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PAGE 28—SUNDAY VANGUARD, FEBRUARY 7, 2021
Why we still have
laboratory misdiagnosis
despite competent
professionals – Adibo
• Lists gains of ISN Award
Mr. Elochukwu Adibo, National President of the
Guild of Private Laboratory Directors of Nigeria, was
the Chairman of the Panel of Judges for the justconcluded
ISN Medical Laboratory Scientist of the
Year Award. In this interview, Adibo shares his
perspectives on the project and gives his
recommendations for subsequent editions among
other issues.
How do you assess the inaugural
edition of the ISN Medical
Laboratory Scientist of the Year
Award?
I think the entire project was quite
excellent. I say this because it was a novel
project that required completely new
concepts, ideas, implementation and
coordination. The host organization, ISN
Products Nigeria Limited, as well as the
consultants, was very committed and
extremely positive in the delivery despite
the odds arising from COVID-19. Even
when the pandemic was at its peak, they
were not deterred. This alone gave a very
key foundation for the eventual success
recorded in the project.
Do you think this award has impacted
positively on the laboratory practice and
services in the country?
I think, by and large, there has been a
positive impact on laboratory practice
and standard based on what I have seen
since. This is because it has reawakened
the consciousness of medical laboratory
'Private military contractors' advice on B/Haram ignored'
Continued from page 27
the committee of ambassadors. Those
reports are still gathering dust. Their
reports were not implemented as if there
were no will to do it. Therefore, ‘stick and
carrot’ is the best. Our own military with
a reputation should not be denigrated.
Somebody, in the name of protest,
infiltrated Lagos to destroy things and kill
people, and then, government stepped in
to completely pull it down rather than
using the internal mechanism to punish
the culprits. It is possible to do things
rather than pull down a well trained force
because of the excesses of few individuals.
I do not like the way the police were
humiliated the other time (during
#ENDSARS), and they also started
denigrating the military. We have the best
police in Africa. The media should be able
to tackle those who look down on our own
military. And at the same time, the
President and his Vice should arrange
surprise visits to the commands to
encourage our troops at the warfront and
know what is happening. President
Buhari has released enough money to the
military to implement whatever they want
to do. So why is the situation still down?
But I could still see some military
personnel carrying AK-47 rifles which
cannot fire beyond 800 meters. What
about modern weapons that should be
higher than what the insurgents use, with
night visual equipment?
Looking at the relationship between
the military, the police and the people,
the military often times says they are
not provided with real time intelligence
by civilians. From your point of view, is
there trust between the people and the
scientists all over the country on total
adherence to standards, as this is the only
way one can be outstanding, recognized
and become a potential winner of such a
prestigious award.
All the stakeholders in the medical
laboratory space including regulators
made very positive statements. And for
me as a leader of a key group in private
practice, my participation further
impacted positively on our message of
quality management system principles
and practice which is the only way to
measure up to international standards as
expected in all countries all over the
world. The award itself passed a clear
message that nothing less than the best is
acceptable and of course this would
translate to more quality results to
Nigerians and better health indices
considering the very key role medical
laboratory services play in patient care
and safety.
What are the flaws and pluses you
may have identified in the process?
military?
To be candid, the trust has been
exhausted because our people used to
send information to the military. And
essentially, that information, no matter
how confidential it is, there will be a
phone call back to the person, telling him
“we are aware of what you did.” That
shows there are moles within the
military. With technology,
those moles are bound to
be fished out. The trust has
been eroded and that is
why there are so many
leakages and the people
stopped cooperating.
Secondly, what do you do
with cooperation when
insurgents will come at
night and the military will
not come to their rescue?
It is not true that the
people were not
cooperating. They have
done their best, and yet
they are not protected.
When their confidential
information to the military
is eventually leaked to
insurgents, who does it? Is
it not the mole within the
military?
There are two things in the North; one
is the Almajiri phenomenon, two is the
number of young minds that have
opportunity to make friends with the
devil because of being out of school.
How can these two things be tackled?
It has to do with negligence in
developing the rural areas. Basic
infrastructure should be there for them to
get busy. Imagine, when a governor has
Confidential
information to
the military is
eventually
leaked to
insurgents
•Adibo
I think the areas of flaws were quite
minimal for a maiden edition but to
mention a few, one of the flaws was
limited publicity to very relevant
professional platforms and direct
information to associations and
regulators from the onset. A lot needs to
be done in that regard to improving
going forward. Secondly, the convener of
the initiative must ensure that the entry
criteria are clear enough to avoid
unnecessary applications and save
screening time for the assessors and
organizers. Take, for instance, the issue of
minimal years of practice post-internship
training. Thirdly, assessors should be
given the opportunity to participate in the
setting of the questions for participants so
that they will not just be assessing and
setting marking schemes for other
people’s examination questions. We must
not exclude participating professionals’
institutions whose workers happen to be
among the finalists from receiving the
reward. On the good side, I think the
organisation did well in setting a very
to visit a rural area said to be free from
insurgents and yet came under attack,
what does it tell? If you go to the
headquarters of the military, they have
gadgets that can see the entire Borno
territory and even Boko Haram fighters
moving on motorcycles through many
kilometers unchallenged. When you say
reintegration, it is nonsensical in the sense
that it doesn’t take place
when there is no ceasefire.
