My Binocular: Federal Orthopedic Hospital Azare achieves first interlocking intramedullary femoral nailing operation

By: Bodunrin Kayode

I got to know Dr Ali Ramat when I was directed to see him by the CMD of the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH) Professor Ahmed Ahidjo a couple of years ago. He was to analyze the results from a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) I had undergone for the bottom side of my cerebrospinal region and treat me of the pains. I suddenly developed some serious pains towards the bottom of my back due obviously to a car crash I was involved in about 25 years ago in Niger state where I served as the correspondent of the guardian newspaper. I was treated then in the National Hospital Abuja and told to go home and rest instead of an immediate operation to fix back some of the shifted ribs as the X-ray depicted. 25 years later, possibly due to advancing age, the intervertebral stops down there as I want to address them in layman’s language are screaming pains due to stress whenever I indulge in long distance driving. Dr Ramat looked at the results I brought from Prof Zainab a consultant radiologist who ran the MRI and gave me some drugs which I took and the pain left. In my usual way I never left his office without saying thank you and prying into his young background. That was when he told me about his specialist training in Turkey on spinal matters. I was excited at the zeal of such a young professional who seemed to be moving at a speed far higher than his contemporaries in the same UMTH where he trained.

The University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH) is truly a citadel for the hatching of great minds dominating the medical sector in Nigeria. Within the last decade, it has produced several Chief Medical Directors now managing sister medical institutions in the entire North East region of the country. One of those products of the ” Prof Ahmed Ahidjo mentoring school” is Dr Ali Ramat of the department of orthopedic medicine. Ramat a young enterprising consultant orthopedic and spine surgeon calls Prof Ahidjo his mentor because he was instrumental in the advancement of his career in Turkey where he expanded his orthopedic knowledge by specializing in the critical spinal region. As an orthopedic Doctor, Ramat has treated several bone cases in the UMTH where he became one of the apples of the eye of the CMD Prof Ahidjo such that immediately it was time to set up the National Orthopedic Hospital Azare (NOHA) in Borno State, he was quickly recommended and today he is the first Medical Director of that Hospital. He follows the trail of Professor Chubado Tahir another mentee of the Ahidjo school who is equally managing the National Orthopedic Hospital Jalingo (NOHJ) and many others.

First successful operation in the National Orthopedic Hospital Azare, Borno State

After a memorandum of understanding (MOU) was signed between the federal and state government in May 2025 for the speedy take off of the facility, the newly appointed Medical Director Dr Ali Ramat hit the ground running by assembling his team of 29 doctors some of whom were equally seconded from the UMTH. The State government led by Professor Babagana Zulum had already given out it’s take off facility which is the former general hospital Azare and was very happy about the development. Commissioner of health Prof Baba Mallam Gana was beyond happiness because he is now the special apple of the eyes of Prof Zulum his Principal.

The speed with which the hospital had to take off without any take off grant from its federal benefactors did not affect him yet he started work. He was really in a hurry to stamp his knowledge acquired on the sands of time by ensuring that humanity is served quality dividends in a very short period. And that is what he did on the 6th of January this year which was my birthday. It was a special day in the anals of medicine in North East Nigeria and my special day too. In our chit chat, Ramat announced his first feat in the hospital this way. “Today Tuesday 6th January 2026 the National Orthopaedic Hospital Azare Hawul Borno State successfully conducted its first Orthopaedic Surgery of (interlocking intramedullary femoral nailing). The team was led by the Medical Director Dr. Ali Mohammed Ramat a Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon. The patient is recuperating ” he said to me in a short, sweet and what I can describe as journalistic way. I am happy for him because he is a very young consultant who still has many years ahead of him before he begins to get tired or depreciate due to the law of diminishing returns which is quite natural with our common humanity. With this feat Ramat has started to write his name in gold in the country. He is also getting ready to move in a meteoric speed to serve humanity in a big way beyond northern Nigeria. Meanwhile as he and his team of about 29 doctors and 16 nurses wait for the usual red tape to be concluded in Abuja for more equipment to be supplied to the facility, Ramat has opened the hospital to everyone who is sick to approach them for treatment. This is a good beginning for orthopedic medication in Borno and Nigeria in general. Congratulations my friend Dr Ramat.

My Binocular: Federal Orthopedic Hospital Azare achieves first interlocking intramedullary femoral nailing operation

The North and ‘Northerners’ The Fear of the Middle Belt

By: Balami Lazarus

When I recently read some works that are negative and biased on the Middle Belt, it dawned on me to put my contributions on this subject.

Several discourses and comments on the Middle Belt have put fear in the minds of many individuals in the north, fueled by the ‘Northerners.’ The work of one writer recently on the Middle Belt was insulting, where he called it the ‘Bible Belt,’ giving it religious interpretations without any historical considerations, undermining the fact that it has large numbers of other faithfuls, Moslems inclusive. I dismissed that work as fiction of his wild imagination with no specific genre to hinge his work on.

However, the response of Dr. Pogu Bitrus, the president of the Middle Belt Forum (MBF), to a recent article by one Safyan Umar Yahaya on the Middle Belt spoke my mind. That piece gave the true picture of the sociocultural, political, and economic dynamics of the Middle Belt. And hence the birth of this piece.

