A Visit to Oyo State, Nigeria

Given the tumultuous atmosphere in Jos, Nigeria, Project HOW has begun to explore other regions in Nigeria in which to conduct missions. We recently teamed up with Dr. Femi Babalola and Dr. Remi Soile from World Health Mission to conduct a feasibility assessment for Oyo State in Southwest Nigeria.

The Governor of Oyo State, the Honorable Christopher Alao-Akala, has made public health a high priority and it’s evident in the construction and refurbishment of hospitals and other medical facilities throughout the state. W got a tour of the medical facilities in Ibadan, the capitol of Oyo State from Dr. Isaac Babalola Owolabi, the Commissioner for Public Health. Over six feet tall and with a formidable knowledge of medicine, business and global politics, the Commissioner has a commanding presence and a seemingly unending source of energy. Our tour was peppered with Nigerian history, philosophical musings on human well being and statistics on the major health issues in the region.

One of the many impressive initiatives begun by Dr. Owolabi is the National Health Management Information System (NHIS). The system tracks the major health issues in the 33 Local Government Areas (our equivalent of a county) in the State on a monthly basis. Available online and free to the public, the system provides the necessary data to track the prevalence of diseases in time and space and to measure the performance of specific intervention strategies. The health system can be found on the Ministry of Health’s site: www.oyohealth.org.

We also spent a day visiting the General Hospital and the General Hospital annex in Obgomosho, a medium-sized city two hours north of Ibadan. The hospital was about to be moved into a large multi-facility complex but the staff were currently working in fairly tight temporary quarters. The annex facility was on the outskirts of town and was almost completed.