Bennet Omalu – My kind of Nigerian

For every twisted Nigerian caught in the drug, international fraud and sundry crimes dragnet, there are hundreds, nay, thousands who are quietly making positive waves in the sciences, technology and the arts to the admiration of the rest of the civilised world. The reason some outsiders stigmatise us as a nation of criminals is that […]

For every twisted Nigerian caught in the drug, international fraud and sundry crimes dragnet, there are hundreds, nay, thousands who are quietly making positive waves in the sciences, technology and the arts to the admiration of the rest of the civilised world. The reason some outsiders stigmatise us as a nation of criminals is that they have not taken time out to check the facts. Our sons and daughters in the Diaspora have been making immense contributions to the various societies of their sojourn. But it is the lone bad apple that makes dimwits like Donald Trump condemn the entire basket.
Today, I want to use one long-suffering Nigerian, Bennet Ifeakandu Omalu, to make the point that we have our fair share of heroes – and the world had better listen.
Omalu is the now famous physician, forensic pathologist, and neuropathologist who first published findings of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) in American football players while working at the Allegheny County Coroner’s Office in Pittsburgh United States of America.
Fourteen years ago, Omalu performed an autopsy on former Pittsburgh Steelers centre, Mike Webster, and found signs of a degenerative brain disease caused by repeated blows to the head. The findings were unprecedented.
In conjunction with colleagues in the Department of Pathology at the University of Pittsburgh, he published his findings in the journal Neurosurgery in 2005 in a paper titled “Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy in a National Football League Player.
“We herein report the first documented case of long-term neurodegenerative changes in a retired professional NFL player consistent with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). This case draws attention to a disease that remains inadequately studied in the cohort of professional football players, with unknown true prevalence rates.”
Instead of further investigating Omalu’s claims and work towards coming to terms with the findings, the Mild Traumatic Brain Injury (MTBI) Committee of the NFL called on Omalu to withdraw his paper in 2006. They said Omalu was completely wrong and that his paper was not only misleading but a complete sham. The Nigerian doctor was shattered. How could professional colleagues be so dismissive of a finding which sought to protect people from instalmental brain degeneration caused by trauma to the brain as routinely happens during a football game? The establishment, including some fellow physicians, moved mightily against Omalu. He lost his job; some friends deserted him; it looked like his professional world was collapsing around him.
Convinced that he was on the right path, Omalu went on to partner with Julian Bailes, a neurosurgeon and concussion researcher, and Lawyer Robert P. Fitzsimmons, to found the Brain Injury Research Institute. They established a brain and tissue bank. In November 2006, he published a second Neurosurgery paper based on his findings in the brain of former NFL player Terry Long, who suffered from depression and committed suicide in 2005. Long was 45 but his brain looked like that of a 90-year-old with advanced Alzheimer’s. Omalu asserted that Long’s NFL career had caused later brain damage and depression. He also reached the same conclusion in several other cases, including veterans he personally autopsied and researched.
For several years Omalu found himself pitted against the multi-billion dollar National Football League which did all it could to discredit him. If he was proved to be right, then the pro-football establishment was in danger of losing money. So monumental was the discovery that it went to the very core of the concept of professional football. If the sport was a guarantee for instalmental brain degeneration, then the rules had to change and more protective measures introduced.
Eventually the truth could not be hidden any longer. The world came to terms with the fact that this humble 47-year-old Nigerian now naturalized American had made a great medical discovery. Suddenly the world of medical science became abuzz. Omalu was transformed from pariah to hero. In 2009, the NFL eventually conceded that there was a link between concussions sustained in football and CTE.
Reflecting on what he had gone through, Omalu says: “When I identified CTE, I was happy because I thought what I had discovered was going to enhance the game. When the NFL started coming after me, the NFL was going against the truth – not me. I knew in my heart of hearts, deep down, that the truth would always prevail. That is the humanity of science.”
He has since been honoured on the floor of the US House of Representatives for his efforts in raising awareness about the consequences of repetitive brain trauma. Hollywood came calling too. The Omalu saga and discovery was made into a movie, “Concussion”, directed and written by Peter Landesman, starring Will Smith.
Nigeria boasts many other top flight professionals in every sphere of human endeavour. Take 44-year-old Dr. Olurotimi Badero, who is, today, one of the most knowledgeable medical minds in the World. He is the only combined cardiologist and nephrologist in the United States of America. His older brother, is the equally renowned Dr. Oluyemi Badero who is regarded as one of the topmost interventional cardiologists in the world. Several years ago, the older Badero was named the topmost black doctor in New York by The Network Journal with a front cover caption, Badero “deals with matters of the heart by getting to the heart of the matter.”
Then there is 50-year-old Jelani Aliyu, originally from Sokoto State, who is General Motors Lead Exterior Designer and the designer of the Chevy Volt. The car has been described as an American Revolution and one of the hottest concepts in the design line.