ALL LIVES MATTER; GUN CONTROL MATTERS

Having taken time off my blog for some time, I feel compelled to let out my opinion in the wake of recent violent happenings especially the very recent killings in the US. It is quite saddening to see how bright lives have been cut short unnecessarily, children left fatherless, wives becoming widowers, families bereaved and many more wounded. My opinion is primarily based on gun proliferation but I can’t effectively talk about that without expressing my view on the happenings that led me to write this.

A couple of times in my life, I have seen people at the transition point from being alive to being dead and this is usually as a result of terminal illness, severe trauma or disease of some sort. Never have I witnessed or seen the rapid transit of a man from being alive to being dead as a result of gunshots…except of course in movies. I am aware it does happen but never have I seen one until I watched the video of the shooting to death of Alton Sterling. I felt a great sense of grief after that and I questioned the humanity in man. I understand the case is being investigated so I can’t comment on facts of the case but the available information out there has it that a homeless man had called 911 claiming Alton pulled a gun on him and it turned out that this homeless man had been troubling Alton who then threatened him(the homeless man) with a gun. Well, the summary is that officers came, wrestled Alton to the ground and thereafter shot him.

The incident I described above was beginning to generate public outcry and outrage and the community was trying to grapple with the incident when about a thousand miles away, Philando Castile was shot in front of his girlfriend and her 4year old daughter when ,according to the information, he was only trying to reach for his documents. The cumulative effect of this second event occurring in quick succession sparked even more outrage and a wave of protest across the nation. The leaders of the country showed more interest and weighed in on these incidents. The nation was pretty much united in condemning the perceived injustice against the background of similar events in previous times where no one was held accountable. The protest was by people of all races and ages and the tension and anger was palpable.

During this wave of protest, somewhere in Dallas, Texas, a man was preparing to let hell loose on the community and it would turn out that 5 gallant offiers would be killed, 7 wounded while they all were doing their job and 2 civilians were wounded as well. I don’t have the full names of all the officers at this time but Officer Brent Thompson who was said to have just been married was among the dead. He doesn’t deserve to die. No police officer deserves to die or be wounded.No civilian deserves to die unjustly or be wounded. No innocent soul deserves to be cut short. The community needs to understand that all lives matter. Alton or Philando or Officer Brent or any one does not deserve to be unjustly killed or wounded. Many innocent lives are now gone, many homes sent into grief and I condemn anyone by whose hands, humans have died unjustly.

This brings me to the crux of the issues. GUNS. A ticking time bomb. Both Alton and Philando had guns on them,according to preliminary reports and while that is no where near a reason to shoot them, the incidents might not have arisen in the first place if those guns weren’t there, not ruling out the possibility of racial bias either consciously or unconsciously. The man who unjustly killed many police officers also has a gun probably one of military grade and it was with this that he killed officers in cold blood. The only thing between a man with a gun and him using that gun is his sanity and anything can interfere with this sanity from provocation to anger to grief to mental illness to extremist behaviours to ‘suicide by cop’ and the list goes on and on. Some argue that you need a gun for self protection but does that not suggest loss of confidence in agents commissioned to protect the community? If the police carry guns and the civilians carry guns, it is a matter of time before a state of anarchy could occur. The rate of gun violence is alarming and this rate wouldn’t abate unless guns are mopped up effectively. Having a gun gives a false sense of protection in a background of fear except of course the gun was purchased for hunting animals. And why can’t those who desire to hunt get a dane gun or some non sophisticated gun of some sort. I have tried to understand it but I never get it.

 

The proliferation of gun is a self perpetuating phenomenon in that it works as some sort of positive feedback mechanism. If I see my friend get a gun then the more likelihood I would want to get one. If I see my perceived enemy get a gun, the more likely I would want to get one. When every household has a gun, then maybe it will become clear how terrible the reality is.

There is a lot to talk about on this recent issues including the racial dimensions but for want of space and not to bore you with so much at a time and knowing many other articles have talked about these other issues, I would stop here. I hope this speaks to someone. I commiserate with every families who have lost loved ones unjustly especially in the last few days and every one wounded as well. I wish the wounded quick recovery. Its time for everyone to come together in love and demand justice, fairness and a safe community where civilians can walk without fear of not going back home as long as they obey the law and where officers of the law can carry out their legitimate duties without being exposed to undue danger and intimidation.

May we all be instruments of peace.

God bless America.

DAY THE PRESIDENT SACKS THE RESIDENTS

why am i being told to use an analgesic when cutting the head off can permanently cure my headache?

NOTE: The FG gives no hoot about the masses!
PREAMBLE

It is no longer news that some doctors have been ‘sacked’. The story is even being modified to different versions. While some believed that all doctors have been relieved of their jobs, some others think Nigerian doctors were divided into 16 parts & a part was rendered jobless. The ignorance exhibited by some people is at the least pitiable. I read with utter dismay how some resorted to lampooning the doctors. I think it is beneficial for us all to get informed and rightly so.

THE PRESIDENT, MY PRESIDENT

My President strikes me as someone who has good intentions but lacks the wherewithal to give effect to his intentions partly due to his weak mindedness & also due to the expert ‘sycophantic’ advisers he surrounds himself with. It does seem any of his followers can make anything look good to Mr. President & he will be magnanimous enough to accept it without proper evaluation. If Mr. President has a headache, his advisers can ask him to cut the head off while experts who know about headache tell him to use an analgesic. My dear president would see nothing wrong in getting the head cut off. Afterall, the headache disappears either way and the option given by his trusted advisers is infallible.

THE RESIDENTS
Resident doctors are those who, having acquired a permanent license (which can allow them practice either in the country or outside) following the undergraduate medical training, housemanship & the NYSC, have gone back for post-graduate training in a chosen field of medicine. They become a specialist at the end of their training. They know something about every field of medicine, and everything (or almost) about their chosen field so a patient with a diagnosis involving that field can be handled effectively & decisively by such a specialist. Like their name imply, resident doctors, where they exist, are always on ground and constitute a bulk of the doctors in the hospital. They contribute greatly to teaching of medical students & houseofficers and also work with and under instruction and guidance from the consultants for the optimal care of a patient.

THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT (FG) AND THE MASSES
By the FG, I mean Mr. President and all the forces around him. I believe many Nigerians know that the FG and many of our politicians in power care less about how good the masses fared while they accrue to themselves unmerited wealth. It is as if the government deliberately takes & strategically places its decisions to either kill the citizenry or kill the few who try to liberate & enlighten the masses. The masses themselves, as if programmed to self-destruct, does not help matters. Many sit in the comfort of their homes and spew gibberish on the social media without getting informed. Afterall, Talk, like ignorance, is acquired cheaply but its effect can be costly. The system is crumbling. Failure rates skyrocket in the Educational sector. Security can’t be any worse than it is presently. Power is in a state of status epilepticus . Agriculture has nothing to show. Life expectancy keeps dropping. Quality of life has declined significantly. All, under the present administration keeps getting worse. And the populace prefers to just take solace in a hopeless hope. They now think the FG is a saint in the problem facing the health sector while castigating the doctors who are making efforts to revamp the sector? The government goes to the media to pay lip service to & window-dress serious issues, claiming to be on top of the situation while in reality, they’re buried under the situation. When the FG in Nigeria tells you good morning, it’s either the sun is scorching or the moon is adorning the sky.

THE SACK, EBOLA & THE NATION
I won’t bore us about the reason why doctors have been on strike. You can read about that in my previous write up . I saw comments of some members of the public in the media following announcement of the ‘sack’ of the resident doctors by the FG. Some wrote ‘sack them all’. Some said ‘serves them right’. Some others even ‘screamed’ ‘useless doctors’. Some cited the Ebola outbreak as a reason why doctors should not be on strike. Who wouldn’t know that the strike mitigated the effect of the outbreak? (& this, per se, is not to make a case for the strike but to inform those heaping blames on the doctors as regards the outbreak). Nigeria has a rare divine favour when it comes to ‘natural disasters’. Much of the problems in Nigeria are manmade and we created them by and for ourselves. Landslides, volcanoes, tornadoes, hurricane, tsunamis etc. are disasters that we don’t experience and I’m usually tempted to think that this is because the ‘Creator’ knows we don’t have enough emergency plans that can cope with such disastrous states in place. The thought was renewed in me when the first case of Ebola was confirmed in Nigeria and I marveled when I realized how grave the story would have been if doctors were not on strike when Patrick sawyer (Mr. PS) slumped at the airport. Let me paint a mild scenario. Patrick sawyer slumps and is taken to say, LUTH emergency unit. One of the nurses on duty takes his vital signs and then informs the doctor who comes to see, interact with & examine Mr. PS. The doctor attending to Mr. PS is a casualty officer who after a quick interaction with Sawyer, sites an intravenous access for fluid &medications, takes blood sample for investigations & he might even have a blood splash during this procedure. Bear in mind that it’s not yet certain what Mr. PS has in store. The doctor writes down his findings, makes a provisional diagnosis, gives the case note to the nurse, and then writes a consult to the medical team to come and take over the case since his job at that moment is to stabilize emergency situations. The medical team usually comprises of more than 3doctors. The nurse & doctor who first attended to Mr. PS have now gone ahead to attend to other patients in the emergency ward with the same sphygmomanometer, stethoscope and probably thermometer used on Mr. Sawyer. The nurse then goes to the nurses’ station to meet other nurses and the doctor goes to the call room to meet other doctors. These other nurses and doctors would later on attend to some other patients in the emergency ward. All these patients have 2 or 3 relatives staying with them or who came to visit. Some of these relatives & visitors, out of compassion, might have even helped Patrick sawyer sit up while he made to vomit…and then everyone leaves for their various homes by bus and into the society. Back to the medical team that was invited by the casualty doctor to take over Mr. PS management. The medical team has arrived. They reexamine & reevaluate the patient, make their own assessment and then instruct that Mr. PS be transferred to the main ward for men where new set of nurses will attend to him and where relatively stable and recuperating patients are being managed. These ones also have their relatives & visitors around. The resultant outcome is better imagined in a country grossly unprepared for Ebola. That said!

The FG came out to announce that the sum of #1.9billion has been released in response to the Ebola scourge and the masses believed that the announcement has automatically translated to a reprieve for the situation. But people should by now understand the ineffectiveness of the government. The government who ab-initio couldn’t secure its borders or screen incoming passengers and whose lackadaisical attitude led to the importation of the deadly virus now look for who to blame as they are wont to do. Since it will be difficult to blame the opposition, then the doctors must take the fall for it. The doctors and other health workers that have already contracted the disease are left in a deplorable state. The manner in which the US attended to their own health workers infected by the deadly virus will make any health worker in that country respond swiftly should such deadly outbreak occur in the country. Yet, our senators ‘earn’ more than President Obama. Even if Kent Brantly was to die from the illness, he would have done so in & with dignity! Hazmat suits, isolation centers with adequate water supply & electricity are as scarce as the immune-boosting drugs needed to help our sick brethren. Pray tell, with what will the doctors who have volunteered to attend to the sick work? Any doctor who manages an Ebola patient without adequate personal protective equipment will only end up becoming a patient and left to die just like the patients he was attending to. The government doesn’t really care. The actual number of confirmed cases even got mixed up at a time. Their head is probably filled with calculations of whom to heap the blame of their failure on! The presidency ‘believes’ the best it can do is sign of an amount & then throw a party because the president demonstrated how to use a hand sanitizer. I bet Miss Malala knows how to use a hand sanitizer better than my ‘beloved’ president. Sadly enough, the public that should mount pressure on the government to go beyond signing a cheque and ensure quick provision of necessary materials have remained quiescent.

NMA
Despite the harsh condition and aforementioned inadequacies of the FG, I make bold to say the NMA did go ahead to play a vital role as regards the Ebola outbreak. From dues paid by medical doctors nationwide, NMA at the state and national level sponsored adverts, workshops, jingles and rallies, printed pamphlets, rented canopies and sound systems, etc. all in a bid to sensitize the public and give adequate information about the Ebola epidemic. Besides, a directive was given for members to respond to the challenge as much as the sanity in the system permits. The doctors are ready to respond to the emergency situation if the government shows dedication to preserving the sanctity of life of its health workers. The press release where the NMA gave the directive to its members to respond to the scourge is a click away lest someone makes an ill-informed comment.

CONCLUSION
For those who have praised the FG for ‘sacking’ the doctors and are shouting, ‘crucify them’ ‘crucify them’, do well to know that there are various countries requesting for Nigerian doctors. Our training placed us in such a position. The number of Nigerian doctors practicing outside the country is ‘far’ more ( and I mean ‘far’ more) than those within Nigeria so the decision of the FG to ‘sack’ some doctors, reminiscent of the military era, will only end up draining the country of its doctors and worsen the already bad situation resulting from shortage of doctors. Who suffers at the end? Our so called leaders travel abroad to treat toothache so its decision to sack some doctors should not be viewed as one in favour of the masses.
Having said all these, I leave you, as a member of the public to reappraise your view of the FG’s stance and the medical doctors agitation so it won’t be said of our dear country thus: When the wicked prosper, the city rejoices. When the righteous perishes, there are shouts of joy.

oops!

MY PERSONAL OPINION ON THE CURRENT STAND OFF BETWEEN NMA AND FG (&JOHESU).

Maintain your self esteem

Few facts to note!
-JOHESU is an amorphous body.
-Doctors are human beings who have family members that are also human beings.
-Yes, doctors swore the Hippocratic Oath and will aspire to defend it fully.
-Doctors work round the clock while other health professionals work shift and so has more time to spend with family and other things.
-There’s a health team in the hospital and the doctor is the head…and the doctor will always be the head with emphasis on the word, ‘always’
– Any attempt made by a doctor to press home his point can easily be mistaken for pride

