JUTH: An Abode of Corrupt Medical and Administrative Practices

By: Balami Lazarus.

Recently I was listening to Town Hall Meeting, a popular radio program aired by JFM 101.9 FM Jos, where issues concerning public and private bodies are being discussed for the sake of good governance/corporate practices. Their topic, as it were, was on public hospitals, focusing on Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH). With rapt attention, I listened and followed them bumper to bumper as they unraveled the medical and administrative roots in this federal institutional hospital that was established in 1975.
I had wanted to write on JUTH sometime last year, having written some pieces on the former CMD, Prof. Edmund Banwat, on how he mismanaged the hospital, i.e., the medical and administrative sections of JUTH, during his tyrannical and militarized tenure of 8 wasted years of greed and crazed corruption. He was also a thorn in the flesh of staff and patients’ relations. Therefore, the radio program provided me with the opportunity to write this article.
Before I go further, my mind went to the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH), where one sees and feels medical excellence in healthcare delivery as caregivers and life-savers, a common practice in our health system.
Considering this, I sincerely, with all my heart, give kudos to Prof. Ahmed Ahidjo, the CMD, and his hardworking and patriotic management team, who are out to maintain and promote the standard of health excellence over and above other federal institutional hospitals. Unlike our subject/topic of the Town Hall Meeting Radio Programme.
          
 Any journalist that is practicing or has practiced on the Plateau will agree with me that there are a lot of issues to write on. But my challenge with some of them is their nonchalant attitude on so many pressing issues that have a direct effect on the citizens of the state. But hardly do you find them writing on these issues—water, electricity, roads, security, and many others.
      
Take it from me, that JUTH is a place where you find many annoying medical and administrative black spots in her departments, sections, units, and corridors that need no euphemism garment when one is writing or speaking of JUTH. Therefore, my investigations and sources available are clear indications that JUTH is shrouded in unethical and questionable professional practices in her systems.

The coming on board of Dr. Pokop Bupwatda Wushipba as CMD on 30th August 2022 was applauded by staff and workers of JUTH, including the good people of Plateau, with a happy bye for tyrant Prof. Edmund Banwat, as he was once called and addressed as such. Dr. Pokop was considered and seen as that CMD who will bring changes in JUTH in terms of professional medical healthcare delivery and good administrative practices. But “here we are experiencing a replay of Prof. Edmund Banwat’s dreadful and horrific days.”. According to sources within JUTH, Dr. Pokop Bupwatda’s tenure might likely be enveloped in a medical and administrative mess characterized by “bad health care services with unprofessional practices by doctors and nurses.”. This is the beginning of the negativities in JUTH with Dr. Bupwatda as CMD.
    
In consideration of the bad narratives on JUTH, I will add a style to this work by itemizing what is currently happening in JUTH: Gross medical misconduct by doctors and nurses. Negligence of duties by medical and administrative personnel. Refusal to collect delivery items from about-to-be-put-to-bed mothers by matrons and nurses because they did not buy from them. Referral center to hospitals/clinics owned by many JUTH doctors. JUTH lacks social amenities like water and electricity. Unsanitized and dirty premises.
   
To counter such corrupt activities in our public hospitals, there should be a monitoring unit for federal and state hospitals. This, I believe, will go a long way in checkmating these corrupt practices in our hospitals.
            
Balami, a Publisher/Columnist, 0836779290

JUTH: An Abode of Corrupt Medical and Administrative Practices

Yobe set to focus on local revenue generation

By: Yahaya Wakili

The Yobe state government has vowed to work tirelessly on different ways and means of generating local resources to complement what the state is being received from the federation account.

The government said in addition, the state has so many solid minerals deposited under the ground to further boost its efforts at making life easy for its citizens. 

The state Commissioner of Commerce, Industry, Tourism, and Solid Minerals, Alhaji Kaigama Umar, disclosed this when he opened tender bids for consultancy services in respect of the production of a comprehensive road map to develop the solid minerals in the state.

He maintained that the government is taking remarkable steps and inviting these companies to have a comprehensive road map, and at the end of the day, illegal mining will be stopped.

According to him, the ministry will submit the bid documents to a technical session to critically look at it, analyze it, and send it to the Bureau on public procurement for final betting.

