By being present and participating at social events, offering reward and support with public funds, lavishing praise and attention on key figures in the university and society they won many over. The extreme deprivation that many suffer due to the crises of living in a nation like Nigeria has primed many for manipulation by the few who understand the science and art of power and mass control. The following summarize[s] the reality today:
- The selection process is compromised and candidates are scored before the process begins.
- It starts with populating Senate from Congregation. Union leaders share forms to individuals within their control to join Senate through Congregation.
- They determine who gets to the Council from the Senate and congregation by their control of membership.
- They select acolytes to run for offices at all levels, especially deanship in order to control votes from faculties.
- By these, they determine who represents Senate and congregation in selection committee.
- Strong candidates who are not pliant are either intimidated with management support or offered inducement through promises of promotion of office.
- For [the] fail-safe outcome of the selection process, all key actors are allocated positions and offices in the coming dispensation. All those who participated in the emergence of the immediate past VC were given offices.
It is interesting and instructive that, twenty-one years earlier, Professor B.D. Nwabueze, Minister of Education and Youth Development, during my tenure as vice-chancellor, wrote in his book Crisis and Problems in Education in Nigeria (Spectrum Books, Ibadan, 1995 pp. 14 -15):
There are certainly a good many vice-chancellors who have stood above the pull to identify with their fellow academics. Professor A.B.D.D. Oyediran Vice-Chancellor, University of Ibadan, typifies this group of vice-chancellors. He is a medical scholar with a fine intellect and an uncommon ability to see through a complex problem and bring to it an unravelling illumination. He speaks very little at meetings, but his contributions are always weighty, pointed, principled and well balanced.
Handing Over
I was very disappointed and concerned that my successor as vice-chancellor was not chosen or announced before the end of my tenure. The situation was complicated by the fact that the tenure of the two DVCs was also ending on30 November 1995. As emphasized elsewhere in this book, I have a strong feeling about this dereliction which is against the best interests of the university system. It suggests that the concerned authorities do not have adequate respect for our tertiary institutions. It is a disservice to the nation. In the circumstance, I wrote to request that Professor O. Ojengbede, the provost of the College of Medicine – who was the next most senior official of the university – should see me in the VC’s lodge mid-morning on 1 December 1995. My letter did not indicate any reason or purpose for the request. About a fortnight earlier I had prepared my handing over notes to which I had attached the reports prepared, on my request, by the principal officers and the director of works.
When Ojengbede arrived, I handed my letter to him, asking him to takeover the running of the university, as well as my handing over notes and the attachments. He then told me that he had been surprised when, on his way to see me, he had received two letters from Protessor Iya Abubakar, the pro-chancellor and chairman of Council. One was addressed to him and copied to me, directing that he should takeover as acting vice-chancellor; the other was a copy of a letter addressed to me, directing me to hand over to him. I was seeing the two letters for the first time. My copies were delivered to me in the lodge later that afternoon. I told Ojengbede that the correspondence from me and the pro-chancellor were complementary.
Therefore, I spoke to my handing over notes as he read them and, thereafter, he departed. Tola and I had already moved our belongings out of the lodge. She was to go ahead to our Iyaganku home. I was to join her after my meeting with Ojengbede to celebrate her birthday. As she was leaving, about an hour before Ojengbede arrived, the telephone rang. We were given the wonderful news of the safe delivery in Lagos that morning, by our youngest daughter, of our third grandson and fifth grandchild!
FOURTEEN
NATIONAL HEALTH MATTERS
My thirty-five-year career in the public service of Nigeria was spent at the University College Hospital, Ibadan and the University of Ibadan. In addition, I had direct involvement with the Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH) at different periods over the years. The first was from 1970 to 1974 when, at the instance of my boss, Professor Lucas, I served on the Expert Committee, Nigeria National Council for Health. I have a vivid recollection of only one of the several meetings of the committee which I attended. On the outbreak of the 1971 pandemic of cholera, an emergency meeting was convened to advise on the policy to adopt in respect of ‘holy water’ which pilgrims regularly brought back from the Middle East. I thought the discussions were heavily influenced by political rather than medical scientific considerations. My lasting impression was that the committee did not achieve much.
