•Hon. Rasaq Ajala
The Chairman of Odi-Olowo/Ojuwoye Local Council Development Area, LCDA, Honourable Rasaq Olushola Ajala, has described his LCDA Free Medical Mission programme as a model for effective and impactful grassroots health care initiative.
The LCDA boss made this submission recently while fielding questions from a media team.
“Our Free Medical Mission was conceived and carefully executed in these past seven years plus, with the single objective of ensuring that our people have access to quality medical care at little or no costs, ” Honourable Ajala noted.
He said further: “Through our Free Medical Mission, and in collaboration with some health care organisations, we embarked on a programme of free consultation, free screening and free treatment of health related challenges such as hypertension, maternal and child health, ante natal, post natal, nutrition and surgeries for the elderly.”
“Not only that. Our free eyes, glasses, and free eye surgeries programme has impacted so much on the lives of our people, and its success has been acknowledged by all.”
The Frontier reports that independent sources attest to the successes of the Rasaq Ajala-led administration’s Free Medical Mission, citing the last Free Eye Glasses programme in which over 200 people of the LCDA benefitted. Nearly a hundred people were also said to have benefitted from the Free Eye surgery programme at a huge cost to the LCDA.
Findings by our correspondent revealed that the Free Medical Mission by the LCDA boss is an initiative executed through different strategies with a view to ensuring the greatest success.
For instance, there is the Mobile Clinic Scheme, a programme that is executed through medical ambulances and medical personnel who take free and quality health care to the doorsteps of the people of the LCDA.
“Through this programme, we take free medical care to the elderly and the weak who may not be able to go to the Primary Healthcare Centres in our Council,” the LCDA boss stated.
The Honourable Rasaq Ajala-led LCDA administration also embarked on the provision of free health insurance for the people of the LCDA, under a scheme that is conceived to ensure that the people have access to medical care in all circumstances, including medical emergencies.
Under the free Medical Mission initiative, people with disabilities are given priority, with a scheme designed to take care of their special medical needs.
“Honestly, the free health initiative of the LCDA is truly a model worthy of emulation by all councils in the country. The initiative has been rated as highly successful by the people because so many people have benefited from different aspects of the programme and access to health care here is seamless and at little or no costs,” according to Helen Omogui, a nurse and mother of two who resides in Coker Street, Ilupeju.
The council boss stated that the free medical mission initiative forms a part of a comprehensive healthcare programme that places emphasis on the provision of quality healthcare through the upgrading of the existing health centres and providing modern medical equipment and essential drugs.
“It comes as a total healthcare package, and we have pursued the initiative with great vigour and, to God be the glory, we are not in doubt that we are leaving behind a legacy that will for long be remembered by our people in the health sector,” said Ajala.
Indeed, this may well be so. Investigations show that the Rasaq Ajala-led LCDA embarked on massive reconstruction and and equipping of many Primary Health Centres, PHCs and of particular note are those at Coker, Ayantuga, Anikulapo and Kajola.
A source, however, told The Frontier that what has remained the Rasaq Ajala-led council signature health project, is the Ajisegiri Health Centre. The spot where this project is sited had, for long, earned notoriety as the black spot where hooligans and sundry criminals had colonised and from where they perpetrated their nefarious trade.
Under a scheme that successfully tackled the twin challenges of healthcare, security and safety of the people of the community, the Rasaq Ajala-led LCDA converted the spot to a befitting Primary Health Centre that the people of the community are today thankful for.
Said Ganiyu Oluade, a resident of Ajisegiri community: “To call that facility a Primary Health Centre is a misuse of terms. That Centre compares favourable with many general hospitals and the equipment and facilities therein are far more modern and more sophisticated than what you have in many general hospitals. Honourable Rasaq Ajala will forever be appreciated by the people of this community for this project,” he concluded.
