The Nigerian government has been admonished to create an enabling environment for people, businesses and ideas to thrive and grow.
Two leading Nigerian medical doctors, based in Canada and the United Kingdom, who have invested billions of naira into the Nigerian economy through hospitals and hospitality made the call on Saturday at the grand opening of a multimillion naira Coxwell Hospital located in Abeokuta, Ogun State which also featured health gathering for scores of pregnant women from the state with the aim of reducing maternal and infant mortality rates in Nigeria.
While assuring of better days for Nigerians, the prominent medical doctors, the founder of Coxwell Hospital, Abeokuta, Prof. Leke Badmos, an obstetrician gynecologist who works in the University of Toronto and Dr. Abib Olamitoye, Chairman of Ibadan Central Hospitals in Oyo State, and Academy Suites in Ibadan and Abeokuta stated that where there is insecurity and epileptic power supply, the environment becomes hostile for growth and investments or investors.
In his remarks, Olamitoye, a successful prolific writer and motivational speaker, noted that Badmos established the specialist hospital with modern day equipment for residents of Abeokuta, adding that the founder has spent more than 30 years abroad and he decided to give back to the society. He said many well-to-do Nigerians that are based abroad have not been coming back to give back to their communities because of the two major highlighted challenges.
He explained further that if the Federal Government could fix the two issues, wealthy Nigerians outside the country would not need to be told to come and invest in their various communities.
“Prof Leke Badmos hails from Abeokuta in Ogun State. He attended primary and secondary schools in Abeokuta. We both studied Medicine in the University of Ibadan. We were course mates. Then, he travelled to the United Kingdom and then Canada, where be became a professor. He has come back home to Abeokuta to give back to the society. He is made already. He is rich. He did not establish this hospital for pecuniary gains, but as a payback for Nigeria and Abeokuta in particular,” Olamitoye said.
Badmos, who led newsmen on facility tour of the hospital, said the project would drastically reduce medical tourism, as some medical doctors, based in Canada have indicated interests to come to Nigeria to work in the hospital, with the purpose of gaining more knowledge.
Nigeria, especially Abeokuta, according to him, deserve the best and will be great, saying: “Rome wasn’t built in a day. If you look at countries outside Nigeria, most of what they did there were done by the citizens. The government just made rules, laws and created enabling environment. If all these things are put in place, people will do so many things. I trust this current government and I am sure they will do their best.
“As a Nigerian, we should be thinking about how to help and contribute to national development because I believe that we are the government. I am sure this will go a long way to improve the health care facility. Coxwell Hospital is special because it is a specialist hospital. It is special because it is located in Abeokuta, which is a cradle of knowledge, because the people would benefit from it and also because it is going to bring a lot of Western inputs.
“This is also a general hospital, but it is going to have obstetricians and gynecologists with a lot of stuff that can be compared with what we have outside like Canada and United States. There will be a lot of orthopaedic opportunities and internal medicine. We hope people would be coming from overseas to work here.
“With this development, it will reduce the number of people that will be traveling outside the country for treatments. People don’t have to think that they have to pay through all their nose; we are going to make everything simple. The idea was conceived by my late father, who was a man of the people and my dear friend, Dr. Abib Olamitoye, who has been so supportive. We are going to make sure that it is affordable. Of course, I am a man of the people and my aim is to give back to Abeokuta and this country. It has to be affordable and we are going to make sure that we make it affordable.
“The Federal Government is trying their best in terms of health facilities and I want to use this medium to advise the government to continue trying and the citizens should also continue to try their own.”