It is only in a situation of
complete ceasefire as it
happened in Colombia
after 50 years of insurgency
that reintegration can
work. These boys are
running their guns and
killing people, you profile
those who surrender and
retrain them and send them
back to the society without
taking care of those who are
traumatized by insurgents,
how can it work? Rather, it
is better to keep them far
away from people who are
traumatized, and who have
not gone back to their
ancestral homes, than
making them comfortable.
Indirectly, you are
encouraging the young ones
who are peaceful at home, and not cared
for at all, to join forces with insurgents.
To stop this trend, you must not integrate
them into society. Take them somewhere
else, far away from Nigeria or away from
the areas they have terrorized. Remember
that these boys were initiated by force.
You never can tell what they have taken
as oath. This formation is a cult. It has
nothing to do with religion. Some were
high standard for the award which makes
it respectable and attractive for
participation. Not only that, participants
especially the finalists were highly
dignified and treated very well as
deserving medical professionals. The
same thing applies to the entire process as
it was found to be transparent and devoid
of any form of influence by ISN or the
consultant organization – Indigo. On the
whole, all the pluses earned the award the
high rating. As far as I am concerned and
surely, I speak the minds of all the
credible and well-selected five judges in
my team who were drawn from the best in
the profession. No doubt, the standard
and quality of the award will increase
interest and participation in subsequent
editions.
Judging from the scripts you
evaluated, would you say Nigerians are
safe in the hands of young medical
laboratory practitioners, particularly,
now that there has been advancement in
laboratory practices globally?
Judging from the scripts, I think it is a
mixed feeling in terms of the knowledge
base, exhibition of professional mastery
and excellence in practical skills. This is
because some very young medical lab
scientists who were eventually
disqualified for having less than five years
post-internship qualification were very
impressive in their answers to questions
even though they did not make the cut.
A number of the assessed MLS were
very impressive, whereas other candidates
to a fair extent had knowledge of Quality
Management System and standard
laboratory practice, which can be traced
to what is available at their various
institutions. This did not apply to only the
young but even the very experienced and
long standing medical laboratory
scientists. Nigerians will benefit more if
many organizations, both private and
public, will improve on their standards
and strict regulatory control must be
encouraged in all medical laboratories in
the country including the in-hospital
based laboratories at the private and
public facilities.
What are the missing links or things
you may recommend which should be
included in next year’s edition?
For next year’s edition, I would repeat
and re-emphasize the summary
recommendations we had made as a
team of judges as follows. They include
request for a cumulative of three months
Internal Quality Control (IQC), current
External Quality Assurance (EQA),
evidence of instrument calibration and
traceability, attachment of academic
publications to other documents required,
years of experience must be clearly stated
and increased level of publicity for the
initiative.
Continues on www.vanguardngr.com
given ethnic task while some were given
religious task but it has nothing to do with
religion. It is the same thing with Al-
Shabab, Taliban and Al Qaeda. When you
see a child soldier involved in killing in
Africa, you see resources involved. It is
the way the arms industry makes their
money. They create wars to sell their arms.
That industry alone is worth over 2 trillion
dollars. Without war, they will not make
money. Secondly, it is by pitching one
country against another that they will be
invited in the name of peace keeping.
Nigeria is the only country that is envied
for not inviting foreign troops. I am not
against foreign troops within Africa but
troops from Europe, UK or America sent
under the name of United Nations do not
bring peace. In Central Africa, Congo and
other African countries, they are there
without peace in hand.
In some other parts of the North, we
have had cattle rustling, banditry,
religious crisis, illegal mining and
others. What do you make of this?
It is part of the template created from
outside. The template has been there for
long waiting for the leadership to start
doing it. It is always easier in a
democracy to mess up the system, because
it was in democracy that a President
decided to take weapons from the joint
multinational task force in northern
Borno around Lake Chad to the South.
Some of them were transported to Lagos
barracks, exploded and killed many
people. Nobody asked questions about
what happened?
• Interview first aired on
Channels TV Newsnight