Re: Appraising Appointments In The Federal Ministry Of Health Noted

Mr President,
I write in response to the recent petition to you signed by the chairman JOHESU, comrade Jay Josiah and the chairman AHPA,Dr Godswill C. Okara with the above titular theme. For ease of reference, JOHESU stands for Joint Health Sector Unions whereas AHPA stands for Assembly of Healthcare Professional Associations. The said petition raised specious points which if not immediately corrected may derail the public.

This rebuttal is necessary because neither my leaders nor my elder colleagues will respond to the spurious allegations raised against them in the petition because to them, Nigerian medical doctors are not in competition with any group and responding to such allegation may give the petitioners undue recognition; hence, the petition is not worth the attention of Nigerian medical doctors .

APPOINTMENT OF TWO MEDICAL DOCTORS IN THE FEDERAL MINISTRY OF HEALTH

In the petition, the petitioners argued that it is unfair to have two doctors in the ministry. I want to specially thank you for your well-thought-out appointments so far. Gone are the days when people who were not eligible were appointed to different government positions in order to appease a particular group. Meanwhile, in the Federal ministry of Justice, the current Permanent Secretary, Barrister Taiwo Abidogun, is a lawyer. Are there no paralegal workers or other workers in the Ministry of Justice the same way we have these paramedical workers in the Health ministry?

The paralegal workers there have never complained that both the Permanent Secretary and the Honourable Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation are lawyers because the paralegal workers are aware that for the ministry of Justice to move forward, sensitive positions must be manned by technocrats . Thus, one would begin to wonder why it is difficult for these paramedical workers (JOHESU and AHPA) in the health sector to know that before the desired change will be established in Nigeria, all appointments into government positions must be devoid of sentiments, nepotism, tribalism and other mundane considerations.

DR AMINA SHAMAKI IS BIASED
The petitioners went on to posit that the current permanent secretary Federal Ministry of Health, Dr Amina Shamaki is biased as she only favours her fellow medical doctors. They mischievously cited her roles as a permanent secretary in the office of the Head of Service of the Federation. This rabid hatred by these paramedical workers against Nigerian doctors is proverbial. The petitioners were silent over the position of the permanent secretary when the immediate former Permanent Secretary, Mr Linus Awute, with MSC in Agricultural chemistry and Soil science was there. To the petitioners, it is better that the position be left unoccupied than being occupied by a medical doctor. Such hatred is not new as when the current director-general of NAFDAC, Dr Paul Orhii, a medical doctor, was at the verge of being appointed, they wrote a similar petition to the then president.

After their petition was ignored, they went to court with suit number FHC/ABJ/CS/259/09 to challenge the appointment of Dr Paul Orhii arguing that section 9(1) of the NAFDAC Act Cap N1 LFN 2004 stated, inter alia, that the DG of NAFDAC must be a person with good knowledge of pharmacy, food and drugs. They failed to realise any medical doctor has those qualities and that since the inception of USFDA (United States Food and Drug Administration) in 1906 that 13 out of the 21 Food and Drug commissioners (a term for our own Director-General) were medical doctors. Expectedly, the said law-suit was struck out by the federal High court sitting in Abuja, on April 2012 for lack of merit. They are at it again with the appointment of this woman of substance in the federal ministry of Health.

THAT DR CHRIS NWABUEZE NGIGE WILL WORK AGAINST THEM

In the petition, they argued that with another medical doctor superintending the Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity, their welfare demands will be rendered nugatory. It is on record that since the national leadership of NLC (Nigerian Labour Congress) is headed by a paramedical worker, Comrade Ayuba Wabba, no Nigerian medical doctor, either acting as a group or as an individual, has ever opposed or seen the leadership of NLC as a threat to the welfare of Nigerian doctors. As I have said before, there are some professions that are naturally made to be competition-free.

The same way that the professor of paralegal studies can never be addressed as a lawyer hence cannot head Ministry of Justice, that is the same way the professor of a paramedical course can never be called a medical doctor. If Dr Ngige were posted to the ministry of Water Resources, Agriculture or any other ministry that does not have direct link with the Ministry of Health, the petitioners would also find a way to bring in Dr Ngige into their spurious petition .Surprisingly, If Nigerian medical doctors come out today to say, Abuja is the federal capital of Nigeria, the petitioners and their group will come out to dispute this obvious fact.

THAT MEDICAL DOCTORS CONSTITUTE 5% OF THE WORKFORCE IN THE MINISTRY OF HEALTH

Well, I am not aware of the criterion they used to get their data .Is it not preposterous and serendipitous that the same group that was accusing past ministers of health, chief medical directors, medical doctors of our hospitals of not employing their members has just found out that they now constitute about 95 of the workforce in the ministry and by extension, in the health sector? I congratulate them on this new finding and at same time, I urge them not to complain of unemployment among their members as they are already leading Nigerian doctors in the area of employment hence they should not disturb Dr Ngige, who is faced with the challenge of massive unemployment in the country.

ON THE HISTORIC VISIT OF THE NEW MINISTER OF HEALTH TO NMA SECRETARIAT

To the petitioners and the associations they represent, whatever a Nigerian doctor does or says is wrong until proven otherwise. Where were the petitioners when the immediate past government sacked about 16,000 striking resident doctors under the watch of a minister of health who is a doctor? Where were they when Prof Onyebuchi Chukwu, a medical doctor, challenged his colleagues to an open national debate over his colleagues' demand? Have these petitioners sent any invitation to the new minister of health to come to their secretariats and he refused to come?

We are not surprised at their reactions as we have since adapted to their belligerent nature in the sector. Were they not the ones shouting ,'International best practices ' and when the idea of privatisation of the health sector , which is the fulcrum of the much-touted international best practices, was mooted , they openly opposed it for no other reason than Nigerian doctors supported it and for the fact that the said privatisation would pay an individual according to the economic value of the person's qualifications and work and not according to the ability to form more unions in the sector or draw more media attention. What else do Nigerians expect from a group that supports medical tourism abroad for no other reason than Nigerian doctors oppose the idea?

ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE YAYALE AHMED PANEL REPORT AND A LEGAL SUIT PENDING BEFORE NICN

The way the petitioners applauded the panel sent chills down the spine of Nigerian doctors when the panel was still investigating the cause of the incessant crises in the sector. They went on to accuse the former president of planning to stop the panel from releasing her report. Surprisingly, the same group has made a volte- face, accusing the report of the panel of being lopsided in favour of Nigerian medical doctors. What an irony!

The petitioners went ahead to claim that the Health and the Labour ministers are raising legal teams to join forces against them in the NICN( National Industrial Court Of Nigeria). My little knowledge of legal practice shows that in a legal suit the respondents are entitled to defend themselves in line with section 36 of our constitution (as amended) hence if the petitioners or their associations have gone to court as plaintiffs mentioning the federal ministry of Health and Labour as respondents ,the ministries are morally and legally bound to respond to the charges against them unless the petitioners are now ordering the respondents not to respond to the legal suit against them .

ON THE RECOGNITION OF DOCTORS' POSTGRADUATE FELLOWSHIP OVER PHD IN THEIR CAREERS AS ACADEMICS

Your Excellency, the first day I saw a headline comparing PhD and Doctors' postgraduate fellowship on the television ,I nearly aspirated the food I was eating because I burst into uncontrollable laughter . My laughter was due to the resemblance of the arguments to the interview once granted by Chief James Akwari Iroha (known as Gringory Akabuogu), the writer and initiator of the popular NTA drama series called 'The New Masquerade ' ,which featured characters like Zebrudaya Okoroigwe Nwogbo alias 4:30 , Ovularia,Clarus, Nathy, Jegede Shokoya etc. While answering questions from Chukwu Eke ( reporter), about his inspirations in initiating the soap opera , late Mr James Iroha had this to say about his own family:

My father had a man called Etudo as his house keeper .He was a native of Ikot Ekpene , Akwa Ibom state. It was he who took care of all of us -my siblings and I. The man was very kind to us,very honest and very assiduous .If you did not pass your exam very well, he would not allow you to go back to school, my father gave him money to pay our school fees. So he was in deed in charge. For instance, I remember when my sister got credits in all her subjects; he refused to accept the result .He scolded her for getting credits instead of passes. After all, she was given money .For him, the credits she got meant that she was owing, what was good for him was 'pass' period.

We may forgive Mr Etudo because he was uneducated. But how are we going to forgive a group of educated individuals who now believe that anybody that gets a credit or distinction will be punished, believing that a pass grade is higher than a credit/distinction? If a PhD holder starts as a lecturer 2 while a medical doctor with a postgraduate fellowship starts as a lecturer 1 in the academic field, is it not clear to the petitioners and their friends that doctors' postgraduate fellowship is superior to PhD.

Following the line of reasoning of these petitioners, tertiary institutions who advertised their minimum requirements as five O' level credit in relevant subjects to admission seekers will now refuse to accept candidates with distinctions in the relevant subjects because just like Mr Etudo in the interview all they want to hear is PhD and not doctors' postgraduate fellowship. That is what Sir Robert Hutchison in his popular Aphorism called,' Putting knowledge before wisdom, Science before art, and cleverness before common sense....'

Dr Paul John
Port Harcourt,
Rivers state.
[email protected]
08083658038

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Articles by Paul John