A map of Nigeria
Total E&P Nigeria Limited, yesterday, highlighted its various interventions, targeted at assisting the Federal Government and other stakeholders to tackle the Coronavirus pandemic in the country.
Speaking at the virtual media engagement with journalists, the Executive Director, Corporate Affairs and Services, Mr. Abiodun Afolabi, said: “For us, it is not a short-term aim; what we are doing is for the long term. We want to see that what we are doing is sustainable. Our own is not just to deliver and walk away, we donate and follow up to see that what we have given has brought value or the envisaged impact.”
Afolabi, who explained that it was part of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC-led endeavor that donated N21billion to the Federal Government’s Covid-19 effort, added, “in the first phase of that effort, the donation covered three thematic areas, namely, provision of medical consumables; deployment of logistics and in-patient support services as well as medical infrastructure.
“Total’s contribution was $3.2m (N1.2b). From the N1.2b contribution, Total is building two Emergency and Infectious Diseases (EID) Hospitals, one each in Maiduguri and Katsina, in addition to two Diagnostics Centres, one each in Minna and Damaturu.”
According to him, many parties, including oil and gas communities, and States have already benefited from the initiatives.
For instance, he said Lagos state got 20 Hospital Beds; two Surgical Ventilators; two Primaflex Dialysis Machines; 50,000 Litres of Fuel/ Diesel 2,000+ Face Masks at a time that the pandemic made such items difficult to procure.
He said: “Realizing that the challenges brought about by the pandemic could potentially worsen the situation of persons living with HIV/AIDS, we reached out to the Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS in Nigeria, NEPHWAN in Lagos with foodstuff, sanitary products, and the much-needed antiretroviral drugs.”
Furthermore, the Executive General Manager, Operations Support Services, Mr. Alex Aghedo stated that in Rivers State, it donated food items which included 800 bags of rice, 6,000 tubers of yam, 3,000+ cartons of noodles, etc. to Egi Communities.
He said: “To Erema General Hospital in OML 58, it donated Medical Beds, Safety Gowns, Goggles, Sanitizers, Sprayers, Drugs, Disinfectants, and more. Total also donated medical equipment to the 6 Division of Nigerian Army in Rivers State.”
However, the Executive General Manager, Operations Support Services, Mr. Aghedo, who stressed the need for oxygen plant, noted that “according to the Federal Ministry of Health, more than 625,000 deaths occur annually in Nigeria due to diseases associated with hypoxemia (insufficient oxygen in the blood). In children, hypoxemia is a major fatal complication of pneumonia, accounting for 120,000 under-5 deaths in Nigeria per annum.
“In Nigeria, the Covid-19 pandemic simply made an already bad situation even worse. In collaboration with the Lagos Ministry of Health and our partners (NNPC, CNOOC, SAPETRO, Prime), we decided to build and donate a medical oxygen plant at the Gbagada General Hospital. We believe that this facility would be useful even beyond the Covid-19 pandemic. It would not only help improve the State’s capacity to care for Covid-19 patients but also further strengthen capacity to manage other conditions associated with oxygen deficiency.”
He said that the facility is in the last stages of construction and will be handed over to the Lagos State Government very soon, noting that the plant could meet the needs of Lagos and other nearby States when operational.
He also indicated that the company had earlier made various interventions in the past to tackle many diseases, including Ebola.
In his remarks, the moderator of the session and the Country Communication Manager, Dr. Charles Ebereonwu noted that while that the company had done a lot in assisting various levels of government to fight against the pandemic, it was telling the stories to inspire others to make their quota of contributions towards improving the lives of Nigerians.
“By the time we aggregate the small bits of efforts by responsive corporate organizations like Total, a critical mass would have been achieved for economic development,” he said.