TUESDAY, 5TH OF FEBRUARY, 2007

MEETING BETWEEN THE CHIEF OF STAFF, GOVERNMENT HOUSE, HONOURABLE SOLOMON ARENYEKA AND REPRESENTATIVES OF THE STUDENTS OF THE MEDICAL COLLEGE, DELTA STATE UNIVERSITY ABRAKA, DURING THEIR PROTEST VISIT TO GOVERNMENT HOUSE, ON TUESDAY, 5TH OF FEBRUARY, 2007

PRESENT

Honourable Solomon Arenyeka 

Chief of Staff, Government House,

Mr. A. C. Obuh, 

Permanent Secretary, 

Directorate of Government House and Protocol

Mr. Frank Igwebueze, 

Senior Special Assistant to His Excellency 

on Research.

Mr. Sunney Areh, 

Special Assistant to His Excellency on 

Research Centre

Mr. Felix Gbagi, 

Special Assistant to the Chief of Staff, 

Government House.

Mr. Anthony C. Nwokolobia, 

Director, Office of the Chief of Staff, 

Government House.

REPRESENTATIVES OF THE MEDICAL STUDENTS, 

Mr.Oduneye Olugbenga O.
President.

Mr. Eterigho E. Peter, 

Member Stakeholder's Forum.

Mr. Ofuyaekpone Emiko Bob Emmanuel, 

Member Stakeholder's Forum.

The meeting commenced at 12.30 p.m with the Chief of Staff presiding. He welcomed the students to his office and requested them to brief him on the reasons for the visit.

2.      In his opening brief, the President of the Medical Students Association disclosed that the students had suffered endlessly since the inception of the medical college in the year 2001. He enumerated problems such as lack of accreditation of the Medical College, in consistent college curriculum, absence of a legal backing for the Central Hospital Warri, to be recognized as a teaching hospital for the medical college and the non availability of a pharmacology laboratory at the Central Hospital, as some of the numerous problems affecting its smooth operation.

3.     On the Central Hospital Warri, the President appealed to the State government to initiate a bill for consideration by the State House of Assembly recognizing the Central Hospital Warri as a temporary teaching hospital for the Delta State University Medical College. He revealed that the Central Hospital Warri, was lacking a functional borehole, a development that had made the students to trek long distances in search of water around the Warri metropolis. He called on the State government to appoint a Chief Medical Director who would coordinate the administration of the clinical school.

4.     On the issue of accreditation, the President of the Medical College decried the nonchalant attitude of the Governing Council of Delta State University to the endless anguish of the students who had stagnated in the 400 level for the past three years. He envisaged that if the matter was not urgently handled, that the students would spend ten years for a seven year programme. He stated that the medical college currently had two sets of students in the 400 level and that the situation may worsen if prompt attention was not given to the full accreditation of the college. On the incessant increase of tuition in the Institution, he remarked that this development had brought untold hardship to the parents of these students, who had endlessly toiled for their sustenance while the actual duration of the programme remained uncertain.

5.      The other two students representatives who spoke in turn, requested the speedy intervention by the State government in the areas earlier highlighted by their President, which included the accommodation of the entire medical students and the immediate transfer of the teaching hospital at Oghara to the Medical College for the commencement of full clinical studies.

6.      In his response, the Chief of Staff Government House, thanked the Medical College representatives for embracing dialogue. He commended them for conducting themselves peacefully, through out the protest. He appealed to them to put behind the previous years of travail while assuring that the State government was committed to their Welfare. He disclosed to them that the State government had earlier constituted a Stakeholders Committee on the health sector whose deliberations were in progress and expressed optimism that the out come of the committees assignment would improve performance in the key results areas of the health sector including the ones affecting the medical college. He reminded them that His Excellency and some key officials of this administration are medical professionals who would be more than willing to lend their supports to the matters affecting the medical college. He also reminded them that governance is a process where grievances were handled procedurally. He assured them that as an education friendly State, the pertinent issues would be speedily looked into by the State government. Also, while noting that the peaceful protest had brought into focus, the key challenges of the college, he commended their matured conduct and promised to convey their brief to His Excellency.

The meeting ended at 12.55p.m