Prof. Adewale Musa-Olomu, the Medical Director of Federal Medical Centre (FMC) Abeokuta has said the hospital spends over N44 million monthly on purchase of diesel to power its generating sets.
He disclosed this at a Medical Outreach organised for journalists in the state by the hospital on Thursday.
The medical doctor lamented the high cost of the product in the country, saying it is adversely affecting the running of the institution.
Musa-Olomu called on the Federal Government to, as a matter of urgency, declare a state-of-emergency on the energy sector.
He said that the high cost of diesel which recently jumped from N600 per litre to N730 per litre was threatening the survival of the medical institution.
He added that the institution was blessed with a lot of equipment but had been struggling to power them following the rising cost of diesel.
He explained that “government needs to declare state of emergency on the energy sector and most importantly, the use of energy in tertiary institutions; it is just very necessary.
“In FMC Abeokuta, we used to spend N5 million worth of diesel every two weeks, which comes to N10 million in a month, but suddenly the thing (diesel) jumped to N22 million (every two weeks), which came to N44 million in a month. So, how are we going to cope?.
“Everybody knows the state of diesel; it is what we all use to power our generators and if as a medical centre we were spending N10 million, but suddenly jumped to N44 million, how are we going to cope?.
“But if the Federal Government could declare state-of-emergency on the energy sector and probably gives us solar panels of about 1,000MW, it would help us a lot.”
Musa-Olomu said that the medical outreach was organised to enable journalists to ascertain their health status.
He appealed to journalists to cultivate a healthy life style and shun alcohol and cigarette consumption.
He said “we know from our experience over the years that quite a lot of people can get lost in their professions and forget to take care of themselves, especially journalists.
“That is why we are organising this outreach to call their attention to it that it is necessary to take sometime out to check one’s health.”
