speaking on Tuesday, in Ibadan, during a meeting with health workers in the state, said the states are weighed down by the exclusive list which do not allow them to freely determine how to develop.

He assured that if the presidential candidate of the party, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is elected President, he has the political will to free the states, stating that he has all it takes to make the states independent and have initiatives to develop. 

Folarin said if elected his government will not only upgrade the public health infrastructure in the state but also make required provisions to save lives, disclosing that he has facilitated many projects to the state.

According to him, “Oyo State’s health sector is in shambles in terms of infrastructure, equipment and intolerable working conditions of health workers. Some other glaring problems include under-staffing in our hospitals, expensive treatment and unavailability of basic drugs. The situation is all the more tragic in rural areas.

“It is worth noting that the University College Hospital (UCH) is the biggest public-sector hospital in Oyo State, which is visited by thousands of common people on a daily basis for receiving emergency care and getting routine treatments and tests done. But the institution is overstretched. Hence, the need to comprehensively upgrade all the state-owned hospitals and also provide new standard ones to serve the lacking communities.

“As a lawmaker representing Oyo Central senatorial district, I have made significant interventions in the health sector of Oyo State by facilitating four standard healthcare facilities vis-a-vis Primary Healthcare Centre, Pade in Akinyele LGA; Primary Healthcare Centre, Olode in Oluyole LGA; Araromi Market in Oyo East LGA and the latest one, which is due for commissioning is 100-bed Mother-Child Specialist Hospital Abode in Ona-Ara LGA.”

He stated further that the state is currently ranked 12 out of 36 states and last in Southwest in terms of healthcare provision, noting that the onus lies on government to take care of its citizens by all means necessary while his administration will not pay lips service to the health sector.