By Uche Amunike
The University of Ibadan College of Medicine has been thrown into a pleasant shock over their alumnus, Dr Philip Ozuah’s donation of $1m, made to the College for infrastructural development of the institution, an amount
which is equivalent to N417million, if based on the official exchange rate of N417 to a dollar as posted by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
The generous alumnus, who was also the Keynote Speaker and Chief Fundraiser of the event, made this donation at a virtual sod-turning event held by the college to raise funds for the construction of a new students hostel and other infrastructural repairs.
The College has produced so many great doctors. However, it is presently being plagued with infrastructural decay, which made the Provost of the College of Medicine, Dr Olayinka Omigbodun who was also a classmate of Dr. Ozuah to request that the alumni association should come together and ‘help build a much needed new hostel for students of the College of Medicine, University of Ibadan ( CoMUI)’.
This made her put across a call to other members of the college to come to their aid in giving support for the building of the hostel and other structures.
Hear her: ‘This is a clarion call of all members of the College of Medicine University of Ibadan Alumni Association to join us, to partner with us, strengthen and scale up the College of Medicine University of Ibadan structures and systems on Monday, 1 August.’
‘I invite you to join us at the Sod-Turning Ceremony for the College of Medicine University of Ibadan and the College of Medicine Alumni Association Student Hostel project.’
Other members of the alumni association made generous donations towards the upliftment of the academic institution, however, Dr Philip Ozuah’s donation topped the records.
Ozuah, who is the President and CEO of Montefiore Einstein Medicine, which is the umbrella association for the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore health systems, bagged his medical degree from the college, proceeded to the Albert Einstein College of Medicine for his Paediatrics internship, before heading to the University of Southern California School of Medicine for his Post-Doctoral Fellowship.
The Provost, Dr Omigbodun further stated: ‘He served as Professor and University Chairman of Paediatrics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Physician-in-Chief of Children’s Hospital at Montefiore’.
‘He expanded access to underserved communities, under his leadership, Montefiore health systems specialties have run top 100 per cent of the nation’s hospitals’.
‘He receives more than 200 million dollars in annual research awards from the NIH and he leads an organisation that is owed to 800 MD students, 190 PhD students, 120 students in the combined MD PhD programme and 200 post-doctoral research fellows’.
Aside from Dr Philip Ozuah’s donation, other alumni members have given their supports as well.
The Class of 1989 of the North American Branch of ICOMAA donated $30,000 during their 2022 Annual General Meeting in June, as well as an alumna of the MBBS Graduating Class of 1990, Olakjumoke Banjo who, alongside her husband, Ayodele Banjo, donated the sum of $12,000 in support of the hostel project.
Hear her: ‘I am grateful for the training provided by our medical school. It was a foundation for our marital union as our first meeting place. The degree from the college enabled us to settle in different continents of the world and encouraged my daughter to follow in the profession’.
