They have said Medicine is charity. Well, so is para-medicine– unless they do the Devil's work on that side of the divide. But to put things in perspective, Medicine is a humanitarian service. And that is why we donate money for patients, even blood! What more can one ask of us?: That we kúkú do not make a living? Abaa! There is God o...

 

They have said Consultants don't do anything. Please ask them why they so want to be consultants. So they too won't do anything? Well, while it is true that Consultants run their clinics once a week, the surgeons have a theatre day another once a week, and they all have a ward-round day another once or twice a week. So, coupled with their teaching under- and postgraduate medics, how can they possibly not do anything?

 

They have said House Officers don't teach! Well, they teach us Medical Students. And they are the reason we pass: they come down to our level, teach us all the tricks in the books, and the answers to all the choicest questions our Ògá's love to ask. And nurses too learn from them– If their egomania will allow them admit. But then, why do these people say stuff they know nothing about?

 

They have said Doctors travel out to become orderlies and nurses. Please ask them to get their facts straight...

 

We say...

Currently, hazard allowance is 5 000 naira for all health staff (those who receive it) in Teaching Hospitals irrespective of status– both doctors and non-clinical staff. Do they face the same hazard? Don't you think the Cleaner who cleans up blood and vomit of patients should get more hazard allowance than the administrative staff who sits in an air-conditioned office till the close of work? Yet that of university lecturers is said to be 30 000; and if we talk, we too like money...

 

The developed countries they keep referring to have maintained the hierarchy and status-relativity in their health system. If JOHESU wins this lobby, one day in Nigeria: Court clerks will ask to be Judges– after all, they are graduates; Police will ask to be Chief of Defence Staff, or are they not part of the sector?; the Chemist can answer Pharmacist, don't they both deal in chemicals?; the auxiliary nurse can ask to be Chief Matron– after all, she has 30-year experience; a recruit soldier can ask to be General after fighting several battles...

 

Nobody is looking down on any profession. They all have their relevance and limits.

 

And it is perhaps on that last note that I should remind you that I am yet a bloody Medical Student after "spending nine years for a six-year course". But, that "until [I] become a fully certified medical doctor, [my] contributions in this debate are rather unwelcomed"– as they have said– in a country where there is freedom of opinion, and of speech, and in an academic environment, is to become arrogant, egocentric, delusional, and maniacal– as they have also said, even one who graduated in 2012, seven years after I entered for a six-year course.

 

One of the defining moments of this struggle for me was an article by a JOHESU member analysing the 24-point agenda of the NMA strike, and concluding– erroneously, of course, as I have shown in the foregoing– that only one holds water: "the endless circles of incomplete salary payment to our members in many hospitals in the name of short falls in personal cost must stop". It was for me the height of mischief and hypocrisy, and I will explain...

 

The writer felt having a Surgeon-General as is done in other climes will lead to anarchy since it will be a position accessible only to Doctors, and since, according to him, other professionals will want to have Generals too– as is not done in other climes. Yet he fails to see how having multiple consultants will likewise lead to anarchy– and for the same reason...

 

Concerning skipping of levels on the Civil Service Scheme, he wrote that one's entry point is "based on the number of years one spends in school. Those who spend four years have their entry point as level 8, Those that spend five years on level 9, Those that spend five years with one year of internship on level 10, [permit me to include this at this point: Those that spend six years on level 11– If there was one] while those that spend six years with one year internship on level 12."

 

The untold part of the story is that there is no level 11 in the Nigerian Civil Service Scheme and as such paramedics move from levels 10 to 12 at some point in their careers. But since Doctors enter at level 12, they are denied that privilege. In the name of fairness and equity and justice that JOHESU has been singing, why then shouldn't Doctors enter at level 13 to make up for the promotion everyone else gets? But no, to JOHESU the House Officer is a "neophyte, a green horn," deserving of nothing– not even the acclaimed fairness and equity and justice!

 

And when you consider that unlike other courses that manage to throw out their students (nearly) on schedule, Medicine holds onto you until she deems you safe enough to save lives and salvage destinies, so that one ends upon spending an unknown number of years overtime, isn't the purpose of entering ahead of others defeated when one still enters at level 12– or 13? Yet, when we say these, we ask for too much from our high horses...

 

And for me, the whole purpose of JOHESU is summarised in this rather pathetic reasoning: "...within the next ten years of a doctor starting work, he can get to the zenith of his career[;] which work will he be doing? And when most of our consultants are part time doctors because they work and have Clinics days only once a week."

 

Now you know why they want to be consultants and CMDs; why PS of Ministries of Health is not enough; why they beef us so much. Yet we are the ones on the high horse?

 

I only hope everyone realises that this too shall pass eventually, however it ends. That we will yet work in the same hospitals, the oppressor and the oppressed alike. That one must be mindful of the way he shuts the door, lest he shivers when he finds he needs the same door on his way out. And that anger brings out the pride in one; so that one is not as humble as he writes, nor as proud.

 

Truth is, we have all been toying with the truth.

 

By Ayokunle Ayk Fowosire.

Sagamu.

 

Click to read: Part 1