Dr Chikwendu Ejike is Imo’s only consultant oral and maxillofacial surgeon. He is a graduate of the University of Benin where he majored in Dental Surgery. While other medical practitioners are leaving the country for greener pastures, he stayed back because he believes in giving back to the society. In this interview with Tricia Iwuoha and he takes a swipe on the government over the poor health care delivery in the country even as he admonished patients to shun miracle healing centres and seek medical attention. Enjoy the cruise.
Can you please tell us about yourself?
I am Dr. Chikwendu Ejike Cajethan. Primarily, I am a dental surgeon. Secondarily, I am a consultant oral and maxillofacial surgeon. You must finish dentistry before specialising in my area which we call oral and maxillofacial surgery. So I am a doctor who is concerned with diagnosis, treatment, surgical management of diseases affecting the entire oro-facial region and the head and neck. I am married to a beautiful wife with three children. Currently, I am the Head of Department, Dental and Maxillofacial Surgery, Federal Medical Centre Owerri. I am also a Consultant Maxillofacial Surgeon Federal Medical Centre Owerri. Where we are now is Galaxy British Medical Complex. I am the MD and CEO of Galaxy British Medical Complex. I am the MD also of Galaxy Dental Surgery Centre at Wetheral Road, Owerri. I am Senior Lecturer and Head of Department of Surgery, Madonna University Teaching Hospital, Elele. I am also a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Dental Technology, Federal University of Technology, Owerri.
What is the difference between oral surgeon and maxillofacial surgeon?
There is a clear distinction between an oral surgeon and maxillofacial surgeon. First, we went to primary school, six years, we went to secondary school, six years. You must have been a science inclined student meaning you must have done your English, Mathematics, Physics, Biology and Chemistry which you must have obtained at credit level after which you write your Jamb. During Jamb you make your choice of university and course, that time you apply as someone who wants to study Dentistry and Dental Surgery. Besides, it’s important I let you know that in Nigeria, there were few schools that offer dentistry and dental surgery. They are University of Benin, University of Lagos, University of Ibadan, Maiduguri and few others. When you enter to study it, you graduate with B.DS or MBCHD, coming out as a dental surgeon. Then you do your house job that’s talking about the Nigerian perspective, you now write your exams, we have the National and West Africa. In the national you write the primary, we have the West Africa College of Surgeons and National Post Graduate Medical College of Nigeria, where you write the primaries. When you pass the primaries you are qualified to enter for the Residency which is divided into two, the junior residency and the senior residency all of three years each, all things being equal. During your junior residency you are made to rotate through medicine, all areas of dentistry. When you now pass you go into senior residency. In the senior residency program, you now narrow down to your field. I am coming to answer the difference between oral surgeon and oral and maxillofacial surgeon. When you now finish your part 2 you are now limited to your area of specialisation. For example, I have a patient that presents with minor surgical procedure problems like osteomyelitis, like people that have buried third molars, we call them impacted third molars, people that do these surgeries are called oral surgeons, but those that advance to remove jaw tumors like the ones I do, reconstruct them are called oral and maxillofacial surgeons. It means you cannot be maxillofacial surgeon without being an oral surgeon. So look at the journey from primary, secondary, university, post graduate, junior residency. Both West Africa and National Post Graduate College of Medicine are now giving what we call the Membership. Before when you pass your Part 1 you are known as an Associate Fellow, after passing your Part 2 you become a Fellow which is a specialist. An oral surgeon has limited procedures he can do than an oral and maxillofacial surgeon that has an elaborate procedure that goes ahead to do reconstructions and the rest of it.
Going by your initial practice as a dentist, what made you to advance towards maxillofacial surgery?
