The Governor Seyi Makinde-led Oyo State Government and the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state, on Tuesday, traded words over the 100-day power outage at the University College Hospital, Ibadan, and Monday’s visit of the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, to the hospital over the prolonged power outage.
Since October 2024, the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company has severed the UCH from the national grid due to an unpaid debt of N283 million.
Following a meeting on Monday with Adelabu and UCH management led by Prof. Jesse Otegbayo, the IBEDC promised to restore energy to the UCH within 48 hours.
The war of words was sparked by the APC, which, in a statement issued on Tuesday by its Publicity Secretary, Olawale Sadare, chastised the Governor Seyi Makinde-led administration for neglecting the situation at the UCH, despite its proximity to the Governor’s Office.
“The Oyo APC regrets that the state government of the PDP under the administration of Seyi Makinde turned a blind eye to the tertiary health instruction, which mostly serves the people of the state.
“The UCH, which is a stone’s throw away from the office of Governor Makinde, had to be without electricity supply for about three months, as this had its negative effects on the productivity of the staff and students as well as numerous patients, but the state government looked away,” the APC said.
The APC, on the other hand, praised Adelabu for using his magic wand to peacefully resolve difficulties between the UCH and IBEDC management, ensuring UCH’s power supply.
However, Sulaimon Olanrewaju, Special Adviser to Governor Makinde on Media, stated that the UCH crisis was caused by the Federal Government, which failed to fulfill its pledge to subsidize hospital electricity costs.
Makinde’s assistant chastised the Oyo APC for politicizing the UCH crisis, ignoring “the agony and pains of the people they were elected to serve.”
“It is unfortunate that the APC is so shameless that it is thumping its chest on the issue of the UCH-IBEDC imbroglio instead of covering its face in shame.
“The fact is that the problem at UCH was not caused by the state government. Rather, it was due to the failure of the federal government to live up to its promise of subsidizing the cost of electricity to hospitals.
“Last year, in August, the minister, Adelabu, publicly declared that the government would subsidize electricity in teaching hospitals following the categorization of electricity users into bands.
“That was six months ago. The question to ask is, has the government fulfilled its promise? So, why should the APC now choose to blame the state government for a problem created by the insensitivity of the federal government? Had the federal government fulfilled its promise of subsidizing its institution as it promised, would the UCH be in this state?”
