How Governor Yahaya Is Revitalising Healthcare In Gombe

There is a difference between a “prepared man” and a “preparing man”. A prepared man is one who has done his due diligence and hits the ground running when a task is presented to him but a preparing man is often reactive and mostly caught unawares.
The story of Inuwa Yahaya’s Midas touch on Gombe State’s health sector was not a product of wild experimentation on the job but a product of well thought out, meticulous planning traceable to his campaign manifesto and a rigorous on the field assessment of the anomalies that afflicted the health sector.

On the 29th of May, 2019 Inuwa Yahaya was sworn in for his first term as the fourth democratically elected governor of Gombe State. Shortly after the swearing in Governor Inuwa Yahaya declared a state of emergency in the state’s health sector, fully concretized by his historical visit to the State’s Specialist Hospital on the same day of his swearing in to carry out an on-the-spot assessment of the decrepit and tawdry nature of healthcare service delivery and facilities at the time.
The state’s health sector was indeed in a comatose state and had lost important vital signs – holding on for dear life.

Like a professional physician, Governor Inuwa rolled his sleeves, took the state’s health sector into the intensive care unit (ICU) patiently nursed her and gave her a clean bill of health.
Having rescued the sector from an impending doom, Governor Inuwa Yahaya put the best brains and superbly trained hands at the helm of affairs – giving the sector a breath of fresh air and renewed vigor.
Knowing that the Primary Healthcare Center is the closest health service provider to the masses at the grassroots, Governor Inuwa Yahaya set up well equipped, modern primary healthcare centers in all 114 wards of Gombe State making a clean break with the mediocre provision of healthcare facilities in the past.
Before 2019, primary healthcare centers in Gombe State were either totally non-existent or grossly unfit to treat human beings because they were poorly equipped, understaffed and fashionably outdated.
With patience and diligence, Inuwa Yahaya painstakingly took the broken pieces of Gombe State’s health sector from the nadir of decay and brought it to the zenith of excellence.

Then governor embarked on the upgrading of the state specialist hospital including the installation of relevant equipment that were hitherto lacking such as Xrays and Ultrasound machines, ECG, Echo, Endoscopy and equipping of the dialysis centre constructed by the past administration but left unequipped. In addition to that, one general hospital in each of the three senatorial zones is upgraded so as to make available to the people specialized services and reduce the burden on the state specialist hospital.

The general hospital in Kumo is being completely reconstructed while that of Kaltungo and Bajoga are undergoing a state-of-the-art transformation. Other Cottage hospitals/health clinics are also gradually being renovated and upgraded such as Cottage hospitals in Mallam Sidi, Bojude, Kuri and General Hospital in Nafada.
The government has also embarked on ensuring the construction of a cottage hospital in Filiya, Shongom LGA, the only LGA without any secondary health facility in the state. Still, government established a 12-bed Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at the SSH Gombe.

To put in perspective the extent of miracles Inuwa had performed in the state’s health sector immediately after his swearing in, the world came under the fierce attack of the novel Corona Virus (COVID 19) in 2020 and met Gombe State more than prepared to contain the contagion – thanks to Inuwa Yahaya’s proactive stance.

Gombe State handled the COVID 19 global epidemic as professionally as an advanced country would do – with grace, tact and finesse – earning the state several laurels and commendations from the National Centre for Diseases Control (NCDC).

In the post COVID 19 years, Governor Inuwa Yahaya did not soft pedal on his desire to escalate massive reforms in the state’s health sector as exemplified in the codification of provision for revamping the health sector in a document called Gombe State Development Plan also Called DEVAGOM (2021 – 2030).

Indeed Governor Inuwa Yahaya’s commitment to revitalizing Gombe State’s healthcare sector has yielded tangible results, positioning the state as a shining example of progress and innovation in healthcare delivery.