Kaigama revealed that five companies indicated their interest in the bid, and all of them responded, which include Matlock Nigeria and Partners Ltd, Ahila Technology Ltd, Focus Consult Ltd, Dotnet Technology Ltd, and Pathways Mapping, respectively.

Yobe set to focus on local revenue generation. 

Groups Call for Release of Environmental Activist Odey Oyama from Police Custody

By: Michael Mike

A coalition group of environmental activism organisations have condemned the arrest and detention of environmental activist Odey Oyama by the Nigerian Police, insisting that it signifies a rising trend of abuse and regression in the country.

The statement was endorsed by the following organizations; Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF); We the People; Policy Alert; Kebetkache Women Development and Resource Centre; Peace Point Development Foundation (PPDF); ANI Foundation; Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre (YEAC-Nigeria); YEAC Community Energy and Development (YEAC-CEAD); Life Empowerment Foundation; Lekeh Development Foundation (LEDEF); The Colonist Report Africa.

Others are: Social Action Nigeria; Yeraba Women Foundation; Health Education and Human Rights Advocacy Initiative (HEHRAI); Girls Power Initiative (GPI); Nkori Rural Women and Development Initiative (Uyo Iban Amplifier Initiative); Secure Health and Environment Development (SHADAfrica); Association Managing Development in Nigeria (ARADIN); Partnership for Social and Environmental Development Initiative P4SEDI; Green Planet Initiative International; PADIC.

Also included are: The Save Our Green Spaces Group; Emerald Forest Reserve, Ikoyi Osun, Osun State; Emilie Guitard, French National Center for Scientific Research CNRS; Save Ogunpa Forest Team; Rainbow Watch and Development Centre (RWDC); Environmental Rights Action(ERA/FoEN); and Cooperate Accountability Public Participation Africa (CAPPA).

According to the statement, on Tuesday, January 14, 2025, environmental activist and director of the Rainforest Resource and Development Centre (RRDC), Mr. Odey Oyama and six others were arrested by Police officers from the Ikom division of the Cross River State Police Command. He was taken from his Okuni home and driven to Calabar where he was kept incommunicado, without legal representation and without formal charges for at least 24 hours.

Odey Oyama, described as a resolute campaigner for the protection of the rainforest and biodiversity in Cross River state, a cause that has brought him in constant confrontation with illegal loggers who plunder the rich forest ecosystem of Cross River state, has in recent times engaged in a fierce campaign against Chinese business concerns working with indigenous collaborators who are logging the Effi Rainforest, a trend that has resulted in massive deforestation, dissipation of wildlife and loss of biodiversity.

The statement said: “Up till now, Odey has not been formerly charged with any wrongdoing,” noting that: “The action of the Nigeria Police has once again demonstrated flagrant disregard for due process and their role in stifling dissenting voices, especially when vested business interests are at stake. In this instance, Odey Oyama a conscientious objector to the destruction of the environment, rather than enjoy the protection of the government, is being systematically persecuted.”

The statement added that: “As civil society organisations and activists in Nigeria, we are familiar with the selfless campaigns of Odey Oyama that have earned him national and international recognition and have helped to preserve the ecological heritage of Cross River State. We are therefore alarmed that rather than support the efforts of Oyama and other campaigners like him to check the illegal destruction of the Cross River forests, the Police is complicit in weakening his resolve and repressing him. It is even more alarming that he was arrested and detained without formal charges against all extant Nigeria and international laws.

“We are also concerned that this latest arrest is symbolic of the growing intolerance of the government towards the legitimate activities of civil society organizations. In Cross River State in particular, we have witnessed a pattern of arrest and detention of journalists and activists with the flimsiest excuses, but covertly to stifle democratic dissent. We are worried that the civic space is shrinking at an accelerated rate in the state, and the Police is highly complicit in this deteriorating trend.

“We call on the Nigeria Police to immediately release Odey Oyama and his 6 associates and cease all further hostile acts against their persons and legitimate campaigns.”

“We shall go to all legitimate lengths to enforce the right of Odey Oyama and his associates to advocate peacefully without any let or hindrance,” the group promised.

Groups Call for Release of Environmental Activist Odey Oyama from Police Custody