Undergraduates of the Faculty of Dentistry, University of Nigeria, weekend, commended former Governor of Anambra State, Mr Peter Obi, for enabling the re-accreditation of the faculty by the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN).
According to the students, Obi’s intervention last year saved them from the embarrassment of graduating from the faculty without licences to practise. “It would have been terrible,” narrates a student who identified herself as Nneka. “I had moments of anxiety when it was becoming obvious that my dream of becoming a dental surgeon was fading. It would have been worse when one had gone through the academic rigours and paid all the dues, but ended up not licensed to practise because of accreditation. It was also an irony that UNN of all institutions waited for Obi’s intervention to attain the re-accreditation of the faculty. We need more of Peter Obi across the federation. I have friends in other universities facing the same fate.”
A parent, Sylvester Ezema, said his joy knew no limits after the re-accreditation. “I have been having sleepless nights,” he told our correspondent. “I borrow to train my daughter in that faculty. One day, she told me that the faculty was having accreditation issues. I almost fainted. She said I should pray. We committed the whole thing to God. I wondered because UNN gets allocations from the FG. It generates funds from students. It also enjoys grants and funding from local and foreign donors, yet an essential faculty like Dentistry was facing a re-accreditation problem. I heard that Peter Obi gave them some money to help avert the looming danger. I thank the management for not misappropriating the grant from Obi.”
A researcher and chartered account, Uche Nnadi, recalled that, “In July, 2025, the Faculty of Dentistry, the only accredited dental school in the Southeast, was in difficulty meeting the accreditation requirements set by the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) which will lead to the loss of its licence. The department was at risk of losing accreditation due to a shortage of essential equipment and laboratory facilities, which limited their graduation quota to only 15 dental surgeons annually.
“The students together with other well-meaning Nigerians raised appeals. Peter Obi visited the UNN Dentistry Department personally on July 18, 2025 to make donation of ₦15 million.Today, the Faculty of Dentistry, University of Nigeria, has successfully undergone the MDCN re-accreditation process. As a result, they have now been given full accreditation, and their training quota has been increased from 15 to 60 students and 48 house officers.”
The Dean of the Faculty, Linda Oge Okoye, it was gathered, led a series of infrastructure and curriculum upgrades, including the installation of modern laboratories equipped with new dental chairs and clinical training tools to qualify for the re-accreditation.
Recall that Obi bailed out other troubled institutions having the same accreditation challenges, including the University of Calabar’s Dentistry Department, where he donated ₦20 million.
Obi had in a post shortly after the donation last year said he had received a letter from the University of Nigeria Dental Students Association, appealing for urgent intervention and support of about ₦40,000,000 to upgrade their laboratory and scale up the department’s graduation and induction quota as part of their re-accreditation process. He said he visited the faculty, located at the UNN’s Teaching Hospital, Ituku Ozalla, “because we cannot, in good conscience, continue to allow our young people to suffer due to leadership failure”. He said he donated N15m to the students as part of his commitment to advancing education and healthcare in Nigeria.
He had written, “I continue to question the kind of country we are building, where our leaders and public servants spend millions on luxury cars and ignore critical areas of development, health, education, and pulling people out of poverty. It is a tragedy of misplaced priorities. When we fail to prioritise education, healthcare, and poverty alleviation, but invest billions in conference centres and bus parks, we betray our youth and undermine the future of our dear nation. We must invest in the future of the Nigerian youth.”
