By Adadareporters
Enugu Governor Peter Mbah, Tuesday, signed the Enugu State University of Medical and Applied Sciences (SUMAS) Teaching Hospital Bill 2024 into law. The governor also promised to expedite action to actualise the teaching hospital to provide quality training and healthcare services in Enugu North senatorial district and the state in general.
Mbah thanked Enugu State House of Assembly for fastening action on the processing and passage of the bill. He said that establishing SUMAS Teaching Hospital was in line with his manifesto.
He said, “What we have done by signing into law the Enugu State University of Medical and Applied Scieneces Teaching Hospital Bill is that we now have in place a legal framework to immediately begin to put in place all that is required to upgrade SUMAS to a teaching hospital. This is part of our campaign promises and we are committed to delivering on that expeditiously.
“We believe that the significance of siting a teaching hospital in Enugu North zone can never be lost on us. We shall ensure that everything that is necessary to upgrade and get the teaching hospital operational is put in place. With this law, we are going to redouble our commitment to achieve that.”
He assured the Governing Council and the management of SUMAS of his support, noting that his administration would count on them to bring the teaching hospital to fruition in record time.
Quoting him, “We shall support and count on your experience, network, and profile in raising resources to actualize the project. This year alone, we are going to spend 33 per cent of our budget on education. This underscores the importance of education to this administration.
“Be sure to come to us whenever there is a need. We are going to support you because we are interested in education and we are investing heavily in it.”
The Speaker, Enugu State House of Assembly, Hon Uchenna Ugwu, commended Governor Mbah for fulfilling his campaign promises. He assured that the House of Assembly would fast-track every executive bill to impact positively on the state and its people.
He said, “We promised we are going to support this administration by doing our job expeditiously to ensure that there is no delay in your delivery of democracy dividends to our people. The SUMAS Teaching Hospital Bill received expedited hearing and today you have the signing of the Bill into Law.”
The event was witnessed by the Chairman of SUMAS Governing Council, Msgr Obiora Ike, and the Vice Chancellor, Prof James Ogbonna, among others.
