Joy Mbachi
Umuchikwu – Provost, College of Medicine, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Prof. Uchenna Nwagha, on Monday disclosed that the institution had concluded plans to establish a Medical Research Institute in Umuchukwu, Orumba South Local Government Area of Anambra.
The provost disclosed this while conducting newsmen round the medical facilities at the institute and other projects built in the community.
Nwagha said that the institute on completion, would improve the medicare and research among lecturers, students and patients from parts of the country and beyond.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the institute would be managed in collaboration with Prof. Godwin Maduka, a U.S.-based Director of the Las Vegas Pain Institute .
Maduka is an Anambra born philanthropist, who hails from Umuchukwu community, but resides in the U.S., where he owns a Medical Centre, the largest pain treatment centre in Nevada.
Maduka, according to the provost, said that he decided to build such facility for medical services in the remote area of the state, so that the medical expert to man the facility could enjoy calmness to perform optimally.
He urged medical practitioners to get actively involved in community development, religious family affairs, politics and other social reformations, to reposition the broken statues of the people.
He said that Nigeria would enjoy positive international projection, if medical practitioners could be put in position of authority and given leadership roles because “they are mechanics of human bodies, most educated and experienced.
“Maduka is someone who believes that Nigeria has technocrats in all fields of life, but only needed to be provided with quality tools to work in this part of the world.
“He said that he was giving back to society that made him so that quality Medicare would be available for the low and high and more importantly to reduce the rush for medical attention outside the shore of the country.”
Prof. Bond Anyahie, Deputy Provost, College of Medicine, University of Nigeria, urged other well to do citizens of the country to emulate the gesture of Maduka by investing at home with a view to impacting on society positively.
On her part, Dr Nkiru Folaranmi, a Consultant Orthodontist and Head, Department of Child Dental Health, UNN-Utuku/Ozara campus, expressed optimism that the centre when functional, would exterminate the rate in which the citizenry travel outside for medical attention.
Folaranmi said that the institute would be utilised for healthcare delivery, medical education and research by both graduates and undergraduates across the globe.