The Vice Chancellor, Federal University of Health Sciences Otukpo (FUHSO) Benue State and former Director General of Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIMR) Yaba, Lagos, Prof. Innocent Ujah, has said the school is “a world class institution for learning, scientific research, and innovation for developing the next generation of healthcare providers.”

Ujah, during the Maiden Public Lecture Series, titled: ‘Pioneering The First University of Health Sciences in Nigeria: The Excitement, The Expectations, The Challenges’, held last week, at the institution, said FUHSO is positioned to compete with its contemporaries globally and to become one of the top universities providing health services training and conduct cutting-edge research for the development of the health sector in Nigeria and the globally.

Ujah, who is also a consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist, said the mission of the FUHSO is “to build capacity of healthcare professionals through integrated medical education, professional skills and research providing access to high quality healthcare services.”

He said the institution is established to train medical and other health professionals who shall make indelible difference in the society through establishing a reputation of excellence in teaching, research and healthcare services for the development of the nation and mankind skewed towards medicine and allied health programmes.

Ujah said FUHSO is also to provide excellent healthcare for the people with a view to providing a mentally sound and physically strong society that would improve the productivity of mankind.

He said that were it not for Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) interventions, the university system in Nigeria would have totally collapsed due to poor budgetary allocation especially, the newly established universities.

Ujah said specialised universities such as FUHSO are very expensive and therefore, capital intensive but it is a worthwhile investment. “Perhaps, it should be appropriate to let us have a window into how we are funded through what is called overhead, where our university has over the last two years been allocated thirteen Million Naira (N13,000,000) per month.
This amount is meant to be used to run the services of the University, including fueling the generators as well as vehicles, out-source services such as external security, cleaning services within offices and outside the external environment of the university, electricity bills and water for students, travels costs, among other services, whose expenditure is more than N50 million every month,” he said.

Ujah said as paltry as this allocation is, the releases are very epileptic. “We hope and pray that the Federal Government’s newly introduced students’ loan policy could be implemented very soon, so that appropriate decisions on affordable tuition fees can be charged to support the running of the services of the universities in Nigeria,” he said.