Brief Introduction
Kogi State College of Nursing and Midwifery, Obangede was established in 1980 under Kwara State and was handed over to Kogi state on her creation in 1991. The College has graduated over 3000 Nurses who are presently serving in various parts of the State, nation and abroad.
The structures on ground were the structures handed over when the institution was establishment, those erected during the administration of Alh. Ibrahim Idris and Capt. Idris Wada.
Hence, some of the structures were dilapidated and not conducive for learning. The hostel accommodations were grossly inadequate and not conducive. To worsen the situation, wind blew off the roof of the class rooms, library, staff offices and part of the hostels during a rain storm in November 2016.
State of the Institution When Mrs Hannah Oziohu Abraham Took Over as provost of the College in 2017
- All the tertiary Institutions were on strike, but academic activities were somehow maintained because students did not miss any semester nor session of their studies
- Almost half of the structures in the College had their roof blown off by rainstorm,
- hostel accommodation for students were inadequate,
- The old structures met on ground were dilapidated,
- Academic staff were inadequate especially the Nurse Educators,
- Promotion arrears of close to eight to ten years unattended to,
- Staff salary was 75% CONHESS and
- The College was still operating on provisional accreditation status with 50 indexing capacity.
Pictures of these dilapidated structures were sent to His Excellency Alh. Yahaya Bello. He graciously came to the aid of the institution by renovating all the structures and in addition erected new ones to improve the infrastructural facility of the institution.
So far, the following have been achieved:-
- The class rooms, library, skilled lab, part of the female hostel have been renovated.
- The old male hostel was converted to classrooms in preparation for Midwifery training.
- Parameter fencing of the College compound
- Construction of a new gate towards the Specialist Hospital, Obangede.
- Construction of a ninety room ultramodern hostel that will house one hundred and eighty students when completed
- A new administrative block that will house the Provost Office and board room when completed.
- A Leyland bus to transport the students to clinical areas while on clinical posting.
- 100% CONHESS as salary structure for the staff members.
- A fourteen office block was constructed and furnished for Academic staff, named after His Excellency (Governor Yahaya Bello Office Complex)
- Drainages were constructed to control the flow of water and erosion within the College premises
- Landscapping and beautification of the College complex
- The science, medical and Anatomy lab were renovated. The anatomy lab equipped with anatomical models for teaching and learning
- The male hostel which had part of the building at the verge of collapse was renovated and the toilets changed to more convenient ones
- The library stocked with more recent textbooks and journals
Through the aid of Nigerian Telecommunication Commission (NCC) laptops were provided for all academic staff to aid teaching. Other departments in the College were also equipped for effective services.
More instruments and equipments were purchased for the skilled Lab for practical teaching and Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE).
Official vehicles were purchased for the offices of the Gov. Council Chairman, the Provost, the Registrar and Bursar.
The auditorium was recently reinforced to prevent damage from erosion.
The ICT electricity supply is supported with solar power with internet services.
Staff Development
His Excellency graciously granted an approval for the employment of more academic staff in 2017.
Four (4) Contract Nurse Educators were employed
Four (4) Academic staff have completed the Post graduate diploma in education and are waiting to be registered with Nursing and Midwifery council. While another two have equally applied.
Staff members have been sponsored on various workshops organized by Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria.
Three (3) Academic staff are presently in various institutions of higher learning for their BNSC on part.
Two (2) Academic staff are also undergoing Master’s degrees in Nursing
Two (2) Academic staff are undergoing their PhD in various courses.
Some non Academic staff are also studying various courses relevant to their discipline.
Workshops were organized locally for both academic and non academic staff to make them more effective at work i.e. Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE), teaching Methodology workshop (academic staff) and Store, accounts (non academic).
Presently, the staff strength of the College stands at one hundred and forty two as against the previous one hundred and seven for both academic and non academic that was taken over.
Accreditation Status
The College was on a provisional accreditation status and 50 candidate indexing capacity until after the visit of N&MCN in October 2018. Their visit and assessment earned the College a full accreditation status with 100 indexing capacity.
Recently, the Nursing and Midwifery Council granted the College an approval to admit twice per annum (May and November) and to commence the training of 100 community Nurses per annum.
Efforts and measures have been put in place to upgrade the College to ND/HND awarding institution which hopefully may scale through in year 2021 when the ongoing projects will be completed.
Students’ Academic Performance and Welfare
Generally their academic performance at Final qualifying examination had been within the range of 95% and 100%.
The Provost organizes meetings with the students to identify and attend to their challenges from time to time.
Water supply for students was made constant and transportation facility was provided to convey students for clinical experiences. Grasses were kept low and the environment kept neat and tidy.
Security
No record of cultism, staff and students are law abiding.
ICT
The College successfully migrated from commercial to educational website and online lectures were adopted during the COVID 19 lockdown to maintain academic activity. Hence the students did not have to skip November 2020 final council examination with a resultant good result.
Conclusion
The Provost was able to achieve all these through the support of His Excellency Alh. Yahaya Adoza Bello, the health care and education friendly Governor of Kogi state.
– Comrade Yunusa Obeito Usman wrote from Obangede.