I decided to play an observatory role as regards the ongoing stand off between the medical doctors and the FG(&JOHESU) hoping for a speedy resolution but as the situation has tarried, it wouldn’t be out of place to lend my voice to the fewer of the ‘warring’ groups and cry out for justice and sanity in the health sector. I will prefer that my opinion is read & commented on, if need be, by open-minded, non biased, cerebral and intuitive individuals on the social media. Patience will also be needed to read the lengthy article and also internalize it. I won’t expect anyone to exhibit an uncultured character by name calling and abuses as I’ve seen following many articles such as this. If you belong to such group of people, kindly save your data and battery life at this stage, close this and go do other stuffs on your device, say play games or scroll through your pictures. Thanks.
So let me begin by sharing my opinion about JOHESU. It’s an amalgamation of incongruent groups comprising of Nurses, Pharmacists, Physiotherapists, Medical lab scientists, Hospital technicians, Hospital orderlies, Record Officers and some other persons in the hospital excluding the doctors. It can be likened to the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC). It is important to note that NLC, when embarking on strike press home demands that affect the groups which makes it up and occasionally defend the cause of each group of workforce within it. Unlike NLC, JOHESU sprang up with intent to use the number of many to champion the cause of a few! If only the sidelined groups to be can know this! The hypocrisy behind the formation of JOHESU will be seen in the course of this article. I tried finding out what the mission of JOHESU is on their website but my search for their website using various search engines (Google, Wikipedia) yielded no result for JOHESU as at the time of writing this. I know NANNM, an association of nurses and midwives. I know PSN for the pharmacists. I know medical lab scientists have their own association-MLSCN; but I don’t know the association of the orderlies or hospital technicians. And so, when a group of associations team up with a group of individuals, we can only pray that their intent is holy. I keep wondering if an orderly will ever become the president of JOHESU or at least the Gen Sec and thus sign releases and preside over meetings. I do hope I can get my hand on a JOHESU constitution one day, if they have. The contents must really be interesting.
Since this article is not a discourse on JOHESU, I’ll go ahead to discuss the contentious issues in the demands of NMA. The issue of relativity has not been vigorously contested by JOHESU so I’ll gloss over that. It is just reasonable that a doctor, who spent the greater number of years (&semesters) in school; who works round the clock and on whose shoulder the chunk of the responsibility of patient’s care lie be remunerated more than other health workers. As has been shown many times, Nigeria is one of the countries where the margin of relativity between the salary of doctors and some other health workers have been significantly eroded. The issue of skipping too has not been so contested as such. Again, it is only unfair to skip doctors from skipping (pardon the pun) which other health workers enjoy and has been enjoying for a long time! The issue of hazard allowance has also not been so challenged. Even JOHESU knows that if implemented, it will cut across board. Doctors, Nurses, medical lab scientist, radiology technicians and orderlies are exceptionally exposed to hospital hazards and I won’t say one group is more exposed than the other because hazard, no matter how small or infrequent can end one’s life and ambition once it occurs. The three issues that have been fiercely argued is the issue of consultancy, CMDship & post of Surgeon-General.
About consultancy, I personally would not have opposed the desire of other professionals within the health sector to become a consultant if the desire for such aspiration is the belief that being a consultant nurse or pharmacist will improve patient’s care but I do have some problems. I have a problem with JOHESU fighting for this as JOHESU where some group of members can never have a curriculum for attaining such status. If it was being fought by bodies such as NANNM, PSN or NSP etc., each body can put forward it’s blueprint, it’s purpose and what it intends to contribute to the health sector and this can be considered, discussed and individualized based on each profession’s peculiarity; Or why should a physiotherapist who is only vast in his field agitate for Nursing consultancy? Or why should an orderly fight for Consultancy status for pharmacists? Why? Has anyone thought about what the nurses or physiotherapists will do should orderlies decide to agitate for consultancy status? Will the FG be told by the populace to accede to their demand too? The other problem I have with it is that many of those agitating for consultancy status ordinarily, without even being a consultant, overstep their boundaries with impunity. Becoming a consultant will not only make them overstep their boundary, they are likely to trample upon the feet of those in the boundary they encroached upon. A nurse who is supposed to provide patient’s case note for ward round & join in the round but prefers to sit at the station will likely not come to work when she becomes a consultant. So they should put their house in order first and then other aspirations can come up. My other problem is the tendency of such status to promote quackery and deceitful therapy to patients. Some non-doctor health workers illegally prescribe medications and operate on patients who are made to believe that they’re being attended to by doctors. Imagine the extent to which such illegality will blossom should they become consultants or bear the name ‘Dr’ within the hospital setting.
About CMDship, one of the grouse of JOHESU is the phrase ‘medically qualified’ included in the requirement for being a CMD. I propose that if it’s causing confusion, it should be changed to ‘medically certified by MDCN’. That is clear enough. They ask for the reason why the post of CMD must be an exclusive preserve of the doctors. Why not?! Why should other bodies agitate for the headship of a hospital? What do they want to do differently that they can’t pass across to the CMD through their head or implement such within their own niche? Have their profession granted them an administrative edge over doctors? As far as Nigeria, at present, is concerned, the post should be reserved for medical doctors. A hospital exists, first because there’s a patient; then secondly, a doctor. Every other person are an ‘addendum’. It is hard to swallow but it is the bitter truth. A man does not leave his house, get in the cab and go to the hospital to see a nurse or a pharmacist or a medical lab scientist. He’s going to see the doctor who now decides if the patient needs nursing care or needs drug or needs to see a physiotherapist or the attention of a social worker or needs to have some tests done in the lab or needs surgery. It is interesting to note that a patient may not even need any of the above personnel or services but just reassurance. Only the doctor can determine that. Only the doctor is so trained to have a broad knowledge about other fields and a deep knowledge about his own field. If a nurse becomes the CMD and a pharmacist approaches him for a policy to be implemented in the pharmacy section of the hospital, chances are that the nurse will not understand how such policy affects the patient as she has been trained almost solely on the art of nursing. She’s likely to protect the interest of her profession. Same scenarios would play out if a pharmacist was the CMD; but a doctor in such a position has considerable knowledge about other fields and as such has significant understanding and appreciation of the workings of each sub sector of the hospital. The post of the CMD goes beyond just administrative.it includes an in-depth understanding of the patient for which the hospital exists in the first place. i must add that not even all doctors can become a CMD in the teaching hospitals. Not without passing through the furnace of residency successfully and even some years after that.
Concerning the post of Surgeon-General, I don’t see Nigeria as yet ripe for such post and I’m certain it’s not a strong reason why the strike has persisted. Given the nature of the Nigerian government and system as a whole, such a post at the moment will be a duplication of role and wastage of resources and so I know if other demands are met save this, all doctors are not likely to go on strike for a long time (maybe for life).
My advice to JOHESU if they must remain amalgamated together is to quit playing the Nigerian type of politics within the health sector and do their job diligently, truthfully and be sincere in their demand and agitations. This will attract respect from the patients, the public and the doctors. We don’t need this unprecedented rife and rivalry in the health sector. It is bad for the patient. Also, they should be proud of their identity and profession and fight against some of their members who pose as doctors- operating on patient, prescribing medications- and assume the management of a patient (things they do based on the supposed experience gained having worked with doctors for a while) only to refer to a hospital when the situation is bad but when they or their relatives take ill, they quickly look for the doctors. They forget that patients are different and management must be individualized. My reason for this advice is that, if government decides to privatize the health sector either fully or partially, everyone will be negatively affected but the least hit will be the doctors. A private hospital owner can decide to employ an auxiliary nurse, private orderlies and security men and technicians. Pharmacy shops are ubiquitous. Private labs will spring up in no time. The doctor is irreplaceable and is licensed to establish his own hospital.
Having said those, I want to correct the erroneous belief that doctors are selfish and fighting for their pockets, a propaganda by JOHESU. While it is true that I’ve seen nurses who spend their resources for patients care, almost all doctors I’ve come across have at one time or the other, even as medical students, use their money to assist a patient. The desire to see a patient get well can be sometimes overwhelming for a doctor at times: doctors donate money for patients, donate blood, go out of their way to make sure blood is provided for patient, goes to the pharmacy to ensure drugs are dispensed, even runs to borrow at the pharmacy when need be, runs to the lab to get sample bottles and return samples to the lab and again return to press for speedy processing and result of the investigation. They plead (&at times quarrel) with nurses, pharmacists & orderlies medical lab scientists all in a bid to make sure patients’ care is optimal. Also, don’t see doctors as wicked when they go on strike. When doctors go on strike, they take nothing from the hospital. They only refuse to come to work. When JOHESU goes on strike, they lock up consulting rooms and keep away the stethoscopes, sphygmomanometers and other devices. The power house technicians refuse to supply electricity even when patients are on life support devices; record officers lock up the case files of patients all in a bid to frustrate the doctor’s effort. When these measures fail to ground the hospital, they coerce the orderlies (where private ones are used) into joining them. They harass doctors and even block the entrance gates of the hospital. Yet, the hospital still manages to function. During the last JOHESU strike, I took and charted patient’s vital signs, gave IV drugs, put up iv fluid, thought the relatives how to make tepid water and tepid sponge and to use the bed pan and I administered medications. Relatives got drugs outside and I managed patients within the confines of my clinical judgment. We may be on strike but many of us still consult patients around us free of charge. We’re not lazy. We only demand sanity. Blame the government. Not the doctors.
I’ll end by saying I hope that one day, the catechist, choristers, altar boys and church wardens won’t one day team up with intent to contest the headship of the parish with the priest of the catholic church .If any of those so desire to head a church, then they must go through the rigours of seminary and the cross of celibacy.

one love,keep us together

MY PERSONAL OPINION ON THE CURRENT STAND OFF BETWEEN NMA AND FG (&JOHESU).