First I will tell you what made me to choose dentistry over medicine. I will now tell you what inspired me after graduation to further my studies as a maxillofacial surgeon. I was a six-year-old boy in a village called Umuobodo Ndioka Nzerem in Ehime Mbano Local Government Area of Imo State. My Mum had a dental problem that is toothache and then the in thing there was Joint Hospital at Mbano. I remember my Dad conveyed her to the place on a bike, my mum came back and I heard her say that they used spanner and chisel to pull away her tooth. To worsen the whole thing, Mum had her face ten times swollen than as it were before she went to that hospital and that swelling lingered for about three weeks to one month. Being a young boy so much attached to my mum I felt that pain as she could not drink water or eat for a month. At that moment I told myself that I was going to be a doctor, and I was going to study dentistry. That desire kept burning in me until I finished my secondary school made all my papers and applied for Jamb, which my first and second choice was Dentistry. I got admitted into the almighty University of Benin, where I trained and became a Dental Surgeon. While I was in Benin that is now for the second part of the question, there was this lecturer of mine then he was a consultant. He was called Dr Ozoemena Obuekwe now a professor. In my year one in dental school, we had this health week, for the dental students which was called BUDSA Week (Benin University Dental Students Association), which usually climaxed with a party. During that BUDSA Week, we used to have seminars and in this one Dr Ozoemena then presented and he is a renowned oral and maxillofacial surgeon. His presentation was so superb that the pictures spoke volume, he will present pictures before surgery, during surgery and after surgery, I was in year one then, you can imagine then I wasn’t even sure if I was going to be a bonafide student of the university, I just told myself that I am going to specialise in oral and maxillofacial surgery. I left the University of Benin as the overall best graduating student in Medical College and School of Dentistry. If you ask any of my classmates in year one since we left University of Benin, they will tell you that Dr. Ejikeme Chikwendu was going to specialise in maxillofacial surgery. That was the reason when I finished, three months after graduation as a dental surgeon and two months into my housemanship, I wrote primaries both in the national and the West Africa College of Surgeons and I passed both. When I finished I did my house job at the Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife and went for service. I started again by going back to do my residency in 2009. By 2014/2015, I became a consultant oral and maxillofacial surgeon. So that presentation by Obuekwe influenced me. So if you ask me today who is my role model in this profession, I will tell you Prof Ozoemena because he kick started the ball and I followed through. Also to mention are Professors Fatusi, Owotade, Ndukwe, Late Ugboko, Dr Aregbesola. Funny enough during my trainings, I had always kept touch with him and even now I am talking to you I am constantly in contact with him. Let me also use this opportunity to pay tribute to Late Dr Mgbeokwere whom I served as a resident in Imo State University Teaching Hospital for ten months.
Oral and maxillofacial diseases are common in Nigeria and it is general knowledge that this treatment is very costly, so can you tell us if you have any affiliation with any governmental and non-governmental body that aid in footing the bill of this surgery?
The problem we have in this country is that the oral diseases remain the most neglected both at the grassroots, local government, state and federal government levels. What do I mean by that? It is so rare for an average Nigerian to go to hospital for a check-up unless an average Nigerian, (African) is so down with a particular disease including you interviewing me. Oral diseases are so common ranging from a simple dental caries, the one we call hole in the mouth to gum inflammation. All over the world except Africa, dental surgeons are referred to as celebrities. Celebrities in the sense that they are people that have money, but the reverse is the case in Africa and Nigeria in particular. We have so many diseases, oral health problems but the governments in Africa hardly pay attention to health. Let me give you an example. What is the federal government’s budget for health in Nigeria? It is not up to 20% of national budget. You then tend to see people with oral diseases not attended to in every part of this country. When you narrow it down to more of restorative path it is more of a cosmetic surgerythan any other surgery. So this surgery is quite expensive. It is because it is asking a question about beauty it is quite expensive to be beautiful. Before you left house this morning you had your bath you applied some make-up, calculate the cost that is what it is all about. You have a hole in a tooth I have to put that tooth in same colour with the teeth in the mouth. To do that I have to go for material that have the same colour with the tooth to be restored. To make such materials, procure them and offer the treatment are quite expensive. But luckily for us in Africa we are just among a few that chose to stay back even when we have gone out, trained and we came back. We are not getting any subvention from the local to the federal government. At the federal level what we now try to do is to treat patient at a subsidised level. This is same at local and state levels. We now go to private sector, when you say oral health diseases, I tell you there are so many to mention but a few, do not forget that some oral health diseases some individuals are born with them. We call them congenital anomalies. A good example of them is the cleft lip and cleft palate. So we have NGO’s outside the country called Smile Train. Smile Train on their own picked up cleft lip and cleft palate. It is the only organisation that I know sponsoring surgeries for children born with cleft lip and cleft palate. They sponsor from picking up a card in the hospital, surgery, medication until the patient goes home. In fact, even when that surgery goes wrong, they will still sponsor that second surgery which they call revision surgery. In all they foot the bill but I am not saying that they pay us millions of naira but they are paying us what it takes to carry out that surgery. One of the ways we benefit from Smile Train is that they send us on training. As a Consultant oral and maxillofacial surgeon I am sent on training. The nurses and anesthetists working with me also go for training. There is an all round year in year out training. When they train you as a Smile Train artner you don’t focus attention on money but in saving lives.
