It was celebration in Itakede Ide community in Kogi State when the Commissioner for Information and Communication, Mr. Kingsley Fanwo, built and donated a health centre to the community.
The community which is about 20 kilometres from the LGA headquarters, has been without any functional health facility until Kingsley Fanwo, a native of the area decided to build one in honour of his late mother’s foundation, Titilayo Fanwo Foundation.
The primary health facility has a waiting room, consulting room, examination room, male and female wards with capacity for three beds each. The centre also boasts of a weighing scale, cylinder, drip stands, photo-therapy machine, sterilising drum, thermometers, nebulizer and other medical equipment.
A representative of the community, Mr. Tunji Dambola, eulogised the Information Commissioner for donating the health centre, describing his contributions to the community as immense.
Explaining his choice of building a Primary Health Care Centre, Fanwo, who had earlier graded the community road, said he was moved by the health challenges of the community, hence his decision to embark on the project. He said the objective was to alleviate the pain of members of the community who often had to endure long journeys to access medical treatment.
“Last year I was about developing my parcel of land for a personal building when on a particular day; there was outcry in the community that a particular person was sick and needed oxygen. Before he could be rushed to the council headquarters in Mopa, which is about 20 kilometres from the community, the person had died” Fanwo recalled.
“I resolved that day that such will not happen again in my community. Hence I set aside the idea of first building a house for myself to address the health challenges of the community. The result is what you are seeing today. This project is my way of giving back to the community that raised me. What you see today is the beginning of greater things from me to the community,” he said.
Jamiu Asuku who represented the governor at the commissioning, praised the Commissioner for the initiative which has positively impacted on the community. He said Fanwo had reawakened the spirit of community development and urged other political office holders to emulate the gestures.