By JET STANLEY MADU
If the 2017 graduating students of the Medical and Dental of the College of Medicine, University of Lagos (UNILAG)should adhere to the charges handed down to them during their induction as Alumni of the College, they would excel.
They would not only make their marks in their chosen fields, but, reverse the current trend where even Nigeria’s leaders abhor Nigeria’s health facilities.
During the ceremony which held at the New Great Hall of the College, the Secretary, Oladejo Azeez was particularly confident to beat his chest and declare that, the students being inducted had been bequeathed with the best training obtainable anywhere in the world.
This confidence came from his attestation that the University of Lagos for which the College of Medicine, Idi-Arab is an integral part, has a pedigree for training excellent students in all fields of human endeavor. This he held, is because UNILAG possesses distinguished number of seasoned academic and non-academic staff. He therefore, admonished the inductees to “be worthy ambassadors of the institution wherever their career may take them.”
The induction lecture was delivered by a 1984 alumnus of the College, a Consultant Orthopedic Surgeon Lagoon Hospital, Lagos, Dr. Kunle Onakoya. The topic of his lecture was The Oasis of Excellence. Like an oasis which with very little support from the environment, he urged the new doctors to imbibe the culture of self-reliance and be independent.
He contended that the primordial notion that doctors need be humble and silent be discarded. “Maybe this morning, one message I’m going to leave with you is how to do just opposite of that. Because there is absolutely nothing wrong in excelling and being better than your fellow men. And when you are, there is nothing wrong in reminding them that you have excelled. So, I wait to hear from you, how you’ll blow your own trumpets in the years to come. And we will come to know that the graduating set of 2017 have indeed broken the barrier.”
While urging them to strive to observe the best global standards, he remarked that “best practice has nothing called Nigerian factor to it. What is best is what is best. What is that acceptable practice worldwide is acceptable practice worldwide. And you just have to learn how to adhere to it.”
He encouraged each of them to determine what he described as the ethical red line beyond which they will never go. “It doesn’t matter what the challenges are. It doesn’t matter what the excuses are. It doesn’t matter what is happening around you.”
Onakoya charged the inductees to hit the sky and pierce it for excellence saying; “regardless of how hostile the environment you find yourself in, regardless of the fact that there may be just too little in terms of support, you are expected to thrive and flourish just like an oasis does.”
Speaking on his behalf and on behalf of Vice Chancellor of the institution, Professor Rahman Bello, Provost of the College, Professor Afolabi Lesi who assured the graduates of multiple paths open to them upon graduation, affirmed that doctors cannot operate in isolation of other medical fields.
“Much as we can define the leadership role of doctors in the medical team, doctors alone cannot render the needed services in the healthcare system.”
He remarked that one of the hallmarks of excellent service delivery particularly, in the health system, the world over is the ability to work in teams. “So, I want you to remember that the battle ahead is huge and to overcome requires more skills and competence than one person can claim to have.”