Blessing Ibunge in Port Harcourt
Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, yesterday inaugurated the remodelled and fully furnished 105-bed Omoku Zonal Hospital in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area, reaffirming his administration’s commitment to providing quality and accessible healthcare across the state.
Fubara, who spoke at the inauguration ceremony, said his administration places a premium on healthcare because unlike lost wealth that could be recovered, lost health was difficult to regain.
“If you lose wealth, you have lost nothing, because so long as you’re alive, opportunity might come back and you might gain what you have lost. If you lose your health, you have lost something. It’s not an easy thing to regain lost health,” he said.
The governor described healthcare, alongside the protection of lives and property and provision of essential services, as a fundamental responsibility of the government.
He said the hospital was strategically located to serve not only Omoku but also communities in Egbema, Ndoni, Ahoada and other parts of Rivers West Senatorial District.
“This facility is not just for Omoku. It is a facility that will also cater for the people of Egbema. It can also cater for the people of Ndoni, in serious cases. It can even take care of some part of people in this other side of Ahoada,” Fubara said.
The governor also urged residents, traditional rulers, chiefs and youths to protect the facility and its equipment from vandalism and theft, stressing that Omoku’s status as an oil and gas hub made the provision of quality healthcare particularly important.
“We need a good health service at this point in Omoku, considering the kind of developments that are coming up here. This is the oil and gas hub of our dear state,” he said.
Fubara said his administration would continue to complete projects to acceptable standards, urging the media and members of the public to avoid circulating unverified reports about government projects.
Inaugurating the project, the Oba of Ogbaland, Dr. Nwachukwu Nnam Obuoha Obi III, commended Fubara for executing what he described as tangible development projects across the area.
The monarch cited the recently inaugurated Elele-Omoku dual-carriageway and the completed Ahoada-Egbema road as evidence of renewed government presence in the area.
He also objected to describing the hospital merely as a remodelled facility, arguing that completing an abandoned project amounted to building it.
“I am not comfortable with those words, the choice of words. If you have started to build a house and you could not complete it, you have not done the job. He who completes a house is he who has built the house. That is why I’m comfortable to say: Thank you for building us a hospital,” he said.
The Permanent Secretary, Rivers State Ministry of Health, Dr. Vincent Wachukwu, said the three-storey secondary healthcare facility would serve as a referral centre for primary and secondary healthcare facilities across Rivers West, particularly in Ahoada East, Ahoada West, Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni, Emohua and parts of Ikwerre local government areas.
According to him, healthcare attendance in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni increased by more than 200 per cent in three years, from about 58,914 patients to nearly 225,400 as of December 2025. He added that deliveries, skilled birth attendance and antenatal-care visits had also risen by about 20 per cent.
The hospital comprises outpatient clinics, pharmacy, accident and emergency services, surgical theatres, laboratories, intensive care and newborn intensive care units, paediatric, obstetrics and gynaecology wards, radiology services and private wards.
It also has a laundry, mortuary, kitchen and cafeteria, recreational garden, generator house, parking space for about 100 vehicles and staff accommodation.
Wachukwu said the government provided a 500kVA transformer, 350kVA and 150kVA generating sets, as well as a 90kVA solar power system with inverter batteries.
He said the facility would provide affordable secondary healthcare while supporting professional development, clinical training and medical student postings, thereby strengthening healthcare delivery and maternal, newborn and child health outcomes in the Orashi region.