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By Francis Igata
The advent of Enugu State University of Medical and Applied Science, SUMAS, Igbo-ano, has opened a promising vista that will provide the desired high skilled manpower which appears in short supply in our Primary, Secondary and Tertiary health care institutions. This specialized University, offering courses in Medicine and Surgery, Medical Laboratory Science, Nursing Science, Human Nutrition and Dietetics, Physiotherapy, Radiography, Pharmacy, Pharmacology and Microbiology comes at a time Nigerians spend N664 Billion annually on medical tourism.
The Law establishing SUMAS was presented to National University Commission, NUC, by Enugu State government alongside the Academic brief and Master Plan of the new University. The License recognized SUMAS as the second Enugu State owned University and also the 59th State University in Nigeria even as Enugu State has joined the league of states with more than one state-owned University.
No doubt, the firmament is rife with excitement and the teeming secondary school leavers who are desirous of university education in medicine and related courses are waiting with baited breath for commencement of academic activities at the brand new university. Empirical analysis from the Deputy Chief of Staff, Enugu State, Prof. Malachy Okwueze, shows that, “the university has provided a platform for increased access to quality university education for our teeming youths who struggle year after year to gain admission into the university without fulfilling their desires and dreams for university education. “This is especially so for professional courses such as medicine. The existing Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT) get over 2, 000 applications from our youths to study medicine but only a paltry 50 applicants (candidates) are offered access to study medicine at the end. “Even the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN), the Federal University in Enugu State, offers only about 180 candidates admission into medicine leaving the dreams of thousands of our youths to study the course dashed year after year. “This is despite the deficit in the number of medical doctors and nurses required to optimize medical and healthcare for our people”. Apart from provide a platform for our children to ventilate and purse their professional calling in area of medicine and related applied sciences, the birth of this ivory tower will in no small means, reflate the economy of the area as small and medium businesses are bound to flourish alongside the university Facilities at the ongoing project site at the medical university include a Teaching Hospital; 2 nos. 12-classroom faculty buildings, 2 nos. 10-classroom faculty buildings and 2 nos. 8-classroom faculty buildings (completed); two-block of student hostels (completed); industrial water boreholes; access/internal roads, etc This development has continued to elicit torrents of commendation from various groups, faith-based organizations and individuals. One of such group, the Odinma Nsukka applauded Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State for the giant development strides of his administration in the state in spite of the harsh economic realities in the country and the state’s lean resources.
The group, comprising notable sons and daughters of Nsukka zone, said they are pleased with the peaceful atmosphere in Enugu State entrenched by Gov. Ugwuanyi as well as his unprecedented infrastructural development in the rural areas of the state. Speaking when Odinma Nsukka paid a Thank-you visit to Gov. Ugwuanyi at the Government House, Enugu, the Chairman of the group, Chief Engr. Vita Abba, expressed gratitude to the governor for the establishment and licensing of the State University of Medical and Applied Sciences (SUMAS), Igbo-Eno, Enugu State, by the National Universities Commission (NUC). Chief Abba, who commended the governor for “the remarkable and highly commendable feat”, revealed: “We were, indeed, merely looking forward to the ESUT Medical Campus, but you were thinking bigger for Ndi-Nsukka. It was just like the Federal Polytechnic Ohodo that came as a surprise to all of us. Our gratitude knows no bound”. An elated indigene of Orba Community, the General Manager, Enugu State Rural Electrification Board, ENREB, Engr. Onyema Odo, revealed that, “The Ugwuanyi-led administration has demonstrated a moral difference and a human pragmatism in our healthcare system which has ebbed copiously to a breaking point where people in Nigeria continue to experience avoidable deaths; continue to die of treatable illness even as the habit of periodic medical check-up has still not been formed and swaths of the population only go to the doctor or to the hospital when seriously ill only to be misdiagnosed or wrongly medicated”. No doubt, this administration has risen to put a halt on the slippery slope where our healthcare system is currently on free slip owing to lack of access to quality healthcare coupled with the prevalence of quack hospitals and doctors, fake drugs and substandard products, that have seemingly put staggering financial burdens on families and the nation.
Horrific stories abound among Nigerians at home and in the Diaspora. As a result, many Nigerians are inundated with wake-keeps or prayer vigils every Friday. Our weekends are replete with wake-keepings as a result. The people of Enugu State and Nigeria at large are on the verge of relishing the establishment of this medical university coming at a time when global average life expectancy is 73 years, the average Nigerian will be lucky to attain the age of 60. With a life expectancy of 55 years, Nigeria is one of four countries with the lowest life expectancies in the world, after the Central African Republic, Lesotho, and Chad, based on the latest data from the United Nations. At the root of early deaths in Nigeria is a healthcare system that has virtually collapsed due to the lack of investment. The latest World Health Organization survey ranks Nigeria’s healthcare system as the fourth worst in the world. This would not come as a surprise to Nigerians living in a country where there are no ambulance services or a simple toll-free number, like 999 to call in an emergency.
However, the Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi-led administration has set her best foot forward to bridge the yawning gaps dotting the entire healthcare system in the state and set the state on an enviable pedestal for quality medical tourism as soon as the university begins to churn out medical professionals to man various health facilities in the state. This government has shown by this outing, a burning tenacity of purpose to provide social amenities in the area of quality healthcare, demonstrated a repository of innovation and rallied on the path of our founding fathers to give credence to the saying that health is wealth. In all, Governor Ugwuanyi has shown that it is not enough to stare up the steps; we must step up the stairs.
Igata, a journalist, writes from Nkpologu, Uzo-Uwani LGA
