Provost Tasks Corporate Bodies On Varsities’ Funding

The Provost, College of Medicine of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, (UNN), Prof Basden Onwubere, has called on corporate  organisations and individuals in  Nigeria to partner with the Federal Government in the funding of tertiary education in the country.

Onwubere said that given the capital intensive profile of running University education with the attendant rising students population, the participation of the private sector was imperative against the backdrop of decaying infrastructure and poor welfare scheme faced by most of the institutions in Nigeria.

The Provost made call at Akanu Ibiam International Airport Enugu, over the weekend shortly on arrival from Lagos, where he featured in the activities marking the 2011 World Heart Day, which was  flagged off  by the Lagos State Deputy Governor.

Onwubere said the planned relocation of the UNN college of Medicine to its permanent site at Ituku Ozalla Enugu State, would go on  absence of any unforeseen circumstances, adding that all faculties in the college would leave the UNTH old site in Enugu before the beginning of the second quarter of next year.

While praising  the vice chancellor of the University,  Prof Bartho Okolo, for the good job going on at the complex, Onwubere noted that only the faculty of Dentistry  had relocated, more than five years after the UNTH had moved to the permanent site at Ituku Ozalla.

“Because of the challenges of infrastructure, the faculties of Medical Sciences and that of Health Sciences and Technology have not moved. At the moment, we need two additional hostels at UNTH Ituku to accommodate over  600 clinical students of the college. More class rooms, more buses, more offices, a high capacity standby generator and other facilities to make the place conducive for learning”, the heart surgeon noted.

According to the Provost, a committee headed by Prof. Mrs. Ifeoma Okoye, has been constituted by the College of Medicine to reach out to corporate Nigeria to solve some of the challenges facing the college.