O’First donates medical eqt to Bowen – your gesture challenges me, Oba Ghandi says
Lanre OKE
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Oba Ghandi Afolabi Olaoye Orumogege III the Soun of Ogbomoso is currently put under a challenge, he declares, saying the unrelenting philanthropic gestures of Ogbomoso First Group, which Wednesday donated medical equipment worth millions of naira to Bowen University Teaching Hospital (BUTH), Ogbomoso, is the cause.
Recall that on Thursday, December 14, the group also staged an empowerment programme in which items as sewing machines, motorcycles etc worth N150m were distributed to flag off the coronation activities of Oba Olaoye.
So, when on Wednesday, the group came to the palace again with the multi-million naira medical equipment for presentation to the management of the hospital, led by its Chief Medical Director, Professor David Akintayo Olaolorun, the monarch in a lighter mood, said its gestures are becoming a huge challenge to him.
The medical equipment donated include delivery couch, trays and instruments, 100 pieces of boxes of latex examination gloves, mobile folding stretcher, oxygen cylinder with regulator, sunction machine, incubator and microscope,..
Also in the package are table top centrifuge, spectrophotometer, photo electric colorimeter, drum for sterile materials, stadiometer, pediatric stadiometer and x-ray viewing machine.
Oba Olaoye expressing appreciation said, “I really really want to thank the O’First Group for what you have done, twice in a week, highly, highly commendable, you are definitely writing that Ogbomoso is priority for you. I want you to know that I take this also as a very personal challenge, I am not competing with you, but I want you to know that I take this as a personal challenge, to also see the things we can do to move Ogbomoso forward, that will be a blessing to the people of Ogbomosoland.This is highly commendable.
“I believe it will be a challenge to the other socio-cultural groups in these town, what you are doing will be a major challenge. Our focus is very very simple, it is the development of this town and it is not going to be one person doing it but all of us working together. I see O’First Group as a partner when we start to map put the 25 year plan.”
The Oba further said, “As I said in my speech yesterday (during the coronation ceremony), where there is no vision people perish, there is another translation, where there is no vision people waste away, we don’t want to waste away in this town. So, we will have a very clear vision of what we want to see this town become in the next twenty five years.
“We will look at the developmental things we want to do and do it together. In this town, everything looks like a puzzle now, how do we get it to become a model city, it is a piece at a time, it is amazing when you do the jigsaw puzzle which looks disorganized at the beginning and everything fits in, it then looks so beautiful.”
He charged the management on the good use of the equipment, allowing the equipment to function optimally and to have efficient maintenance culture.This is as he spoke on the imperative of specialization noting this attracts research funding, with a corollary of drawing medical experts whom he posited will be enticed by research funding and then greater number of people seeking medical solution to their sicknesses.
“One thing I believe is that the teaching hospital cannot continue as a jack of all trades and master of none. That might be easier for general hospitals but not a teaching hospital focused on training of medical students, this might not be contemplated but after living abroad for sometimes I found out that some teaching hospitals are noted for, in spite of them teaching students, treating some particular types of sicknesses that people know them with and this makes them to attract funding.
“ I shared this with the CMD the last time we met. As an example, cancer, there is funding for all these things. Then, the second thing is that it makes them attract good doctors in those areas, once people know the hospital attracts funding for research a lot of people who want to do research will flock such hospital and they will get people who are experts in that field and thirdly, it helps the community because that makes people who have those kinds of sicknesses to come from all over the country because they know that the hospital has done a lot of researches and they know a lot about the sickness and they can help them to get well. That falls under the third reason and that helps the town because people who are sick come, they stay in hotels, and boost the economy as they spend money.”
The Oba therefore appealed to the CMD to allow the equipment work by making sure to prevent sabotage among staff whom he said might because of their own private medical outfits make the equipment not functional.
Disclosing he is in the business of supplying medical equipment to hospitals and so is aware of the situation said people do unbelievable things in that regard for their own selfish reasons.
“I am very very interested in medical equipment, because it is a main line of business for me. One thing I have found out is that the doctors in the hospital, they make the things not to function, and so what do they do? They take something out of the equipment and they say it is no more functioning. This is because they want to junk it and take it to their private hospitals.This happens in state hospitals, but yours is a private hospital so I don’t know how it operates but they do it in state hospitals
“I hope Bowen will not do that because these things are expensive things. You should have good maintenance culture. Let’s maintain these things. And people like status quo, they say that is how we do it before but that is why we don’t progress. Some people they don’t like things to work because they benefit when things do not work. Laboratory technicians and others they have their own lab outside and so they don’t want it to work in the hospital and so refer patients to their outfits.
“CMD please, let these equipment work. let’s take responsibility for them because the selfishness of people is unbelievable, the heart of man is desperately wicked, you will ask, why will somebody do such a thing. I am in that line of business and I have seen unbelievable things. You see machines they have condemned, because they don’t want them to work, medical equipment worth hundreds of millions of naira, they will say they are not working and when we come there we will find out they just didn’t plug something well, silly things. So there must be accountability. So, these equipment, let’s use them very well. O’First, could have sold these equipment, and share the money among themselves but decided to give them to you. Please, let’s be good custodians of them. Let’s try our best. Save lives with them.”
Oba Olaoye speaking against this backdrop noted that lack of accountability and proper documentations put foreign organizations away from funding projects submitting, “to continue to get foreign aids there must be proper documentations of the ones you were earlier given. I know a lot of organizations who had told me they stopped funding projects in Nigeria because they don’t get documentations and so they don’t want to throw their money away that the people that gave them that money expect accountability for the money.”
Speaking earlier, chairman of the group, Sir Segun Adekunle, informed its gesture was in alignment with the vision of Oba Olaoye to make Ogbomoso a medical tourism destination, being host to two teaching hospitals.
“I find it necessary to state that this donation is borne out of the wise counsel and observation of our revered Kabiyesi that Ogbomoso is lucky to be a host community to two University teaching hospitals and that no effort should be spared in enhancing their technical capabilities and also in achieving the goal of turning the city into a medical destination.”
Reeling out some of its past medical interventions such as donations of equipment to both BUTH and LAUTECH Teaching Hospital and other medical facilities, collaboration with other organizations for medical outreach, in which about five thousand people enjoyed free medical treatment, he pledged the organization would not rest on its oars in supporting medical institutions in the land in order “to optimize their capacities and ability to deliver quality services to our people.””
The CMD, congratulating the new Soun assured the hospital would always do its best and expressed gratitude to O’First Group.
