Rivers State Governor Sir Siminalayi Fubara yesterday inaugurated a newly upgraded Neuropsychiatric Hospital and a General Hospital in Rumuigbo, Obio-Akpor Local Government Area, assuring that the facilities would address healthcare challenges in the state.
Fubara said the projects followed the poor state of the existing psychiatric facility and the growing challenge of substance abuse. He also inaugurated the rehabilitated runway at the Nigerian Air Force Base, Port Harcourt, commending President Bola Tinubu for strengthening Nigeria’s security architecture, and describing the rehabilitation as demonstrating the state government’s commitment to institutions protecting the country’s territorial integrity and critical national assets.
On the neuropsychiatric hospital, he said a visit to inspect a small drug rehabilitation centre being built by the Rivers State Hospitals Management Board from limited resources prompted his administration to rethink its approach to mental healthcare. ‘How could a state like this build less than 20 rooms rehabilitation centre because of the issues of abuse of substance? It was there that we said we need to rebuild, remodernise and upgrade the standard of this Neuropsychiatric Hospital,’ he said.
The hospital, conceived in 1970 and inaugurated in 1977 with about 50 beds, now includes a 100-bed rehabilitation centre offering an improved environment for treating mental health and substance-abuse-related conditions. Fubara said the project was significant because the premises had previously become a centre for drug trafficking, with illicit substances allegedly reaching patients and inmates, and that fencing and controlled access would help curb the practice.
Linking substance addiction to unemployment and psychological difficulties, he said rehabilitation was necessary to help affected persons return to productive lives. ‘Some of these things are not deliberate, circumstances led our people to it,’ he said.
He said the General Hospital was built alongside the psychiatric facility after it emerged that the area had only a Primary Health Centre, leaving residents dependent on the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital and the Rivers State University Teaching Hospital for higher-level care, and that the new facility would ease pressure on the state’s tertiary hospitals by handling cases that did not require referral.
Describing healthcare, education and housing as critical indicators of a functional society, Fubara said his administration was working to strengthen all three. He urged the Obio-Akpor Local Government Council and host community to protect the facilities from vandalism, charging the council chairman to inspect them regularly, and commended the Rivers State Hospitals Management Board and Ministry of Health for their roles.
The governor said he had invited the President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), whose annual conference was holding in Rivers State, to perform the inauguration as a way of giving the event a permanent place in the state’s history.
Inaugurating the facilities, outgoing NBA President Mazi Afam Osigwe commended the governor and called for an end to the stigma associated with mental health. He said government’s responsibility extended beyond physical security to ensuring access to quality healthcare, describing mental health as a neglected and stigmatised area. ‘Health, they say, is wealth… You have not only shown that you care about the security of Rivers State; you have gone further to show that you are interested in their health and particularly… mental health,’ he said.
Osigwe said the governor’s decision reflected a hands-on approach to governance and that improved infrastructure would reduce capital flight by keeping specialised care within the state. He urged residents not to view mental health challenges as shameful, and cautioned against using the premises for drug sales.