FMC Hong Will Create Over 3000 Jobs, Boost Economy--Hon.Buba

Daily Rendezvous

The Chairman, House Committee on Foreign Affairs and Member representing Gombi /Hong Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Rt.Hon. ( Dr.) Yusuf Buba Yakub, says the establishment of the new Federal Medical Centre in Hong, Adamawa State,will provide over 3000 direct jobs to the teeming unemployed youths in the country.

Buba said, besides hundreds of indirect jobs and other outside opportunities that will be generated from the establishment of facility, the enormous multiplier effects of jobs that would be created for both Medical and Administrative workers will revamp economic activities in the area.

Hon. Buba made this known Tuesday, while addressing National Assembly correspondents in Abuja.

Buba said, it is important that more tertiary health facilities are established closer to the people in order to grant them access to quality healthcare delivery and timely medical interventions during emergencies. 

The lawmaker insisted that 

existing medical facilities in the country are already overstretched considering Nigeria's population of over two hundred million people.

Buba said, "I have always advocated that a Federal Medical Centre or one tertiary health facility be established very close to the people across the country. 

"But due to paucity of funds, we can not achieve that now. But, this is still very important so that the people of Nigeria could have accessible quality medical facility.

"If you look at Adamawa State today for instance, the only  Federal Medical Centre that we have until now, have been overstretched, so congested, patients go and would not have a bed space, they will have critical, emergency cases, patients are usually constrained be in the Emergency Unit for one or two weeks because the facility is overstretched.

"So, with this facility being provided by the law Mr. President signed last week, it is, indeed a plus for our people and the area." 

Speaking on how long it would take for the new Federal Medical Centre,Hong, to become operational, the Adamawa-born lawmaker said President Muhammadu Buhari in his approval had directed an immediate release of funds for the take-off of the facility. He said already several private- sector organisations, the host community of the facility and others have since made several quality donations, ranging from state-of- the- art medical equipment to land.  This, he stressed, was to ensure a fast and almost seamless transition to the new status of the facility.

"The facility is already on ground and the take-off is immediate.In the approval of Mr. President, he said the funds would be released immediately so the Federal Medical Centre would go to work.

"That is how important the place is in terms of economic development in terms of boosting medical tourism, you know we are close to the Cameroon borders and I have a conviction that even people from Cameroon will come in to access medical attention from that facility. 

"People from neighbouring Southern Borno State, people from Askira Uba, Wamdio, will also come in to use that medical facility and within Adamawa State, we have about eight Local Governments that will come in to utilize that Federal medical facility. So, it is a great plus to the people of Gombi and Hong Federal Constituency, it is a great plus to the people of Adamawa State and to Nigerians as a whole", Buba maintains.

Speaking on the over ten Bills, which he sponsored at the 9th Assembly, he explained that each of the Bills was at different stage of lawmaking at the National Assembly and noted that another one was still awaiting Presidential Assent.

"Of particular importance, he said, was the Bill for the establishment of the Chartered Institute of Forensics and Certified Fraud Examiners through which the endemic case of corruption and the fight against it in our country would be addressed."

He pointed out that in Nigeria, whenever issues of forensics arise, we have to travel as far as South Africa or even our neighbouring Ghana to seek for dependable results. After the Bill is passed into law, the case of traveling out to seek forensic help will never happen again.

According to the farmer-turned-lawmaker, Nigeria has the Institute, but it has not yet been backed by an Act of the National Assembly. Buba explained that, with the current push to get Presidential Assent to the Bill, Nigeria would soon come from the nation's seat of power.

Buba adds that there is also the Bill seeking to make Agricultural Science a core and compulsory subject in our schools pointing out that the benefits of the Bill would change the current narrative among Nigerian youth whose attitude to agriculture could be said to be anything but welcoming.

The lawmaker said the Bill would revive the lost interest and glory of Agriculture in Nigeria through engagement in model mechanized farming.

Explaining one of his numerous Bills up for consideration he said, the Bill seeking to repeal and re-enact the Act that established the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), Lagos, which was established shortly after the nation's Independence in early 1960s. He told Newsmen that despite the many years of the Institute's existence, it has continued to operate without the basic and the dynamic importance which the institute is expected to wield in the evolution and management of Nigeria's foreign policy, several things about the Institute have known better days and are therefore in need of a complete overhaul including the need to broaden its operations which made it necessary for the repeal and re-enactment Bill.

Buba said that since the foreign policy of every nation was its integral driving force in the comity of nations it was important to daily look at what constitutes our foreign policy against the backdrop of a highly dynamic globe. He expressed the hope that the Bill when signed into law, would go a long way in working furthering the nation's interest.

The Gombi/Hong Representative noted that the House Committee on Foreign Affairs has continued to make steady progress in its oversight function of ensuring that things are properly and speedily done in areas of Foreign Missions. He lauds the directive that allows for Ambassadors at post to retain some form of financial autonomy that would allow them spend the capital component of their budget without recourse to the Ministry headquarters in Abuja was aimed at eliminating bureaucratic bottlenecks at the nation's Foreign Missions.