You carried out a surgery on for the removal of left hemimaxillectomy on an indigent student from Ihitte-Uboma, Imo State. This surgery aroused a lot of attention from the public. Can you tell us about it?
Having trained outside East, I started from the University of Benin, as an undergraduate student, College of Medicine, I kept on seeing people from Imo State coming for treatment there. It occurred to me that in Imo then we hadn’t any consultant oral and maxillofacial surgeon. The only one we had then was Dr. Ndukwe at Obafemi Awolowo University before he relocated to Enugu. So Imo had no resident oral and maxillofacial surgeon. It dawned on me that whenever I am done I will come back to the East, to Imo where I come from to reside to see how I can help people. When my wife advised me that I should go to Abuja, that I am a gifted hand, describing me as the Ben Carson she knows, though it was not all about the money because I know every good woman wants the best for her husband. I told her that before I met her that I have already made up my mind that I am going to stay in the East, money or no money, that I am going to give back what I learnt, even though they may not have contributed in my training. So when I came back 5 years ago, Hon. Chike Okafor by then representing Okigwe South consisting of Ihitte-Uboma, Ehime Mbano and Obowo was organising a free medical outreach. In that outreach I was the vice chairman. Dr Ejikeme, a consultant gynecologist was the chairman. We told him that we didn’t want Panadol, Paracetamol and Vitamin C outreach. We want to affect lives and he said that he wanted indigent people to be treated, hence you are from Imo State, not just Okigwe South and you report with a problem that we should treat. Luckily, this girl from Ihitte-Uboma by name Ozioma and the name coincides with my own daughter’s name came with a very huge maxillary tumour. So I screened her and they found her fit for the surgery. So I spoke to Mrs. Akudo Okafor, the wife of Chike Okafor about the case and she discussed it with her husband and he agreed that I should go ahead and do the surgery. His fear was that this was a free medical outreach in as much as we can treat everybody but such surgery cannot be carried out in an outreach program. It would require a hospital. By then I was using Vaden Specialist Clinic and Maternity owned by Dr. Okorochukwu. I presented that case from Hon. Chike Okafor to him. Finally, I operated that girl but fully sponsored by Hon. Chike Okafor. I did a total hemimaxillectomy with reconstruction. That surgery blew my name. Remember we are in Nigeria, where we are not allowed to go on air to advertise our skills but such surgeries could be carried out on newspapers just like you are interviewing me now. Such surgery made people know that such a person is in town. It is still that surgery that drew the attention of Barr Willie Amadi to me and the month of May made it one year I did a reverse of that surgery on Barr. Willie Amadi. I took half of his jaw and I reconstructed it. With permission from him, he did say that in any forum that I am in, I should mention his name and the surgery that I did. Since I came back I have done over 200 of such surgery. I have done over 200 mandibulectomy. Every week, I do at least one mandibulectomy and one maxilletomy in Imo State. In Imo State alone there are over 1000 patients with maxillary and mandibular tumours. The peculiarity of the specialisation is that you cannot remove someone’s jaw in this present day and time without reconstructing that person’s jaw. So when I enter into theatre to take out someone’s jaw, I must also replace that jaw. Sometimes when you see the patients before and after surgery you would ask where Dr. Chikwendu placed the knife (incision). My area of specialisation is a blend of plastic surgery plus maxillofacial surgery. That was how I came about that surgery that threw me into the limelight.
Cleft lip is common amongst children. What is the cause of this deformity?
Cleft lip is a congenital anomaly meaning that it is inborn, that is he is born with it. Both cleft lip and cleft palate are congenital anomaly. In fact, a woman is pregnant, gives birth and by the time you are handing over her baby she sees either cleft lip or cleft palate. It is not something that is acquired. But the cause of it is acquired while the woman was pregnant.
What kind of work interest is most challenging for you in this profession?
