by Ahahziah Abubakar Suleiman
The Snake Bite Diagnostic Hospital Kaltungo is to be upgraded into a research centre in the Northeastern part of Nigeria.
The Gombe State acting Coordinator of the North-East Development Commission Alhaji Rufa’i Babamanu, stated this on Friday while receiving in audience officials of the host community of the office in Gombe State the Federal Low-Cost Gombe.
Babamanu said the snake bite Hospital in Kaltungo will not only be upgraded but will also serve as a reference hospital for all snake bites in the North-East.
He added, “5,000 anti-snake venom medicines have been provided in the hospital.”
While enumerating on health interventions in the state, the Coordinator said that contract for the construction of a medical store which will serve the entire people of the North East has been awarded and the store will be sited in Mallam Sidi in Kwami Local Government Area of the State.
This according to him, “will be in addition to interventions in Primary Health Centres across all the eleven Local Government Areas of Gombe State. The NEDC Gombe State Area Office has trained over 600 primary school teachers in the state with many more identified for further training.”
Babamanu said the effects of insurgency in the region have seriously affected school enrolment in some parts of the state with the rate of out of school children especially the girl child at an alarming rate.
He said, “Apart from the 22 block of classrooms constructed in parts of the state, the training and retraining of teachers in collaboration with the Gombe State Universal Basic Education Board has become a top most priority to equip teachers with the necessary skill set for teaching while select mega schools are being upgraded with 450 hostels, six science laboratories equipped and 16 blocks of classrooms.”
The acting Coordinator of the NEDC said they have established Skills Acquisition Centres in Kaltungo and Kumo while over 600 youths in the state have been trained in Gombe with various skills to be self reliant and create jobs for the teeming youths of the state, adding “This is in addition to solar powered boreholes drilled in all the Local Government Areas of the State.’Gombe Go Green’ programme also received support from the Commission with nursery of various trees have been established and tree planting conducted in the state.
According to him, other areas of intervention in the state includes the construction of Gombe Abba Road to Kirfi in Bauchi State, while contract for the construction of three major bridges on the Bauchi-Gombe road the main gateway to Gombe, Adamawa and Taraba States has been awarded to solve the perennial washout on the road.
He said Gombe State being an agrarian area, all farm centres in the state are being revived and equipped with modern farming tools to move away from the traditional way of farming where hoe is used adding that extension workers have been train while farming implements such as tractors and fertiliser provided to farmers in the State.
Babamanu disclosed that the NEDC has what is called Rapid Response Programme where N50 million is set aside for urgent and immediate intervention should in case natural disaster occurs in any of the Local Government Areas of the state.
Earlier the host community of the Gombe State office of the North East Development Commission told the Coordinator that they were in the office to show solidarity and identify with him.
The Chairman of the Group and former Deputy Governor Charles Iliya, who was represented by his Deputy Alhaji Abubakar Yagi, said there were some pressing needs of the residents of Federal Low-Cost Gombe which include acute water shortage, lack of public school and primary health centre as well as lack of refused dumps in the community.
The lack of numbering of houses and some streets in the community which makes it difficult for people to find their way around and the need for the office to assist in bankrolling the house numbering was also brought to the Commission.
The acting NEDC Gombe Coordinator promised to look into their requests and asked them to identify where boreholes could be drilled and school sited as well as health centre to be built in the community.
Ahahziah Abubakar Suleiman, hazisuleiman@gmail.com
