By Haruna Gimba
Katsina state Governor, Aminu Bello Masari, has decried shortage of manpower in the health sector which make some Nigerians to seek medical treatment in Maradi, Niger Republic, which he described is amazingly disturbing.
Speaking while receiving a report of on project monitoring exercise to, Governor Masari said lack of manpower was responsible for the problem in the health sector.
He said: “We discovered that it is not lack of infrastructure, particularly in the rural areas that is the problem. If you visited rural areas, you would have found abandoned clinics and so many clinics that were brought by members of the National Assembly rotting away. They have never been used. So, what we are trying to do is to see how we can put this infrastructure to use.
“We cannot do that until we have qualified manpower. That is why we are addressing the issue of our nursing school and we are addressing the issue of our health technology centres. We have attended to the school in Daura; what we have on ground there can even help students doing degree course in dentistry.
The governor insisted that despite the problem of health care delivering in the state and Nigeria, it was still disappointing for people from Katsina to be going to Maradi for treatment.
Giving details of the challenges of the present administration in addressing the situation, he said, “Recently, in order to upgrade our hospitals, we made advertisement. We want to employ no less than 18 consultants, so many nurses, midwives and other medical staff but surprisingly, we only had four out of the 18 consultants and among the four, none is from Katsina State.
“Again, even the nurses we thought we had so many, the total number of those who applied is not more than 60 per cent and some of them are not from Katsina State. So, we don’t have sufficient nurses registered with nursing council.”
