PHILANTHROPIST TO BUILD MORTUARY FOR TAMALE CENTRAL HOSPITAL (PAGE 29)

A Tamale-based philanthropist and businessman, Alhaji Yakubu Ayana, has expressed his readiness to put up a mortuary for the Tamale Central Hospital (Old Hospital) which is being rehabilitated to cater for the growing health needs of the people of the metropolis.
Alhaji Ayana announced this during the inauguration of a mosque complex for the hospital last Friday.
The construction of the over GH¢150,000 mosque was funded by Alhaji Ayana.
The Central Hospital, as it has been renamed, formerly served as the Northern Regional Hospital until the early 1970s when the Tamale Teaching Hospital was constructed.
The former was later abandoned and it was not until recently when the health directorate in the region decided to rehabilitate it to reduce the pressure on the latter, which is now a referral centre.
Alhaji Ayana, who is also a popular Hajj agent in Tamale, said he decided to put up the mosque because the hospital was located around the ministries but had no mosque for the Muslim workers and patients.
He also observed that as patients had begun patronising the hospital, there was no mortuary to cater for the dead, coupled with the fact that facilities at the morgue of the Teaching Hospital were overstretched.
‘‘We certainly do not always have to rely on the central government for all our needs; it is high time we relied on ourselves to get things done so that we can get the blessings that comes with such humanitarian services,” he indicated.
Alhaji Ayana’s latest gesture follows his recent donation of quantities of assorted items, including food, to the inmates of the Nyohini Children’s Home and the presentation of a Nissan Urvan bus to the Nyohini Central Mosque, both in Tamale.
Last weekend, he also embarked on a peace walk from Savelugu in the Savelugu/Nanton District of the Northern Region to Tamale, a distance of 19 kilometres, and was later joined by some of his colleagues in the Progressive Traders Association to drum home the need for a peaceful general election in December.
The Administrator of the Central Hospital, Mr Damasus Ayangba, expressed appreciation to Alhaji Ayana for his generosity and said the mosque would serve the spiritual needs of the people who had often prayed under trees.
On Alhaji Ayana’s proposal to construct the morgue, Mr Ayangba welcomed such a move and indicated that a team of consultants would soon visit the hospital to concretise the proposal.