A Rejonider to Dr Paul John’s “Clarion Call to save Dr Angela Uwakwem and her Family”

 

With recent brilliant exploits, displays of gallantry and greater dedication than ever  on the part of the Nigerian Police, it is crystal clear to all Nigerians that the Nigerian Police has evolved from the Mungo Park age policing, to the computer age practice in which trial and error has no place, because it has been replaced by accuracy and precision borne out of serious and tedious intelligence and hardwork. It is therefore highly unfair that anyone, in an attempt to attract undue sympathy for an embattled colleague should resort to the use of derogatory words to describe the Nigerian police.

 

The clause “If Nigeria were a place where security agents do their work professionally” did not only demean everyone who is at the helm of security affairs in Nigeria, but it also presents the writer as someone pointing with a left hand while describing his family house – Nigeria.

 

While I chose not to make much comment on the issue of the arrest and prosecution of Dr (Mrs) Angela Uwakwem, simply because I believe same is being handled by appropriate authorities and I trust their expertise, I want to call the attention of the writer to the fact that Nigerian Police is no more what it used to be. The call on the Inspector General of Police to arrest and detain everyone who recently wrote petition against the embattled MD is an attempt to draw the Nigerian police back to the ancient day policing in Nigeria in which arrests are made at random. The age in which a bank will be robbed by armed robbers, only for the police to come with siren two hours later to arrest passers-by is gone for good. Nigerian police is now operating based on intelligence gathering rather  than trial and error which have in times past led to many Nigerians being innocently detained, which is against the rule that “it is better for many criminals to go unpunished than for one innocent citizen go be wrongly punished”

 

The call on the Inspector General of Police is no other thing but an attempt at silencing anyone who may in the future want to raise alarm whenever there is any form of misappropriation or other forms of financial crimes. This kind of call if yielded to, will rubbish the whistle-blower policy of the federal government of Nigeria. No one will be ready to blow any whistle if previous whistle-blowers are made to explain whatever happens further to the object of the whistle blowing even when it is unconnected with the issues raised against the suspect.

 

The call made by the writer is far from what logical reasoning can offer. If this call for arbitrariness is being yielded to, then the next time any group of people writes a petition or protest about the attitude of any officer, he can then plan a propaganda: arrange for his own kidnap, or that of any of his nuclear family members, then the next thing will be for him to call on the Inspector General of Police to effect the arrest of everyone involved in the protest or petitioning. If I may ask, where then is the place of fundamental human right, and of what relevance is the freedom of information bill? Should this happen, will someone still be able to proudly say we are practicing democracy in Nigeria? It is the right of the people to stage peaceful protests, or to petition relevant body if any form of maladministration or abuse of office is perceived. Any attempt to discourage citizens from exercising this right will only reduce our democracy to that which was practiced in the Animal Farm – All animals are equal but some are more equal than the others. It is important that someone be reminded that this is not a military rule where anarchy  and autocracy is the order of the day. Nigerians are now becoming more aware of their rights. This is evident in the recent attempt to recall an elected representative of the people from the legislative house. Whether or not it is done in good faith is not the concern here, but to point to the fact tha people are now more aware of their rights and are willing to exercise it more than ever before. Nigeria Police, along with other agencies in Nigeria, is advancing, we are awaiting the time when Physicians in Nigeria will join the train rather than draw us back by calling for arbitrariness.

 

The writer, rather than listening to himself, is just interested in playing the devil’s advocate without minding the high level of contradiction being displayed in his presentation. Imagine someone who is calling on the Inspector General of Police to arrest and maltreat those who recently wrote petition against Dr Angela Uwakwem, the same writer condemned in its entirety, the removal of the embattled MD from office for the purpose of preventing her from tampering with evidence. While he expected that the court should hear the MD out before removing her from office, he was calling for a trailer load of police to brutalise those who wrote petition against the MD without having listened to them. What a contradiction! While it is understood that, to be a good devil’s advocate, one needs to close his mind to every fact, objectivity and reality, this notwithstanding, I think such write-ups should then be given out to someone who is of sound mind to proof-read in order to prevent innocent readers from being misled or misinformed. For allowing this malicious piece to come out for unsuspecting Nigerians to read, I think all reasonable Nigerians deserve an apology from Dr Paul John who from henceforth I will be more comfortable to address as “Paul” for the sake of convenience.

