Special Report
On January 1, 2026, three young men, all from Oke Esa Quarters, were returning home from a New Year celebratory visit to a friend in the neighbouring town of Oke Imesi. They rode on a motorcycle. They had an accident while approaching the Oke Esho area of Erinjiyan Quarters. One died on the spot, but before they were rushed to a hospital in Ilesa, another one had given up. The other later died at the hospital.
Another unfortunate incident involved a woman, Ms Oluwaseun Afolabi, a petty trader, this same past January. She had slipped on her way to the bathroom located at the back of her house. It was a bit late in the evening and, since there was no working health facility in the town, a risk was taken to watch her till day break, before taking her to a hospital in Ilesa. She did not make it back.
Several touching stories of avoidable loss of lives abound in the community. And all these deaths, many people concluded, can be avoided if there is a working healthcare delivery centre in the town.
These heart rendering incidents typified the pains, cries and anguish the Esa Oke
community is living with, due to the dilapidating and horrible state of healthcare delivery facilities in the town.
Ilesa township, where there are some reasonably good health facilities, is about thirty five kilometres to Esa Oke. There is an annex of Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital (OAUTH) There is also a working state-owned General Hospital This is apart from the numerous private facilities. Aside from the poor state of the Esa Oke-Ilesa road, it takes about one hour from Esa Oke to get to the nearest facility in Ilesa.
But the contrast is Esa Oke. The State Government under former Governor Adebisi Akande built a 20-bed Comprehensive Health Centre, later named General Hospital in Odo Ese Quarters. The facility was hardly put to use. Today it is lying comatose.
www.esaoketodayonline.com findings show that there is only one doctor, on ad hoc basis, who sporadically appeared on duty there. The facility hardly serves anyone. Part of the eastern side of the fence had collapsed. And during the last dry season, a bush fire was said to have entered the facility through the collapsed area, and engulfed part of the structure. Till date, no repairs have been carried out.
There are three primary healthcare facilities in Esa-Oke. The age-old Maternity Centre and Clinic, a Federal Primary Health centre, and one other state-owned Primary Health centres in Kajola, a satellite village. But these facilities, except the Maternity Centre and Clinic, existed only in structures and nomenclature.
The Osun State College of Technology (OSCOTECH), has a working health centre, but is strictly restricted only to its staff and bona-fides students.
The pictures of health facilities in Esa Oke are grim, dim, dire, and eyesore. The stories coming out are unpalatable. Yet the people are helplessly living with them.
To be well and alive, one needs access to reasonably good health care delivery facilities. Availability of a good healthcare delivery centre helps maintain an extended high life’s expectancy index. But sadly, this is a mirage in Esa Oke, an ancient town in Obokun Local Government Area of Osun State.
Esa Oke township, with a population of over fifty thousand residents, with its satellite villages of Kajola, Ayetoro, Ido Ajegunle, Farm Settlements, Oke Oroo, Aba Tafia, Oke Esho, all have no access to a working healthcare delivery centre presently. Also, there is no diagnostic centre, or medical laboratory centre, private or government owned in the town.
While the General Hospital (Comprehensive Health Centre) is said to be in disuse and presently in total ruins. The story is not different with the three Primary Health centres in the community. The one in Kajola town is said to be perpetually out of drug supplies, while the another one in Idofin quarters within the township, is deserted; no reason is adduced for this. The other two, the Maternity Centre and Clinic were said to be reasonably working, only needing some furniture to keep patients’ records and cards and medical supplies; www.esaoketodayonline.com learnt that the Federal Medical Centre is presently out of use. There is only one staff nurse manning the Centre. She was said to be having nothing to work with.
According to Oloye Akinwumi Onifade, “even the Federal Medical Centre along Bola Ige way, Bolorunduro village junction, Idofin Quarters, which is being managed by the Osun State Government, has become a pitiful mess.
“While it looks beautiful from the outside, the inside is virtually empty….no chairs, no tables, not even patients’ cards or files, and other necessary furniture; no medical equipment, nothing, except the female nurse who sadly, has nothing to work with, and no patient to attend to”.
It is generally believed that Primary health care enables health systems to support the health needs of individuals within the community. It focuses mainly on health promotion, disease prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, palliative care, Maternal assistance; Child health, Immunization, equity, drug provision and community participation. But unfortunately, these are grossly lacking in the Esa Oke community.
According to information on the Osun State Primary Health Centre website, Primary Health Centre is a government-run medical facility that provides essential healthcare services to the local community. The centre offers a range of primary care treatments and preventative services, including general check-ups, vaccinations, and basic medical procedures. With a team of experienced healthcare professionals, the centre aims to deliver quality, accessible care to patients of all ages.
www.esaoketodayonline.com investigations reveal that the Kajola Development Council under the leadership of late Lisa of Kajola, Chief Ayotunde Ogunleye, in October 2024, had to donate some drugs to the one in Kajola to help sustain it.