Few facts to note!
-JOHESU is an amorphous body.
-Doctors are human beings who have family members that are also human beings.
-Yes, doctors swore the Hippocratic Oath and will aspire to defend it fully.
-Doctors work round the clock while other health professionals work shift and so has more time to spend with family and other things.
-There’s a health team in the hospital and the doctor is the head…and the doctor will always be the head with emphasis on the word, ‘always’
– Any attempt made by a doctor to press home his point can easily be mistaken for pride

I decided to play an observatory role as regards the ongoing stand off between the medical doctors and the FG(&JOHESU) hoping for a speedy resolution but as the situation has tarried, it wouldn’t be out of place to lend my voice to the fewer of the ‘warring’ groups and cry out for justice and sanity in the health sector. I will prefer that my opinion is read & commented on, if need be, by open-minded, non biased, cerebral and intuitive individuals on the social media. Patience will also be needed to read the lengthy article and also internalize it. I won’t expect anyone to exhibit an uncultured character by name calling and abuses as I’ve seen following many articles such as this. If you belong to such group of people, kindly save your data and battery life at this stage, close this and go do other stuffs on your device, say play games or scroll through your pictures. Thanks.
So let me begin by sharing my opinion about JOHESU. It’s an amalgamation of incongruent groups comprising of Nurses, Pharmacists, Physiotherapists, Medical lab scientists, Hospital technicians, Hospital orderlies, Record Officers and some other persons in the hospital excluding the doctors. It can be likened to the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC). It is important to note that NLC, when embarking on strike press home demands that affect the groups which makes it up and occasionally defend the cause of each group of workforce within it. Unlike NLC, JOHESU sprang up with intent to use the number of many to champion the cause of a few! If only the sidelined groups to be can know this! The hypocrisy behind the formation of JOHESU will be seen in the course of this article. I tried finding out what the mission of JOHESU is on their website but my search for their website using various search engines (Google, Wikipedia) yielded no result for JOHESU as at the time of writing this. I know NANNM, an association of nurses and midwives. I know PSN for the pharmacists. I know medical lab scientists have their own association-MLSCN; but I don’t know the association of the orderlies or hospital technicians. And so, when a group of associations team up with a group of individuals, we can only pray that their intent is holy. I keep wondering if an orderly will ever become the president of JOHESU or at least the Gen Sec and thus sign releases and preside over meetings. I do hope I can get my hand on a JOHESU constitution one day, if they have. The contents must really be interesting.
Since this article is not a discourse on JOHESU, I’ll go ahead to discuss the contentious issues in the demands of NMA. The issue of relativity has not been vigorously contested by JOHESU so I’ll gloss over that. It is just reasonable that a doctor, who spent the greater number of years (&semesters) in school; who works round the clock and on whose shoulder the chunk of the responsibility of patient’s care lie be remunerated more than other health workers. As has been shown many times, Nigeria is one of the countries where the margin of relativity between the salary of doctors and some other health workers have been significantly eroded. The issue of skipping too has not been so contested as such. Again, it is only unfair to skip doctors from skipping (pardon the pun) which other health workers enjoy and has been enjoying for a long time! The issue of hazard allowance has also not been so challenged. Even JOHESU knows that if implemented, it will cut across board. Doctors, Nurses, medical lab scientist, radiology technicians and orderlies are exceptionally exposed to hospital hazards and I won’t say one group is more exposed than the other because hazard, no matter how small or infrequent can end one’s life and ambition once it occurs. The three issues that have been fiercely argued is the issue of consultancy, CMDship & post of Surgeon-General.
About consultancy, I personally would not have opposed the desire of other professionals within the health sector to become a consultant if the desire for such aspiration is the belief that being a consultant nurse or pharmacist will improve patient’s care but I do have some problems. I have a problem with JOHESU fighting for this as JOHESU where some group of members can never have a curriculum for attaining such status. If it was being fought by bodies such as NANNM, PSN or NSP etc., each body can put forward it’s blueprint, it’s purpose and what it intends to contribute to the health sector and this can be considered, discussed and individualized based on each profession’s peculiarity; Or why should a physiotherapist who is only vast in his field agitate for Nursing consultancy? Or why should an orderly fight for Consultancy status for pharmacists? Why? Has anyone thought about what the nurses or physiotherapists will do should orderlies decide to agitate for consultancy status? Will the FG be told by the populace to accede to their demand too? The other problem I have with it is that many of those agitating for consultancy status ordinarily, without even being a consultant, overstep their boundaries with impunity. Becoming a consultant will not only make them overstep their boundary, they are likely to trample upon the feet of those in the boundary they encroached upon. A nurse who is supposed to provide patient’s case note for ward round & join in the round but prefers to sit at the station will likely not come to work when she becomes a consultant. So they should put their house in order first and then other aspirations can come up. My other problem is the tendency of such status to promote quackery and deceitful therapy to patients. Some non-doctor health workers illegally prescribe medications and operate on patients who are made to believe that they’re being attended to by doctors. Imagine the extent to which such illegality will blossom should they become consultants or bear the name ‘Dr’ within the hospital setting.