 

In an attempt to paint the devil in an angelic colour, Paul alleged that FMC Owerri workers were after the embattled MD due to her intolerance for indolence, truancy and acts of indiscipline at work. Should this laughable explanation be taken to be true, it then follows that out of all the Teaching hospitals and Federal Medical Centres in the country, FMC Owerri is the only lucky one to have a dedicated and disciplined MD in the person of Dr Angela Uwakwem. This is because workers are not calling for removal of her colleagues in other teaching hospitals and federal medical centres. We may then do good to conclude that all the acts of indiscipline falsely attributed to FMC Owerri workers by Paul  have become the order of the day in all other hospitals, and the MDs/CMDs have been condoning it – a reason for the calmness in other centres. If Dr Angela Uwakwem is the only one resisting acts of indiscipline in her centre, then all other MDs/CMDs are as good as not being there. Infact, all the predecessors of Dr Angela Uwakwem should be seen to have condoned and encouraged corruption and indiscipline during their time in FMC Owerri since there was no similar allegation and call for the removal of her predecessors  in FMC Owerri.

 

Dr Angela Uwakwem has been presented by Paul as the savior of FMC Owerri, the extraordinary disciplinarian who could not even manage to gain acceptance of just one worker out of scores of workers at the centre. She was so good to the extent that workers will celebrate even if she is removed from office for just a day, still someone still claims Dr Angela Uwakwem is the best of all the MDs/CMDs. Meanwhile, in my research into this issue, I had a great expectation that, given all the efforts of Dr Angela Uwakwem as chronicled by her media “payboy”, one would expect FMC Owerri to top the list of leading Medical Centres in Africa. To my disappointment, FMC Owerri is nowhere to be found, not even among the best in Nigeria.

 

It is high time someone told Paul the truth, and the truth is that he is a disgrace to the Medical profession. I wonder why someone will just put up such a non-coherent piece which woefully failed the test of logical reasoning. Imagine if we Nigerians living in Nigeria intend to pass a vote of no confidence on the President of this country, and it takes a Robert Mugabe to tell Nigerians that the President is the best president Nigeria has ever produced since independence, then one can only suspect two things: it is either there is a problem upstairs or someone has been paid to be the devil’s advocate. Imagine a case in which someone who is neither a student nor a staff of FMC Owerri, who came all the way from another soil, is expecting us to jettison the groaning of ALL the workers in FMC Owerri, and believe his own moonlight tales and fables.

 

There is a saying among the Yorubas which implies that “a bad boy will always have his own day”. When it comes to cerebral activities, when there is a search for someone who can bring glory to the NMA folk, when there is a matter so difficult and high level of sagacity is required, we know those Physicians who usually come into play. Meanwhile, It was time to close eyes to the truth, it was time to write with minds miles away from objectivity, it was time to say “integrity my foot” just because a token will exchange hands – an assignment meant only for a devil’s advocate. So it was time for Paul to write as usual.

 

If I may advise Paul against next time, my candid advice will be that; there are some cases that are too bad to be defended, and any attempt to defend such cases anyway may result in you being docked in place of the accused. If Paul is truly the student of law he claimed to be, then there would not have been any need for such a long epistle as the one he wrote against Dr Angela Uwakwem’s removal from office. This is because it was not the first time someone will be removed from office while facing trial, and the good reason for this was well alluded to in Paul’s write-up. Meanwhile, if he feels that the MD was unduly removed from office, the right step would have been to challenge it in a court of competent jurisdiction. If this has been done already, then this media rant if utterly unnecessary, prejudicial and an admittance of guilt. On the other hand, if this has not been done, her failure to do so simply implies that she either agreed to the removal or she was ignorant of her right under the law. Whichever the case was, she is to be blamed and not any other person. The babbling must stop because readers are not daft.

