Biodun Oyebanji, Ekiti State Governor, has announced that the Esther Oyebanji Foundation, named after his late mother, will assist ongoing infrastructure projects at the University College Hospital (UCH) in Ibadan, as well as support certain indigent medical students.
This is to help such students fulfil their ambitions of becoming doctors, which could have been squashed due to an inability to pay their school fees.
Governor Oyebanji made the remarks during the induction of the University of Ibadan’s 2024 medical graduates at the University College Hospital (UCH) in Ibadan over the weekend.
The governor, whose daughter, Dr Toluwanimi Oyebanji, was among the newly inducted doctors, promised to sponsor some impoverished medical students in response to the Provost of the College of Medicine, Prof Olayinka Omigbodun, who made the request to parents at the ceremony.
Prof. Omigbodun pleaded with parents and well-meaning Nigerians to help the college, as well as those poor but outstanding students battling to survive the six-year medical school.
Governor Oyebanji, apparently affected by the plea, stated that in addition to sponsoring the college, he would seek sponsorship from his late mother’s foundation for some of the indigent but outstanding students.
“I will make a personal donation to support the college and I will also get my late mother’s foundation to support the college and also sponsor some indigent but brilliant students of the college so they can realise their dreams. Whatever we do will be on the name of the 2024 set,“ the governor said.
As part of the foundation’s operations, the governor and his siblings dedicated an ultramodern maternity centre, the Abiyamo Esther Oyebanji Maternity Ward, in memory of their mother on the premises of the General Hospital in Aramoko-Ekiti earlier this month.
Governor Oyebanji thanked the new doctors and urged them to use their knowledge and expertise to help strengthen the country’s health care system.
“I don’t want to advise you not to seek greener pasture abroad. “