From Yakubu Busari,Jos
Mr Luka Chung Gaji, College Provost
The Plateau State College of Nursing and Midwifery Vom will soon risk loosing accreditation right of some courses after five years of securing the approval by the National Council for the Nigeria Nursing and Midwifery in 2018 .
Sounding the warning on Tuesday in Jos, the Provost of the College ,Mr Luka Chung Gaji disclosed that the college has suffered enough neglect since inception, saying that problem of inadequate office accommodation ,man power,non- approval of funds,hotels accommodation as well as major challenges have dogged the college for the past six years.
He said it is more dangerous when an accreditation is issued and withdrawn or suspended in a college of nursing and midwifery which took them many years to acquire because when the officials come for accreditation exercise, they discover problems that alone can affect the smooth approval earlier granted.
Gaji explained some of the college’s problems that associated with non -approval of funds for infrastructural was the lack of financing, saying that “memos and memos had been written for money to be released for almost six years but no kobo was given to them. The college is managing to survive.”
Speaking on six years of Governor Simon Bako Lalong achievement in the college of nursing and midwifery, Mr Luka Chung said the college has been under funded and its activities are near comatose.
He said; “We have to move up and down to ensure that academic activities succeed .We never secure a single kobo but when this administration came on board we have written several memo which was not approved.”
However, he added that,” the only exception for accreditation for the college was in Basic Nursing and Basic midwifery where the college receive little funds but unfortunately the money released came and we make use of it to secure professional accreditation which lasted for only two years and that has expired.”
“And the remaining part has not been given and we have not receive any kobo but we just seek for money and conduct some important demand of the college knowing that the state government failed to release money to enable the college management to embark on infrastructural development; we had not receive any money but we successfully saw through accreditation for the Basic Nursing and Basic midwifery Jos but some requirement are still pending.”
According to him,the governor has done credibly well but all the memo written has not been release ,”we saw when the governor graciously granted our request but up to now we have not receive anything. He has done his own part.
“Even the last examine ,our students scored 100 per cent an improvement over the last two years that we got 95 per cent through our two candidates that sat for it.
We even wrote a memo for building of more classrooms and administration blocks as well as on the manpower that is grossly inadequate because we have one staff to 10 in Basic training and post Basic training, it is 1 to 6 but when memo was written to government that we can’t meet the college’s Basic midwifery, Nursing challenges because there has been no answer till date .
Chung reiterated that the staff are committed and they’ve demonstrated their zeal to work ,since 2018.
Mr Chung said some of the college staff have retired,some died and some are not physically fit and need replacement .
On the issue of infrastructure, he said, “our staff have problem of office accommodation and some are now hanging out without any office due to lack office accommodation. We are calling on the state government to kindly address it. You can see we have laid a foundation for over 200 capacity classroom for students to increase admission slot to meet up the approval requirement of community Nursing and Midwifery but we can’t start because of manpower is absence.”
Luka Chung noted that because of these unresolved challenges facing the college,”we can’t access the N62 million support funds due the college to kickstart community Nursing and Midwifery.”
He cautioned that with the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic and other communicable diseases, Nigeria need to address problem of maternal mortality ravaging our rural communities .
He called on stakeholders to support the the college, put aside their political differences for the betterment of youth, develop Plateau state by partnering with local and international communities to provide health care needs of growing populace .
In spite of these challenges, Mr Luka Chung expressed optimism that in no distance time the college would soon acquire the necessary requirement for a degree awarding institution because it has a vision and mission to train their staff now undergoing PhDs,Master degrees, and first degree to meet up the target.
“We have the capacity to transform our society through dedicated manpower to harness the potential that we have on ground, but we need financial support.”, he pleaded