 

To bring the issue of the interprofessional rivalry between the Physicians and other Health Professionals in the health sector into this matter is highly mischievous. FMC Owerri is not the only centre where we have a Physician at the helm of affairs. Infact, this is the case in all the Federal Medical Centres and Teaching Hospitals in Nigeria today. If the call for removal was only made on Dr Angela Uwakwem, then it sounds highly illogical and unreasonable for anyone to be claiming that the call for the removal of the embattled MD was being championed by the perceived enemies of the Physicians. In all other centres, the support of other health professionals towards the success of all the MDs/CMDs cannot be ruled out. Infact, I know of centres where the MDs/CMDs enjoy the goodwill of other health professionals due to fairness and objectivity. If the same dog that wags its tail at the sight of everyone else barks at you, then something is strange about you.

 

Also, Paul wrote: “Ask any worker in the centre why they hated Dr Angela Uwakwem, they would tell you she was highhanded. . .” The use of the word “any worker” here indicates that the call for the removal of Dr Angela Uwakwem from office did not come from other health professionals only but from every worker at the centre. It therefore follows that if “any worker” can accuse her of highhandedness, then, all the NMA members at the centre are involved.

 

The “epistle according to Dr Paul John” has clearly revealed the level of his ignorance and how the lovely Public-Private Partnership policy has been misconceived by some, and maliciously implemented by so many chief executives. The policy is aimed at bringing the private investors to participate in equipping public health facilities, thereby complementing the efforts of the government. It is not aimed at preventing some professionals from being in charge of their various areas of competent jurisdiction or achieving the dream of getting to the peak of their careers. It is only in the hands of a rogue that a chair in the legislative chamber becomes a weapon, but to a law-abiding legislator, it is simply a chair meant for sitting.  In some few centres where the PPP policy has been rightly implemented, we can already see the positive effects, and people are even asking for more, but for those who will like to employ it to fight their perceived enemies, let me inform you that we shall employ all legally available means, and use every weapon at our disposal to ensure that such counterfeit version of PPP is dead on arrival.

 

While the kidnap of Dr Angela Uwakwem’s husband and any assault on her or any member of her family should be condemned by every well-meaning Nigerian in its entirety, I want to at this juncture call on the Inspector General of police to effect the arrest of Paul. This is because, one can easily infer from his write-up that he claims to have a knowledge of the perpetrators of the act. By now, Paul should be in the Police custody, assisting them in the investigation on the kidnap case. The use of statements like: “the next alternative left for Dr Angela’s enemies was to use the extra judicial means of kidnapping her beloved husband. . . “, “it is indisputable that her enemies who have failed in all plots to either remove her from office or convict her through the court, are behind her recent travail” clearly reveals that, if well handled, Dr Paul John will serve as a good link to the kidnappers of Dr Angela’s husband. Who knows whether the kidnap was arranged as a precondition for Paul to be able to write his piece with the aim of drawing public sympathy for the embattled MD. We recently had the news of a traditional chief who arranged for his own kidnap in order to make money from the resulting ransom. Also, a woman recently staged her own kidnap in order to deceive her husband who resides abroad into believing that Nigeria was not safe for her, so that she may be flown abroad.

 

Also, Dr Paul John should by now be aware that we are henceforth fully prepared to answer a fool according to his folly, in order for him not to be wise in his own thinking. The accusing finger pointed at the Unions in FMC Owerri, and by extension, their National bodies shall not be taken as a child’s “mad cry” as usual. Rather, he should be prepared to face charges of libel. He should be ready to prove to all Nigerians beyond any reasonable doubt that his accusing finger was rightly pointed. Should he fail to do so, he should be ready to be committed to prison for defamation of character – a case of calumny against a group of well-meaning and law-abiding Nigerians.

 

Comrade Oladayo B. Olabampe

NUAHP Secretary

UCH, Ibadan

[email protected]