Pamo Medical University Matriculates 123 Students

Pamo University of Medical Sciences (PUMS), the first privately-owned medical university in Nigeria, has matriculated its first set of undergraduate students.

The university, which recently commenced academic session, kicked of with the matriculation of 123 undergraduates.

It would be recalled that the Rivers State Government had previously pledged to grant scholarships to 500 inborn students of the state at the university over the stretch of five years.

Governor Nyesom Wike has since fulfilled the state’s promise as he revealed during the matriculation that the first set of 100 students are already studying in the institution.

The Vice Chancellor of PAMO University, Professor Michael Diejomaoh, at the maiden matriculation ceremony in Port Harcourt last Saturday, said the institution’s first batch of students were across three foundation faculties namely Basic Medical Sciences, Clinical Sciences and Allied Health Sciences.

Diejomaoh said, “As you begin this journey to build your professional career in Pamo University of Medical Sciences, I wish to remind you of the great opportunities available to you which are not the same in some other universities in Nigeria today. Paramount among them are uninterrupted academic activities with highstandard teaching facilities, modern teaching techniques, comfortable lecture halls, quality laboratories, well equipped libraries and most of all, the best available manpower in your chosen field, carefully assembled to impart quality education to you in a well thought out learning environment.

“The ratio of qualified medical manpower to the Nigerian population is appalling and falls well below the WHO standards and those of the developed and many developing countries. In a nutshell, the ratio of professional medical personnel today is gravely disproportionate to our teeming population and has remained a source of concern,” he lamented.

Other challenges he identified include incessant strikes in the health sector, poor financing of the sector resulting in poor facilities, poor remuneration of medical staff in the midst of medical crises which include HIV epidemic, drug abuse, juvenile delinquencies. These, he said, have created a yawning gap in the nation’s health system and increased the need for more medical manpower.

He said the students were therefore being trained to help improve the population of available medical manpower and help to contribute to the reduction of the wide gap between the population and the manpower at the disposal of the nation.

“At Pamo University of Medical Sciences, we don’t tell students what to think. Instead, our teaching is designed to [produce intellectual self-reliance – to teach you how to learn and how to take charge of your thinking,” he said.

He declared that the university has zero tolerance for cultism, hooliganism and other forms of social vices and warned the students that they might not be given a second chance shoul;d they fall into any of the vices.

In his remarks, the Pro-chancellor and Founder of the university, Dr. Peter Odili, expressed joy at the speed with which the university took off and declared that there is the Hand of God in the institution.

“The hand of God is in this university and we pray that the students will be a source of pride to the university and Nigeria,” he said.

The Chancellor and former Head of State, Abdulsalami Abubakar, congratulated the students and warned them to be disciplined if they wished ti achieve their purpose in the institution.

He advised the students to maintain a peaceful-coexistence with their host communities.

Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, expressed excitement with the full take off of academic activities in the university and promised the assistance of the ministry at all times.

Adamu, who was represented by the Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Prof. Abubakar Rasheed, disclosed that out of the 164 universities in Nigeria, 75 were privately-owned and only two of the 75 are exclusive to medical education and that only of them, Pamo University of Medical Sciences, has fully taken off.