To the populace,
I, who began my adult life spending alternate days with corpses, who carry bones in my bags and books that break my back; I, who spend the prime of my youth in the grime of wards. I, who have already witnessed a lifetime’s share of deaths, who learn about depression but fail to recognize it in myself…I have this to say:
YES,I swore to the Hippocratic oath,
NO, my job is not humanitarian (verb: Concerned with or seeking to promote human welfare, Noun: a person who seeks to promote human welfare, a philanthropist)
I am humanitarian because I am a human being not because I am a medical doctor.
YES I became a medical doctor because I love people, I love to see the sick get well, I love to see people happy, I love to serve people.
YES I am a medical doctor because I am not after money,
I will be humanitarian as a medical doctor if you will fulfill some trivial conditions:
When it’s time to pay my rent my Landlord should waive it
When I want to go to work in the morning, I should pick any car from my car dealer neighbour who should also waive the cost.
When I take my son to school, the Proprietress should waive the fees.
When my wife needs cloths, the boutique owner should waive the cost.
When we get to the market, the market women should give us foodstuffs for free.
Petrol stations should always fill my tank without a price to it.
My aged parents and other dependants should be well taken care of.
Do this and I will be humanitarian as a medical doctor.
But when you folks hear that I am a medical doctor you double the price of your wares, and when I ask why you say ‘sebi you be doctor’.
When I ask for a commiserate pay for my skill and work, you fling humanitarian on the table, you dangle Hippocratic oath in front of me.
when death knocks at the door, I am looked upon as a god. When I accept the challenge, I am looked upon as an angel. When the patient is cured, I am looked upon as a common person. When I ask for my fee, I become the devil.
I went on strike to protest the state of my beloved profession, to ask the chief servants of the country to right all the wrongs, so my father, mother, sister, friends and neighbours will stop going to India to get vitamin B.co,
I protested so the health sector will be one of the best in the world,
I protested so my kids will have good specialists to care for them tomorrow not half baked ones.
What did I get instead? my neighbours insulting me, my non medical doctor friends sneering at me, my government sacking me and suspending my training and jeopardizing the medical future of my family, signing the death sentence of the people they swore to protect.
Wait we have been talking about me, let’s talk about you:
I remember the last time your son was ill and you brought him to the private hospital where I was working, there I was in the consulting room and the first question you asked me was ‘are you a paediatrician’? I said no and you walked out with your precious little prince to shop for a paediatrician, now your explorer is hale and healthy.
Let’s go back to the hospital, this paediatrician if he has been sacked a couple of years ago, if residency training program has been suspended by previous administrations he will not be available for you today and what would have become of your bundle of joy?.
The government sacked residents and suspended residency training and you were jubilating saying’ that serves them right, pompous and egoistic fellows, do away with them, who are they’ sef’? Give us Barnabas!!!!
I will not explain to you how it will come back and bite you, but definitely it will.
I am a medical doctor, I am proud of my knowledge, I will fuel my ego with my skill, my hands are gifted and with the skill I will get wealth.
Dr.Femi Obafemi
Dept.of medical microbiology and parasitology
UCH Ibadan