The Nation Newspaper

Tag: 13 years

  • We have treated 14,000 patients in 13 years

    We have attended to more than 14,000 patients in our 13 years of existence with some of them having minor ailments while some had Malaria, Typhoid, and other serious infections. We’ve had a lot of deliveries both normal deliveries and of course Caesarean Sections (CS). We’ve done a lot of complex surgeries in this place ranging from an appendectomy, exploratory laparotomy, myomectomy and mastectomy just to mention but few. We have visiting consultants that come from teaching hospitals. There are no surgical operations that we cannot handle because we have people that come here to do that for us.”

    These were the words of The Solace Hospital (TSH) Medical Director, Dr Abdul Wasiu Busari during the opening of the hospital in Papa-Ajao, Mushin, Lagos.

    Busari, who is also a consultant physician and morphologist at Gbagada General Hospital, said TSH was moved from its former base in Itire (also in Mushin) to the new place because of accessibility.

    “There is a particular evening market in that place (Itire) whereby when once it is 4 O’clock, you can hardly have easy access to the hospital because the road will be blocked by the traders. So, we’ve been trying to cope with this for a number of years. But, we think it’s high time we relocated. TSH is positioned to serve humanity and because of the teeming population of our customers and the high demand that we should relocate to a more accessible, that is why we have to come down to this place,” he said.

    According to him, the hospital is not meant for profit.

    “It’s a missionary hospital established to provide qualitative and affordable health care especially to augment what government is doing. The government cannot do all, hence the need for faith-based organisations like ours to establish hospitals in order provide affordable medical services for people. So far so good, we’ve been enjoying cooperation and good patronage from the people,” he said.

    A member of Lagos State House of Assembly representing Mushin Constituency II Abdul Sobur Olayiwola Olawale, hailed the hospital management.

    Olawale, Chairman House Committee on Home Affairs, said: “We all know the importance of having this kind of hospital in our midst and that is why one should identify with the good initiative that has been put in place here. I give kudos to the management of the hospital. It’s a clarion call on them that they should support government health policies. We are assuring them of our maximum support.”

    The lawmaker urged the hospital staff to be friendly with their patients and ensure that the charges have a human face.

    “I’m highly impressed with what I have seen, the structure, the equipment and the atmosphere. It really showed that when we give Nigerian doctors the opportunity, they can go places. They need to be encouraged. People should take advantage of having this edifice around to patronise them. They have been in the business for long and it’s evidently clear that they know their job,” he said.

  • Bedridden for 13 years

    Bedridden for 13 years

    A 34-year-old man, Daniel Emori who has been bedridden for the past 13 years, needs N15m to walk again.

    He is pleading with Cross River State Governor Ben Ayade, public-spirited individuals and corporations to help him raise the money so that he can proceed to an Indian hospital for a knee replacement surgery.

    Daniel, who hails from Adadama community in Abi Local Government Area of Cross River, said he was in perfect condition until 13 years ago when he was knocked down by an errant cow in Anambra State.

    He said: “When I finished my secondary school education and sojourned to Anambra state to seek for greener pasture, little did he know that the journey would put him in a bed ridden condition.

    “While in Anambra state at the age of 21, I got myself a job with one of the plastic companies as a machine operator where he worked and saved some money and got myself enrolled in a driving school. Upon graduation

    from the driving school, I secured a job as a delivery van driver with an investment company.

    “On 10th of October, 2003 as I went to make supplies to one of the company’s customer. As I parked my vehicle in front of the customer’s shop to off load the goods and was alighting, a stray cow just charged towards men and knocked me down and put me in this pitiable bedridden condition. After some medical examinations they found that I had an internal injury which affected medical experts said had affected my spinal cord.”

    Daniel said immediately after the unfortunate incident, he was first taken to a nearby hospital before he was transferred to the University Teaching hospital Enugu and finally discharged to go home as his poor mother whose husband had died since 2009 could not afford the medical bill at the hospital.

    He said his condition would have been worse than it is now if not for the assistance of one Reverend Charles Nunso Asiodu, Senior Pastor of Life Link World Outreach Ministry International, who learnt of his predicament through the media.

