By Chidi Onyemaizu
“This Obudu-German hospital gives me a great deal of excitement because the same road through which I passed to fetch water from the stream as a little child now happens to be the same road where I have built the best hospital in the world. I’m quite fulfilled, to be honest”
-Cross River state Governor, Professor Ben Ayade.
Silence fell on his emotion-struck audience at the magnificient, world class Obudu-German hospital as His Excellency Professor Ayade dug into memory lane and excavated the dream, vision and dexterity that later coalesced to become one of the best equipped hospitals in Africa.
The Obudu-German hospital is one of Ayade’s legacy projects, and according to Barrister John Aniah Adie, an Ogoja based legal practitioner, “our Governor did not just build a hospital, he gifted Cross River nay Africa one of the world’s top rate health facility that will not only attract patients but also tourists with attendant economic benefits.”
Economic experts are of the view that Northern Cross River’s local economy will witness a quantum boom and a giant leap by the time the hospital commences operation in a few weeks time.
Drawing comparison between the likely economic derivatives of the hospital to the kind of huge indirect jobs Cleveland Clinic, Ohio, United States, created in the last 10 years, Dr.Gilbert Idagu, a medical practitioner in Okpoma, headquarters of Yala local government area, one of the five council areas that make up Cross River North, posits thus: “Apart from medical tourism itself whereby you have patients from within and outside Nigeria coming for medical care at the Obudu-German hospital and in the process boost the local economy, the hospital will pump oxygen into medium scale and allied businesses in Northern Cross River Senatorial district; it will also birth new businesses”
Continuing, Dr Idagu stated: “Think of the pharmaceutical outfits that will spring up in local government areas adjoining Obudu: Obanliku, Ogoja, Bekwara, Yala and even Vandeikya in Benue state”
He argues that “hospitality industry in Cross River North, particularly Obudu and Ogoja, will also boom because patients coming in will be accompanied by their loved ones who will need a place to lodge. Tourist centres within the catchment area such as the Obudu Cattle Ranch Resort will record increased patronage because it is unlikely that a first time high profile visitor will be in Obudu without visiting the iconic ranch”
And for Augustine Akamoye, a commercial cyclist in Obudu, the coming of the hospital and the Obudu passenger and Cargo International Airport will greatly redefine the economy of the town.
“I’m already saving to buy a car I will be using as an airport taxi when the Airport starts operation. I believe most people who will be arriving through the airport will be headed to either the Obudu-German hospital or the Obudu Cattle Ranch Resort and will be requiring car services”, Akamoye, a graduate of the College of Education, Obudu said.
Notedly, according to Cleveland Economic Impact Report, Cleveland Clinic provides more than 93,500 direct and indirect jobs statewide and contributes $12.6 billion annually to Ohio’s economy.
Few years back, the Cleveland Clinic contributed 48,570 direct jobs, including employed doctors and other workers, on-campus hotel and parking jobs and positions in spinoff companies.
The Cleveland-based health-care giant also accounted for 44,990 indirect jobs, including positions created by other businesses with the support of the hospital’s spending.
Essentially, the Obudu-German hospital promises to broaden the frontiers of Northern Cross River economy and set a path for the ultimate crystallisation of the prosperity agenda for the people.
Pundits insist that the hospital is an economic enabler that is poised to create multiple indirect, direct and auxiliary jobs throughout the North of Cross River.
Meanwhile, given the state of the art and latest medical technology at the Obudu-German hospital, medical experts are emphatic that when it becomes operational in few weeks time the facility will be the most comprehensively equipped hospital in Africa, toppling Kenya’s Medical Research Institute which, according to the Scimago Institutions Rankings (SIR), a research organization based in Spain that has been publishing international rankings of global research institutions since 2009, is currently the number one best hospital in Africa.
In the words of Dr. Sunny Clement, Regional Director of Health Share Solutions of South Africa which is partnering with the Cross River state government to run the Obudu-German hospital, “we have managed hospitals all across Africa- in Kenya, South Africa, Libya and also here in Nigeria- and I can tell you that when this hospital begins operation, it will be the most comprehensively equipped hospital in the entire Africa.
“This is the only hospital in the whole of Africa that has got three modular theatres…in the same hospital, it’s a 140-bed hospital equipped with three different theatres. We are very proud that we are associated with this project. This hospital is also equipped with three 4Dx Gamma lights, that’s the only one in the country, the ones in Bauchi and UCH are 2Dx. This hospital is also equipped with a 1.5 Tesla MRI”
Chidi Onyemaizu is Senior Special Assistant on Print Media to Governor
