I was virtually smuggled to Germany to study Medicine – Dr. Urwatu Balla

Daily Trust: Can we know a little about your early days? Dr. Urwatu Yerima Balla: I was born in 1948 in Gombi Local Government Area of Adamawa State. My father, Alhaji Yarima Balla, was a vice president of the then Northern Elements Progressive Union (NEPU). I went to Gombi Primary School and in 1958 I […]

Daily Trust: Can we know a little about your early days?

Dr. Urwatu Yerima Balla: I was born in 1948 in Gombi Local Government Area of Adamawa State. My father, Alhaji Yarima Balla, was a vice president of the then Northern Elements Progressive Union (NEPU). I went to Gombi Primary School and in 1958 I went to Yola Girl’s School. From there, I went to Saint Luis Secondary School were I studied up to 1963 when I was in Form 2. My father sent me to Germany where I completed my secondary school, learned the German language and later studied Medicine. I came back to Nigeria in 1972 and did my housemanship in Ibadan and later came back to Kano to join the Dala Orthopedic Hospital and later to Nassarawa Hospital now known as Abdullahi Wase Hospital. A few years later I went back to Ibadan for a two year course, then I was hoping to go to the UK to do my Surgeon training because then there was an arrangement between the government of West Africa and that of the Britain.

In 1978 we went to Ghana for a Surgeon training but that year there was a lot of political crisis in Ghana and we had to abandon everything and return home. Back in Nigeria, I applied for scholarship to go for my Surgeon training in Switzerland. It was approved and I went, but unfortunately barely six months into my programme, I got a letter from Kano saying they couldn’t continue paying for my programme because I was not a Kano indigene. Fortunately, the Swiss government allowed me to work and continue my programme. I returned to Nigeria in 1982 as a qualified Surgeon and the first female surgeon from the North. However, I retired from active service very early at the age of 45. I am now a mother and a grandmother.

DT: Why did you study Medicine in Germany instead of Nigeria?

Dr. Urwatu Balla: If you were alive at that period you would understand the politics being played then. Remember, I told you my father was a NEPU man and that period being in NEPU meant you were an opposition or rather an enemy of the ruling party. To be candid with you, we were virtually smuggled out of the country through Ghana to Germany to study because the then government wouldn’t allow us the sons and daughters of the NEPUs to go to Germany and study. My father was so close to Malam Aminu Kano and that made him a potential enemy of then NPC. The opportunity came through NEPU, and our parents took it, that was why at a very tender age I left Nigeria for Germany.

DT: Why did you retired at 45?

Dr. Urwatu Balla: Actually, there were a lot of issues and I couldn’t cope with all those issues. As a surgeon, I had to travel to either Switzerland or Germany twice a year to get what I needed to work efficiently and I used all those things on my patients free of charge. The stress became too much for me and I decided to bow out of the service.  

DT: After your retirement what did you do?

Dr. Urwatu Balla: I started private practice to make me active but after a while a stopped because I didn’t stay often as I was in the World International Society for Surgeons and through that there was no continent I never visited.

DT: How would you describe growing up in those years?

Dr. Urwatu Balla: To us in the Yerima family, western education was a must. In fact, I learnt how to speak in school because I was enrolled at the age of 2. My father ensured that every member of our community got enrolled in school irrespective of gender or religious affiliation. I grew up to understand that my father was a freedom fighter who believed in the emancipation of the masses, you know how people with the NEPU ideologies acted.

DT: Do you think teaching in local languages will ease the learning difficulties?

Dr. Urwatu Balla: I studied Medicine in Germany and the language used in teaching me was German, which is not my language and not my national language, yet we all understood what we were taught. When you are young the youthful exuberance in you will allow you to do even the impossible. I believe it has to do with the environment and teachers’ composition but not the language.

DT: How would you compare working as a doctor then with what is obtainable now?

Dr. Urwatu Balla: There are a lot of changes and developments in terms of commitment to work and remuneration. Then, the money was not much but there was total commitment to work, let me tell you one thing, I retired from service as a senior consultant in the year 1989 when my salary was just N2, 000. I could remember, my last salary was N2, 400 and the N400 was my call duty allowance. Nowadays government pays huge amounts of money even though doctors are saying it isn’t enough, the commitment to work is virtually not there. When I started working in Kano State doctors were not allowed to do private practice, perhaps senior doctors may be allowed to keep one or two of their private patients in hospital. It is unethical for a doctor on call to abandon patients he admitted in a hospital to attend to his private hospital activities. I believe even with the escalation in prices of commodities N400, 000 to N500, 000 is enough to sustain a doctor when others are surviving with less than N50, 000 in the same country, we have to be reasonable.

DT: Do you support the recent call to ban doctors from private practice?

Dr. Urwatu Balla: I believe things should be done in accordance withlaid down rules and regulations. There is need for the government to carefully devise a means that wouldn’t amount to sabotage in addressing this issue and as I had said earlier, during our days, we were not allowed to do private practice and yet we lived very fulfilled lives. This is going to be difficult I know, but it is possible. However, this is my personal thought and I may be wrong.

DT: How did you get involved in the Red Cross Society?

Dr. Urwatu Balla:I have been in the Red Cross for a very long time. It is an act to keep me moving in a voluntary service to humanity. I held several positions before becoming the chairperson of Kano branch of the Society.

DT: How would you encourage young doctors?

Dr. Urwatu Balla: Nigerian doctors are very intelligent and there is nothing they can’t do, just create the enabling environment and give then the necessary requirement in terms of equipment and you will see wonders. However, they should always strive to be up to date on current issues to update their knowledge on the profession, sadly, nowadays doctors don’t read.