The House of Representatives has approved the establishment of Orthopedic hospitals in Benin, Edo State, Jos, Plateau State and Jalingo in Taraba State.
The established Bills were read for the third time, and approved by the House, as presented by the Deputy Speaker, Ahmed Wase(APC-Plateau), on Thursday.
They are: “A Bill for an Act to Amend the Orthopedic Hospitals Management Board Act, Cap. O10, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004 to provide for Establishment of Orthopedic Hospital, Jos, Plateau State; and for Related Matters (HB. 886).
“A Bill for an Act to amend the Orthopedic Hospitals Management Board Act, to Provide for the Establishment of the Orthopedic Hospital, Benin, Edo State and Jalingo, Taraba State, and for related matters”.
The sponsor of the Bills, Ahmed Idris Wase, in his lead debate, argued that “currently, Mr Speaker, Hon. Colleagues, Nigeria with an ovulation of over200 a million persons, has only three Orthopedic hospitals as provided for by the Orthopedic Hospitals Management Board Act.
“This, Mr Speaker, Hon. Colleagues, you will agree with me, is grossly inadequate. The goal of every government is to ensure that its citizens enjoy optimal health of mind and body. This, however, cannot be actualized with the current number of Orthopedic hospitals in Nigeria”.
In advancing his argument for the establishment of the medical centres in those states, he said “in order to ease the burden on the three extant Orthopedic Hospitals and to cater to the needs of the South-South zone and Northeast Zone which do not have a single Orthopedic Centre.
According to him, “establishing these additional two Orthopedic Hospitals, will ensure fair distribution of infrastructure amongst the 6 Geopolitical zones in the spirit of the Constitutional provisions on Federal Character contained in section 14(3) thus: The composition of the Government of the Federation, or any of its agencies and conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in such a manner ask to reflect the federal character of Nigeria and the need to promote national unity, and also command national loyalty, thereby ensuring that there shall be no predominance of persons from a few stares or from a few ethnic or other sectional groups in that government or any of its agencies”.
The Bills, now passed, as expected to be passed to the Senate for concurrence and final assent by President Muhammadu Buhari, for the establishment of the medical facilities.