About CMDship, one of the grouse of JOHESU is the phrase ‘medically qualified’ included in the requirement for being a CMD. I propose that if it’s causing confusion, it should be changed to ‘medically certified by MDCN’. That is clear enough. They ask for the reason why the post of CMD must be an exclusive preserve of the doctors. Why not?! Why should other bodies agitate for the headship of a hospital? What do they want to do differently that they can’t pass across to the CMD through their head or implement such within their own niche? Have their profession granted them an administrative edge over doctors? As far as Nigeria, at present, is concerned, the post should be reserved for medical doctors. A hospital exists, first because there’s a patient; then secondly, a doctor. Every other person are an ‘addendum’. It is hard to swallow but it is the bitter truth. A man does not leave his house, get in the cab and go to the hospital to see a nurse or a pharmacist or a medical lab scientist. He’s going to see the doctor who now decides if the patient needs nursing care or needs drug or needs to see a physiotherapist or the attention of a social worker or needs to have some tests done in the lab or needs surgery. It is interesting to note that a patient may not even need any of the above personnel or services but just reassurance. Only the doctor can determine that. Only the doctor is so trained to have a broad knowledge about other fields and a deep knowledge about his own field. If a nurse becomes the CMD and a pharmacist approaches him for a policy to be implemented in the pharmacy section of the hospital, chances are that the nurse will not understand how such policy affects the patient as she has been trained almost solely on the art of nursing. She’s likely to protect the interest of her profession. Same scenarios would play out if a pharmacist was the CMD; but a doctor in such a position has considerable knowledge about other fields and as such has significant understanding and appreciation of the workings of each sub sector of the hospital. The post of the CMD goes beyond just administrative.it includes an in-depth understanding of the patient for which the hospital exists in the first place. i must add that not even all doctors can become a CMD in the teaching hospitals. Not without passing through the furnace of residency successfully and even some years after that.
Concerning the post of Surgeon-General, I don’t see Nigeria as yet ripe for such post and I’m certain it’s not a strong reason why the strike has persisted. Given the nature of the Nigerian government and system as a whole, such a post at the moment will be a duplication of role and wastage of resources and so I know if other demands are met save this, all doctors are not likely to go on strike for a long time (maybe for life).
My advice to JOHESU if they must remain amalgamated together is to quit playing the Nigerian type of politics within the health sector and do their job diligently, truthfully and be sincere in their demand and agitations. This will attract respect from the patients, the public and the doctors. We don’t need this unprecedented rife and rivalry in the health sector. It is bad for the patient. Also, they should be proud of their identity and profession and fight against some of their members who pose as doctors- operating on patient, prescribing medications- and assume the management of a patient (things they do based on the supposed experience gained having worked with doctors for a while) only to refer to a hospital when the situation is bad but when they or their relatives take ill, they quickly look for the doctors. They forget that patients are different and management must be individualized. My reason for this advice is that, if government decides to privatize the health sector either fully or partially, everyone will be negatively affected but the least hit will be the doctors. A private hospital owner can decide to employ an auxiliary nurse, private orderlies and security men and technicians. Pharmacy shops are ubiquitous. Private labs will spring up in no time. The doctor is irreplaceable and is licensed to establish his own hospital.
Having said those, I want to correct the erroneous belief that doctors are selfish and fighting for their pockets, a propaganda by JOHESU. While it is true that I’ve seen nurses who spend their resources for patients care, almost all doctors I’ve come across have at one time or the other, even as medical students, use their money to assist a patient. The desire to see a patient get well can be sometimes overwhelming for a doctor at times: doctors donate money for patients, donate blood, go out of their way to make sure blood is provided for patient, goes to the pharmacy to ensure drugs are dispensed, even runs to borrow at the pharmacy when need be, runs to the lab to get sample bottles and return samples to the lab and again return to press for speedy processing and result of the investigation. They plead (&at times quarrel) with nurses, pharmacists & orderlies medical lab scientists all in a bid to make sure patients’ care is optimal. Also, don’t see doctors as wicked when they go on strike. When doctors go on strike, they take nothing from the hospital. They only refuse to come to work. When JOHESU goes on strike, they lock up consulting rooms and keep away the stethoscopes, sphygmomanometers and other devices. The power house technicians refuse to supply electricity even when patients are on life support devices; record officers lock up the case files of patients all in a bid to frustrate the doctor’s effort. When these measures fail to ground the hospital, they coerce the orderlies (where private ones are used) into joining them. They harass doctors and even block the entrance gates of the hospital. Yet, the hospital still manages to function. During the last JOHESU strike, I took and charted patient’s vital signs, gave IV drugs, put up iv fluid, thought the relatives how to make tepid water and tepid sponge and to use the bed pan and I administered medications. Relatives got drugs outside and I managed patients within the confines of my clinical judgment. We may be on strike but many of us still consult patients around us free of charge. We’re not lazy. We only demand sanity. Blame the government. Not the doctors.
I’ll end by saying I hope that one day, the catechist, choristers, altar boys and church wardens won’t one day team up with intent to contest the headship of the parish with the priest of the catholic church .If any of those so desire to head a church, then they must go through the rigours of seminary and the cross of celibacy.

