The LUTH management has finally succumbed to the National Industrial Court of Nigeria(NICN) judgement in favour of Dr Olusola Adeyelu. In her later dated 15/05/17 with reference number PSC/5686/30, signed by Fakeye O.O. (JP),the Assistant Director(HRM) ,on behalf of the Director of Administration, the LUTH management acknowledges the receipt of the certified true copy of the NICN judgement and hence lifts the earlier suspension imposed on the heroic Dr Adeyelu on 7th February 2017 through a letter with reference number PSC/5686/29. The letter lifting Dr adeyelu’s suspension was chanelled to him through the Head of the Medicine Department, LUTH.

 

In the said letter, the LUTH management claims to have restored all the withheld emoluments of Dr Adeyelu. There is no doubt that Dr Adeyelu has blazed a trail in the area of enforcement of  a resident doctor’s fundamental human rights in line with s.46 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic Of Nigeria (CFRN) as amended. It is crystal clear that Dr Olusola Adeyelu has touched the tail of a poisonous snake by not only taking the ‘almighty’ management of LUTH to court but also winning them in such a humiliating manner. The fear in many quarters now is that since the management was able to stop Dr Adeyelu’s Part two exam midway despite the fact that no law enforceable in Nigeria empowers anybody to stop a registered candidate from taking part in an examination, the management may allegedly influence the subjective part of the next part two exam Dr Adeyelu will participate in. 

 

This is important because every medical examination has a written part( which is objective hence devoid of any personal sentiments) and an oral/clinical part which is very subjective hence if the set of examiners assigned to him is loyal to LUTH management,then there is no way Dr Adeyelu can satisfy them .The subjectivity of oral/clinical medical examinations are global,even the award-winning American Neurosurgeon,Ben Carson, avoided some interviews by the Press after his heroic 1987 surgery ,the reason he gave was that he was still going to face some examiners in his pursuit for professorship hence granting such interviews might bias the minds of his examiners, making them to fail him no matter his performance. This is in line with the First Law of Power by Greene which states that one should not outshine the master.

 

Concerning the laws governing the conduct of examinations in Nigeria, If a candidate is not eligible for an examination, then the examination body will not allow the candidate to register for the examination and once a candidate is registered he is assumed to have qualified to write the examination. However, if the ineligibility of such candidate is found later when the exam has begun, that candidate will be allowed to complete the examination while the result will be withheld pending the outcome of further investigation into the alleged illegibility of the candidate. The only condition a candidate can be stopped from continuing with an exam is when it is found out that the candidate is being impersonated.

This fear by many is important because the management of LUTH had boasted earlier that Dr Olusola Adeyelu ‘has few months to stay in LUTH’.The management went down memory lane to tell the world that Dr Adeyelu spent 12 years to study a 6-year course as an undergraduate. It is still  a subject of litigation whether the number of months Dr Adeyelu was on suspension would count for his period of Residency training or not. 

 

Also, Dr Adeyelu needs more time to recover from the psychological trauma of stopping him in the middle of  his last professional examination which he spent about two years to prepare. Health analysts are now expressing worry that since LUTH lost in the court,the management can do anything humanly possible to frustrate Dr Adeyelu in his Residency Training as a deterrent to other junior doctors who may want to approach the court in the nearest future. Victimization of students is not new in Nigerian universities and other establishments. We are all aware how the so-called VC boys would be writing down the names of students participating in a protest while the protest was ongoing. The list when submitted to the VC would ensure that the affected students were either rusticated over ‘gross misconduct’ or frustrated in their studies through ‘missing scripts syndrome’.

 

Just recently, a group of anti-abortion student group sued a Californian professor over speech. Can that happen in Nigeria without victimizing the students involved? Of course no, the lucky ones among the students in the group must spend extra years in school while the unlucky ones will never graduate because they will keep on writing a particular course taught by the professor or the professor’s friend(s). 

The whole world is watching whether Dr Adeyelu will be subjected to further psychological trauma through victimization in his remaining professional examination. The whole world is also watching how  the defeated LUTH management intends to exit him from the Residency training on account of overstay caused by managerial manipulations.

 

Meanwhile, while Dr Olusola Adeyelu is celebrating,one of his colleagues,Dr Orji Innocent,is still passing through similar ordeal at FMC Umuahia and all entreaties seem to have failed for the management to reinstate him. He is passing through this psychological trauma while his white wedding is few days from now. He is the current president of the Association of Resident Doctors (ARD) FMC Umuahia. In his own case,the management suspended him through a text message while he was on the dancing floor with his bride on the day of his traditional wedding.No query was given to him before his suspension.The matter was still pending before a court of competent jurisdiction as the time of filing this report.It is evident from the way things are going in the medical profession in Nigeria that many junior doctors are now approaching the court to enforce their fundamental human rights.

By Josephine Ogochukwu,Lagos