The north today is where lives, properties, and investments are not safe. The three geopolitical zones that formed the geographical north are a theater of insecurity; homes for bandits, insurgents, and kidnappers; a hallmark of poverty and ignorance where economic activities are cornered and confined. Farming, movements of goods and services, for instance.

There has been a loud ethnic and religious nagging fermented in the cauldrons of sentiments nurtured by the ‘Northerners,’ which has created fear of the Middle Belt and streamed into the minds of the uniformed poor northerners. These have attempted to distort the struggle and agitation for the Middle Belt as a geopolitical zone yearning for a clearly defined cultural identity as a region with political representation. A mark of its geographical identity and expressions.

In this piece, I shall debunk the argument or the notion that the north is a unified bloc, giving my own reasons why it is not. The emergence of the Middle Belt in the body polity of Nigeria long before now has divided the north. For some, it is a recent phenomenon.

First, one has to clearly define the north. Is a geographical expression, and during the days of the late premier Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto, it stretched from the banks of the Benue and Niger rivers to the Chad/Niger borders. The premier then wielded power and respect across the ethnic provinces that made up the north because of his sense of fairness and equity in the ways and manner he handled and discharged his duties and led the region. The north was a bloc with a common purpose and sense of unity. But today these have manifested themselves into ethno-religious sentiments, attacks, and discriminations from Hausa and/or Fulani vs. Christians. Kabilus that paints the pictures of Moslems or Christians in the north, and the ‘game’ is the Middle Belt.

For me, the present north has four definitions that emerged from the crooked activities of ‘northerners.’ These are political north, ethnic north, religious north, and geographical north, which has long been replaced with geopolitical zones.

The Balkanization of the north noticeably came to the fore long before now, where other ethnic groups who constitute part of the north population were not carried along in the scheme of affairs because they are either Arnes or Kabilus, who are considered parts of the ignorant oppressed Talakawas of the north.

The level of ethno-religious divide has caused discrimination between Christians and Moslems in the north. The Middle Belt agitations have further widened the space where the term “Arewa” means “Moslem north,” while “Middle Belt” means “Christian north” in the minds of bigots.

However, when you speak of the north, you need to ask yourself, which of the north are you referring to in respect of the definitions earlier mentioned? Similarly, if you say “Northerners,” which of the Northerners are you also referring to?

Time and space are making so many tribes/ethnic groups realize their cultural history and where they belong with pride of identity. Therefore, the Middle Belt is a fusion of different ethnic nationalities and the right to be different as a Nigerian.

Balami, a Publisher/Columnist 08036779290

The North and ‘Northerners’ The Fear of the Middle Belt

Medical and Health Developments Amidst Insecurity: The Case of University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH)

By: Balami Lazarus

Insecurity challenges have pervaded and taken over every inch of the Nigerian estate, spreading their wings, casting dark shadows stealthily in silence of ambush. The predator has created excuses against growth, progress, and development among ministries, departments, and agencies (MIDA’s), including health institutions where medical and healthcare services are needed.

Development means a different thing to many people. “An improvement in people’s living conditions inevitably contributes to higher productivity and to economic growth, subsequently development.” Therefore the needs of people in a particular area are their development. For example, health.

Moreover, development is essentially concerned with continuous improvements of the human life and condition right from time, in its capacity for qualitative and quantitative reproduction and capabilities to control and manipulate the environment for the betterment of mankind as a whole. Therefore, the purpose of development is to create an enabling environment for people to enjoy long, healthy, and creative lives at all levels of their growth and progress.

But for UMTH under Prof. Ahmed Ahidjo, the CMD, medical and health development in infrastructure, human capital, and healthcare services is a continuous process amidst insecurity in Borno State and Maiduguri, the state capital.

At UMTH, the story of growth and development has brought progress in health and medical services that are expected from institutional hospitals. The rate and level of medical and healthcare services through specialized medical centers equipped with modern state-of-the-art equipment second to none in Nigeria is a testament to health/medical development in the aforesaid hospital.

People have always examined the concept of growth and development from economic perspectives, refusing to align them to the objectives of human needs that will increase productivity to provide and satisfy these human needs to ensure good medical and healthcare service delivery that is available at all times in UMTH “Centre of Excellence.”

Prof. Ahidjo has no doubt facilitated the concept of health development through changes in the health and medical services provided by UMTH in spite of the ten security challenges staring us hard in the face.

Growth, progress, and development initiated by Prof. Ahmed Ahidjo is itself a concept of development in the health sector. The CMD has blended the concepts of development together through their aims and objectives, which are charted towards the improvements of the human standard of living in healthcare and medical services.

Prof. Ahmed’s efforts have therefore brought developments in the life of the hospital that have never been witnessed since the inception of UMTH, until the man with the Midas touch came on board with improvements and transformations of infrastructures and facilities.

Prof. Ahidjo had directed his development towards the satisfaction of the hospital’s needs, the primary objectives of UMTH, which translates to human capital development through teaching, practicals, medical research, and provisions of healthcare services to her immediate host community.

Therefore, development cannot be seen purely as economic, social, and political affairs but rather as an outcome of man’s effort to transform societal structures and institutions in the case of UMTH.

Balami, a Publisher/Columnist 08036779290

Medical and Health Developments Amidst Insecurity: The Case of University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH)