Obaseki And Demolished Benin Central Hospital One Year After

I decided to open this piece with the above Yoruba proverb because it sums up the content of this article.

Any voter who will vote for a new government is that when such a government comes into office, it will improve the welfare of the people, the infrastructure that it (the new government) met on ground, and build on what is already there, etc. .

The opposite is what the Edo State Government led by Mr. Godwin Obaseki has provided for the people of the state especially the state capital.

The Obaseki-led government in Edo State has not only failed to improve most of the infrastructure it met in the state, but unfortunately it has pulled down some of the state’s old legacy projects. It will remain in the memory of the residents for a long time, if not forever.

It is beyond the imagination of any right thinking person that the government can wake up and its next thought is to demolish a medical facility – a 100-year-old hospital – under the guise of using this huge piece of land for other purposes. What, if I may ask, what is more important and necessary for the residents of this state than a medical facility?

Notably, the over 100-year-old hospital is strategically located on a piece of land that could be called the heart of Benin until it is demolished in mid-January 2022.  The colonial masters who built the hospital in such a strategic place were never wrong. The idea was undoubtedly to make the hospital easily accessible to everyone, no matter where they are in the city.

Moreover, the health facility was not only well located before the demolition, but also affordable. A resort for ordinary people. A medical consultant fee of N100 (card charge) patient gains access to medical doctor. Here, an average man takes his wife to a pregnant woman during the prenatal and postnatal period. The hospital, before it demolition, had qualified doctors and quality medical services were provided by professional doctors.

The 100-year-old Benin Central Hospital is not the only heritage project being demolished by the current Edo State government. The source of knowledge was also demolished – the state-owned library on Sapele Road, a stone’s throw from the Central Hospital. Many other private buildings too numerous to mention have been demolished and their lands revoked under the current Edo State government, but the focus of this article is not those projects but the Benin Central Hospital, the demolition of which has caused untold hardships for many, especially registered ante-natal pregnant women.

Pregnant women are the hardest hit in this regard. The antenatal ward of the hospital has been relocated to Sickle CellCentre on Gabriel Igbinadion Way GRA, near the former Central Hospital. It’s not very far, but due to the city’s traffic arrangement, these pregnant women don’t take public transport to get there, so they’re mostly seen on foot. It has been therefore very stressful for the pregnant women.

Meanwhile, before the demolition, when the state’s main opposition party, the All Progressives Congress Party (APC), warned of plans to demolish the hospital, the Edo State government under the leadership of Obaseki denied it.

A statement  signed by the state’s Assistant Publicity Secretary, Victor Osheobo had raised the alarm on how the state government plans to demolish the old hospital and replace it with an ultra-modern car park.

The party argues that the government’s justification for demolishing the hospital makes no sense.

“We call it not only strange and evil, but also unacceptable.

“This is because no right-thinking government wants to replace a viable medical facility with a parking lot that should be equipped and staffed to better serve the well-being of the people,” the statement said.

In addition, it has been also rumoured in some quarters that the Edo State Government under Obaseki planned to build the Edo Museum of West African Art (EMOWAA) at the cost of the land only to be demolished.

But the government denies all this. Edo State Government with the then Commissioner for Communications, Mr. Andrew Emwanta, stated that the government was not planning to dismantle the medical facilities but to relocate the hospital to the Stella Obasanjo Hospital. The government argued that this will pave the way for the transformation of the 100-year-old hospital. The Commissioner said that the Central Hospital has been in existence for over 100 years; therefore, most of the facilities were very old and did not support the provision of modern care.

Either moving the old hospital to pave the way for the renovation of a century-old hospital, or pulling it down,  as it when writing this article, the hospital had been demolished for over 13 months and no construction had been done in the vast area.

Although active construction is currently underway, and some construction workers can be seen working on the site, which have been cordoned off with roof shingles for months, this is not what the city’s residents expect after the demolition. Or is it the transformation of the hospital promised by the Obaseki government?

Also, most people in Benin City do not even know what the government will build on the land that can warrant it (the government) demolishing a hospital that is over 100 years old.