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By Amos Odhe, Yenagoa
Sequel to the unrest at the Bayelsa Medical University (BMU) earlier on Saturday, which led to the peaceful demonstration by students of the institution, the state commissioner for Education, Hon. Dr. Gentle E. Emelah, has immediately released two standby 100kva generators to the school to assist in power supply.
Students of the state owned university in their protest letter had earlier pressed home some demands ranging from poor power supply in the school, limited access to library, establishment of a teaching hospital, establishment of a student union government and accreditation for migration of students to originally planned courses among other issues.
Dr. Emelah directed members of the Bayelsa State Students Management Committee (SMC) to intervene and subsequently bring some of the students to the dialogue table.
At the meeting with some of the protesting students joined by the management of the university led by the vice chancellor, Prof. Etebu Ebitimitula, discussed and resolved the raging issues amicably.
Speaking on behalf of the students, Austin Binaebi Emmanuel, who raised the various issues, said that lack of constant power supply has affected their academic pursuit, emphasizing that as medical students they are required to study without any form of interruption.
He added that the time the institution availed students to study in the university library is also very limited and as such students cannot make maximum use of the library for study.
He further noted that some of the students are yet to migrate to study Medicine which remains the course they initially wanted to study, pointing out also the need for a teaching hospital. Also, an account for the 500 million naira donated to the school by the governor of Rivers State to support for the upliftment of the institution also formed part of the issues raised by the students.
Vice Chancellor, Bayelsa Medical University in his response sympathized with the students on the power failure experienced in the school lately, adding that this was due to the failure of the national grid which has led to blackout nationwide, and also decried some challenges faced by the institution with her standby generator.
On issues of migration of students to study Medicine, Prof. Etebu assured the students that the university management is on top of the situation, assuring the students that all those who meet the requirements will all graduate as medical doctors.
The VC further said an MOU has been signed for the Federal Medical Center (FMC) to serve as the interim University Teaching Hospital for the school while government will upgrade the 500 bed Hospital which has been vandalized by hoodlums to serve as a permanent teaching hospital. He also reminded the students that progress has also been made to start the pioneer Student Union Government (SUG) of the university reiterating that he has nothing against the students having their government.
Commissioner for Education, Hon. Dr. Emelah in addressing the power challenge in the university the commissioner immediately provided two 100kva generators to serve as a support to the school, which has already arrived the school and has been installed, while he directed the school management to extend the reading hours at the university library from the initial 4pm to 9pm so as to afford students more time to study.
The commissioner assured the students that the donation of the Rivers State Government has been received by the state government but is yet to be received by the school management, assuring the students that the school will receive it soon and it would be used for the development of the institution.
The commissioner assured the students of the commitment of the ‘Prosperity Government’ to continue to give education its pride of place by doing everything within government’s power to drive home the ‘Prosperity’ mandate in the education sector.
Normalcy has been restored to the school as the students also assured government they will continue to study peacefully and maintain orderliness.
