Minister Advocates Inclusion Of Health Act In Universities’ Curriculum

Viola Onwuliri

By Chidi Nkwopara

MINISTER of State for foreign affairs, Professor Viola Onwuliri, has called on the management of the nation’s universities to incorporate the National Health Act 2014 in medical training.

Professor Onwuliri made the appeal while delivering a lecture entitled Nigerian National Health Act 2014: Implications and Applications, at the National Executive Council, NEC, meeting of the National

Association of Resident Doctors, NARD, Imo State branch, at the Federal Medical Centre, FMC, Owerri.

Onwuliri said: “There is the need for the incorporation of the National Health Act 2014 into the medical programmes of our universities, while undergraduates in all areas of medical training should be made to study and understand it, and develop skills of implementing the provisions of the Act.”

The minster, who described the Act as “a good legal document and a masterpiece of legislation,” said it was equally imperative for medical professional bodies to incorporate the full knowledge of the Act into the qualifying examinations for their practicing licenses.

Quoting the sponsor of the bill, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, PDP, Delta State, Onwuliri said it would help to achieve the Universal Health Coverage, meet the Millennium Development Goals, MDGs, among others.