Kogi state Governor, Yahaya Bello has assured citizens that the ongoing developmental strides across the state will be sustained by his administration notwithstanding the much talked about second wave of COVID-19.
Bello, who stated this on Friday in his New Year broadcast to people of the state, maintained that his administration has never and will never allow COVID-19 to be the “soul definer” of affairs in the state.
“As before, we remain determined as a Government not to respond to the highly controversial second wave with mass hysteria. While reiterating that our primary objective is keeping Kogi State coronavirus-free as it is at today, we will continue to respond to developments with reason informed by knowledge.
“Of course, it would be irresponsible as a government to allow COVID-19 be the sole definer of our 2020. In fact, in many aspects, it proved to be an opportunity for us in many sectors.
“In the education sector, despite the challenge of Federal Government mandated shutdown of academic institutions, we worked hard to make sure that students of our tertiary institutions make as much progress as they can within the windows available. We are looking forward to graduating a set of students early this year.
This is why we are currently studying new restrictions from Abuja over the purported Second Wave and considering all our options. This also relates to the formal opening of the Confluence University of Science and Technology (CUSTECH) which we founded last month to beef our capacity to produce and scale both manpower and investments in STEM (Sciences, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) disciplines, especially Infotech and Artificial Intelligence”, he said.
In the area of health, the governor said his administration has been able to maintain normal services in all hospitals while advanced steps have been taken to reopen the Federal Medical Centre, Lokoja which was closed following community unrest. “We are currently in advanced construction of a 600-bed Reference Hospital at Okene, and two General Hospitals – one at Ajaokuta and the other at Gegu-Beki.
“In infrastructure and utilities, we have continued to ensure that Lokoja enjoys uninterrupted water supply from the public mains while working to expand our rapidly increasing network of intra-state, township and rural road by hundreds of kilometres. This is exclusive of the roads done in our first term”, he said.
According to him, with the return of expatriates who left sites due to the COVID-19 guidelines, roads such as the Idah-Ajaka-Umomi-Ejule to Ayingba roads are now fully reactivated.
