The Afe Babalola University Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD) has inaugurated three additional facilities at its Multi-Systems Hospital. Aside drawing friends of the Founder, Aare Afe Babalola, to the Ekiti State capital, the event also underscored the institution’s resolve to stop medical tourism in the country. ADEGUNLE OLUGBAMILA reports.
THE Afe Babalola University Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD) has continued to excel since it opened its doors to the first set of students a decade ago.
About five years ago, its founder, Aare Afe Babalola (SAN), complemented the institution with a medical facility-ABUAD Multi-Systems Hospital, which he vowed would be equipped enough to reverse medical tourism in Nigeria. A few years into its existence, the hospital is living up to its promise.
At present, there is hardly any arm of the three clinical services- Medicine, Pediatrics and Obstetrics/Gynecology-that is not only available, but fully functional at the hospital.
Last weekend, the university blazed another trail with the inauguration of three more facilities-16 newly-installed dialysis machines; blood-bank and transfusion services; and a helipad to ease transportation of patients to the hospital. Also inaugurated was a new structure for the military to aid security in Ado-Ekiti/Ijan axis. The event also witnessed the launch of two books- ‘The elusive search for nation Nigeria’; and ‘ABUAD: Pioneering educational renaissance’.
Friends, workers and lovers of the institution filled the Owolabi Hall of the university, venue of the event, to felicitate with Aare Babalola for adding more feathers to the university’s cap.
Leading the guests was Babalola’s old time friend and client, the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi; and the President Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria, Prof Abbah Waziri. Others included: Brig-Gen. Z.L. Abubakar, who stood represented the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Yusuf Buratai; Ekiti State Deputy Governor Otunba Bisi Egbeyemi; the Ewi-in-Council representing the Ewi of Ado-Ekiti, among other traditional rulers and guests.
ABUAD’s Chief Medical Director, Prof Fola Esan, who spoke on the dialysis machines and blood bank, expressed confidence that ABUAD hospital now has what it takes to perform dialysis, adding that Nigerians would no longer need to import blood into the country and that the facilities have enough personnel to deliver round the clock.
“We are very confident that (with these facilities) people with kidney issue can now live better. I can confidently tell this gathering that there is no point for Nigerians going abroad to treat any issues relating to kidney. Everything we need is right here in ABUAD. Those who are critically ill can also be evacuated there. We would go a long way to replacing their kidneys,” he said.
Esan, however, appealed to the Ekiti State government to fast-track the state airport project to complement the helipad.
Prof Waziri, urged other wealthy Nigerians to tow Aare Babalola’s path. Aside patronising ABUAD Hospital, Waziri admonished the nation’s leaders to be mindful of the fact that there is no place like home. He underscored the need to strengthen public healthcare system in the country.
In his letter of commendation, former President Olusegun Obasanjo praised ABUAD’s initiative, particularly at a time when incessant trips by Nigerians for one medical trip or the other overseas are becoming so alarming.
More worrisome, Obasanjo noted, is the fact that some leaders would often choose to squander tax payers’ money on medical trips abroad even for just ordinary check-ups.
“Even for basic medical checkups, members of the Nigerian elite, at great cost to the public, directly or indirectly, hop on a plane overseas,” Obasanjo lamented.
“How do we build our own medical structures when we keep going abroad? How do we build confidence in our medical institutions if we don’t patronise them? How do we encourage and support our professionals when we give the impressions that are incapable of meeting our medical requirements? Is it right to keep wasting our limited foreign reserves on such trips abroad?” Obasanjo asked.
He added: “No doubt, the effects of this laudable investment, particularly in dialysis facilities and blood bank by ABUAD is one that will touch the lives of people, reduce pain and sorrow, and help build the bodies and minds of people who will in turn become more productive in the society.”
Oba Adeyemi, said such facility like ABUAD Multi-Systems Hospital, should be celebrated for filling the gaps in a society where public health care is either poor or almost non-functional. The monarch recalled how one of his daughters passed on six years ago because of inadequate blood bank. “I have never heard of any (public) university having blood bank. If this facility (blood bank) has been in place six years ago, my daughter who was born in 1960 and who would have clocked 60 this year, would still have been alive today.
“It is only a futuristic person that would put in place 16 dialysis machines, a helipad and a military outpost. I wish to seize this opportunity to call on well-meaning Nigerians to take a cue from Aare Babalola by investing in quality education and healthcare delivery,” the monarch said.
The Alaafin, however, described his presence at the event as a way of paying back Aare Babalola for an age-long friendship and kindness towards him.
Oba Adeyemi, who inaugurated the blood band/dialysis centre, said he was warned by members of his family not to move out of Oyo amid the spread of coronavirus Nonetheless, the monarch said he had to stake his life by embarking on the risky journey as a way of rewarding Aare Babalola, who also took a risk in 1988 when he ignored all warnings and threats to his life and went to court to defend the late Moshood Abiola when some fifth columnist protested Abiola’s appointment as the Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland.
“Do you know what Afe said?” Alaafin asked. “He said: ‘If I die, I die and that would be the end of the matter.’ Like Afe did in 1998, I told my people if I die, I die in the process of coming here, and that would be the end of the matter. It is not in me to develop cold feet because of Covid-19. He has used his forensic advocacy in law to assist me in several times in the past. This is a man I should support and honour always. My special thanks and appreciation to him because of the way he relates with his friends and people generally. He is very respectful, but like I said earlier, he could also be stubborn.”
Brig-Gen. Abubakar, who declared open the military facility, noted that it would complement the Federal Government’s strategy at ensuring ‘national security’. He praised ABUAD for being conscious of insecurity in Ekiti State.
Abubakar, who inaugurated the military post, was optimistic that the facility would help Ekiti State to contain crime on Ado-Ijan road, as well as the entire state.
Speaking on the twin books earlier, ABUAD’s Acting Vice Chancellor, Prof Smaranda Olarinde said the books were a testimony of the founder’s knack for knowledge and providing valuable reading materials for the public.
Said Olarinde: “Having read through the books, I am enthralled by the depth if the scholarly work that has gone into them. I believe that they will make a compelling read for many who are hungry and thirsty but are ready to drink from Babalola’ fountain of knowledge.”
To ensure that ABUAD continues to thread the international path, Olarinde said Aare Babalola had to dispose most of his properties within and outside the country to enable him provide international learning and opportunities of education to youths
“Let me acknowledge the forthrightness, uprightness and exceptional generosity of Aare Babalola, who has not only found the path, but also led us all through the well-paved road. I doubt if anyone can find a better leader anywhere else. We are indeed, greatly indebted to this ‘citizen of the world’ but of Nigerian extraction on whose shoulders we all lean to veer into the future of quality, functional education and health care delivery.
“We have not stopped growing. We will continue to grow until we realise our dream of leading others by example in quality education delivery. Our aspiration is to become one of the first 100 universities in the world. We have started treading that path of national and international endorsement; recognition and awards are veritable pointers in this direction,” he said.
Expressing his appreciations, Aare Babalola said the blood bank was necessary because of the high number of patients the hospital records on daily basis. He said the military outpost has equally become necessary in the light of a surge in atrocities such as kidnappings, armed robbery and ritual killings, among others.
According to him, he conceived the idea of having a helipad because of the encumbrances which major federal road leading to Ado-Ekiti have become.
“All of us today know that all federal roads leading to Ekiti are in a very bad shape. Indeed, Ekiti is a land-locked state without good motorable roads, airport and rail line. The helipad, which has since been in use, has become a necessity in view of the number of patients coming here from all parts of Africa, particularly in the absence of an airport.”
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