Benue: FMC CMD laments underdevelopment of facilities, infrasrructure

From Uche Nnorom, Makurdi

The Chief Medical Director, CMD, Federal Medical Center FMC, Makurdi, Benue State, Prof. Joseph  Kortor has lamented over underdevelopment of facilities at the hospital despite being amongst the first to be established in the country.

He regretted that the hospital can hardly  compete with other sister FMCs in the country due to its bad state of infrastructure, stressing that the Center is not looking like a hospital where serious medical services could be rendered.

Prof. Kortor who made this lamentation  during a chat with newsmen in his office in Makurdi on Monday, noted that while a lot of achievements were being recorded in other FMCs in the country, Federal Medical Center, FMC Makurdi, had remained grossly underdeveloped for decades.

He said: “Go to FMCs in Jabi, Lagos, Abeokuta etc, a lot of achievements have been recorded there. I can’t even bring my colleagues here (Makurdi) to come and see what is happening here in Benue; no way, because there is nothing here to be proud of.

“We belong to a committee of CMDs, where we go round the states to discuss about FMCs, whereby if you have any problem or issue, you discuss with your older colleagues who advice you. Last year we were supposed to be in Maiduguri, but because of insecurity in the area, we brought it to Abuja and by March 2025, we will be in another state. But because of the poor condition of FMC Makurdi, I cannot bring anybody here.

“We have no functional power plants to work with here .You can see how you(journalists) are sweating profusely due to heat in my office. It is about budget padding and I do not have the capacity for such.”