BusinessDay 22 Oct 2017
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C002D5556<br />
44 BD SUNDAY<br />
Sunday <strong>22</strong> <strong>Oct</strong>ober <strong>2017</strong><br />
Health&Science<br />
Afe Babalola University Teaching Hospital will<br />
stop medical tourism – Osinbajo<br />
RAPHAEL ADEYANJU, Ado Ekiti<br />
The Vice President Yemi<br />
Osinbajo, has stated that the<br />
newly commissioned 400-<br />
bed Afe Babalola University<br />
Teaching Hospital(ABUTH),<br />
Ado Ekiti, will help in stopping Nigerians<br />
from seeking medical treatments abroad.<br />
Osinbajo, who was represented by<br />
the Minister of Health, Isaac Adewole,<br />
made this statement recently, during<br />
the commissioning of the teaching<br />
hospital. The Vice President revealed<br />
that Nigerians spend billions of naira on<br />
overseas medical trips annually.<br />
He asserted that the hospital will<br />
enhance healthcare delivery system in<br />
the country.<br />
Speaking at the occasion, Ekiti State<br />
governor Ayodele Fayose and former<br />
Executive Secretary of the National<br />
Universities Commission (NUC), Peter<br />
Okebukola, solicited special funding<br />
from the federal government to drive<br />
private universities in the country for<br />
better efficiency.<br />
The former UNC scribe, in a lecture<br />
entitled: ‘The Place and Continued Relevance<br />
of Private Universities Globally’,<br />
stated that there was need for private<br />
universities to be given grant-in-aid<br />
and have unfettered access to Tertiary<br />
Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) .<br />
Osinbajo while performing the<br />
commissioning praised the founder,<br />
Afe Babalola for his vision and love for<br />
humanity, saying the step taken was a<br />
watershed in the history of the nation.<br />
“This hospital will go a long way in<br />
conserving funds being spent by Nigerians<br />
on medical trips abroad. With this,<br />
Nigerians can now be treated by Nigerians.<br />
It takes a man with vision and large<br />
heart for his nation and people to do this.<br />
It will help in addressing the poor heath<br />
indicators in our system”, the VP said<br />
.Fayose, who said ABUAD remained<br />
the second largest employer of labour<br />
in Ekiti State, said the hospital can’t<br />
be compared with any in Nigeria and<br />
African continent.<br />
“It could have been disastrous to Ekiti<br />
if this university is built elsewhere.<br />
The facilities in this university and the<br />
new hospital have no rival. Those medical<br />
treatments you go to London, South<br />
Africa and America to do can now be<br />
done here in Ekiti”.<br />
Okebukola, in his lecture said out of<br />
the 23,000 universities that exist globally,<br />
private universities represented<br />
less than 25 percent, adding that “they<br />
are doing excellently well in human<br />
security by way of complementing the<br />
public universities for human capital<br />
development”.<br />
He added further: “68 per cent of<br />
Nestle drives nutritious campaign, healthy living for children<br />
...holds cookery workshop for 100 Ogun pupils<br />
RAZAQ AYINLA, Abeokuta<br />
As part of effort to deepen its<br />
core value that centres on<br />
healthy living, good food<br />
and good life, Nestle Nigeria PLC has<br />
organised a cookery workshop for<br />
100 pupils drawn from five primary<br />
schools across Ogun state.<br />
The cookery workshop was part<br />
of idea and plan devised by Nestle<br />
Nigeria PLC to celebrate <strong>2017</strong> International<br />
Chefs Day on Friday in<br />
Abeokuta where pupils and teachers<br />
were assembled on Friday in<br />
Abeokuta to receive information<br />
as regards food good, sound eating<br />
habits and healthy life.<br />
Speaking at the cookery workshop,<br />
Mauricio Alarcon, Managing<br />
Director of Nestle Nigeria PLC, declared<br />
that pupils and teachers were<br />
selected as the main participants<br />
since they play significant roles in<br />
information dissemination to the<br />
people, adding that the innovative<br />
move was part of Nestle’s commitment<br />
to help 50 million children<br />
lead healthier lives by 2030.<br />
The Managing Director, represented<br />
by Victoria Uwadoka,<br />
Manager, Corporate Communications<br />
and Public Affairs, said, “The<br />
programme goes in line with our<br />
principle of having people live a<br />
good quality life, it is part of creating<br />
scholars that had won Nobel laurels in<br />
Physics, Sciences and Medicine were<br />
trained in private universities.<br />
“Apart from this, many of the world<br />
icons, I mean presidents and Prime Ministers<br />
of great nations were trained in<br />
private universities, so they are making<br />
good contributions to nation building<br />
and their effects can’t be underestimated”,<br />
he said.<br />
Okebukola said it was wrong for<br />
the federal government to restrict the<br />
TETFUND solely to public schools since<br />
the two were working for the same purposes<br />
of producing human resources to<br />
drive the country’s economy.<br />
“Many captains of industries and<br />
workers in the multinational organisations<br />
were trained by private universities.<br />
If you look at their contributions,<br />
they pay taxes and since they do this,<br />
they should be given grant-in-aid and<br />
access to other sources of funding.<br />
“They are good competitors for<br />
private universities. They fostered discipline<br />
and maintain standards through<br />
stable academic calendars. Giving them<br />
financial support will help in reducing<br />
their tuition fees which were adjudged<br />
too high now.<br />
“The FG can give them those financial<br />
support with conditions that there<br />
will be staff retention, stable academic<br />
calendar, sustained performances and<br />
reduction in tuition fees and all these<br />
will help in shaping our education<br />
sector”.<br />
Okebukola predicted that the future<br />
of private universities is bright in Nigeria<br />
and that no effort should be spared<br />
in helping them to rise to stardom to<br />
boost the country’s ranking globally.<br />
shared value, it is an effort to bring<br />
nutritious food to our communities.<br />
We believe that what you eat is who<br />
you are, who you are eventually<br />
comes from what you put inside<br />
you.<br />
“Nestle as an organisation, we<br />
work with individuals and families<br />
to make right food choices not only<br />
by producing the right food, but by<br />
providing the right information that<br />
they (people) need to help them take<br />
right decisions that help the people<br />
to eat right.”<br />
Omotunde Egunjobi, Director<br />
of Social Mobilisation, Ogun State<br />
Basic Education Board, commended<br />
Nestle Nigeria PLC for training pupils<br />
and teachers on good nutrients<br />
needed by human beings to fight<br />
various diseases and ensure sound<br />
hygiene and healthy living among<br />
pupils, explaining that the cookery<br />
workshop would surely shape people’s<br />
reasoning towards eating right.<br />
Egunjobi said that the cookery<br />
workshop organised by Nestle<br />
Nigeria PLC has part of Ogun state<br />
government’s initiations putting in<br />
place to feed pupils and teach them<br />
on what it takes eat healthy food,<br />
adding that a large number of pupils<br />
in both primary and secondary<br />
schools in the state are being taught<br />
basic needs and hygiene which are<br />
major routes to healthy living.
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