Martins Emeje is a Professor of Pharmacy and the current Director-General, Nigerian Natural Medicine Development Agency (NNMDA). In this interview with SEGUN KASALI, he shares his life story, among other issues.
As a teacher’s son, what was your ambition?
Most of us who were children of primary school teachers never thought of becoming something because someone is something. You just go to school with your parents even when you are not mature enough to start school. My father was a primary school headmaster at Local Education Authority Primary School, Enjema in then Benue State (present Kogi State). Then, it was a big issue to be a primary school teacher not to even talk of the headmaster. We have always stayed in quarters even though it was in the village. I followed my dad everywhere because he was always being transferred from one place to another. But, as we matured, you now started saying I wanted to become an engineer like I wanted to be a pilot when I was in primary school.
How did a village boy see being a pilot as a career?
This is a very good question. There were two things we did in the village as primary school children. There was this white bird, cow egret, locally called ‘lekeleke’ and you know there is a particular time of the season that you see them around. Now, while they are flying in the sky, we come out and shake our hands in the air like birds, chanting ‘Lekeleke, give me your finger,’ and you will thereafter see some white marks on your fingers. Now when I look back, I always wonder what happened. Two, whenever we see an aircraft in the sky with a white trail, they tell us that the said aircraft were carrying human beings. So, my ambition at that time was to pilot an aeroplane so that I could take people up.
But you ended up being a pharmacist?
At home then, there was no hospital. I was not born in the hospital; I was born at home. My father was one of the most educated people, but traditional medicine was what was affordable and accessible to our people at that time. As it was then, so it is up till today. What the people in the village can afford and access is traditional medicine. So, growing up, there was no sickness I had that my dad or my mum did not fetch herbs for in the backyard. They cut different types of herbs, clean them, put them in clay pots and cook. By the time brown liquid is popping out of the pot, you will given to drink and such sickness is gone. Without those things, I wouldn’t be alive today. And as I am talking to you today, many children in the villages are surviving because of traditional medicine. And from that time, I wanted to be a doctor because anyone we see giving out medicine then was a doctor. So, it was while in secondary school that we began to hear that people who make the medicine are different from the people who administer injections. While those administering injections are called doctors, those who make those medicines are called pharmacists. So, I then changed my ambition to become a pharmacist because I wanted to make medicines.
You must be brilliant then?
Right from my primary school education level to the PhD level, I was never number three in academic ranking. And you know, it was a privilege being a child of a headmaster. If you were, you would be respected and looked up to by the children of others. When I was in primary school, one of my father’s contemporaries was even the speaker of the Benue State House of Assembly, Mr Reuben of blessed memory. The children of the teachers were seen as privileged children because the respect the country had for teachers then was enormous. They treated teachers specially. So, if you are now a child of a headmaster, you would be rated differently.
Differently?
Yes. Let me give you an instance. There is something called handcraft, which is what you use your hand to make. They usually use agricultural produce to make those things, and it is graded as part of your continuous assessment. But children of the headmaster will not do such. I think the children of teachers were also exempted. Your other classmates knew that you were lucky not to have been a participant. I think that was the major privilege that one got. Other things were not privileges but for me, demerits.
How?
If you come late to school and other kids are getting two strokes of cane, you will get four, because you are the child of a teacher. In our time, your punishment is double as the child of a teacher if you commit any offence. Number two is you cannot fight in a duel or brawl if you are the child of a teacher. If you fight, you will be fished out on the assembly ground in the morning and two students will be mandated to hold you; one will hold your two hands while the other will hold your two legs and they will use a cane made from a stick to flog you seriously.
Did you have this experience?
No. I never fought. There was no time for that.
What is your unforgettable experience?
The only thing I can never forget because it has moulded my life is the family. What I cannot forget is my father cooking for me. This is because I grew up in a society where I know that men don’t cook but command their wives to cook. Yet, I saw my father cooking for me whenever my mum travelled. And I am saying this because my wife knows even though she sees it as a disadvantage. She knows that I have never told her to go and cook. Once I am hungry and even though she mistakenly hesitates, I have already gone to the kitchen to cook for everybody including her. All my children grew up with that. Nobody waits for anybody.