HOW I WON MTN’s AIRPLANE

HOW I WON MTN’s AIRPLANE.

HOW I WON MTN’s AIRPLANE

When pastor prophesied last Sunday, little did I think I could be the focus of that prophesy. “There’s someone here who’ll receive a national surprise this coming week”, he had said.
I was pre-occupied with my chat with a friend at that time. We were arguing about the best church in Nigeria. I’ve become so addicted to ‘2go’ chat application lately that I chat anywhere, except in an exam hall and during vigil (if you remember-my usher friend in https://boloxine.wordpress.com/2012/10/14/the-egusi-soup-that-made-me-cry/ ). I mean anywhere-class, bank, toilet, market, room, car, Church (Sunday and weekday services only where I sit at the far end of the church since worshippers are more) etc. but when I’m chatting in church, it’s always a holy chat like the one with my friend that Sunday-the argument about the best church in Nigeria. That’s a chat you’ll agree is churchy. I think I said Amen to that prophesy anyways. Just that it wasn’t as loud as that of others. When prophesies start to manifest, it’s like magic. If you’ve ever experienced one, you’ll probably understand better. Monday passed with not too significant surprises except that petrol pump price jerked up from N110 to N120 per liter. Even Tuesday was uneventful. The surprise on Wed was not exactly surprising. Dad upped my allowance by 5k. I had told him earlier that I’ll be starting my project work soon and that I’ll need more cash.
The surprise that greeted Thursday was unprecedented in the history of mankind, or that of Nigerians. When the text came in and I read it, I was certain my phone was misbehaving. After switching it off and on again and checked, the message was still there. I removed the battery and put it back. I switched it on, the message was still there. How could I? How could I have won? How could I have won MTN’s airplane. But there was the message, saying “congrats, you’re the lucky winner of MTN’s airplane”. When it dawned on me that the text message had come to stay, I screamed and jumped up from my bed. My neighbours woke up, came around and I told them what happened. “I won’t tell my parents yet, I have to surprise them and no school for me today”, I had thought to myself. “To hell with my lecturers, and even the dean that fixed his lecture for 7:30am and even the university VC”. After all, I might be the first to land a plane on the proposed airport the VC planned constructing on the campus. That should earn me an automatic first class honours degree. All these thoughts and the imagination of being flown around in my own plane were exciting.
My neighbours shouted and screamed, woke the entire street up and before long, the whole street got the gist. “Desmond, the young quiet guy has won an airplane”. I rushed to the nearest shop with one of my neighbours, it was still locked but the woman that owns the place was already outside obviously trying to find out what the whole noise on the street is all about. My neighbour gave her the good news and I told her I came to get as much drinks and snacks as she has in her shop. She opened her shop and we got as much as we could carry. We went back 2 more times with three other neighbours before we could empty her shop of drinks and snacks. While people were jubilating and screaming in front of my house, I told one of my neighbours who has a motorcycle to take me to my bank’s ATM and bring me back. I told him not to bother about the fuel. We’ll fill his tank up while coming back. He obliged. While we were going, all the landlords were on their porch waving at me. Even, the Baale too. I had to empty my account to celebrate it for the whole street. After all, all my expenses will be far too insignificant compared to what awaits me. I withdrew all my money including the new increment for my project. I left N1000 though. That was the minimum balance you can have in Skye bank. I paid for the drinks and snacks I got earlier, bought more from neighbouring shops that are all now open. I went round houses to affirm the good news and drop their drink and snacks.
I even went to the room of my one neighbor that I don’t speak too. I mean the pretty girl that catwalks when she sees me but doesn’t greet me. She only talks to me when she needs a water fetcher to fetch from the well when there’s no light or when the pumping machine is faulty. And that’s even when the other person who has a fetcher in the house is not around. Sometimes, I wish the pumping machine would just pack up and be irreparable and that the other lady that has a drawer would change house so that this girl would come every day to borrow my fetcher (By the way, she’s not as beautiful as my Jane from that my HIV story( https://boloxine.wordpress.com/2012/10/28/my-hiv-status-at-last-im-xxxxtive/ ). She has refused to come out to join in the celebration. She must be proud not to have come to congratulate me. I’m sure news must have reached her. But now she must know my new status. If mountain does not come to Mohammed, Mohammed need not reciprocate that. I went to knock on her door for 3 reasons. One, to drop her drink and snacks in celebration and two, to be sure that she has gotten the news and 3 to affirm the news if she has heard. When she opened the door, she reacted unconcerned. When I told her, she just said congrats with the same expression (who’s disturbing my sleep) with which she opened the door, collected the stuffs and slammed the door. Daughter of Jezebel! It didn’t move me because I knew she’ll understand better when she sees me on TV and on social media.
Friends from far have heard by the time I went back to my room already crowded with well-wishers taking one bottle of drink after another. 15 missed calls from 7 friends. I flashed them back since I didn’t have credit and I had just N90 left on me. I had decided then that anyone that comes will have to hold on for my dad to send me money. And that might just be the following day because by the time I tell him the reason for spending the one he sent earlier, he won’t have a choice. One of my friends, Tony, who stays about 30 min drive away had to come down to confirm the news he had, I was so proud to give him my phone when he demanded to see it so he could read the message. Well-wishers were congratulating me profusely. My room was full at that time. Tony tapped me and requested that I come outside. He then gave me the phone back and said I should read the message again and that I should scroll down, this time. He said he received a similar message earlier. My hands began to shake when he told me that. He encouraged me to go ahead and read the message again. I looked at the screen and scrolled. What I saw was gory. I checked the phone to be sure it’s mine. I checked the time the message was received-6:40 am. I read the message again:
“Congrats, you’re the lucky winner of MTN’s airplane.
Reply this message by sending N1500 GLO credit to this line”
I checked the number that sent me the text, it was a glo line. That was the last thing I could remember until now that all I can see around me seem to be patients in a hospital ward, nurses and doctors. I just hope this is the A&E ward and not the Psycho ward!
The thing about news is that the good ones spread wider. The bad ones spread faster. This write up should have been tagged “how I didn’t win MTN’s Airplane’ or “Why I shouldn’t chat in church” or “Why I should say Amen in church”. It should have been any other thing save what it is. Sorry about the mistake. I don’t think I’m thinking straight. I still got some headaches. I just have a question for myself now: “How do I walk back into my neighbourhood especially with the thought of seeing that jezebel-like neighbor of mine?” Yay! My head!
“Doctoooorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!”

