I was among the first set of medical students from the College of Medicine, University of Maiduguri (Unimaid) who graduated in 1983. JA was then the Vice Chancellor (VC). Being a medical doctor himself, he took every interest in our training and welfare, making sure that we had the very best resources available (human and material). We were the envy of other faculties/colleges.
Examples of some of the eminent personalities he attracted to the new medical college as lecturers included Professors George Edington, Harold Scarborough, Una Lister, Kwaku Adadevoh, S.B. Lagundoye, K.S. Chughs and I. Mohammed.
Another remarkable feature of JA was that despite his very busy schedule as VC, he made sure that he came weekly to teach and lecture us, including doing ward rounds to review patients. He was a strict but fair disciplinarian who was also “a natural” when it came to teaching methods, with lots of humour and laughter during his sessions.
For example, in emphasising the importance of good history taking and physical examination of a patient, one of his unforgettable sayings was that “by the time you pick up your stethoscope to listen, if you do not already know the diagnosis, then you will never know it.” He strongly believed that auscultation (listening with a stethoscope) should simply confirm what you have already suspected and not the other way round.
Back then, JA was also fresh from his sabbatical in the USA, where he was enthused by the education system. He became one of the very first in Nigeria to introduce the semester system into the university curriculum. JA was also a cardiologist. I remember while auscultating (listening) to the heart of a patient, he used to mesmerise us with statements like “this patient has a split-second heart sound of 0.02 seconds.” We would be amazed how on earth it was possible to measure the heart sound with such precision. His answer was characteristically cute as always. “Well, I know,” he would say. “It is like hearing a familiar voice of someone outside this room that I can’t see now, then I say to you, oh that is so and so person speaking, and you then ask me, but how do you know it is so and so speaking”? It is called intuition, he would say.
In his pursuit of excellence, he ensured that any young graduates employed by Unimaid during his time were encouraged to proceed immediately to do postgraduate studies. During his time, he flooded many universities (both abroad and local) with Unimaid graduates in all fields of study, including Medicine, Engineering, Agric, Law, Accounting, History, Philosophy and Mass Communication. This, no doubt, benefited the nation immensely, especially the catchment areas of Unimaid. As a result of this policy, for example, almost all of the first medical graduates became specialists and professors in different fields.
Among his peers, JA remains one of a tiny select group who have trained many Nigerians at the highest level. There are not many, especially in the North, who can compete with his record in this area.
Even as a medical student, JA was a distinguished student at University College Hospital, Ibadan, where he also worked later as a senior consultant physician after his fellowship training in the UK. He left UCH to become the First Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC) before moving to Unimaid to become its VC at which time fate brought us close together. He left Unimaid to become a Federal Government minister before joining politics. Subsequently he became a senator. He has since retired from public duties and is enjoying his private life.
All through his life, JA led by example as he practised what he preached, a vital leadership quality sadly uncommon these days in Nigeria. Naturally, he also had his critics. Some say that as VC, he liked to micromanage his team, which did not go down very well with some, but that was his style.
In conclusion, it was a great privilege to have been his student. We remain eternally grateful for his tutelage. May the Almighty Allah (SWA) continue to bless him in his old age, reward him for his duty to the public and forgive his human frailties, Ameen.
This tribute was written a few days before the demise of Prof. Jibril AminuIbrahim J. Hassan Gombe is a Retired NHS Consultant Medical Microbiologist (UK). Senior Attending Physician Microbiology and Virology, Sidra Medicine, Qatar, and Clinical Professor Pathology, QU, Doha.
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