By KENNEDY EWEAMA
(08035529265)
There is this old saying that a prophet is most often not recognised at home. Whether or not this seeming archaic assertion still holds sway till date is an issue that I can not authoritatively dabble into now.
However, to me, what remains incontestable is the fact that a golden fish has no hiding place. Because of the depth of the river, sea, or ocean (whichever is applicable),it might be intricate initially to spot the golden fish in a flash. It might take a while, but eventually,the golden fish must be spotted.
This is aptly the story of Dr Emmanuel Ogueri, the Canadian trained surgeon from Isiala Mbano Local Government Area of Imo State.
When he first entered the scene, many did not recognise his worth. Some saw him as one of those foreign returnees who had come back for a jamboree of sort, perhaps to brainwash them. A few who chose to listen to him did so without much conviction.
Perhaps that accounted for why the people of Okigwe North geopolitical missed the golden opportunity in 2014 and 2020 when he aspired to represent the zone in the Senate of the National Assembly. Unknown to them then, the people had gambled away or traded off a Jewel for something far less of value. They are still rueing that costly mistake of theirs till date.
Yes, Dr Emmanuel Ogueri is, by all standards, a Jewel in the savannah. It can only take a seasoned administrator and an astute manager of human idiosyncrasies like Governor Hope Uzodinma to spot the rare qualities in Dr Ogueri. How the governor identified him from the pack is best known to him.
For clarity, a savannah is a large landscape filled with lush green and beautiful grasses. Picking an object from inside such lush green large space of land is like searching for a niddle in a hay sack. This fact is unassailable.
A Jewel, on the other hand, is a precious stone such as a diamond. When personified, it translates to a very important person who is very valuable.
That is what Dr Ogueri epitomises if anybody wishes to put it that way. Governor Uzodinma should be commended for his wisdom and foresight in fishing out Dr Emmanuel Ogueri and placing him in charge of Imo State University Teaching Hospital (IMSUTH),Orlu,Chairman of the Governing Board.
Nothing kills any establishment, be it government-owned or privately-owned, like appointing mediocrities and incompetent folks due to nepotism or favouritism,to run it. Conversely, putting round pegs in round holes enhances the deployment of expertise, which in turn encourages efficiency, growth and development of such establishments.
This, perhaps, is what the governor had in mind when he chose Dr Ogueri from the horde of medical practitioners which Imo State can boast of, to take charge of IMSUTH.Obviously,the governor does not want “stories that touch the heart” or excuses in the management of IMSUTH affairs going forward, hence his preference for Dr Ogueri’s expertise in medicine,administrative sagacity and managerial astuteness.
Dr Ogueri holds the membership of University of Manitoba Post Graduate Medical Licence Programme for International Medical Gaduates in Canada, Fellow of College of Family Physicians of Canada, Certificate in Family Medicine from the College of Family Physicians of Canada.
Furthermore, Dr Ogueri is a certified member of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, Canada,and a life member of the Medical Council of Canada.
The IMSUTH helmsman is also an alumnus of the prestigious and premier university in Nigeria, the University of Ibadan (UI),where he obtained his Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery(MBBS) and did his Housemanship at the Military Base Hospital, Yaba,Lagos.
Dr Ogueri is the Medical Director/CEO, Dr Emmanuel Ogueri Medicine Professional Corporation, Canada.
It is instructive to point out that apart from his recent appointment, Dr Ogueri is equally the Special Adviser on Health to the Governor of Imo State. This simply amplifies Governor Hope Uzodinma’s determination to rejig the health sector in Imo State for optimal performance and productivity using foreign expertariates as embodied in Dr Ogueri as a pivot.
While Imo people are celebrating Dr Ogueri’s entrance into the scene in view of his unblemished and enviable track record in the health sector, we urge him not to let the governor and Imo people down. Having chosen him after a painstaking, diligent and meticulous search by the governor, it is expected that he would be unreservedly patriotic in the discharge of his duties.
Late literary sage, Prof Chinua Achebe did say that “A man whose name is called again and again by those trying in vain to catch a bull,has something he alone can do to bulls.” Governor Uzodinma knows why he opted for Dr Emmanuel Ogueri spearhead the health revolution in Imo and nothing short of the best would be good enough for the good people of Imo State.
Perhaps, to underscore the huge importance Governor Uzodinma places on the health and overall wellbeing of Imo people, it might be pertinent to reiterate even at the risk of sounding repetitive, that the choice of Dr Emmanuel Ogueri to captain the health revolution in Imo, was primarily to ensure that a round peg is put in a round hole. To those who know and appreciate the governor’s uncompromising knack for excellence in service delivery, it will be absurd to expect him to appoint a pentecostal Church pastor to go and officiate a Catholic Church Mass,likewise expecting him to appoint a Catholic Church priest to go and officiate a Cherubim and Seraphim Church service. That would be catastrophic.
More graphically put, it would be like asking or expecting the governor to reenact the Guayana tragedy episode of 1978 in Imo’s health sector. For those who still remember the sordid event of Guayana, it became inflammatory because a mediocre, someone by name, Jim Jones,who never received the “Holy Call” declared himself the messiah and the gullible people of Guayana watched haplessly until tragedy struck. In one fell swoop, on November 18,1978,a total of 918 lives,including that of a United States Congressman,Leo Ryan,were terminated in Jonestown, Guyana, while the government watched helplessly.
This could easily happen in the health sector, not only in Imo, but in other States and Nigeria as a nation, if mediocrities are allowed to hold sway therein, and that is what Governor Uzodinma has averted in Imo by the appointment of Dr Emmanuel Ogueri. Nothing, no matter how precious, can ever compare to human life. This is an indisputable fact.
It is equally instructive for the Federal Government,and other States to emulate Governor Uzodinma’s model of appointments, especially for health managers,and professionals because “health is wealth and a healthy nation, is a wealthy nation.”
In a nutshell, what Governor Uzodinma is practically doing or encouraging by the appointment of Dr Emmanuel Ogueri, a home grown expatriate, is to discourage the brain drain ravaging the health sector in our country today. By bringing back our best brains to come back home manage our health sector, the governor has boldly told our people to forget about overseas medical trips since the same people whom they intend spending huge sums of money to go and seek for their help abroad, could still be brought back home by the government to attend to them at a comparative very low cost. This is wisdom at its best and could only come from a man of selfless mien like Governor Hope Uzodinma.
