WE’RE PREPARED TO TAKE OUR DESTINY IN OUR OWN HANDS – Governor Ikpeazu 

#AbiaOnline 
Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu says Abia will collaborate with Cuba Republic and leverage its experience to find solutions to health issues in Abia State .
The Governor disclosed this while receiving in audience, the Cuban Ambassador to Nigeria, His Excellency Mr Carlos Trejo Sosa. He stated that Abia wants to partner with a country that has the same understanding and appreciated the fact that Cuba has a historical tie with Nigeria and especially, Southern Nigeria which Abia belongs.
According to the Governor, “in Abia, we are prepared to learn from Cuba and take our destinies in our own hands”, assuring that Abia has chosen right partners in Cuba, as the country is known to be at the apex of medical experience. He added that everybody appreciates the Doctor-Patient relationship in Cuba, stressing that Abia would open a channel by which Doctors, Nurses and Paramedical personnel could be sent and trained in Cuba as well as have intercourse of medical ideas.
Governor Ikpeazu used the opportunity to inform the visiting Ambassador that Abia has the greatest concentration of Small & Medium Enterprise as Aba is the hub of trade and commerce in Nigeria, maintaining that Aba deals in leather/shoe and garments productions and the State would wish to seek ways of partnering with Cuba in that regard too.
Speaking, the Cuban Ambassador, Mr. Carlos Trejo Sosa said he is in the State to find ways to collaborate with Abia State to assist in the area of health system following series of interactions with Abia Ministry of Health.
He assured he would make his people understand that they can partner with Abia, also that they should disregard some media reports against Nigeria, affirming that Nigeria and Abia is conducive for business. The Ambassador disclosed that Cuba is known to have a better approach to healthcare as they take their patients as patients and not as clients.
Earlier, the Commissioner for Health, Dr. John Ahukanna said the visit followed series of interaction between the Ambassador and Abia government on how to build relationship in the healthcare system. He informed that the particular areas of interest of the State were in training of medical personnel and medical technology, hoping that the State will soon begin to enjoy the out come of the relationship.