Everyone has but one life. And in any civilized society, each person has the right to live their life to the full without the blight of illness. Our constitutional guarantee of right to life indeed has no meaning, if we do not provide the systems and the facilities for people to avoid ill health and to get treated or cured when they fall ill.

The popular cliché “health is wealth” recognizes poor health as a great destroyer of prosperity. Poor health not only lay low individuals who have been industrious and productive but also reduce their families to poverty as they struggle to cope with loss of income and increased demands on their meager resources by sickness of self or relations. This is why all development objectives would be absolutely meaningless without efficient, affordable and accessible health care delivery system.

In our constitution, health is on the concurrent list. This makes provision of health care a responsibility of all the three tiers of government. However, even a casual observer would note that intervention by governments over the years in the health sector has been largely characterized by contradiction, duplications and policy reversals at the three levels of government and among them. Most governments have over the years chosen the easiest part, which is what we have seen in huge investments in bricks and mortar to the detriment of adequate and competent manpower and appropriate technology. I make bold to say that if only a fraction of the huge resources that successive governments have invested in erecting buildings for hospitals have been carefully targeted and addressed to those things that matter and in places where they are really needed, we may not need to be here today. But this has not happened, and now we are here.

We are here to chart a new course for policy governance in Kwara State. Ordinarily, we should be proud of this as the first government in this state that dares to be different. However, like I said during the Education Summit last year, this process is taking place almost four decades late. Therefore, we cannot afford the luxury of self-celebration. Rather we should seize this moment to locate difficult and even painful answers to problems that have wasted the lives of many of our citizens in avoidable deaths and illnesses. You would agree with me that the task at hand is serious indeed.

In Kwara State today, we have 62 health institutions: 5 Specialist Hospitals, 12 General Hospitals; 38 Comprehensive Heath Centres or Cottage Hospitals and 7 Prototype Hospitals. If we add to these all the health centers and clinics at the various local governments, not forgetting the 203 ward clinics by the immediate past administration, you get a picture of abundance in health care delivery services. But ladies and gentlemen, is this the case?

Specialist Hospitals with no single specialist, General Hospitals with no single doctor, Health Centres with no basic consumables like needles and bandages, not to talk of essential drugs, nurses that are badly trained and ill-mannered, broken equipment and buildings due to disuse and lack of maintenance; this is the grim reality of our health care system.

Ladies and gentlemen, it is this grim reality that we are here to address. We must be prepared to ask tough questions to which we must find clear and practicable solutions. How many of these hospitals at the various levels of primary, secondary and tertiary health care do we really need and can competently fund and run effectively? Do we need 5 Specialist Hospitals and 12 General Hospitals in Kwara State? How do we get doctors and other competent health workers to all our hospitals, especially those in the rural areas? How do we deal with the problem of poor functional inter-dependence among the three levels and make them work together as a system, with one supporting the other? How do we address the problem of lack of linkage between the three tiers of government, a problem that has resulted in enormous waste and duplication over the years? How do we deal with the problem of access to health care by the majority of our people in remote parts of the State? How do we link the training of our nurses and other medical support staff to the actual needs in our hospitals and in the state? What do we do about the gross lack of data and information in our health care system? How do we address specific problems like maternal and infant mortality, and other reproductive health, including the pandemic of HIV/AIDS?

Ladies and Gentlemen, these and more are the difficult questions we must find answers to at this summit. I have no doubt however, that those of you gathered here today are quite capable of delivering on this difficult task. And as you deliberate over the next two days, I want you to bear in mind that no real changes come without pain. You must have the courage to answer these questions as honestly as you could. I assure you that on our own part, whatever you recommend will not be treated lightly. In fact, it is our intention to use the outcome of this forum to fully develop the health sector component of our State Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (SEEDS).

I must not end this address without emphasizing the need for the two tiers of government to work closely on this. Perhaps, no other sector demands intimate collaboration between the State and the local authorities than the health-care sector. We recognize that the basis of even the national health plan is the primary health care system, which is largely within the purview of the local government. What this means in essence is that we cannot hope to make any meaningful impact on the lives of our people at the grassroots in health care delivery without the full support and co-operation of the local government authorities. Therefore, we must work closely together on this.

I must commend those who have worked tirelessly over the last couple of weeks towards this summit. I thank all those who have come from far and near to partner with us in this service to life. As you return home, I wish you God's protection. Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, permit me to declare the First Kwara Health Summit open. Do have a fruitful deliberation.

Thank You and God bless.