|
Listen to article
|
The Governor of Enugu State, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi has asserted that his administration conceived the founding of the State University of Medical and Applied Sciences (SUMAS) Igbo-Eno, Enugu State simply because it was motivated to provide more opportunities for all desiring youths in the country, indigenes of Enugu State to gain training in chosen professional disciplines.
Speaking at the first matriculation ceremony of SUMAS, Ugwuanyi, who is the Visitor of the university pointed out the challenges that numerous applicants in Enugu State usually face in gaining admission into tertiary institutions, especially for professional and competitive courses such as Medicine, Pharmacy, Allied Health Sciences, Engineering, Law, etc.
According to Governor Ugwuanyi, thousands of well-qualified candidates are left stranded without admission to the country.
Read Also: 15 Years After, Ugwuanyi Immortalises Late Bishop Eneja
The governor revealed that it was against the backdrop of acute shortage of health personnel in the state and across the country as well as the consequential effects of brain drain in view of the fact that the few available are unceasingly leaving the country in their numbers that his administration decided to establish another state-owned university with a specialised brief on professional disciplines.
‘As the records indicate, every year, thousands of candidates apply to study Medicine and Allied Health Sciences in the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN) and Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT) respectively but a total of less than one thousand are given admission into these programmes in both institutions. This leaves several thousands of well-qualified candidates stranded without admission. The socio-economic implication of this is better imagined,’ the governor said.
Governor Ugwuanyi went down memory lane to eulogise the first President of Nigeria and a foremost nationalist, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe (The great Zik of Africa) while recalling his leadership role, patriotism and selflessness in founding the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, stressing that “the uniqueness of what Zik altruistically did for the nation and particularly for Nsukka by siting the university in Nsukka land remains a godly act, recreating Nsukka as a land and redefining the destinies of her people.
