Former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar (rtd.), was on Saturday installed as the Chancellor of PAMO University of Medical Sciences, Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

His installation was one of the highlights of the official inauguration of the school, which is Nigeria’s first private medical university.

At the event, which attracted a crowd of dignitaries from across the country, Rivers State Governor, Barrister Nyesom Wike, promised to give scholarship to 100 Rivers students in the university for each year for the first five years, making a total of 500 for the said time period. He asked politicians to “stop building hotels but invest in education”.

Minister of State for Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, was represented by the Minister of State for Education, Prof. Anthony Anwuka.

Other dignitaries that graced the occasion included Governor Abubakar Sani-Bello of Niger State and Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwanso. Also in attendance was the Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Prof Abubakar Rasheed, who praised PAMO University Pro-Chancellor, Dr Peter Odili, for establishing the first private university of medical sciences in Nigeria.

Dr Odili, giving the history of the university, said the 21 acres of land on which the institution is located was acquired in 1989.

PAMO University of Medical Sciences is among the six new private universities in the country approved on December 6, 2017 by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) and presented with their provisional licences by the National Universities Commission (NUC) on December 19 in Abuja.

PAMO University, which started operations early in January, advertises itself as a place where there exist “a careful selection of the right personnel, state of the art next-gen infrastructure & learning system.”

The university boasts the Faculty of Clinical Sciences and that of Basic Medical Sciences.

Courses on offer at the university include Anaesthesiology; Chemical Pathology; Community Medicine; Environmental Health Sciences; Epidemology and Medical Statistics; Family Medicine; Haematology; Histopathology; Medical Microbiology and Parasitology; Medicine; Obstetrics& Gynaecology; Ophtamology; Otorhinolaryngology; Paediatrics; Psychiatry; Radiology; Surgery; Anatomy; Forensic science; Human nutrition and dietetics; Medical biochemistry; Pharmacology; Physiology; Allied Health Sciences; Medical laboratory science; Nursing science; and Physiotherapy.

PAMO is promoted by former Rivers State Governor, Dr. Peter Odili, who in 1982 set up PAMO Clinics and Hospitals, Port Harcourt, which became one of the best-run hospitals in Port Harcourt and it is still in existence till date. It was more or less the precursor of PAMO University of Medical sciences. The site of the university has been in existence for over 20 years. It was once used for Adolescent Training Centre, then run by Justice Mary Odili. The place was later leased out at intervals to the Ministry of Niger Delta for the Amnesty programme and later National Open University centre.

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