Assembly Pass Motion Compelling State To Rehabilitate Libraries As Hospital Management Board Bill Scales Second Reading

By Ogar Monday; House of Assembly Correspondent

The Cross River State House of Assembly has passed a motion compelling the Cross River State Government and its Agencies to urgently rehabilitate and update all the state Libraries and make them centers of research and learning that they were originally meant to be.

Honorable Itam Abang (Boki 1) who sponsored the motion said the libraries in the three senatorial districts and in Ogoja, Ikom and Calabar especially are dilapidated, lack books and fall short of the global standards for libraries.

The House maintained that the library is meant to be a storehouse for keeping books which enhance research, as well as a platform for study, but the state of the of libraries in the state has rendered young scholars and researchers ineffective and made access to quality books a problem.

The House in its resolution directed that; ‘’the committee on Education be mandated to carry out a comprehensive assessment of dilapidation state of the Libraries across the state and report back to the House within 14 days.’’

Abang who chairs the committee assured that they will visit the libraries with a view to accessing their state of disrepair in order to do a thorough report.

The house also read for the second time, the bill for a Law to establish the Cross River State hospital management and regulatory board.

The sponsor, Honorable Ekpo Bassey (Bakassi) said the bill seeks to put in place a management and regulatory board that will oversee both government and private owned hospitals as well as other health facilities.

Bassey said the board will also check for quacks, regulate basic and modern hospital facilities and ensure appropriate man-power operating in such institutions. He also assured that the bill will check pharmaceutical lapses and the ministration and treatment of patients.

Honorable Ogana Lukpata (Yala II) who co sponsored the bill noted that young school leavers rush into establishing health care centers with little or no practical experience.

He lamented Government’s inability to employ Doctors and solicited the support of his colleagues in the establishment of the body as it will put in place a regulatory framework to clear the irregularities that is almost taking over the practice in the health institution.