Vice Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) during the 2019 elections, Mr. Peter Obi, has urged nursing students to continue to pursue their education with more seriousness and devotion, stating that their profession remains a very noble one and very beneficial to society.
During his visit to Our Lady of Lourdes Specialist Hospital, and Our Lady of Lourdes College of Nursing Sciences, both in Ihiala, Obi made a financial investment of N2 million to the Hospital Management. He encouraged them to commit the money to the improvement of health services in the hospital and upgrade their educational facilities at the College of Nursing Sciences.
Obi encouraged the students to see their professional training beyond earning a living, but as an avenue of advancing the cause of humanity.
Handing over the cheque of N2 million to the Chief Executive Officer of Our Lady of Lourdes Specialist Hospital, and Our Lady of Lourdes College of Nursing Sciences, Ihiala, Rev. Fr. Ugochukwu Onuorah, Obi, mentioned that he was particular about investing his resources in the training of nurses and midwives.
He noted that the critical role nurses play in societal development cannot be over-emphasized, while lamenting the impending severe scarcity of nurses in the next few years, if nothing was done to train more nurses.
“Recent statistics have shown that the world will run shortage of nurses and midwives by 2030 and it will take about 10 million nurses to fill in the gaps. We must, therefore, begin now to invest more resources into the training of nurses and midwives so as to ensure that we not only have enough nurses in our health sector but we can export well trained health workers to the world,” Obi said.
Appreciating Obi, on behalf of the hospital and the nursing college for his relentless contributions to better the society, Fr. Onuorah said that “Obi is god-sent to humanity, especially Nigeria.”
The Rev. Fr. described Obi’s passion and enthusiasm for a better society as unequalled. He concluded that a man like Obi has the capacity and the zeal to transform Nigeria into a great nation, if given the opportunity.