The husband and son of immediate past Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, are set to open a multi-million dollar hospital in the Gwarimpa area of Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.
Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala’s husband, Ikemba Iweala, and their son,
Uchechi Iweala, are teaming up to establish the Capital Health and
Surgical Care Center in Abuja. Both men, who are medical doctors, will
serve as chairman of the board and medical director respectively at the
medical facility described as state of the art.
The hospital was originally to be formally opened last June by
former President Goodluck Jonathan, on the assumption that he would be
reelected. Mr. Jonathan’s defeat froze the idea.
Information available on the hospital’s
website, http://www.chscnigeria.com/home/page?id=Press, states that the
hospital “is conceived to improvetertiary-level healthcare delivery in
Nigeria and Greater West Africa by providing top-rate service of international standard.” The hospital, which has been
quietly under construction and development in the last three years, is
equipped with 50 beds, three operating rooms, Magnetic Resonance Imaging
(MRI), and CT scan.
The undisclosed financiers of the project apparently spared no
expense in conceiving the project. The project’s architectural design
was undertaken by Perkins + Will Global (http://perkinswill.com), a
major player in the world’s architectural scene. The firm is based in
Washington, DC with offices in more than 24 countries all over the
world. The firm of architects has designed various multi-billion dollar
projects in the US, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Latin
America. The hospital’s interior design was done by Perkins +
Will/DAR Group.
Another US-based multinational company, General
Electric, handled the hospital’s technological equipment and
infrastructure. The project does not list any indigenous Nigerian
company as being involved in the conception or execution of any aspect
of the hospital.
While the hospital’s website does not provide any cost
estimate, two sources familiar with the project claimed that the
Iweala’s hospital cost between$100 and $150 million.
An Abuja-based architect also told this reporter that the
profile Perkins + Wills suggested that the hospital was pricey. “If we
go by the scale of projects that Perkins + Wills gets involved in, then
we can conclude that this was a major project,” the US-trained architect
said.
The hospital’s website provides no information about the
financing of the project.
SaharaReporters contacted the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission to ascertain whether the anti-corruption
agency knew the financial backers of the project. “No, we are not
aware,” a senior EFCC official told our correspondent. He added that the
agency had no reason to investigate the source of the hospital’s funds.
He added, “The only issue is that the arrowheads of the hospital are
family members of the former Coordinating Minister of the Economy. But
we cannot just investigate unless we receive information that public
funds were somehow committed to the project.”
SaharaReporters
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