— Tai Oguntayo, PhD
I’m not going to call out VeryDarkMan or throw tantrums at him for unjustly cursing the governor of Ekiti State, Mr Biodun Abayomi Oyebanji and mischievously dishing out wrong information on health delivery in Ekiti State 2026 budget because we definitely do not belong to the same class or share the same school of thought. However, I’ll like to put the record straight so that for the very first time in his social criticism career, he may see reason to redeem his image by apologizing to the governor in particular and Ekiti people in general. This is the only way to avert the consequences of his deliberate mischief.
One may not really blame VDM outrightly for relying on the misinformation circulated by an Ekiti born social media propagandist who first circulated the falsehood that Ekiti allocated N68m to Health care in 2026 budget. Yoruba people say just the way you describe your plate is how people will help you describe it; if you like call it a disc, the public will call it same and if you call it a calabash, the public will refer to it as such. However, the same Yoruba people say; you don’t follow a monkey to eat the grass otherwise you’ll also be referred to as a monkey. Instead of solely relying on Isaac Fayose’s usual misinformation on his State, VDM should have done his due diligence on the entire budget to know if truly it’s just N68m that Ekiti budgeted on Primary Health Care or not.
I was once the Supervisor for Health in the Local Govt (2000-2002) and later Secretary to the Local Government (2013-2014). So, I know that by virtue of the fourth schedule of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended), Primary Health Care is under the Local Government administration while the State Ministry of Health only plays a supervisory role through its State Primary Health Care Agency. Therefore, for anyone, in clear conscience, to actually review what the State has for health delivery in 2026, one will need to be holistic about the various budgetary allocations for the Ministry of health. If VDM had been painstaking enough before rushing to the social media to chase cloud, he would have seen from the budget that in the Ekiti State proposed 2026 Budget, Ministry of Health and Human Services has a whooping ₦6.084B. Below is the breakdown;
– Ministry of Health and Human Services 550,536,060.05
– Ekiti State Health Insurance Scheme 50,807,520.10
– Primary Healthcare Development Agency 253,891,805.23
– Hospitals Management Board 5,173,829,137.87
– Ekiti State Drugs Health Supplies Management (EKSDMA) 55,057,488.70
Just for clarity sake, let me say publicly that in my hometown, Okemesi Ekiti alone, the government of Biodun Abayomi Oyebanji spent over a billion naira in providing a state of the earth equipment to the general hospital there which is just one out of the 17 General Hospitals in the State. Further research on last year budgetary allocation on health shows that 106 Primary Health Care centers were renovated in Ekiti State across the 16 LGAs which is in addition to the upgrading and renovation of 9 General Hospitals. Below is the breakdown:
* Ikole LGA: 10 PHCs renovated:
* Ido Osi: 6 PHCs renovated 1 (Ijesa Isu) General Hospital Upgraded
* Ikere: 6 PHCs renovated
* Ado: 11 PHCs renovated
* Gbonyin: 7 PHCs renovated and 1 General Hospital upgraded.
* Ekiti SW: 6 PHCs renovated and 1 (Ilawe Ekiti) General Hospital upgraded
* Ekiti West: 8 PHCs renovated 1 (Okemesi) General Hospital Upgraded
* Ekiti East: 6 PHCs renovated
* Efon: 6 PHCs Renovated and 1 General Hospital Upgraded
* Ijero: 7 PHCs Renovated
* Irepodun/Ifelodun: 5 PHCs renovated
* Ilejemeje: 5 PHCs renovated (Iye Ekiti) General Hospital Upgraded
* Moba: 6 PHCs renovated
* Emure: 6 PHCs renovated
* Ise Orun: 6 PHCs renovated
* Oye: 6 PHCs renovated and 2 General Hospital (Ayede and Ilupeju) upgraded.
In case, anyone may want to say that all the above listed health institutions are mere paperwork, let me go further to categorically list their locations for easy verification and for the people from those areas to come out and prove me wrong.
* Construction of Basic Health Center, Imila, Odo Ayedun-Ekiti (Completed)
* Construction of Basic Health Centre Oke Ijebu (Completed)
* Construction of Basic Health Centre , Ikoyi Ile, Ikole-Ekiti (Completed)
* Renovation Basic Health Centre, Odo Oro-Ekiti (Completed)
* Renovation and extension of Basic Health Centre to accommodate maternity ward and laboratory, behind Sammy Hotel, Ikere-Ekiti (Completed)
* Renovation of Are/Araromi Primary Health Centre and supply of medical equipment, Are/Araromi Primary Health Centre, Ikere-Ekiti (Completed)
* Renovation of Medical Staff Quarters, Basic Health Centre, Orin-Ekiti (Completed)
* Renovation of Medical Staff Quarters, Basic Health Centre, Osi-Ekiti (Completed)
* Renovation of Health Workers Quarters, Basic Health Centre, Usi-Ekiti (Completed)
* Construction of Basic Health Centre and procurement of health equipments, Ekiti State Special School for the Physically and Mentally Retarded Ido-Ekiti (Completed)
* Construction of Basic Health Centre at Eti Oni, Efon Alaaye (Completed)
* Construction of Basic Health Centre, Ilugbekun, Efon-Alaaye (Completed)
* Construction of Basic Health Centre, Ikagbe, Efon-Alaaye (Completed)
If the government could commit this huge amount on health institutions alone for 2025, how on earth will it now budget just a paltry sum of N68m on primary health care in 2026?
If truly VDM is fighting for the interest of common men and not merely using them to cash out, he should tender unreserved apologies to Governor Biodun Abayomi Oyebanji and the people of Ekiti State having seen the light now as against the falsehood sold to him.
Dr. Tai Oguntayo is an Ekiti based veteran Journalist and Legal Scholar