Really every case is a griller, every case is challenging. I look at our profession like footballers or a club or team that are competing for a trophy. From the beginning if you ask them, for those that are genuine they will tell you that they take each match one at a time. In the medical profession for those of us that are surgeons everything poses its challenges and I take them one at a time. Let me give you one example. Some patients with tumours on the mandible or maxillar, the commonest among them is Ameloblastoma, most of these patients are downtrodden and impoverished, no money to even feed let alone coming for treatment. I always tell my younger colleagues that our profession is not about money, money, money. We are all trained to save lives first but don’t forget that doctors have families to take care of so money is also important. Doctors live in rented apartment when they have not built their own and need to pay their rents. So every case is challenging I must confess. Let me give you this scenario. There is a boy that came all the way from Umuahia, he plays football very well, dances so well but because of where he comes from, he was now addressed based on the tumour he has on the jaw. He came to me and I checked him. By the time I told the father what it would cost us to buy a reconstruction plate for the surgery, the father started crying. At that level as a human that you are and you mustcome at that level if you have a heart of God as a professional to say okay for this surgery I need this and that and I cannot provide this but this is the money that is to be paid to me for the surgery and I will let it go so don’t worry yourself I will operate on you. In this hospital one of my nurses here went somewhere and had a tooth extracted, the doctor that extracted the tooth never knew she had a tumour. She came here six weeks later in pain, I examined her and took a CT scan and it showed she had obvious tumour. I took an incision biopsy, the result showed that she had Ameloblastomaso by the time she went round sourcing for funds she couldn’t find. I just told her, hence you can buy your drugs and you are able to buy the plate that I am going to use for the reconstruction job I will do that surgery free of charge. I have done that surgery and I didn’t collect a dime. Let me now focus on cleft. The joy of every woman who is pregnant, whether single parent or double parent or whatever, as long as the woman is pregnant she looks forward after passing the early morning sickness, she looks forward to beholding her baby after birth. The baby finally comes and the nurse or doctor presents a baby with obvious deformity in the orofacial region in the name of cleft lip. The first thing the woman does is to reject that baby. I had a Togolese woman that married a Nigerian, who was once a diplomat. She gave birth to four children, came to Nigeria took in for the fifth one and gave birth to a baby with what we call an atypical facial cleft at FMC. When the baby was handed over to the mother, she rejected the baby entirely. She said Dr. Chikwendu on a second thought, I looked at the baby again, she is my carbon copy. It was on that note that I accepted that baby. So for children with cleft, I like seeing their mum from the day of birth. At that point I begin to counsel the parents. In such cases, parents who are naïve tend to commit what we call infanticide. Infanticide means killing the baby by starvation. Sometimes a woman puts to bed, you go to see the new baby and the woman tells you the baby is sleeping while they keep giving them drugs till the baby starves to death. So I had to carry them from the day of birth and begin to talk to them. Sometimes I’m sorry I have had to lie to the parents that I was born with cleft lip. That is one lie I tell that God has ticked good and accepted. I tell them I was born with cleft and today I am a surgeon doing this. I want to operate your children for them to grow up tomorrow and join me in this profession. The second thing I tell them whenever I see a cleft child is a girl which I may mean or not because I am not God, is that when I am done operating this baby my son is going to marry this baby. If it is a boy I will say if I am done operating this baby, he is going to marry my daughter. So even when I know that my daughter is older than this baby, I will sight the case of Bianca and Ojukwu, then everybody will laugh. Every case is peculiar and challenging but we take them one at a time.
From where do you draw your strength as an oral and maxillofacial surgeon?
Honestly, my strength as a maxillofacial surgeon is usually derived from God and the patients I manage. I will tell you for the past six years I have not bought one bottle of wine in my house. If you come to my house be rest assured that I will give you a bottle of wine as you are leaving. The most striking feature that gives me strength is seeing a woman that came all the way from the village to see me. By the time I was done with this woman’s surgery she went home, then coming back to see me she brought cocoyam, yam, fish, avocado pear, udara (local apple). When you look at this woman, she probably walked a long distance to where she boarded a car to Owerri. When she got to Owerri, she carried them on her head to my hospital. Presenting them to me, she said doctor, I have neither silver nor gold but what I have I will give to you. I took the gifts with nostalgia. Sometimes when my patients leave, I shed tears, tears of joy. Sometimes from those whose children are educated I get text messages, prayers, they call me at odd hours of the night in a bid to say thank you. Heaven is in heaven but I believe that there is still heaven on earth. Pastor Okotie says that it is your horizontal relationship that transcends you to your vertical relationship meaning that what you do with all men on earth determines how close you are going to get to God. So in the midst of these challenges, these little gestures not about what they give but for the fact that some of the patients come with their children just to say thank you is encouraging. Some of them call their relatives who call me just to say thank you. These are the things actually from which I derive my strength. In a nutshell you treat 100 patients, one says you are a stupid man while 99 say what a wonderful man, majority carries the vote.
