14/07/2026
Otti’s Miracle in Health Continues in Abia…
Just yesterday, at the State Executive Council weekly press briefing, the Commissioner for Information, Prince Okey Kanu, disclosed that Abia State has emerged as one of Nigeria’s best-performing states in maternal and Infant mortality indicators, according to the first quarter performance dialogue.
Let me break it down.
What this means is that in Abia State today, the number of women who die during pregnancy, childbirth, or within 42 days after delivery, as well as the number of babies who die before reaching one year of age, has reduced drastically compared to what it used to be.
According to the commissioner for health, Abia recorded only one maternal death in the first quarter of 2026, maintaining the same figure recorded in the last quarter of 2025, while neonatal mortality declined from nine to seven.
With this remarkable improvement, Abia has emerged as one of the country’s best-performing states in maternal and neonatal mortality indicators.
This deserves celebration.
This is worthy of applause.
Our own Abia?
You cannot truly appreciate this if you do not know where we are coming from.
We are talking about the same Abia where a sitting Governor once said that pregnant women would receive ₦500.
Now, try to understand me. Giving them the money was never the issue; it was the context.
At that time, Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs) across the state were largely moribund. Secondary healthcare facilities had become places where the living went to die, and even the dead could barely rest in peace. Yes, it was that bad.
Instead of investing in healthcare infrastructure and rehabilitating health facilities, the government of the day chose to encourage women to deliver in decaying facilities with the promise of ₦500.
In other words, if a woman survived giving birth in a collapsed and unfit healthcare system, she would receive ₦500 as a token for enduring it.
Whenever I describe myself as a survivor of the 1999–2023 carnage in Abia, some people don’t fully understand what I mean. but that’s a story for another day.
Now, what did Governor Otti do differently?
The first thing was the Primary Healthcare Centres, and that was the most important step.
In fact, records show that over 70 percent of deliveries take place in Primary Healthcare Centres. That is why Governor Otti prioritised the revitalisation of the state’s 948 PHCs.
So far, about 200 PHCs have been reconstructed by the state government, with an additional 77 completed through World Bank support, bringing the total to 277 upgraded PHCs, while about 139 are already fully functional.
By reviving the PHCs, Governor Otti restored hope to nursing mothers. He brought quality healthcare closer to the people, and the results are reflected in the health indicators we are seeing today.
You need to see the equipment installed in these PHCs. Some are even better than what you find in many private health facilities. Many have also been digitised to support the state’s evolving telehealth initiative.
According to the Commissioner for Information, over 9,136 patients have been onboarded across nine hospitals within the last three months alone. Abia is indeed embracing digital healthcare.
There is now renewed confidence in this administration because the people can clearly see that a government which consistently commits 15 percent of its annual budget to healthcare and backs it up with improved infrastructure, employment of healthcare professionals, and better service delivery, is truly committed to the health of its citizens.
It is no surprise, therefore, that enrollment in the Abia State Health Insurance Scheme has grown from 40,000 beneficiaries in December 2024 to 225,581 beneficiaries as of July 2026.
The Arochukwu General Hospital is ready, while the Obingwa General Hospital has entered the equipment installation stage, the Obingwa General Hospital is set to become the first ever digitized General hospital in Abia, with other secondary and tertiary health facilities springing up from other parts of the state.
I don’t even want to begin talking about the Ministry of Health’s efforts in disease prevention and control.
The ever-hardworking Commissioner for Health, Professor Enoch Ogbonnaya Uche, always says that when you make the right investments in healthcare, you get the right results.
Under Governor Alex Otti’s administration, the right investments are being made in health, the result is exactly what you see in the flier above.
Let the Miracle Continue!
Chukwunenye
July 14, 2026.
