23rd June, 2024
Osun State chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC, has bemoaned the pitiable plight of the health sector under the administration of Governor Ademola Adeleke.
The opposition party in the state also described it as the worst that could ever happen to the 33-year-old state.
Osun APC chairman, Tajudeen Lawal in a statement issued on Sunday alleged that it was the height of cruelty for a democratic government to pay lip service to the health sector by refusing to engage the needed manpower.
Governor Ademola Adeleke administration in November, 2022, through an Executive Order terminated the appointment of health workers recruited by his predecessor, Adegboyega Oyetola.
The reason for the termination of the recruitment of the health workers which comprised doctors, pharmacists and community health workers was that the appointments came after Oyetola had lost the July, 2022, gubernatorial election.
Lawal also explained that it was gratuitous for the government to say that the delay in the recruitment of health officers was because it was awaiting the outcome of the minimum wage.
“In the first instance, why did Governor Adeleke sack the health workers recruited by the former Governor Gboyega Oyetola, now Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, on assumption of office when he knew he wasn’t having an immediate solution to the health problems in the state? When he knew well that the state had a shortfall of doctors and other health workers.
“Is Governor Adeleke waiting for the people of the state to die before he addresses the health issues in the state with the speed it requires?
“Will it not be right to conclude that the decision to sack health workers, as well as the current lackadaisical handling of health issues by Governor Adeleke was callous given that the Governor and members of his household could afford to run abroad, as they have done many times, to access quality healthcare?
“Governor Adeleke should wake up and stop insulting the collective sensibilities of the people of the state. The health sector needs his urgent attention.”, the Osun State APC chairman counselled.
Responding, Dr Adekunle Akindele, the Special Adviser to the State Government on Health Matters said the party lacked the temerity to downplay ongoing efforts by the Governor Ademola Adeleke administration to reposition the health sector in the state for better effectiveness.
“Like I have said on many occasions, the health sector that Governor Adeleke inherited was near-collapse as decaying infrastructure and manpower shortage were a glaring reality.
“That was the situation that Governor Adeleke is working assiduously to correct in order to make qualitative healthcare service a possibility for the people in the state.
“It is worth noting that in the 12 years of the APC administration in Osun State, no employment was made into the health sector.
“The fictitious 1500 health workers that Sooko Tajudeen Lawal even made reference to were a media stunt as not only was a proper recruitment process not conducted but there was no record of them in the state’s civil service.
“This is why Sooko Tajudeen Lawal and his party have found it so hard to produce just an employment letter of the supposed recruits,” he stated.