Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State has been crowned the best performing governor on polio eradication in the South-East Nigeria from Bill Gates and Melinda Foundation.
The award went with a cash prize of N120 million.
Speaking while presenting the award to the Governor at a well attended ceremony which held at the Women Development Centre in Awka, the Minister of state for health, Dr Mohammed Pate said the award was deserving as Gov. Obi had distinguished himself in the health sector, which he observed ranged from the provision of ambulances to hospitals.
The Minister described the Anambra example as a total package, noting that the state had remained polio-free in the past five years.
In a response, Governor Obi thanked the Minister for coming to the state to present the award on behalf of Bill Gates and Melinda Foundation and noted with satisfaction that it was not one of the awards anyone could suspect as having been bought, stating that the state government would match the N120m it received with another N180m which would be ploughed into the building of ten more health centres in the state.
Recalling some of his strides in the health sector, the Governor cited the state’s first teaching hospital as an example.
He said: “What happened was that the government of the day admitted medical students without a medical school in place and the assessors said they would not accredit the university, but I pleaded with them when I came in to give me two or three years to put a teaching hospital in place. But they could not believe me as they thought it was impossible that a teaching hospital could be built in two, three years. It was one of them that pleaded with them to give me a chance and they did. When they returned at the appointed time, they were shocked to see the teaching hospital in place. It has since become the fastest teaching hospital to have been built in Nigeria”.
In a related development the Governor has splashed N60m on the final batch of 5000 youth under the Anambra State Youth Empowerment Programme ,ANSYREP. Speaking while handing over the cheques of N100, 000 to each of the successful candidates, Governor Obi charged them to use their money judiciously in order to justify the state government’s faith in them.
He urged them to shun thuggery in the forth coming elections in the state. He expressed satisfaction with the fruitful results already being recorded by the programme and restated his government’s readiness to continue to support the youth.
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