In Nigeria do you think that we have enough oral and maxillofacial surgeons to cater for medical conditions related to your practice.
Not at all. Right now we have our NAOMS, that is National Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon. In a country of over 200 million people, I don’t think that in NAOMS, we are up to 200. Just imagine in the whole of Imo State for instance, I am the only consultant oral and maxillofacial surgeon. Yes, in the whole of Abia State, I have my friend as the only one there. Because of the quest of becoming a professor, I publish books. I still want to be a professor. I am a teacher; I am a lecturer. Most of us tend to work in a tertiary hospital “teaching hospital, so in a state you may have about 5 of us in teaching hospital, reason being that they are training the younger ones and want to be professors. The number alone 200 cannot serve, and you see there is a lacuna in our primary healthcare system. So we are not enough to cater for Nigerian populace. And so in Africa, we have our AFAOMS- Africa Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon, if you get all the AFAOMS in Nigeria, as populated as we are it can only take care of orofacial pathologies. We are not enough and that underscores the need for training younger ones. Now I am not happy that I am the only oral and maxillofacial surgeon in Imo State. And that is why at the FMC Owerri, for the past five years since I picked up a job there; currently, I have 8 resident doctors I recruited under the leadership of our Medical Director, Dr Kingsley Achigbu. Right now I am training 8 resident doctors as maxillofacial surgeon because a success without a successor is a complete failure. So like I told them in FMC when I had a board meeting with them, that if after ten years, if I have not trained two or three maxillofacial surgeons, then I am a complete failure and I will resign. So luckily for me I have recruited 8 and they are now undergoing training under me. So by the time I am growing old I will see those who will take over and possibly train our children’s children.
What are the challenges you face in course of your practice?
There is a lot of challenges. I will look at personal challenges and national challenges. It is wrong for us to deny that we are Nigerians and we are in Nigeria. The number one challenge is light. As this interview is going on I am on a 40kv lister generator. There is no electricity in the city and in the rural areas. Two, roads, sometimes the money it will take to operate on one patient, they spend it on transport trying to locate you in town because of bad roads. Three, there is unemployment in the country. When people are unemployed there is no source of income. They engage in social vices. This vices can lead to fracture of the mandible or maxillar and cases that will increase the number of issues that we cater for. Four, mental poverty and not financial poverty, most of our people with tumours with maxillofacial pathology take time to actually accept and agree that they have a problem. As long as they can cope with that problem, live with that problem they don’t go to hospital until it becomes huge. And that is why when I travel outside the country and present what I do they look at me as God. Outside there, they have what is called National Health Scheme which we have in Nigeria as NHIS. I am a consultant and I cannot tell you that I am benefitting from NHIS, let alone the down trodden in the village. Our people also are too heavenly conscious and earthly useless. I am a surgeon, I am not running with any pastor, I am a child of God. Sometime you go to theatre you finish surgery they go to church for thanksgiving and say pastor if not for your prayers. Some people have tumours and they go to visit fake men of God, they have been billed for surgery and they go to the pastor to say I went to so so and so place I saw my consultant my surgery is tomorrow and I meant to buy the things that will be used to operate on me, pastor says that money you are going to use to buy those things come and give it to Jesus, we will do 40 days and 40 nights fasting and they keep on praying. I am a child of God, I believe in miracles, I was born twins but the girl died and I am living today which means I am a child of destiny. If no one believes in God, an average doctor believes in God. At one point in time we have seen cases we have already written off that person’s life. God created doctors, God will use doctors to heal you of your sickness and I will always ask is there any miracle in the bible without a point of contact? No. I will mention a few. The blind, God says spit on the floor make clay out of it and rub on your eye that is a point of contact. The woman with the issue of blood waited to see God to touch his garment. When you are sick and you have a tumour that requires surgery, God will use a doctor as a point of contact to save you. I cannot do surgery successfully without God being in the theatre with me. He is the one that gave me experience and while I am operating I am still calling on his name but the fake pastors will tell them come I will pray for you and they will keep them for two months. If you are lucky at that time to be operated, that two or more months’ interval can actually escalate the condition. By the time they are coming back again the tumour becomes inoperable, so huge and may have entered the brain that the only solution is to cut the patient’s head and when you cut someone’s head is it not death? These are just few of the challenges. The other challenge is when patients come with relatives and say there is no money maybe you are charging just one naira for the operation, instead of doing the needful they go holding meetings until the time the patient dies then they prefer to spend ten naira for burial than saving the person’s life with one naira. Ignorance is another challenge. Another factor is that an African man loves life. An African man perceives surgery as a death sentence so they go home and say that they said I am going to do surgery, you hear God forbid and this is a surgery with God on your side can last for one hour after which a disease you have been carrying for 20 years, you will be free from it. The bible says my people perish for lack knowledge.
