Chief medical director of Alliance Hospital, Dr Christopher Otabor has received an award from Northern youths, under the aegis of Northern Youths Association of Nigeria, for reversing medical tourism in the country.
The group explained that having followed the activities of the medical practitioner for long,it found Dr. Otabor worthy to be one of the recipients of its highly prestigious awards.
Describing the CMD as an “Icon of Nation Building, the group explained further that the award was in recognition of his immense contributions and philanthropy, human transformation and educational transformation for the benefit of humanity and the country at large.
Speaking through its president, Comrade Adams Bogoro, the Northern Youth Association of Nigeria insisted that they found it compelling to identify with Dr Otabor for positive contributions to only humanity but also the Nigerian society, to spur him to do more.
Presenting the “Sir Ahmadu Bello Platinum Leadership and Northern Heroes Award to the renowned medical practitioner in Abuja, Comrade Bogoro insisted that the hospital had done very well to change the narrative in medical tourism.
He said::”We’ are here to identify with you on what you have been doing. You have contributed positively to the Nigerian society,so we are here to encourage you to do more. We have been following your antecedents for quite some time,this hospital has really done very well, especially in the area of health. It’s based on this that this group deemed it feet to consider you as one of the recipients of our awards. Basically,the award is to spur you,the award is to encourage you,the award is to motivate you to do more. The award is also to serve as a catalyst for you to continue to give your best to the service of the nation as you have always been doing.”
Responding after being presented with the reverted award, Dr Otabor, who thanked the group, said he was overwhelmed considering that the award came at a time many youths were roaming the streets without direction and instead engaging in terrorism, banditry,armed robbery and other social vices.
He said, “I warmly welcome you to Alliance Hospital, Abuja. A one-stop shop for multi-specialty care. Alliance Hospital was established in 2011, with a clear mandate of stopping medical tourism, because medical tourism has been a big shame to this country.
“ With a population of over 200 million people, our nationals are going out of the country for medical care- to India,to Egypt,to the USA and other countries. A lot of people talk about the problem and not many people talk about the solution,so I decided that we would be part of the solution rather than just talking about the problem. So we invested heavily in equipment and also got the best hands in the country. And I can assure you that we are achieving the purpose for which Alliance Hospital was set up.
“Alliance Hospital is a leading centre for joint replacement surgery in this country -both hip and knee replacements. And thses are surgeries that were being done abroad but we do it now. We are also very strong in brain and spine surgery. We have done many in this regard. Last year alone,we did over 40 surgeries. The same figure for brain surgery.
“Now,we have acquired the competences for kidney transplant . People go to spend over a hundred million naira to do kidney transplant in countries like the US and the United Kingdom but with only 20 percent of that amount or less,we are safely doing kidney transplant in this centre with a very high success rate. This is besides so many other things that we do as a hospital. I am proud of our results.
“When you have success, people will also want to come and dent your image. We have had crisis in recent times but I want to assure you as youths that we have integrity as a hospital.i want to assure you that we are law abiding as a hospital,I want to assure you that we have compassion for Nigerians. And we will do anything to help as many Nigerians as possible. That is exactly what we are doing. I want to believe that you might have seen some of the things that we have done and what we stand for. That is why you consider me fit for this award and I’m very grateful for it and I thank you immensely.
“I see that there is a huge number of youths in this country,many of them are misguided, because they did not come under umbrella like yours and we cannot succeed as youths,as young people except we organise ourselves into groups where we discuss our problems and also proffer solutions.
That is why I commend the association for first of all, organising and also identifying role models that you can build your lives after and also respond to the needs of the society.”
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