So, your dad infused that value in you?
Let me also tell you this; my father was my roommate in the university. And for the years he stayed in the university while I studied Pharmacy; he cooked food for me throughout.
You mean your dad was also in school while you were?
Yes, he was also a student studying Education. It was a wonderful experience being in the same school and hostel with my dad.
Wonderful!
Yes. That is why I am unable to forget that he just departed. I don’t think there is any trait I have that is not from my dad because he was my closest friend. And he had an NCE. He started teaching as a Grade 2 teacher. While I got admission to study Pharmacy, he got admission to study Social Studies Education in Zaria.
How did you handle social life in the university?
No, I did not have a social life and this does not have anything to do with my dad. It was not even because of Christianity but my course of study. Most people who study pharmacy do not have a social life.
Does it suffice to say your dad’s presence in the university shaped your performance?
Yes, it did. This is because I was not among the students who go back home to look for food. I was not among those who cooked food at home. This was because my dad did those things for me except when he went on holiday. So, his presence had a positive impact on my studies in school, but it was not the reason I was a top graduate from the school because I did not become intelligent in the university. In primary and secondary school and the university, I was never number two.
So, you had no relationship in the university?
No. And it was not because of my dad. At one point, I wanted to be a priest. And as a reverend father, you will not have a girlfriend. I was the president of Catholic Pharmacy Students. So, I was the one in charge of the fellowship. I was the one telling students they should not have girlfriends. I was the one who told students it was a sin and one would go to hell if one did that. I was a virgin throughout my university.
Weren’t you seen as a daddy’s boy in the university?
Oh no! They did not even know my dad was around. It was only my roommate that knew my dad was. As I am talking to you now, many of my classmates would be surprised when they hear this because they never knew. And only my roommate knew because he was my best friend and also became my best man during my wedding ceremony.
How did you meet your wife then?
It was in the church. I saw her and I knew that was my wife. Whenever I was on break in the university, I used to teach in a secondary school free of charge. The best student in Chemistry and Biology was Micheal Egwu and he became my friend. His father was the most senior pastor in charge of all the pastors in the United Evangelical Church. The day I went to his house for the first time was when I saw her at the entrance of the church. I got to know later that it was choir practice that was going on. When I saw this girl, I asked Michael who the girl was. I did not know she was Michael’s immediate elder sister. So, I told the brother she looked like my wife and that was all. I did not even ask her to be my girlfriend honestly because I did not know how to tell anybody to be my girlfriend. Up till today, I have never told any girl to be my girlfriend. This was because I didn’t even know how to do it. I don’t know how to look at a girl and say come and be my girlfriend. But my wife and I became friends, just like I did with everyone in the family. And it wasn’t because of her that made me visit the house often. But one day while they were seeing me off, I told her Michael, her brother, had been coming to our house and asked when she would come to visit me at home. She said she would come. So, she came with her brother once and we became friends.
You never told her to be your girlfriend?
Yes, I never did. It just happened naturally. One afternoon, I told her ‘won’t you get married?’ She queried why I asked that kind of question. I said it was because I was thinking of marriage and whenever it is time to marry, I would like to marry my friend. I then told her she was the only friend I had.
Which of your children is taking after you?
I have four children. When I see my children refuse to be cowed from saying what is on their mind, I used to tell myself to calm down because ‘that is what you used to do o’. And I see it in everybody, including the girl among them.
How would you describe your personality?
I am a proud village man who is 100 per cent indigenous and trained. I am in love with this country and I have been given the opportunity to serve.
Looking back, is there anything that still breaks you down?
The only thing that is my pain and that I am unable to remove is that my father died. And it may sound stupid to anybody who hears this from me. It is not that I don’t know that man will die or that I will die. I think it is more acceptable to me that I died than to see my father die.
As DG of NNMDA, you mentioned having indigenous hospitals. What is the plan?
Yes. I plan to have indigenous hospitals in the 774 local governments in the country. If I do not create a hospital to harness and utilise the things that made me survive, I will be a failure. And it will be the greatest achievement of this government. Importation can never change our healthcare delivery system.
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