The Enugu State Diagnostics Centre was handed over to the Nigerian Sovereign Investments Authority (NSIA) nearly three years ago, in what was advertised as an effort to upgrade it to international standards capable of stemming brain drain and medical tourism abroad has only improved the fortunes of flourishing weeds ever since the outgoing administration of former Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi handed the facility over on May 3, 2023.

My attention was drawn to this project through a Facebook post by my good friend, Chidi Ugwu, in which he was calling for investors to come to the state and take advantage of the opportunities he said exist in the tertiary health diagnostics in the state and environs. I remembered that what he was advertising was actually the problems that were forecast to be solved by the diagnostics centre when it was initiated by the Sullivan Chime administration.

Sullivan Chime completed the physical structure and commissioned it even when no single piece of equipment was acquired. It was commissioned at the twilight of his administration, but was largely ignored during the first term of his successor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi.

The site was cleared of the luxuriant weed towards the end of Ugwuanyi’s first term, and after a political visit, an announcement was made by the governor to complete the facility and open it for use.

Nothing was heard from the government until May 3, 2023, 24 days to handover to the newly elected administration of Peter Mbah, when, in an elaborate ceremony attended by nearly all government officials, traditional rulers and hundreds of political hangers-on, Governor Ugwuanyi announced the handover of the facility to the NSIA.

Has the NSIA also caught the bureaucratic bug that kills projects in the Nigerian public sector? Enugu people are desperate to know why nothing has been done about the diagnostics centre nearly three years after it was handed over to a federal government outfit hitherto known for its efficiency and nimble-footed approach to business.

Ugwuanyi, according to a This Day report of the event, stated that “his administration had taken a bold step to optimise the healthcare benefits of the centre through the strategic partnership between the state government and the federal agency for the delivery of comprehensive diagnostic and oncology (cancer) treatment services to the good people of Enugu State and beyond.”

NSIA officials who were on the ground at the handing over ceremony include the Chairman, Board of Directors, Mr Farouk Mohammed Gumel, represented by the Non-Executive Director/Board Member, Dr Ogechi Paschal-Ejiogu; Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Mr Aminu Umar-Sadiq, among others.

NSIA made a lot of promises. Its CEO, Aminu Umar-Sadiq, said among many other things that:

“The transfer of the Enugu Centre for upgrade and rehabilitation is one of the steps in our journey towards making healthcare accessible and affordable for all Nigerians. The centre is one of the 23 centres to be upgraded for oncology and diagnostic services. Historically, this great state, Enugu, the Coal City State, occupies a special place of pride in the South East as the home to one of Nigeria’s first and finest universities, the prestigious University of Nigeria, Nsukka. It also hosts one of Nigeria’s highly regarded tertiary medical institutions, the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital at Ituku/Ozalla. Enugu will serve as the site for the NSIA’s first oncology centre in the South East. Once transferred, the structure over there will house a world-class oncology and diagnostic facility to serve the great people of Enugu, the home of Eastern Nigeria and indeed all Nigerians. So today, Enugu joins Lagos, Kano and neighbouring Abia State, where NSIA’s impactful projects are already saving lives and bringing succour to the people. NSIA is excited at the prospect of playing a central role in improving the quality of medical services and expanding healthcare infrastructure across the country.”

Three years, or more accurately, two years and eight months after the NSIA takeover, the facility has returned to its former state of being a ground for rodents, lizards, weeds, and possibly other animals that should not make such an edifice their habitation.

The beautiful green painting the building was coated with has faded, and the palliative works put up by the former governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, have apparently been denuded by the elements and abandonment, while its occupation by rodents, reptiles, termites and other animals and insects would necessarily have taken their toll on the structural integrity of the facility.

On the day of this handover ceremony, representatives of the NSIA spoke about several other interventions in the health sector across several states of the country. I do not have records of what the NSIA has done with all those other projects in other states, so I have to limit my discussion on the one in Enugu State.

Three years is long enough for something visible to have been done. The vision behind that centre was a noble one. The areas covering Enugu, Anambra, Ebonyi, Kogi, and Benue States are in desperate need of a facility of such standard to help in solving the cobweb of health issues beleaguering the people. The upsurge in cancer, kidney, liver and heart-related ailments has become intractable, leading to the loss of lives. Patients travel to Lagos and other distant places merely to gain access to a proper diagnosis.

Reading former Governor Ugwuanyi emphasising the benefits of medical tourism, I got the impression that he was trying to make the project look economically attractive to the investors, the NSIA.

But while the economic benefits are quite significant, I would want to think that, being a publicly owned agency, the NSIA should also be interested in the social gains from that project. Helping to save the lives of the people should be put before the NSIA because only the living enjoy the benefits of a robust economy.

I believe that the NSIA must have punched its numbers and determined the project was a doable one before agreeing to take over the diagnostics centre. Three years of no action therefore, appears quite worrisome.

I have followed the interventions of the agency on agriculture. What it did in the fertilizer value chain did not take this long for the benefits to become visible to fertiliser producers.

Could it be that there are gaps in the paperwork still to be done? Has the NSIA also caught the bureaucratic bug that kills projects in the Nigerian public sector? Enugu people are desperate to know why nothing has been done about the diagnostics centre nearly three years after it was handed over to a federal government outfit hitherto known for its efficiency and nimble-footed approach to business.

News reports quoted NSIA as expressing excitement at the prospect of playing a central role in improving the quality of medical services and expanding healthcare infrastructure across the country, starting with Enugu, and will join Lagos, Kano and Abia States, where the agency already has impactful projects that are already saving lives.

It doesn’t look like this excitement lasted beyond the event, talking points, from the rate of progress of the project.

The NSIA owes the people of Enugu State some explanations. Has the project been abandoned again? What is the cause of this prolonged delay?

Three years is long enough for even new projects to be started and completed.

Ikem Okuhu, a communications professional, writes from Lagos