The Osun State Governor, Senator Ademola Adeleke, has said the dwindling number of experts in the medical field calls for concern of all stakeholders.
He said this at the 9th Annual International Oncology Multidisciplinary Team Symposium organized by the Department of Surgery, Faculty of Clinical Science, College of Health Science, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife.
The Governor, represented by his Special Adviser on Public Health, Dr. Akindele Adekunle, reiterated its readiness to support any innovative ideas that can stem the wave of increasing cancer-related diseases in Nigeria.
“Osun State is ready to collaborate with relevant stakeholders to improve healthcare service in the state and give attention to sensitive medical issues like cancer and other related terminal diseases.
“We salute the oncologists, the cancer specialists, be it medical, radiation, or surgical oncologists. As I mentioned earlier, this brainstorming assembly wouldn’t have come at a better time than now.
“Osun State Government under our healthcare agenda, would leave no stone unturned to partner with life-saving institutions like this great body to breathe life to dying cells,” he said.
Reacting, the Osun All Progressives Congress, APC, called him to order, adding that his lamentation over the dwindling number of health workers in the state is hypocritical.
In a statement signed by the state Chairman, Tajudeen Lawal, on Wednesday, he said the governor’s inhuman policy has been the reason for the dearth of medical personnel in the state.
He alleged that Adeleke was not being truthful on the real cause of the scarcity of healthcare workers in government establishments in the state.
“As long as Adeleke is hell-bent on politicizing the health sector, just like other sectors in the state, the challenges associated with them would never abate.
“Adeleke cannot feign ignorance of the fact that hundreds of the healthcare workers in the state had also resigned their appointments for fear of the unknown and sought greener pastures abroad.
“All the entreaties of the eminent stakeholders in the state to the governor to reconsider the plight of the maliciously sacked state health workers fell on the deaf ear of the governor on the excuse that the state government has no resources to pay them.
“There is no government that is worth its salt that will afford to play politics with the health sector just the way and manner that Governor Adeleke’s administration has been doing.
“Adeleke should carry his lamentation over the poor healthcare status in the state to the marine as it grossly lacks genuineness . I see it as a mere smokescreen to serve as a false concern,” Lawal said.