Zulum shuts medical tourism as VP Shettima opens KIU Teaching Hospital, others

Governor Babagana Umara Zulum’s administration has delivered the Kashim Ibrahim University Teaching Hospital, a modern medical facility designed to reposition Borno as a state that provides quality healthcare and medical training in Nigeria.

The vice president, Senator Kashim Shettima, commissioned the teaching hospital and other key projects in Maiduguri on Friday.

The 400-bed Kashim Ibrahim University Teaching Hospital is a comprehensive healthcare and training institution comprising 13 specialist departments, including diagnostic, medical, surgical, emergency, pediatric, internal medicine, physiotherapy, among others.

It also has a medical college complex, a students’ hostel, a 200-unit staff estate and an oxygen plant complex.

The facility has modern diagnostic equipment, including a sophisticated 1.5-tesla MRI scanner, a 160-slice CT scanner, three conventional and two mobile X-ray machines, three 4D ultrasound machines, a fluoroscopy system for real-time imaging and a digital mammography machine.

The investment will reduce medical tourism by bringing advanced diagnostic and specialist care closer to home for Borno residents, people from neighbouring communities and foreign residents across Lake Chad, while also strengthening training for medical students and health professionals.

Beyond providing medical care, the teaching hospital will address the healthcare manpower shortage by training medical professionals, including doctors, nurses and allied health workers for Borno State and the North East.

In addition to the hospital, the vice president commissioned the Yerwa Practice Mega Primary School, constructed by the Zulum administration, and another mega primary school delivered under the Kashim Shettima Free Education Programme, the vice president’s pet project that provides free education to orphans and vulnerable children.

The vice president commended Governor Babagana Umara Zulum, describing the projects as those that could stand the test of time.

He said, “We shall be judged by what survives our time in office, the offices we held, the aides who surrounded us, and the length of our convoys will have surrendered their importance. What will endure are the institutions we built, the roads we built and the lives we improved through service. That is the meaning of our gathering here in Maiduguri. That is why this occasion brings me such joy.”

He added, “According to Carl Sagan’s law of insignificance, 100 years from now, everyone you know or who knows you will be out of this world. This is why I do not doubt the vision of His Excellency Professor Babagana Umara Zulum; his passion for healthcare and education is expressed in the institution before us.”

“The ultra-modern Kashim Ibrahim University Teaching Hospital and the school that dotted our landscape in Maiduguri and across the state give substance to his belief that Borno recovery must reach the patient awaiting treatment and the child sitting in a place in the classroom.”