    He however regretted that the financial burden had been beyond the clergyman’s capacity.

    A summary of Daniel’s cost and expenditure from Saket Hospital Delhi, India from the Advanced Physiotherapy Rehabilitation Centre (APRC) of the hospital, reviewed and signed by the Medical Director, Dr. Harsh Priyadash, estimated the cost for treatment at the hospital at N15m.

    Also, a medical report signed by Priyadash, made available to our reporter showed that the surgery that the Daniel will undergo shall help in strengthening his trunk strength and abdominal muscles to enable him walk with artificial legs.

    Among other things which the medical report said the Indian hospital shall do for Daniel are the undergoing of a preliminary evaluation and conservative management/ infection control, skin grafting and debridement, orthopaedics intervention and post discharge stay.

    Daniel begged, “ I have not given up hope as I strongly believe that help can still come from public-spirited individuals and well-meaning Nigerians. Please help me to beg Governor Ben Ayade of Cross River  State and his dear wife Dr. Mrs Linda Ayade to come to my aid. My earnest desire is to walk with my feet like my mates.”

    He said he could be reached on  08098929156 and 070316552091. He also gave his bank details as: Daniel Imo Emori,  Fidelity Bank Account Number: 6160829205 or Daniel Imo Emori, UBA Account Number: 2072008766.

     

  • 13 years after, Ige’s killers still at large

    13 years after, Ige’s killers still at large

    Thirteen years after the former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Chief Bola Ige, was gunned down in his bedroom at Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, the police are yet to track down his assailants. LEKE SALAUDEEN examines the implication of the unresolved assassination of the number one law officer of the country on national security and administration of justice.

    Former Federal Attorney-General and Minister of Justice Chief Bola Ige was shot dead by unknown gunmen on December 23, 2002 in his bedroom at his Bodija, Ibadan residence in Oyo State. It was gathered that the gun men shot the man fondly referred to as Cicero of Esa Oke at about 9.00 pm with a single bullet to his heart. He had returned from Lagos at about 8.30pm and asked his security men to go and have their dinner as he retired upstairs.

    The gun men who may have been waiting in the vicinity then stormed the house. After tying up family members, they got one of them to lead them upstairs to the room of Chief Bola Ige where they led his wife and son to an adjourning room and locked them up. The gunmen then met Ige alone in the bedroom and shot him with a single bullet in the heart, family sources said.

    He was then left on the floor as the gunmen made their way out without stealing anything. However when one of the granddaughters raised an alarm, family members rushed to his room and then rushed him to the hospital. He died on his way to the Oluyoro Catholic Hospital, Ibadan.

    Prior to his assassination, the late Ige narrowly escaped being mobbed at Ile-Ife by an irate crowd that removed his cap and smashed his pair of eye glasses. The incident happened within the premises of the palace of the Ooni of Ile-Ife Oba Okunade Sijuwade shortly after the conferment of the chieftaincy title of Yeye Oranmiyan of Ile-Ife on the wife of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Stella.

    He was lucky to have escaped being injured by the angry mob sponsored by those who hated him. What an irony! Years back, and precisely in 1980 at Ife, Uncle Bola was the central of attraction as governor holding out staff of office to Sijuade during his installation and coronation as 50th Ooni of Ife.

    Political observers said Ige’s assassination may not be unconnected with his unwavering support for the Osun State governor, Chief Bisi Akande, who was locked in a battle of wits with his deputy, Iyiola Omisore, an Ife indigene.

    The Akande-Omisore imbroglio took a new twist, following attempts to commence impeachment proceedings against Omisore at the State House of Assembly. Ige made Omisore the deputy governor. Omisore had wanted to be governor since 1998, but after the Afenifere meeting in Ijebu-Igbo, Ogun State, where it was resolved that Afenifere leaders in every state in the Southwest should be considered as the governorship candidates of Alliance for Democracy (AD) in their various states, and that where the party members disagree, they should conduct primaries. The situation was, however, different in Osun. Akande was the Afenifere leader and was endorsed by the party leaders and members. He also got the blessing of Bola Ige since 1998. Ige was in control of the party machinery and it was impossible for anybody to become the governor of Osun without his blessing.

