APLOMB

I almost ended up as a garage boy —Reps member

Dr Adesola Adedayo is a member representing Apapa Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives and former chairman of Apapa/Iganmu Local Council Development Area (LCDA). He shared life story with TUNDE ADELEKE.

What is your view on the exodus of health practitioners and how do you think we can stem the tide?

Well, we are losing doctors in droves, nurses, lab scientists and others in the health sector. This is not good for a nation because this category of people is essential. They are what I would describe as essential service providers because the health of the people is so important that it’s used as an index of how well a country is doing. So, even if we don’t have personnel to manage equipment, it’s useless. For instance, a scanning machine, no matter how good, cannot work on its own. We need human beings to operate it and that’s the category of people we are losing and we are not even losing the new ones, we are losing the experienced ones, and that’s really sad. I don’t have a problem with ‘Japa’, – the people leaving the country because it’s been there all over, but the level of their movement is what is worrisome. Unless we stem it, our health system will collapse and we will be left with quacks. That’s not good enough for a nation of 200 million people.

What are the specifics?

I have thought about it over time and I think the best thing to do is to sit down and organise a stakeholders forum. Initially, I have contacted people who are higher than me to intimate them of the challenges we are facing and I suggested that maybe we should do something similar to what they did in the education sector when lecturers were leaving the universities. Let’s put these people on a special scale, they are not the only ones to be put on a special scale, people who work in the Central Bank, people who work in NNPC, people who work in a certain category in the military, we don’t even know their salaries. So, let’s put them on a special scale, let’s give them health services professional scale. It is not all of them that want to leave the country, but if we don’t remunerate them appropriately, we would lose them to those nations that appreciate their services.

How do other countries do it?

In England, for example, I can’t remember precisely now, but the number keeps on ballooning everyday, we keep on losing doctors, nurses, lab scientists, even physiotherapists to countries who have better health plans than us. And unfortunately for us, it takes a very long time to train these people. It is a drain on us, it’s like we have a leaking roof, it’s as if we are working and when it’s time to get returns on our investments, it disappears into thin air. Laws cannot stop people from moving, it’s the conditions that we set, that will make them stay. Some people are very content. If they see that the salary is good, they can live well, they can afford a car, they can have a house and send their children to school, they will stay behind. And I think that we should go back to the era of car loans – give health professionals car loans – let them have access to a mortgage, let them have access to schools where their children can go. I know even people in the diaspora, they love this country, they would want to come back. But when we have conditions that have been operating in the last eight to 10 years, you can’t blame anybody for leaving.

I am confident that it can be reversed if we sit down to find solutions. If I give you the picture of what is really happening in many of our tertiary institutions – the teaching hospitals – they are short staffed at the level of medical practitioners. You can imagine the whole University College Hospital, Ibadan for example and picture the situation there.

Is it not time to allow traditional medical practitioners to come to the rescue?

I am sure that Lagos State has a well established trado-medical practice that is backed by law and I am not against trado-medical practice at all. All I just want them to do is for us to make it scientific, let’s know what we are taking, what’s the dosage, what are the side effects. After all, most medicines are from herbs. It’s only recently that we began to synthesize in the lab, most of these things are from herbs. I remember in the university at that time when Professor Salako was teaching us pharmacology, there is a herb ‘ewe asofeyeje’ which contains lisinopril that lowers blood pressure. It also contains something that can douse mental illness. If somebody is really mad and you give the person ewe asofeyeje as a herbal drink, the person will return to normalcy.Traditional medicine is an industry that is in billions of dollars. We keep on importing traditional medicine from China, why can’t we sit down, analyse some of the herbs that we have, work on them scientifically, and make them into tablets.

How were your growing up years?

I was born in 1954 and my childhood was in Osogbo and Lagos. Initially, my parents were very comfortable, but by the time I grew up, they had lost their wealth because of my father’s illness. He was treated at Ogbomoso Baptist Medical Centre at that time and the only thing they were giving him was Mist-mag, but they had to stay there near the doctor.

I didn’t spend much time with him. Then I started schooling at the Holy Trinity Primary School here in Lagos Island in 1960. After a while, I was taken to Iludun-Oro in Kwara State to continue my primary education. I started in 1963 there in Primary 3 and finished in 1966. I was living with the traditional head of the town for the most part of my primary school. The family system had not broken down as it is now; I had one elder brother and an elder sister.

Later, when I gained admission into secondary school, there was a community school between two communities – Esie and Iludun – the school was in the middle. So, I started there in 1967 as a day student because my father could not afford putting me in a boarding house. So, I lived with the traditional head of the town popularly known as Baale. Going to the farm and all those things helped me a lot. I came back to Lagos after I finished secondary school in 1971.

Did you go to university straight away?

I worked briefly at the Federal Ministry of Defence. But when I got there and saw that if you’re not educated, you can’t move up, I had a rethink. I was a clerical staff member. I was inspired when I saw graduates and they were in charge. So decided to go to the College of Tech for my A’ Levels and entered the college in 1973. I was successful in college and later gained admission to the University of Ibadan in 1974 and finished in 1979.

When did active politicking begin?

In 1999, I wasn’t interested in politics much because I didn’t believe the military was sincere that they were going to leave. But I was interested in politics and I kept on supporting the progressives, from AD, AC, ACN, all along, I was supporting them. In 2003, I wanted to be chairman of the Apapa, but I was not successful. In 2008, I was successful and I became the chairman of Apapa/Iganmu Local Council Development Area. I had two terms of three years each and after that, I was a council member of the University of Ilorin. From there, I became a member representing Apapa in the House of Representatives in the 10th National Assembly. I am a politician and a pastor, I am a zonal pastor of The Redeemed Christian Church of God.

How did you meet your wife?

I met my wife between 1979 and 1980. She is the younger sister of a friend. We were very close friends. My wife was then a student of Mayflower School, Ikenne, and we were friends for almost five years. I had to wait for her until she graduated. I finished medical school in 1979, I didn’t get married until 1983 because I was waiting for her. She also wanted to study medicine, but I discouraged her because I thought both of us should not be doctors. She eventually studied pharmacy at the University of Benin. We got married at Holy Trinity Church, Ebute Ero, in December, 1983.

Any pranks as a youth?

I was very rascally. That’s even one of the reasons they had to take me from Lagos to the village. I used to be a bus conductor in those days. We used to live at Number 40, Luther Street, near Ite Eleye in Lagos Island. If not because my parents were from Kwara and they took us home, nobody would have convinced me I am from Kwara. I remember during Ileya festivals, I would follow the rams of our neighbours to Tafawa Balewa Square where they would engage them in fight. I didn’t know what happened on a particular day, I went to TBS and slept there, I didn’t return home until the following day. Of course, my parents became worried by the time I got home the following day. That was one of the reasons they decided that I had to be taken back home. I think it was good they made that decision because I would have ended up as a garage boy if they did not do that.

As a medical doctor, politician and pastor, do you have time to unwind?

Initially, I wasn’t keen. But when my children came back from England, they encouraged me to do exercises and I have been doing them since the first one graduated in 2008. Until recently, I used to jog around here in Magodo every morning, about seven kilometres daily, four times a week.

I do a lot of reading. Even today, I picked up books and the constitution to read some portions of them. Though I am not a lawyer, at least, I would be able to have an idea when discussions are going on at the House. I love to exercise and I love reading. If you leave me in this house for one month, I won’t go out. That has been very helpful, and my children have been very good at encouraging me to read books. I relax a lot with reading and I also read the Bible, go to prayer meetings and the likes. I am not a sociable person. I no longer enjoy parties.

READ ALSO FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE