20/07/2025
The Health Imperative for the Creation of Ogoja State: A Structural Remedy to Systemic Neglect.
The exigency for the establishment of Ogoja State is underscored most profoundly by the entrenched deficiencies in healthcare access, delivery, and infrastructure that persistently afflict the region. Beyond the historical and geopolitical rationale, the argument from the vantage of public health is both compelling and unassailable. Ogoja’s persistent marginalization in health sector development constitutes a silent but enduring public health emergency that demands constitutional redress.
1. Institutional Vacuum and the Absence of Tertiary Medical Infrastructure
Ogoja, a former provincial capital of strategic historical significance, remains conspicuously devoid of a single tertiary healthcare institution—no teaching hospital, no federal medical centre, nor any specialized referral facility. This institutional lacuna truncates the continuum of care, impeding access to advanced diagnostic, therapeutic, and specialist services, and effectively sequesters the region from the benefits of modern medicine. The absence also forecloses avenues for medical education, research, and innovation—integral pillars of a resilient health system.
2. Geospatial Disadvantage and the Perils of Distance
The geographic estrangement of Ogoja from Calabar—the current epicenter of tertiary healthcare in Cross River State—is not merely inconvenient; it is life-threatening. The treacherous 300+ kilometre journey, compounded by infrastructural decay and travel insecurity, renders access to life-saving care illusory for thousands. In acute emergencies,the tyranny of distance translates into irreversible loss of life.
3. Epidemiological Burden and the Collapse of Preventive Health Systems
Ogoja is a microcosm of rural public health crisis in Nigeria: high prevalence of vector-borne diseases, endemic malnutrition, rising non-communicable diseases, and alarming maternal and neonatal mortality indices. Yet, the region suffers from a structural incapacity to mount an integrated and sustained public health response. The creation of a state would unlock the fiscal autonomy and policy latitude required to institute community-centric health systems responsive to the region’s unique epidemiological profile.
4. Human Resource Attrition and the Exodus of Expertise
The dearth of enabling infrastructure, professional development pathways, and strategic health workforce planning has induced a chronic haemorrhaging of medical talent. Doctors, nurses, and allied professionals either migrate to better-served regions or abandon the profession altogether. Only a state with control over its human capital policy can reverse this tide through structured incentives, training institutions, and localized employment schemes.
5. Structural Fiscal Neglect and Budgetary Invisibility
Ogoja’s subsumption under the current state structure has translated into persistent exclusion from meaningful health budget allocations. Health infrastructure—where it exists is rudimentary, overstretched, and chronically underfunded. Statehood offers a mechanism for equitable resource distribution and the formulation of a dedicated health development agenda, free from the gravitational bias of centralized urban dominance.
6. Health Security Vulnerability and Emergency Unpreparedness
The COVID-19 pandemic laid bare the region’s acute unpreparedness to respond to public health emergencies. The absence of molecular diagnostic labs, isolation facilities, and epidemiological surveillance frameworks underscores an institutional paralysis. A sovereign state would possess both the constitutional mandate and financial autonomy to build a bespoke health emergency architecture tailored to its vulnerabilities.
In toto, the healthcare deprivation of the Ogoja region is not merely a symptom of underdevelopment—it is an indictment of structural exclusion. The creation of Ogoja State constitutes a path to health sovereignty, enabling the construction of a decentralized, inclusive, and resilient healthcare ecosystem. It is a clarion call not for secession, but for salvation; not for political adventurism, but for public health justice. The health of the people of Ogoja should no longer be contingent on geography or neglected by governance. Statehood, therefore, is not a luxury—it is a lifesaving necessity.
Dr. Akomaye, Thomas
(Consultant Family Physician)
