LAGOS EXECUTES CONCESSION AGREEMENT FOR MEDICAL PARK

April 1, 2023

The Lagos State Government, through the Office of Public-Private Partnership, today executed the Concession Agreement to develop the Lagos Medical Park (MediPark).

According to the Special Adviser to the Governor on PPPs, Mr. Ope George, the MediPark Project is a partnership between the Lagos State Government and the IASO Consortium.

He said that the proposed MediPark is a 120-bed tertiary facility, built on 1.76 hectares of land on Awolowo Road, Ikoyi (Former School of Nursing), stressing that the facility is being positioned to provide cutting-edge medical and diagnostic medical services.

George added that MediPark would have residential facilities, hotels and other ancillary services to meet the needs of Lagosians.

“An integral part of the State Government T.H.E.M.E.S agenda is to embark on a comprehensive reform of the health sector, which is aimed at increasing the overall capacity of the healthcare system in Lagos State. The MediPark Project, therefore, was designed to create an enabling environment for delivering excellent healthcare services that meet international standards”, the Special Adviser stated.

naptu2:
My Lagos State Nursing School rant


From memory.


Governor Bola Tinubu fell ill and was rushed to the United States for treatment. This was in the early or mid-2000s, so might not find a record of it online, but I remember it very well.


His return was marked with fanfare because people were happy that he had recovered. There were a lot of journalists and other people at the airport when he returned. I remember the news footage very well. The present Oniru was his ADC at the time.

Governor Tinubu told journalists that he was happy to be back. He spoke about his ailment and said that he was feeling better. He also spoke about how impressed he was with the hospital in which he was treated and he spoke about his desire to build something similar in Lagos.


There was talk about the hospital that Tinubu wished to build and this talk went on for months after his return. However, just before he left office, this talk changed from being about a hospital to being about a medical park.


The idea was that there were many Nigerian doctors abroad and so the government would get into a partnership with them. Government would provide land (there was talk about it being sited in Lekki) and other amenities and the doctors would also provide some kind of investment. The doctors would spend some time in Lagos every year and use their world class skills to treat Nigerians, while the government and some private entities would provide the equipment that the doctors needed.


This arrangement would ensure that Lagosians would not need to travel abroad for first class medical care and in fact, it might attract other Africans to come to Lagos for treatment.


The Federal Government, led by Olusegun Obasanjo, also expressed its desire to build a medical park.


Tinubu left office but no medical park was built.


During Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola's second term the government began saying that the medical park would be sited at the Nursing School, rather than at Lekki.


The land for the Lagos State School of Nursing was provided by the legend, Mrs Ayo Vaughan-Richards (here is Mrs Vaughan-Richards' 1988 interview with the Chicago Tribune https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1988-05-29-8801030310-story.html) and the idea was that its location should be close to General Hospital and Island Maternity to make it easy for the student nurses to get practical experience.


The Nursing School was on Awolowo Road in Ikoyi and you could actually walk from there to General Hospital, Odan, Marina and to Island Maternity, both on Broad Street.


The Nursing School was subsequently moved to far away Igando. It had been on Awolowo Road for many decades.


The Nursing School was moved, but nothing was heard about the medical park. In fact, that complex on Awolowo Road was abandoned and people began to speculate that Bola Tinubu had bought it. I wrote about that speculation on this thread in 2015. Akinwunmi Ambode was the APC candidate in the governorship election and Jimi Disu interviewed him ahead of the election and asked him about he complex. Mr Disu was very angry because he believed that Tinubu had taken over the place. Ambode could not provide an answer to Mr Disu's questions.


I knew that the place was the designated site of the medical park and I was shocked that Ambode did not know this. Signboards had been placed on the walls of the complex just a few months before that interview and the signboards stated that it was the proposed site of the medical park.


Ambode became governor and in 2016 his government signed an agreement with a private company for the development of the medical park at the former Nursing School on Awolowo Road. You can find articles about the agreement online. The signing of that agreement was the last that we heard about the medical park.


The former School of Nursing and hostel complex has been overtaken by weeds, wild plants and small wild animals. I can't imagine how Mrs Vaughan-Richards would feel if she sees the place today. You can go see it for yourself. It is located beside the ramp that leads to the Ring Road Bridge at the Onikan end of Awolowo Road. It is opposite Creek Hospital (Military Hospital) and Protea Ikoyi Westwood Hotel.


I have attached some pictures just in case you can't go there. You can see the signboards and banners that were put up by the Fashola Administration. They've all faded. Just take a look at this nonsense!

naptu2:
I forgot to explain Jimi Disu's comments about the nursing school.

When Jimi Disu asked Jimi Agbaje the question about the nursing school on Sunday, I said that it was one of his favourite topics. I listened to his show in 2014/2015 when he interviewed Akinwunmi Ambode and the nursing school was one of the issues with which he tackled Ambode.


The Lagos State Nursing School was on Awolowo Road for many decades. The complex is almost opposite Creek Hospital (military hospital) and it is just before the ramp that takes you to Ring Road Bridge (on your way to 3rd Mainland Bridge).

However, the school was moved to Igando c2012 and the complex in Ikoyi has been abandoned. The walls are covered in dust and weeds are growing in the premises.


There is a rumour that Bola Tinubu bought over the complex from the Lagos State Government and it is that rumour that annoys Jimi Disu very much. He often challenges APC candidates that they should explain what has happened to the complex and none has given a satisfactory answer.

Jimi Disu said that the nursing school was built at that location because it is close to the General Hospital Lagos, the Island Maternity Hospital and the Massey Street Children's Hospital and this makes it easy for student nurses to get practical experience. He is angry that the school was moved to a far place like Igando.


However, on the other hand, I've also heard a different story.

I remember that Bola Tinubu fell ill when he was governor and he had to go to the United States for treatment. Many people criticised him for going abroad for treatment. When he returned he said that he was working towards establishing a hospital in Lagos that would be like the hospital in which he was treated.


He later came up with the idea of a medical park (the Obasanjo led federal government also had a similar idea). The idea was that Nigeria had many medical doctors that were practising abroad. These doctors were among the best in their field. Therefore, the government would provide infrastructure (land, electricity, etc) for these doctors to come back to Nigeria and set up practices where the major ailments that were afflicting Nigerians would be treated.


Basically, it would be like a large park where surgeons, dentists and other Nigerian medical professionals that are based abroad would be able to practice for a few months every year. This would reduce the need to go abroad.

It was initially proposed that the park would be in Lekki, but it was later decided (during the Fashola era) that it should be at the nursing school complex. There are billboards on the walls of the nursing school that advertise the medical park idea.

However, the complex has been abandoned since c2012 and its decrpit state is annoying a lot of Lagosians.