Date: 2019-06-22

The executive Governor of Kwara State, Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq visited the Federal Ministry of Health in a bid to improve the health and wellbeing of Kwarans. The governor was received by Alhaji Abdulaziz Abdullahi, the Permanent Secretary and directors of the ministry.

The governor received briefing on priority health issues with emphasis on kwara state basic health care provision funds, national strategic health development plan and "Save One Million Lives" (SOML P4R).

The "Save One Million Lives" program was initiated by the federal government in response to the poor health outcomes in the country, particularly mothers and children. It is estimated that almost 1million women and children die yearly, largely from preventable causes.

The "Save One Million Lives" represents a bold attempt of the federal government to improving maternal and child health outcomes which the Kwara state Governor has shown readiness to key into such a laudable program for Kwara state.

Abdulrazaq stressed the need for urgent help from the ministry to improve medical treatment in Kwara. He touched on lack of drugs, dilapidated health facilities, poor water sanitation and lack of nutritional feeding inherited from previous administration which have increased death rate in the state but promised to find a way around accessing available funds by providing necessary counterpart funding to urgently solve already identified health related challenges.

The governor emphasized the need for good nutritional feeding and sanitation within the state which will aid proper medical treatment and will improve the life expectancy of all Kwarans.

Abdulrazaq who took time to address the issue of Health insurance carried out by previous administration regarding it as a system purposely designed to fail because without health facilities, drugs and adequate medical professionals no insurance program can be beneficial to Kwarans. He promised to look into the issue of health insurance with the aim of first putting all that will make it worth it in place as having Kwarans alive is the only way they can enjoy the state and country's level of wealth.

The Permanent Secretary of the ministry appreciated the visit of the governor and lauds AbdulRazaq intention of improving health and wellbeing of the citizens of Kwara State.