The Maternity centre that has been serving the community since the colonial period is also not left behind in the rot. According to the people, it was almost in total ruins, with part of the building and even the roofs, already collapsing, before the government of Mr. Adegboyega Oyetola intervened and moved in to renovate it a few years ago. Since then, it has been working, though minimally.
www.esaoketodayonline.com recalls that it was the current Executive members of the Esa Oke Central Union (ECU) that provided the power generating set and few other equipment when the facility was almost comatose.
There has been a long debate on which tier of the government should be responsible for the running of the almost dilapidated and disused Federal Health Centre. Neither the State nor local government seems to be interested in equipping the facility with necessary personnel, medical equipment and drug supplies. The facility is presently also poorly staffed. There are few poorly equipped and manned private hospitals in the town. There is one in Odo Ese Quarters, almost opposite the road leading to the disused General Hospital; there is another one in Idofin Quarters, directly opposite St. Joseph High School, and another one in Oke Esho area of Erinjiyan Quarters, but www.esaoketodayonline.com investigations revealed that these facilities were equipped mostly with sub-standard machines, where available – and mostly poorly staffed.
The belief within the town is that both the Federal and State Governments merely put down these structures without bothering to empower them to work; nor do they or the local governments seen to the sustenance or maintenance of the medical facilities.
Ideally, all the primary health centres ought to function under the local government administration, with the Health Department overseeing their operations.
For various administrative, logistical and other reasons, officials of the Health Departments could not be reached for comments on this very important issue.
The people now rely majorly on the poorly trained, and in some cases untrained auxiliary nurses, health technologists, chemist operators and sundry herbal products’ hawkers for their medical emergencies. This mode of attending to medical needs in most cases, aside from being inadequate, have become highly risky and very expensive at the end of the day.
The risks are unbelievably high in terms of the cost of human lives. This poor healthcare delivery facilities has caused so much pain in the hearts of the people. It has led to several youths having their lives cut off untimely due to untimely treatment of auto or domestic accidents’ victims.
during the course of our investigations, a story of a middle-aged woman was narrated to www.esaoketodayonline.com in the town encapsulated the terrible rot of the healthcare facility in the community. She was said to have developed diabetic complications. And when the crises started, she was rushed to the Wesley’s Guide Hospital in Ilesa. There she was given a referral form to a diagnostic centre in Ondo town, in Ondo State, to run some tests. At the facility in Ondo, the daughter was told all the tests would cost over three hundred and fifty thousand naira, she dejectedly returned home. Nowhere to turn to. Soon after, the woman died.
www.esaoketodayonline.com further revealed that in all the three Primary Health centres in the community, medical equipment and supply shortages are a major concern, with only the Maternity Centre possessing few of the identified medical supplies. This includes critical shortages of oxygen, personal protective equipment (PPE), and essential labour ward equipment. The lack of vital medical equipment and supplies in all the PHCs is alarming and critically undermines emergency response capabilities and overall healthcare delivery.
Aside from the general lack of medical equipment and supplies, there is also a general shortage of qualified personnel in all the health centres. This leaves the community in limbo as they have to navigate the management of health crises elsewhere.
Meanwhile, the almost abandoned Osun State-owned 20-bed (General Hospital) at Odo Ese Quarters, Esa-Oke was reportedly burgled by unknown persons a few days ago. An unspecified number of medical equipment and supplies were said to have been carted away.
According to first hand witness reports, the facility was said to have been burgled between late hours on Sunday, February 1 and early hours of Monday February 2, 2026.
www.esaoketodayonline.com resident Senior Editor, Oloye Akinwumi Onifade immediately moved to the facility to assess the extent of the burglary.
He, in company of a Palace Chief, Bode Ajayi, the Obalogbo of Esa-Oke, visited the facility.
They were conducted round by an official of the Centre, Mr Adeosun.
According to him, “what we saw was heart-breaking. It was obvious that a systematic vandalization of the centre had been going on for a long time. All the electrical installations, furniture, windowpanes and louvers, and other valuables have been removed.
“Shockingly too, most of the roofs have been severely damaged, either by rainstorm or by vandals, making the entire facility look desolate and dilapidated”.
The facility, once the pride of the Esa-Oke community, was built by the Osun state
Government in 2002,and was commissioned by the then governor, His Excellency, Chief Adebisi Akande on Friday June 28, 2002.
Obviously, there is a need for the relevant Federal, State and Local authorities in Nigeria to urgently look into the dire situation of the medical facilities in Esa Oke and take the necessary actions to preserve, maintain and sustain the lives of the community.