YPP candidate pledges healthcare transformation in Karu

By Stanley Onyekwere

In a bid to overhaul healthcare delivery across Nasarawa West, Osisiogu Osikenyi, the Young Progressives Party (YPP) candidate for the Karu/Keffi/Kokona Federal Constituency, has unveiled a comprehensive legislative blueprint aimed at providing accessible, high-quality medical services to his constituents.
At the heart of the proposal is a push to establish a functional Federal Medical Centre (FMC) in Karu Local Government Area, supplemented by multiple satellite outstations positioned throughout rural and densely populated suburban communities across Karu, Keffi, and Kokona.
The initiative seeks to resolve a longstanding infrastructure deficit in the region.
He lamented that currently, pregnant women and critically ill residents in Karu regularly face long, stressful journeys -often traveling tens of kilometers into neighboring local government areas or into the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to access specialized tertiary care.
He noted that while official census records place Karu’s population at roughly 360,000, local demographic reality paints a vastly different picture.
According to him, driven by rapid suburban expansion from nearby Abuja, major urban hubs—including Mararaba, New Nyanya, Masaka, Ado, Kuchikau, and Auta Balefi, push the actual living population across the area well past 3 million.
He added that this discrepancy leaves Karu as one of the most densely populated urban belts in Nigeria operating without a dedicated federal tertiary health institution.
“Karu remains the largest population center in Nigeria without commensurate tertiary medical facilities accessible to its people.
“Power must produce practical results for the public, not just occupy public offices, Osikenyi stated .
To address these challenges, he outlined a three-pronged strategy combining parliamentary advocacy, infrastructure upgrades, and expanded social health coverage.
He pledged to deploy legislative instruments and parliamentary lobbying to establish a Federal Medical Centre in Karu LGA, featuring multiple rural outstation clinics.
Also, he promised to advocate for the elevation of the existing Federal Medical Centre in Keffi into a premier Reference Tertiary Hospital to serve as a specialized regional medical hub for North Central Nigeria.
Similarly, he assured to drive a targeted, constituency-wide initiative to enroll vulnerable and low-income residents into the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), dramatically lowering out-of-pocket costs for essential medical care.
Osikenyi, who also serves as the President of the All-Africa Students’ Union (AASU), framed his party’s platform as a direct response to the community’s urgent socio-economic needs.
Emphasizing that the YPP offers a credible path forward for citizens tired of political inertia, he reiterated his readiness to deliver tangible “dividends of representation” from day one in parliament.