By Chuks Eke
The presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 general elections, Mr Peter Obi, yesterday presented a cheque of N10million as a token of his personal donation to the College of Nursing Sciences, St. Charles Borromeo Specialist Hospital, Onitsha, Anambra State.
The College is owned by Onitsha Catholic Archdiocese with it’s Proprietor as Archbishop Valerian Maduka Okeke, the Archbishop and Metropolitan of Onitsha Ecclesiastical Province.
Obi, during the cheque presentation at the school’s premises, said the gesture was his annual way of supporting and impacting towards strengthening the critical sectors, especially, health, education, environment, etc.
The former Anambra State governor noted that the donation was meant for 2023, but he could not visit the school in 2023 to present the cheque because of electoral activities and other issues that did not allow him do so.
While presenting the Fidelity Bank cheque to the College management, Obi explained that it was part of his own way of giving back to the society, what God has giving to him, adding that Nurses play critical role in moulding a healthy and virile nation.
He said, “When people say things that you did and what you did not do while in office, it is because there were people there. I remembered that as a primary school boy, I was thought that the first nurse produced in Nigeria was by the Iyi-Enu School of Nursing here in Anambra.
“We need to start contributing our quota to the development of critical institutions like this. I am sure that in time to come, this school will move to greater heights. The Nurses are very critical as they are the ones who direct the doctor on what to do. The Nurse owns the patient, their job is critical and it is needed globally. Nursing is one profession that the world needs.
“Ours is to continue to support. I will continue to offer my annual yearly support. Last year, I did not come because of activities that took my time. All we are doing today is giving back what God has giving to us, it is not by our own power. I came to support the college, the students, the health workers and the management team and we will continue to pray for your success.”
Speaking to journalists after the presentation of the cheque, Obi said it is important for relevant authorities at all levels to start prioritising the key sectors of human development like the health, education and pulling people out of poverty.
“It is for us to prioritise in clear terms, the key developmental sectors which are health, education and pulling people out of poverty. If we prioritise these and put our resources towards it, it will be very critical. When you talk about health, you talk about primary health care and the health workers.
“We need to support the health workers to train them to be able to have enough manpower to handle that sector and that is what I have come here to do, to support them in the way I can. Public service is a continuous process, even when you have left, we must continue to support because we are not doing them a favour, by doing this, we are helping ourselves by impacting on the healthcare professionals because we don’t know who is going to be sick. That is why I do this very often.
“If we train our health workers by supporting college of nursing, there won’t be any need for people to go abroad for medical treatment. Medical tourism with public resources is what we must stop.
“Nurses travelling abroad after training here is not a problem. That is why we need to train enough, if we train enough of them, we will export enough and keep some here, because we also need them to be exported to be part of foreign remittances which we need now.
“I go to hospitals and say, start a school of nursing and we support them with funding. That is what government should be doing, because the nurses are critical to the nation development. They help in maintaining a healthy and virile nation,” Obi added.
While receiving the cheque on behalf of the college management, the Proprietor, College of Nursing Sciences, St. Charles Borromeo Specialist Hospital, Most Rev. Valerian Okeke, commended Obi for his continuous support of the college.
Okeke said, “Mine is to thank God and thank our former governor. He has continued to support the college even when he left office. We also thanked others for their goodwill and continuous support and the trust repose on the college. This place was first a school, but was upgraded to a college by the Federal Government trusting that the students who would come will justify it.
“We are here today, because of Peter Obi. This place is a college because of the students and we urge them to keep the flag flying, they should maintain and surpass the record of their predecessors and justify the confidence repose on them.”
