“See Who’s Talking” – Edo PDP Tackles Oshiomhole,  Son, Over Stella Obasanjo Hospital

By Adesina Soyooye

The Edo State Chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has, literally, taken to the cleaners, a former Governor of Edo State, Adams Oshiomhole, now a Senator, and his son, Dr. Cyril Oshiomhole, the newly appointed Edo State Commissioner for Health.

The problem arose over the Stella Obasanjo Specialist Hospital, Benin, which the immediate past Governor, Godwin Obaseki commissioned days before he left office. The event was marked with fanfare and was witnessed by a number of VVIPs, including, former President Olusegun Obasanjo and former Nigeria’s First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan. The Hospital is named after President Obasanjo’s late wife, Mrs Stella Obasanjo, former First Lady.

On the day of the Commissioning, an almost emotional Obasanjo, had praised the Hospital to high heavens, noting that it was of international standard. He commended Obaseki for a job well done, and flaunted the Hospital and its equipment to the world.

It was, therefore, a surprise when Dr Oshiomhole, in his capacity as the Commissioner for Health, began his tenure by criticising the hospital, insisting there were defects, including structural.

However, for the records, there is  the Edo Specialist Hospital  built by the Commissioner’s father, Senator Oshiomhole when he was the Edo Governor. He brought no less a person to commission it at the time than President Muhammadu Buhari.

But from the day of the Buhari commissioning, criticism dogged it. It ranged from the alleged borrowing of Hospital equipment from the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, UBTH, to an uncompleted hospital, to structural defect which culminated in the collapse of one of the structures.

It was, therefore, an angry PDP, given the background story of the Hospital, which reminded Dr Oshiomhole of his father’s alleged deceitful commissioning of what they called an empty Hospital.

They reminded him, in case he was forgetting, that given  the alleged ignoble role his father played as it concerns the Hospital, he lacked the moral authority to talk about  a low quality standard of the edifice. Both he and his father, the PDP said, ought to be ashamed. The PDP also chided Governor Monday Okpebholo, for having the courage to criticise the Hospital.

The statement signed by the Publicity Secretary,  Caretaker Committee,  PDP, Chris Osa Nehikhare, chided the Edo State Government for its desperation to run down Obaseki’s Government, even if it meant manufacturing brazen lies.

The statement reads in part:

“We are appalled and utterly disappointed by the petty, infantile and ignoble behavior of the Monday Okpebholo-led administration in attempting to diminish the undeniable impact of the Stella Obasanjo Hospital on the State’s healthcare system.

“It is widely acknowledged by anyone who has visited or used the hospital that it ranks as one of the best in the South-South region, if not the entire country and this was made possible by the huge investment made by the immediate past government of His Excellency, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, in upgrading and equipping the hospital to world-class standards.

“We are not surprised by the childish criticism coming from a clueless and incompetent government. Had they been discerning, they would have known that it is to the credit of the state and its government that a hospital of such significance and impact is located in the State and would not have desperately sought to diminish this for petty political reason.

“It is particularly laughable and ridiculous that Cyril Oshiomhole, the son of the former governor of the state, Adams Aliu Oshiomhole is the one making these unfounded claims, lamenting about a non-existent structural defect, when it was his father, who as governor, superintended the construction  the Edo Specialist Hospital, where a section of the building collapsed due to structural defects, killing at least two innocent Edo citizens.

“For someone with such a history, it is only hypocritical to point fingers at the Stella Obasanjo Hospital, disparaging the fully functional and operational facility where no lives have been lost when his father’s greed and selfishness led to the death of innocent people. He therefore lacks any moral standing to do.”

Nehikhare queried, “Or does Cyril Oshiomhole think we have forgotten in a hurry how his father, Adams Oshiomhole as governor brought the then President Muhammadu Buhari to commission an empty Edo Specialist Hospital without facilities or personnel?

“Or how his father went to Lagos to hire equipments and put on display for the commissioning of the Edo Specialist Hospital and how in the evening of the commissioning, loaded a truck with the rented equipments and returned same to the company located on Agege Motor Road, in Lagos, and placed the hospital under lock and key?

“Does a person from such a deceitful and wicked lineage have the moral fiber to criticize or describe a functional, operational and world-class hospital, renowned as one of the best in South-South region as with structural defect?”

Okpebholo’s APC Government succeeded Obaseki’s PDP Government in a highly contentious and controversial Governornorship election. Its outcome is, already, a subject of litigation.