By Maxwell Adeyemi Adeleye
Ondo State Governor, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, SAN has assured the people of Ondo State that his administration will do eveything to ensure that the state-owned University of Medical Science (UNIMED) will be supported financially to compete with other global health institutions within and beyond Nigeria.
Akeredolu while on a campaign tour to the ancient city of Ondo Ekinmogun, the headquarters of Ondo West Local Government Area of Ondo State on Saturday, commissioned a 150-bed Covid-19 Isolation Center at the State Specialist Hospital, Ondo.
He also flagged off the construction of a multi-million naira lecture theatre and staff quarters in UNIMED and emphasize that UNIMED shall be promoted to become the Medical University of First Choice in Nigeria if he wins his re-election battle.
The Governor, who is the candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the October 10th governorship election in the state accuse his predecessor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, for abandoning the state-owned University of Technology, Okitipupa (OSUTECH), now Olusegun Agagu University of Science and Technology, established by the Agagu led-adminitration.
Akeredolu, who was accompanied by his running mate, Mr. Lucky Aiyedatiwa, and the Director-General of his Campaign, Rt. Hon. Victor Olabimtan and other political bigwigs, at the campaign said, he is not just confident of victory, but he is sure of defeating Mimiko at his polling unit.
"I am here to greet you all, with this mammoth crowd, I need to thank you all. I know you all want us to be reelected. We have just started working, we have touched the education sector and we will do more to suit you. By the grace of God, we will not just win on October 10th, we will beat Rahaman (Mimiko) in his polling unit.
"With your suport, we will turn UNIMED into a first class university in Nigeria. I am not going to act like the one who abandoned OSUTECH because the institution was established by his political rival, I will fund UNIMED to rival the best of Health Institutions in Nigeria and beyond.
"Mimiko did not add a single project to OSUTECH but today, we are here to flag off multiple projects at UNIMED. We will reconstruct roads for smooth passage of farmers in our villages here, in collaboration with world bank."
Performing the ground-breaking ceremony of the lecture theatre and staff quarters at UNIMED, Akeredolu said "I am happy to lay the foundation of these projects, to be supported by TETfund. The university occupies a special place in our educational sector and other parts of the world.
"I am happy that the university has taken another new dimension. I thank well-meaning Ondo indigenes for thier support. The Governor cannot single handedly fund an institution, we need joint supports. Let's us find a way to support this institution. I personally reach out to TETfund to complement our efforts.
"I deliberately decided that we need TETfund support for UNIMED and OSUTECH. I want to act like a statesman. I want to develop these institutions for the future of our young people.
"We now have blocks of theater and staff rooms to be completed soon. We need APC here to make this place flourish. No party at the federal level can have a midas touch in an institution. And we are in the Federal Government."
Speaking while commissioning the newly completed Covid-19 Isolation Center, Akeredolu said "I want to join the citizens of the state to applaud God. You will not know what i am saying because many of you are not victims. But I give glory to God. Over 1, 500 were infected in this state, while we lost 30 people.
"Let me use this occasion to commiserate with families of all Covid-19 victims in our state. Let me specially Commiserate with the family of our late Former Commissioner for Health, Dr. Wahab Adegbenro. Coronavirus is a disease we must take seriously, we have tried as much as possible to ensure compliance. I thank the health workers for combating the virus.
"We have done what we can within our capacity. Ondo state is one of the few states that fought the pandemic, we also dolled out packages to the vulnerables. We also produced massive Nosemask. The Interministerial Committee also produced PPE for doctors. Massive Production of nose mask had curb the virus as we engaged no few than 100 tailors to sew the mask.
"Payment of COVID-19 allowance for health workers have commenced. This commissioning is in furtherance commitment to our people. We also treated several thousands of women freely. This facilities will also provide highest level of care for lassa fever victims. We have assisted federal medical centre in Owo. We do not pay lip service to the health of our people. Between January and April 2020, over #1.5bn has been spent to develop the health sector of our state.
"Go to our primary health care center, you will see good solar power. We also procured many equipments worth over $6m dollars, we have not spent such money on health before"
In his remarks, the Vice Chancellor of UNIMED and Chairman of the State Covid-19 Task Force, Prof. Adesegun Fatunsi, said the university has witnessed tremendous improvement under the Akeredolu administration.
"Mr. Governor has refurbished our furnitures, bought us new generator, built solar energy in our institution and provided us other needed equipments. We are delighted with the support of Mr Governor. We are committed to building a new UNIMED. By the grace of God, we shall assit Mr. Governor to turn UNIMED to the Medical Institution of First Choice in Nigeria." Fatunsi said
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