The Vice-Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr. Peter Obi, has advised government at all levels to deliberately formulate policies that will allow her to collaborate with voluntary agencies, especially the Church, in the development of the country. Mr. Obi offered this advice on Saturday when he visited Annunciation Hospital in Enugu.

The former Anambra State Governor commended the hospital on its level of facilities, its neatness and the commitment of the staff. He called on government to support such hospitals, especially now that young doctors find it difficult getting places to be trained.

Obi, who said he was speaking from experience, recalled how his collaboration with the Church in Anambra State when he was the Governor contributed to the successes of the state especially in the areas of education, health and youths’ empowerment.

“On the health sector, we chose big, existing hospitals owned by the Church and supported them. Our support also led to the accreditation of over 10 health institutions owned by the Churches. We also bought live ambulances for the hospitals, built the teaching hospital from scratch, restored grant-in-aid to the hospitals in the state, built a heart Centre where heart operations are carried out. We substantially collaborated with the Church on this,” Obi said.

The highlight of the visit was the presentation of a cheque of 1 million Naira as development support to the hospital by Obi.

Explaining his current visits to hospitals across the state, Obi said that beyond being part of his way of sharing the joys of the last Easter with the sick, that it was a subtle message to the wealthy ones on how one could deploy his wealth to the service of God through serving humanity. “Try it and you will experience genuine satisfaction and the fulfillment of being at peace with oneself,” Obi advised.

The Chief Medical Director of the Hospital, Rev. Sr. Elochukwu Nwankwo, thanked Obi for the visit. Describing him as a man full of positive examples, he charged other leaders to emulate him for the regeneration of the society.

•The Vice Presidential candidate of the PDP, Mr. Peter Obi, with the sick during his visit to Visitation Hospital, Enugu, yesterday.

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