The President of the Senate, Dr Abubakar Bukola Saraki, at the weekend commissioned an 80-bed space hospital built by Senator Mohammad Hassan (PDP, Yobe) in Potiskum, Yobe State.

According to Ceoafrica, the commissioning ceremony witnessed the first usage of the hospital’s equipment when Saraki symbolically conducted High Blood Pressure (HBP) test on Senator Dino Melaye (APC, Kogi).

Apart from senators, who accompanied the Senate President, the event was attended by an elder statesman and PDP chieftain, Mallam Adamu Ciroma.

While commissioning the facility, Saraki urged the federal state and local governments to ensure efficiency in all healthcare facilities across the country for the benefit of the masses, which he noted that, with its availability, the residents of Potiskum will no longer need to travel to neighbouring states for medical attention.

“This is why I committed to helping Senator Mohammad with getting the support of the federal government in the running of this hospital so that its benefits to the people of Potiskum and Yobe at large are guaranteed and sustained.

“This is the kind of leaders we find today in the Nigerian Senate; people who are abandoning the practice of yesterday’s politics and it must be strongly lauded that this is a PDP Senator, in an APC-led state, donating this edifice to an APC government”, Saraki said.

It was gathered that the hospital has been subsequently donated to the federal government even as it has been affiliated to the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital.

For his part, the donor of the hospital, who is the vice chairman of the Senate Committee on Federal Capital Territory (FCT), said he was motivated to build the hospital following an accident he had in 2015.

“My decision to build the hospital was not predicated on my winning election, but motivated by the automobile accident I had during the campaign towards 2015 election in which one of my confidants died and five of my ribs were broken.  With the accident, I was faced with the reality of the dilapidated state of medical facilities in our senatorial district.

“Today, by the grace of Allah, I have completed the construction of an 80-bed hospital in Potiskum furnished with beds, drugs, laboratory equipment and other medical consumables that will serve as urban health center.

“The lesson is that what matters is not the political party or the government in power but the love you have for your people and your connection with them. I challenge the federal government to ensure that this hospital that has been entrusted to them is adequately taken care of, and is run with the highest level of professionalism and efficiency possible”, Hassan said.