…Names Health Centre After Linda Ayade
By Nsan Ndoma-Neji, Calabar
The outgoing chairman of Yakurr Local Government Area of Cross River State, Hon. Ofem Ebri Obeten, whose whose tenure as council chairman elapsed on June 1, 2023, has named a medical facility which he commissioned a day after his exit as council chairman after the wife of the immediate past governor of the state, Dr. Linda Ayade, a medical expert.
Obeten informed that naming the facility after the immediate past First Lady of the state was the only way to immortalize former Governor Ben Ayade’s wife, describing the former governor as a nice state chief executive.
The ultra-modern health care center, worth millions of naira is sited at Ijem ward in Ugep, Yakurr Local Government Area of Cross River State to meet the health need of the people.
Speaking with our correspondent in a telephone chat shortly after commissioning the project, the council chairman stated that he and his team decided to name the health centre after Dr Ayade given the level of assistance and concern that she and her husband showed to the Yakurr people during thier tenure in office.
The project is commissioned along side another project called intellectual project, sited at the premises of the council guest house to assist those with boredom to make visitation to the facility to ease their boredom.
Obeten said, “There is nothing wrong for people to immortalize their leaders when they are still alive instead of immortalizing them when they are no longer alive.
“This medical centre is called Dr. Linda Ayade Medical Centre, Ugep, built by me.
“The idea of immortalizing leaders when they are still alive is preferable. It’s is based on that that my team and I decided to immortalize our outgoing governor’s wife, Dr. Ayade for the show of love to us as a council through out the times when her husband served as state governor.
“We felt this is the only way to say thank you. You were like a mother to our council area. Without your encouragement, perhaps this project may not have made a success story.
“When we ventured into the project, many thought it was a white elephant project, but today we have completed the lofty project, naming it after Dr. Ayade who is medical doctor.”
The council chairman maintained that with the project, the community residents, who had had to travel several kilometers to Calabar to be attended to, even when the ailments that they have is minor, and is the type that could have been handled locally at the health centre in the local government area, but just because there isn’t any viable medical facility to attend to people with not a serious medical issues, would no longer need to embark on such tedious journeys.
He added, “This facility is for our people, particularly those with minor health ailments that can be handled here at home rather than spending money and time to travel out of the council to seek for medical attention. You can still get the attention here at this facility.”