First Economic Commission for Africa Seminar on the Human Environment
Sometime in 1971, in the absence of the more senior members of the department of PSM, I had to comply with an urgent request from the FMOH for a paper on the human environment. At that time, I was deeply engrossed in research on schistosomiasis, including almost daily field trips to Epe, as well as radiologic, renographic and other studies on affected patients which were carried out in Ibadan. I really was not interested in much else but I had to create time to produce the paper for the FMOH. I was very surprised when, about a week later, I was informed that I would be on the Nigerian delegation to the First All Africa Seminar on the Human Environment in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia by the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA). The seminar was intended to sensitize African countries and achieve a continental consensus on the issues which were to be discussed at the first global conference held in Copenhagen in 1972. There were more surprises to come. We were literally boarding the airplane at Ikeja on the outbound journey when I learnt that I was the leader of the delegation! Then, just before the start of the opening ceremony, a very pleasant Ethiopian gentleman approached me where I was seated and, after we exchanged greetings, requested that I should write my name for him. It turned out that he was the host minister who, in keeping with usual \protocol, was elected chairman of the seminar. On his nomination, I was elected the first vice-chairman. Because he was often busy with other official matters, and the Senegalese who was elected the second vice-chairman often requested that I should carry on, I ended up presiding over most of the sessions of the seminar. I was not impressed by the FMOH’s preparation for that important seminar. For me, it was a great challenge, and an interesting learning experience in the management of diplomats and politicians who often ignored time limits, and spoke on their pet topics rather than on the issues on the table.
Disease Notification
In mid-1986, an epidemic of yellow fever started in Oju Local Government Area of Benue State, and spread to neighbouring areas. Professor Ransome-Kuti, the Federal Minister of Health, setup a task force, which he chaired, to deal with the outbreak which lasted till 1990, and affected 19 of the 21 states of Nigeria. In March 1987, the minister asked me to go and investigate an alleged spread of the outbreak to Ogbomoso in Oyo State, and submit a report within 48 hours. I complied and not only confirmed the outbreak but also found evidence that one of the hospitals in the town had notified the local government health office six months earlier, but the information was not passed on to the state or federal authorities. The minister decided to upgrade the task force to a National Technical Advisory Committee on Epidemic Diseases (NTACED), and appointed me its chairman. Other members of the committee included Professor o. Tomori, Dr. A. O. Asagba, Dr. A. Nasidi, Dr. H. C. M. Van Vliet (WHO epidemiologist), Dr. O. O. Ojo and others, representing some divisions of the FMOH, state ministries of health, the medical corps of the armed forces, police and so on. The committee set to work immediately to contain the outbreak through a combination of several strategies including investigation, confirmation, management and mapping of cases, anti-vector measures and health education. We met regularly to receive reports from the states of the federation and take necessary action. At the end of each meeting, I briefed and submitted a report to the minister. During one of such briefing, I remarked that it was difficult to combat yellow fever when there were no functional procedures for disease notification. He retorted that the committee should deal with the deficiency.
The committee took up the challenge, constituted itself into four teams to visit the four health zones of the country. It drew up questionnaires which the teams would use to collect information on the disease notification systems being used by the government health institutions at the local and state levels, as well as by missionary and private hospitals. Among other things, we found twenty-two different forms in use in various parts of the country, with inevitable overlap in some places. The vast majority of those who were supposed to fill the forms did not understand them, their purpose or importance. The forms were not being filled diligently and, on many occasions, the figures entered were arbitrary and bore no relationship to reality. Even when completed, the forms were submitted or forwarded to the appropriate health office, the latter often dumped them wherever they pleased, made no use of the data, and did not relay information to the state or federal offices. In the light of the findings, the committee designed a new uniform system of disease notification for the country, which was discussed and suitably amended at a national conference attended by representatives of the federal and state ministries of health, medical schools, health research institutes, the armed forces and police, as well as private individual and institutional medical practitioners. The final version was approved by the National Council on Health, comprising the federal minister and the state commissioners of health. The committee organized training workshops on the new system at each of the four health zones for staff of the state and local governments, the armed forces, police and private practitioners.
The new two-track system (DSN) comprised: immediate notification of the occurrence of any and all cases of nine epidemic-prone diseases or an epidemic outbreak of any disease or condition, and routine monthly notification of all cases of all diseases and conditions. Two forms, DSN-001 and DSN-002 were produced for immediate and routine notification, respectively. Immediate notification was to be sent to the state and federal ministries of health by the quickest means available (telephone, radiophone or courier) and the completed DSN-001 form submitted to the appropriate health institution in the local government area (LGA), through the state ministry of health (SMOH), to the Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH). For routine notification, DSN-002 form was to be completed by each health facility at the end of each month, and submitted to the appropriate LGA health office for collation.