By Rabiu Sanusi
In what could be termed as beginning with right footing, the people of Gaya local government have been assured of healthcare enhancement owing to its significance to socioeconomic well-being.
The newly elected Chairman of the LGA, Mahmud Tajo Gaya made the assurance in an exclusive interview with the Public Relations Unit of the state Ministry of Health during the just concluded 2024 polio OBR4 campaign at the National Programme on Immunization (NPI) office in the area.
Tajo Gaya asserts that he is passionate with healthcare because he is a health worker by profession and former Senior Special Assistant to His Excellency on medical outreach which going round the state to offer free medical services and drugs to the teeming populace particularly in the hard to reach areas.
He emphasizes that he tapped the passion from the health amiable Governor, Alhaji Abba Kabir Yusuf, and the state Commissioner for Health, Dr. Abubakar Labaran Yusuf, respectively.
He believes that this has gingered him up after being elected to give adequate priority to the health system of Gaya local government by coming up with various interventions to ease the sufferings of his people.
“Since assumption of office, I did’nt relent. I embarked on visiting health centres to see how things are going. Henceforth, I directed for the upgrade of five facilities to offer 24-hour services. I will be giving maximum support to any programme that will help our people. My priority is health, health, and health.
“When I came, I found some sporadic cases of cholera in some parts of the area affecting about fifty people. We have taken care of the victims until they were discharged, and I donated N10,000 to each one of them,” he discloses.
The chairman reveals that he has plan of building capacity of health workers in order to boost their morale and technical knowledge for effective service delivery, adding that they would also be made to be trustworthy in the course of discharging their duties for improving system in the area.
He expresses satisfaction to the manner he found the health department and the dedication health workers were portraying while discharging their responsibilities at various centres and urged them to maintain the tempo and to improve upon for his people to benefit more.
Tajo Gaya says he held meeting with the staff commending them where they do well and correcting them where he deems pertinent to, and they obliged, appreciating partners working in the area for the exceptional intervention rendering to people of the locality.
He thanks people of the local government for their support since his assumption of office and enjoined them to continue supporting his policies and programme aimed developing the local government, assuring them of quality and purposeful leadership.