Oyebanji Troubled by Ekiti Doctors’ Exodus to Overseas

Gbenga Sodeinde in Ado Ekiti

Governor Biodun Oyebanji has expressed worry over the exodus of health professionals for greener pastures abroad.
Oyebanji stated this in his new year message.

According to a statement made available to journalists, he expressed deep concern but assured that his government will work to reverse the trend.
“Government is deeply concerned about the exodus of our health and medical professionals to other climes due to obvious present challenges,” stated the governor. “I am however glad to assure them that Government will look into the issues with a view to reversing the trend in the New Year. We appreciate their enormous sacrifices and will be willing to see to how things can be made better.”

Oyebanji, in his first New Year speech, expressed hope that 2023 would be a “year of giant lift for Ekiti.”
“Similarly, our secondary health facilities are all undergoing serious upgrade and retooling so as to be able to functionally respond to the health needs of our people. For us, sound health and access to health facilities are central to wealth creation and prosperity,” the governor explained. “In the New Year, we will expedite effort on this and ensure all our health facilities at all levels are accessible, available, affordable and in good shape. We want to jealously preserve our record as the state with the highest life expectancy rate in Nigeria, we will continue to  strengthen our primary, secondary and tertiary health system to keep this trophy.”

He assured Ekiti people that they would witness “massive improvement in security, infrastructure and government services than we have ever seen.”
The governor pledged his commitment to youth development and job creation, human capital development, infrastructure and industrial development, agriculture and rural development, arts, culture and tourism in this year to turn around the fortunes of Ekiti.

He said his administration was working hard to give Ekiti a new face which is evident in the aggressive pursuit of road infrastructure renewal in Ado Ekiti metropolis through ongoing rehabilitation of major and nodal roads spices with massive deployment of streetlights under the Light-Up Ekiti Initiative which would be replicated in other towns and villages in 2023.

According to Oyebanji, the transformation Ikogosi Warm Spring Resort is ongoing. A private company was contracted to rebuild, expand and manage the resort considered “Ekiti’s most iconic tourism springboard for the tourism potential of the state.”
He said he was convinced that the resort and nearby Arinta Water Fall will be back in the international tourism site in 2023, bigger and better as his administration would also embark on the development of other heritage sites in Ekiti.  

The governor also unfolded plans to bring more agripreneurs to the state that would lead to the full realisation of the thinking that led to the establishment of the Ekiti Agro Cargo Airport noting that his government’s long-term goal is to make Ekiti the foremost state for agro-allied export to the international market in the course of the year.

Oyebanji said he wouls facilitate access to cheaper funds to support the growth of small and medium enterprises with the vision to ensure that artisans, market women and private sector players are linked up with cheaper funds to support their businesses in 2023.
He explained that both the supplementary budget and the 2023 budget already passed by the House of Assembly was projected to reflect his administration’s “six pillars” and their actualisation.

According to him, the passage of the supplementary budget has empowered his administration to urgently intervene in some critical infrastructural renewal while the 2023 Appropriation Law assented to two days ago would help the government to hit the ground running from the first day of the year.
He added, “We will keep investing in our schools to make them globally comparable and competitive. To this end, we are working with different international partners, especially, World Bank’s IDEAS and AGILE programmes and other initiatives which have seen our schools receiving funds for renovation, training, equipment and infrastructural upgrade as well and digital and innovation development funding for both formal and informal educational system.”