Life after school – The sublime hot pursuit of excellence

Let me make it perfectly clear at the outset that I make no claim whatever to any medical qualifications. It was my grandfather Dr. J.K. Randle who was one of our nation’s pioneer medical practitioners. I am a chartered accountant by profession and I cannot fail to recognize that my grandfather had to his credit scholarships and endowments which he bequeathed in 1928 for the study of medicine. However, on the debit side was his insistence that all his children should study medicine or forfeit their inheritance! My father, J.K. Randle, opted out and I fully endorse his choice.

All the same, I am most grateful to the Lagos Teaching Hospital for inviting me to deliver today’s lecture to the graduating students of: (i) School of Community Health Officers Training; (ii) School of Health Information Management; (iii) School of Medical Laboratory Sciences; (iv) School of Medical/Psychiatry Social Work; (v) School of Midwifery; (vi) School of Nursing; (vii) School of Post-Basic Nursing; and (viii) School of Basic Dental Nursing.

About ten years ago I was similarly honoured to be invited to deliver the Oritsejolomi Thomas Memorial Lecture in honour of the first Provost of the College of Medicine/Medical Director of the Lagos Teaching Hospital. On that occasion I was not rewarded with a doctorate but I hope I shall fare better this time!

Permit me to heartily congratulate the students who are graduating after acquiring vital skills and critical knowledge as well as having been found worthy in CHARACTER. However, it is not enough to commend the students. We must also acknowledge and applaud their teachers for their commitment and determination to do the medical profession proud (albeit at a somewhat subsidiary level) while at the same time rescuing our beloved nation from the crass ignorance of the vital role played by those whose destiny is to support the doctors, surgeons, pharmacists, opticians, etc who are the “generals” of the medical profession. My dentist is in the audience and he insists that I must add dentists to the exclusive list of angels or face his wrath at our next encounter as regards which he has confirmed my appointment for noon on Wednesday of next week. I bow to the dictates of self-preservation and I am ready to hail dentists as super-angels!

At the risk of repeating what your remarkable teachers, lecturers and professors would already have told you, I must nevertheless remind you that the past is not the future. Hence, your focus should be on the future, not the past.

It is not unlikely that your sojourn in the various schools under the umbrella and protection of Lagos Teaching Hospital would have provided you with a considerable measure of order, peace, and tranquillity in a secure (almost insular/insulated) environment. Now, as you venture into the world of harsh realities, you must craft a vision of the future you desire for your own self-fulfilment and actualize it by ensuring that it is driven by the right strategy which will inevitably involve making sacrifices now in order to reap a bountiful harvest later as you progress on the ladder of achievements and success. I must however warn that the competition is waiting to snare and frustrate you by dangling the temptation of settling for less than what you deserve. This is sometimes euphemistically ascribed to a new genre now known as “Stomach Infrastructure”. The first casualties of that fatal choice are morality and self-respect. After stomach infrastructure which is always a moving lowest common denominator anyway, what would be left is a gaping hole of unfulfilled ambition and legitimate aspiration to make your own unique contribution to building a better nation where nobody is permanently oppressed, marginalized or violated on account of their ethnicity, religion or gender. Your teachers are entitled to believe that they have sufficiently equipped you to go beyond the limit and thereby surpass them. That is the best reward you can give them in appreciation of their diligence, resourcefulness and care.

Perhaps, I should share with you the verdict recently delivered by the European Union [EU]. Michel Arion, the EU Ambassador and Head of Delegation to Nigeria and ECOWAS, was quoted as follows: “Nigeria is a rich country, but Nigerians are regrettably poor. It is a rich country that should not depend on aid from foreign donors. I think government at all levels in Nigeria should ponder. To really develop the Nigerian economy in a sustainable way, the core issue will be to redistribute social benefits through fiscal measures, particularly taxation and social measures, using safety nets. Strengthening the institutions is absolutely key in this regard. In the North, development indicators in the area are unacceptably worse.”

We must accommodate the sanguine commentary of Yemi Adebowale: “Arion is absolutely right. We all know this. The EU Ambassador is not telling us anything new. We are all aware of the rich resources of this country. Unfortunately, corruption and inept leadership have made it impossible for this country to attain its full potentials. In the last 32 years, we have simply been moving round in a cycle (circle), from one inept administration to the other. I have my fears that we would most likely be doing the same thing in the next four years. The handwriting is already on the wall.”

We should also create space for the intervention of newly elected senator, Ben Murray-Bruce: “Nigeria is too poor for our leaders to act like multi-billionaires, and Nigeria is too rich for the people to be poor. When you seek public office, you seek it to serve and lead by example. You don’t seek public office to play lord over the people who voted you into office. The leadership of Nigeria is consuming all the resources of our people and leaving the rest of us in abject poverty.”

Before we close the circle, we should create room for the feisty avowal of Edwin Clark. I refer to the front page publication of Saturday Punch of April 13, 2015. Headline: “I WON’T DIE BECAUSE JONATHAN LOST ELECTION – Clark”.

We are entitled to extract the right lessons from the observations of Clark, especially with regard to “Why should I die?” We must not be selfish. Rather we should expand the space sufficiently to accommodate a question that must be of particular interest to you all: “Why must patients die?” To my mind, the answer lies in the zeal with which we address the Sublime Hot Pursuit of Excellence.

J.K Randle