We know that your profession comes with a lot of duty calls, how have you been able to cope with the family?
It is not easy sincerely speaking, the profession is demanding. But one of the things I will say is that anything you are doing in life be truthful, I am straight forward. When I met my wife I didn’t lie to her, I told her that I am a doctor although at that time I wasn’t a consultant but I told her I was going to specialise as an oral andmaxillofacial surgeon. My wife said that the first time she heard of the word oral and maxillofacial surgery was from my mouth and she went home and started browsing wondering if this is another trick this man is using to deceive her. So it is demanding. Thank God I am married for 11 years and blessed with 3 children. It is not easy. Initially it was bringing problems. One, I am passionate about my profession and my career. My wife knows I love what I do but she over time came to appreciate that I love passing knowledge and teaching. Initially it wasn’t easy but whatever happens you must balance the two. When I’m meant to be there for her and the children I try to be there as much as I can and try to balance my profession and my family. Let me give you an example, God forbid, no matter how good I am in my profession, if anything happens to me tomorrow, my patients can only feel it for a day or two but my family will feel the impact forever. We are not praying for anything bad. So I try to place my family first in anything before my profession. So family first before the profession.
At the level you are now, what are your aspirations?
I have this mantra in my life in medicine that says, any day you stopped reading your brain cells starts dying and that is a reality. I am still searching; I have not reached the peak. Being a consultant is one thing, I want to be a professor, I want to train the younger ones to become consultants, I want them to be even better than I am tomorrow. Where I am today isn’t my limit but my stepping stone. The world is so cumbersome that there is still a lot to conquer. Even in maxillofacial surgery, there is what we call super specialisation. As a maxillofacial surgeon you can decide to do cleft alone, you can decide to go into tumour alone, you call them maxillofacial oncologist, you can specialise in trauma, you call them maxillofacial traumatologist, so year in year out, I am going for conferences. In fact, maxillofacial surgery has left where it used to be to a different realm whereby I can take bone from your leg and replace the jaw, I can take out a flank from the stomach and take it to the jaw. Maxillofacial surgery in this day and time without reconstruction, you are still a student. There is room for daily improvement and I cannot relent effort till the day God calls me. As long as the strength is there I will keep on updating myself, I will keep on learning and keep on with updates. Maxillofacial surgery has gone to a level whereby you lose some tissues on your face and instead of you to cut your body I can insert something like a balloon on your face to blow out your skin for a period of one month (tissue expander) and that will give me enough skin to cover that place that you have lost instead of taking skin from another part of the body. So that is where we are now.
Aside work, what other things do you engage in?
My parents never knew that I was going to be a doctor although I showed signs of being a doctor at a tender age when I told my parents I was going to be a doctor. But as I was growing up I took more interest in football that they believed I was going to end up a footballer. Today I am still a footballer and I am diehard fan of Manchester United. One of the things that causes problem between my wife and Iis that after spending all the time at work, my wife always prays let there be no match this night. As a Man U fan, I watch not just their matches but every football shown live. Even a match played before that I missed, I like to watch the match again. I love football, I love travelling and I love to have my rest. It is only when I am alive that I can do this work. Sometimes I go on a vacation with my wife and children. I love reading. I always tell my daughter that the brain is like computer, garbage in garbage out. The amount of what you put in determines what you get out, so I read novels a lot to increase my vocabularies and to keep the brain cells alive. Above all, I love learning no matter how small. Of all the things I enjoyed in the past was cooking. All my days in the University of Benin, I never ate outside as tedious as lectures and clinical could be. I always cooked my own food. Now that I am married I can’t drag kitchen with my wife so that there will be no conflict of interest. This is one of the things I love doing but I don’t do it anymore since my wife has taken over.
