Edmund Hillary (1919 - 2008), a great explorer and philanthropist who was one of the pair that first reach the summit of Mount Everest, said:
"There is something about building up comradeship - that I believe is the greatest of all feats - and sharing in the dangers with your company of peers. It's the intent effort the giving of everything you've got. It's really a very pleasant sensation".
This allusion captures the essence of comradeship or association be it professional, religious or otherwise. Far from this truth is the standing of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) in her dealings with her members, individually and collectively and the case of Late Dr Stella Adadevoh is not an exception.
The NMA which is the umbrella body of all Nigerian doctors, though old in age (since 1960)
cannot be said to have maturity and vigour that such caliber of association should possess. Class, titile, caste and segregation manifest in her day to day running. No wonder the young , energetic and vibrant arm of the association, the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) is always at loggerhead with her parent body, NMA and the few times of renaissance and rejuvenation of NMA were spearheaded by the NARD.
It is quite unthinkable and unfathomable, that after one year of the demise of Dr Stella
Adadevoh, the Nigeria Medical Association has not deemed it fit to honour her. It is saddening! The noble and referred profession could not take care of her own. One would expect that if the whole world will not appreciate her, her primary constituency, the NMA will definitely do. The only notable effort to appreciate this heroine of our time within the association was the personal statement of condolence by the immediate past president of NMA, Dr Osahon Enabulele which was captured in the Daily Independent of 22nd August,2014. Also, one would expect that the words of Dr Salau, the Vice Chairman of the Lagos State Medical Guild will translate into concrete action and result when he said: "Well she will be honoured. It will more likely be the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) that will do that. But as a guild, that will come up later when we have got full details of what has taken place and so on. But in the mean time, most of my colleagues and I agree that she is a heroine based on the fact that se prevented the man from spreading the disease around to general public as the Liberian Patrick Sawyer intended", in The Nation newspaper of August 23rd, 2014. Interestingly, when the NMA (the Nigerian Medical Association) was in a deep slumber and somnolence, the NMA (Nollywood Movie Awards) rose up to the occasion by honouring Late Dr Stella Adadevoh with the Nollywood Humanity Award on the 18th of October, 2014 for her selfless humanitarian sacrifice, barely two months of her death.
The fact that the Nigerian Medical Association exhibits the signs and symptoms of a town that has no honour for her prophet did not preclude national and international bodies to rain accolades and honour to appreciate her thorough professionalism, sterling heroic act and undaunting courage of Dr Stella Adadevoh, even in the face of stark danger to her life.
Among those bodies are the Cable News Network (CNN) who honors her as the Leading Woman, 2014 on December 23rd , 2014 and The Guardian gave her the award of "The Woman Who Shape 2014" a day earlier on 22nd, December, 2014. The Nigerian American Medical Foundation awarded her the Distinguished Service Award on the 15th Novmber, 2014 and the International Medical Corp, UK named her the Number One Humanitarian Everyone Should Know (2014). Some other bodies that have lent their voice in praising this amazon include Firstbank Nigeria, Pathcare Laboratories, National Open University
of Nigeria, Redeemed Christian Church of God and Security and Exchange Commission to mention but a few.
Alas! The Nigerian Medical Association is missing on the list. Hippocates, the father of medicine must be catching cold in his grave by now. Therefore, there is no need to search too far to comprehend the reason why the Federal Government of Nigeria has not honoured and immortalize Dr Stella Adadevoh; her constituency that suppose to champion the cause is nowhere to be found.
However, it is not too late for NMA to redeem her image, the situation can still be salvaged. Let the association as a matter of urgency honour and immortalize and begin a nationwide advocacy to ensure that the Federal Government of Nigeria do the same.
By
Dr Dele Atiba
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