    It was said that when the title “Cicero” was given to honour Bola Ige by the people of Esa Oke, his home town, because of the inherent traits he shared with Marcus Tullius Cicero of Rome, the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo was not too comfortable with the title because of the way the powers–that-be at that time killed Marcus Tullius. It was most disheartening that Ige was killed on the Nigerian soil far away from Rome.

    The big question still, is who were those responsible for the killing of Ige right in his home at Ibadan? Life could indeed be an irony. It was the same Ibadan where he lived, served and helped to develop, as the first executive civilian governor of the old Oyo State. This same Ibadan happened to be the seat of power, being the capital of the old Oyo State.

    It was widely reported that former President Olusegun Obasanjo at a gathering disclosed that one faceless drug baron who the Ministry of Justice was planning to probe was responsible for the cold-blooded murder of the former Attorney General. Surprisingly, the court ordered the release from the Agodi Prison in Ibadan of the accused as advised by the state prosecution for what of evidence.

    A school of thought believes that, if Ige had remained in his self-styled siddon look posture at that time and did not join the Obasanjo government, he may still be alive or at worst, he may not have been slaughtered by the assailant. Observers believe that his decision to serve under Obasanjo’s regime was a protest against the way and manner his party (AD) presidential primary was conducted in 1999. No political reasoning could explain the sudden “wedlock”, considering the events of the past. Would Ige had served under Obasanjo if Awolowo were alive? Could it be considered that he went too far to have opted to serve under Obasanjo? However, his patriotism to serve his fatherland when he was invited should not in any way make him one of the high profile political killings that will be swept under the carpet.

    The failure of the police  to unravel the killers of Ige creates the impression that there is no hope for the common man. According to an observer, the police should be told that Nigerians deserve to know who killed Ige and of course, a host of others killed in similar circumstances for the sake of prosperity and justice.

    He added: “This will prove to the world that Nigerians are able not only to detect crime but to carry out justice in the most civilised way as being done around the globe. The police should understand that a murder case in every clime is not statute-barred; that is, the case cannot be closed at any given time. We should not allow the unborn generation to taunt us that a democratically-elected government was unable to find the killers of a former Attorney-General. The reality is 13 years after the murder, the nation is still waiting,” the oberver noted.

    Former Ogun State governor, Chief Olusegun Osoba has decried the haphazard manner the investigation of the murder had been handled. “It is clear that the investigation up till today has not been anything concrete. Aside Bola Ige , there are still many unresolved murder cases like that of Harry Marshall, Funsho Williams, Alfred Rewane. If not for Sergeant Rogers, Nigerians would not have heard anything about Mrs Kudirat Abiola’s death.

    On his part, Chief Ayo Adebanjo said the manner Ige was killed and the failure to fish out the culprits 13 years after showed that the country had little or no value for human life. ”It is a painful reality that Nigeria as a nation put little or no value on human life. A situation whereby the number one Law Officer of the country, the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice was cheaply hacked down in his personal house whereby the entire security apparatus assigned to him just dropped their ammunition and allegedly went to have launch, makes a mockery of security of life and the entire country. It is sad because if the Attorney General could not be spared, then no one is safe.”

  • Nike ends Manchester United kit deal after 13 years

    Nike is ending a 13-year deal to manufacture Manchester United’s football kit.

    In a statement, the American sportswear company said “the terms that were on offer for a renewed contract did not represent good value for Nike’s shareholders”.

    It is thought that either Germany’s Adidas or Warrior will replace them.

    Manchester United did not qualify for this season’s Champions League for the first time in 19 years.

    The club suffered its worst ever Premier League finish last season after manager Sir Alex Ferguson left following 26 years in the job.

    His successor, David Moyes, lasted just 10 months and Dutch manager Louis van Gaal takes over following the Netherlands’ World Cup campaign.

    Nike first signed the deal with the club in 2002 and on Monday unveiled a new kit for the 2014-15 season. It will be the last one bearing the Nike logo.

    Nike said: “Manchester United is a great club with passionate fans.”