How can you say that the society has been able to benefit from your profession all these while?
Yes, in the past our parents that went to school could boast of going to what we call Unity Schools. Unity school was meant for bright students then and they went on scholarship. Let’s recall Dora Akunyili words when she said that she can die for Nigeria because she went to secondary school on scholarship, university same and abroad. Although, we can’t boast of that in Nigeria today, but whatever the country gives to you or will be giving to you it’s also important as a patriotic Nigerian to always have the mind of giving back to the country. Sincerely speaking, I always tell people this, that anywhere you are try as much as you can to impact the lives of people with whatever you may be involved in. Are you a singer? Sing to the glory of God. So I have never failed in doing that and one of the ways I have offered back to the society is through Smile Train, an NGO which offers 100% free cleft care surgery. As a doctor, ask my colleagues anywhere in the world, I have a law. If you are my colleague as long as what is wrong with you falls within my own jurisdiction, no matter what it will cost you, I will treat you free of charge. If you are in doubt go and ask any of my colleagues that you know. I don’t charge my colleagues a dime, reason being that the only place a doctor can go and receive succour is from his colleagues. As a doctor, if I go to Ekeonunwa market to buy something and the trader hears that I am a doctor, 50 naira onions can instantly become 500 naira because they believe that doctors have money. I don’t blame them because here we are poorly remunerated but they still have the mentality that doctors are rich. This makes me laugh, you know why? They are all my friends. If they are sick they just call me on phone and I will prescribe drugs for them without payment. Where then do doctors get the money? We don’t mind all those things. I still try as much as I can to affect the society in my own little way. One of the things I do again which I encourage every young doctor to do is to know that life is in God’s hand. No matter how good you are as a doctor you cannot determine when a patient will die, I try as much as I can to give my patient’s hope even when I know that the disease they have is at the terminal stage. It is because I am not God but will keep encouraging them to have hope.
What do you say about politicians and healthcare delivery?
I am not a politician even if I am, I am open minded and straight forward and I say things the way it is. The country you and I find ourselves in has failed. We should try as much as we can to start afresh again and rejig the society and see if we can make something out of it for our children. A country where less than 3% of national budget is allocated to health has failed. A country where there is no absolute primary healthcare has failed. Why do you think that we have brain drain in Nigeria? Most of my colleagues I could call Ben Carson, gifted hands have all left the country to Saudi Arabia, Canada, Australia and U.K. I have a very good friend, Dr Charles Ngaikedi, a renowned consultant pediatric surgeon, who was in Nigeria. He looked at the peanut we are paid and absconded to Saudi Arabia. I can tell you that since he left for Saudi Arabia life is better for him but not all of us would run to leave our country to foreign lands. Even when you run one day you will come back. The only country that we have that is ours is Nigeria and we cannot run away from this country called Nigeria. So in terms of health where I work and belong they have failed us. If I am to score the government, I will give it F9. A situation whereby the down trodden cannot easily access healthcare, where an accident victim cannot go and obtain treatment under emergency before asking for money has failed. The government has failed to support health. It is not only this government that has failed, the past also and I pray that the future doesn’t fail us. There was something Obasanjo started by engaging a company called VAMED, to revamp and rehabilitate teaching hospitals and federal medical centres. How I wish that the government that took over from him sustained that program, I tell you like today, we would have gone far. That is the cause of brain drain coupled with the peanut health workers are paid has made professionals to leave the country.
What word are you leaving for aspiring maxillofacial surgeons?
Where money rules the world, I always tell my colleagues that I am a consultant but I drive a 2003 Toyota Sienna. As a doctor, you are trained to save lives first, let’s call a spade a spade first. Will money come thereafter? Yes, but on no account will you place money over life. The advice I always give them is that there is no shortcut to success. It is like a child who wakes up tomorrow and says that he wants to be an aeronautic engineer without going to primary school, secondary school, university. You may be an aeronautic engineer without these schools but you cannot be the best. So I tell them to focus on saving lives, every other thing will come. I also tell them in the course of saving lives, they should make God their priority. When you have God every other thing is secondary. That is my advice to them.
Thank you.
Interesting read. Well done Sir