HOW I WON MTN’s AIRPLANE
When pastor prophesied last Sunday, little did I think I could be the focus of that prophesy. “There’s someone here who’ll receive a national surprise this coming week”, he had said.
I was pre-occupied with my chat with a friend at that time. We were arguing about the best church in Nigeria. I’ve become so addicted to ‘2go’ chat application lately that I chat anywhere, except in an exam hall and during vigil (if you remember- my usher-friend from that egusi soup story ). I mean anywhere-class, bank, toilet, market, room, car, Church (Sunday and weekday services only where I sit at the far end of the church since worshippers are more) etc. but when I’m chatting in church, it’s always a holy chat like the one with my friend that Sunday-the argument about the best church in Nigeria. That’s a chat you’ll agree is churchy. I think I said Amen to that prophesy anyways. Just that it wasn’t as loud as that of others. When prophesies start to manifest, it’s like magic. If you’ve ever experienced one, you’ll probably understand better. Monday passed with not too significant surprises except that petrol pump price jerked up from N110 to N120 per liter. Even Tuesday was uneventful. The surprise on Wed was not exactly surprising. Dad upped my allowance by 5k. I had told him earlier that I’ll be starting my project work soon and that I’ll need more cash.
The surprise that greeted Thursday was unprecedented in the history of mankind, or that of Nigerians. When the text came in and I read it, I was certain my phone was misbehaving. After switching it off and on again and checked, the message was still there. I removed the battery and put it back. I switched it on, the message was still there. How could I? How could I have won? How could I have won MTN’s airplane. But there was the message, saying “congrats, you’re the lucky winner of MTN’s airplane”. When it dawned on me that the text message had come to stay, I screamed and jumped up from my bed. My neighbours woke up, came around and I told them what happened. “I won’t tell my parents yet, I have to surprise them and no school for me today”, I had thought to myself. “To hell with my lecturers, and even the dean that fixed his lecture for 7:30am and even the university VC”. After all, I might be the first to land a plane on the proposed airport the VC planned constructing on the campus. That should earn me an automatic first class honours degree. All these thoughts and the imagination of being flown around in my own plane were exciting.
My neighbours shouted and screamed, woke the entire street up and before long, the whole street got the gist. “Desmond, the young quiet guy has won an airplane”. I rushed to the nearest shop with one of my neighbours, it was still locked but the woman that owns the place was already outside obviously trying to find out what the whole noise on the street is all about. My neighbour gave her the good news and I told her I came to get as much drinks and snacks as she has in her shop. She opened her shop and we got as much as we could carry. We went back 2 more times with three other neighbours before we could empty her shop of drinks and snacks. While people were jubilating and screaming in front of my house, I told one of my neighbours who has a motorcycle to take me to my bank’s ATM and bring me back. I told him not to bother about the fuel. We’ll fill his tank up while coming back. He obliged. While we were going, all the landlords were on their porch waving at me. Even, the Baale too. I had to empty my account to celebrate it for the whole street. After all, all my expenses will be far too insignificant compared to what awaits me. I withdrew all my money including the new increment for my project. I left N1000 though. That was the minimum balance you can have in Skye bank. I paid for the drinks and snacks I got earlier, bought more from neighbouring shops that are all now open. I went round houses to affirm the good news and drop their drink and snacks.
I even went to the room of my one neighbor that I don’t speak too. I mean the pretty girl that catwalks when she sees me but doesn’t greet me. She only talks to me when she needs a water fetcher to fetch from the well when there’s no light or when the pumping machine is faulty. And that’s even when the other person who has a fetcher in the house is not around. Sometimes, I wish the pumping machine would just pack up and be irreparable and that the other lady that has a drawer would change house so that this girl would come every day to borrow my fetcher (By the way, she’s not as beautiful as my Jane from that my HIV story. She has refused to come out to join in the celebration. She must be proud not to have come to congratulate me. I’m sure news must have reached her. But now she must know my new status. If mountain does not come to Mohammed, Mohammed need not reciprocate that. I went to knock on her door for 3 reasons. One, to drop her drink and snacks in celebration and two, to be sure that she has gotten the news and 3 to affirm the news if she has heard. When she opened the door, she reacted unconcerned. When I told her, she just said congrats with the same expression (who’s disturbing my sleep) with which she opened the door, collected the stuffs and slammed the door. Daughter of Jezebel! It didn’t move me because I knew she’ll understand better when she sees me on TV and on social media.
Friends from far have heard by the time I went back to my room already crowded with well-wishers taking one bottle of drink after another. 15 missed calls from 7 friends. I flashed them back since I didn’t have credit and I had just N90 left on me. I had decided then that anyone that comes will have to hold on for my dad to send me money. And that might just be the following day because by the time I tell him the reason for spending the one he sent earlier, he won’t have a choice. One of my friends, Tony, who stays about 30 min drive away had to come down to confirm the news he had, I was so proud to give him my phone when he demanded to see it so he could read the message. Well-wishers were congratulating me profusely. My room was full at that time. Tony tapped me and requested that I come outside. He then gave me the phone back and said I should read the message again and that I should scroll down, this time. He said he received a similar message earlier. My hands began to shake when he told me that. He encouraged me to go ahead and read the message again. I looked at the screen and scrolled. What I saw was gory. I checked the phone to be sure it’s mine. I checked the time the message was received-6:40 am. I read the message again:
“Congrats, you’re the lucky winner of MTN’s airplane.
Reply this message by sending N1500 GLO credit to this line”
I checked the number that sent me the text, it was a glo line. That was the last thing I could remember until now that all I can see around me seem to be patients in a hospital ward, nurses and doctors. I just hope this is the A&E ward and not the Psycho ward!
The thing about news is that the good ones spread wider. The bad ones spread faster. This write up should have been tagged “how I didn’t win MTN’s Airplane’ or “Why I shouldn’t chat in church” or “Why I should say Amen in church”. It should have been any other thing save what it is. Sorry about the mistake. I don’t think I’m thinking straight. I still got some headaches. I just have a question for myself now: “How do I walk back into my neighbourhood especially with the thought of seeing that jezebel-like neighbor of mine?” Yay! My head!
“Doctoooorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!”

MY HIV STATUS AT LAST. I’m xxxxtive

MY HIV STATUS AT LAST. I’m xxxxtive.

MY HIV STATUS AT LAST. I’m xxxxtive

MY HIV STATUS AT LAST. I’m xxxxtive.

MY HIV STATUS AT LAST. I’m xxxxtive

MY HIV STATUS AT LAST. I’m xxxxtive.