There was a time people thought we were ritualists at Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital – former CMD, Dutse

People remember you as former CMD of Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital. What is your story? I was born here in Kano city at Angwan Gini to be specific in December 1960. My father who died in 2000, was a civil servant. Initially, he was with the Native Authority and later northern Nigeria government. Shortly after […]

People remember you as former CMD of Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital. What is your story?

I was born here in Kano city at Angwan Gini to be specific in December 1960. My father who died in 2000, was a civil servant. Initially, he was with the Native Authority and later northern Nigeria government. Shortly after I was born, he moved to the premier’s office in Kaduna. My early childhood was in Kaduna up to sometimes around 1965 before we came back to Kano to Angwan Gini, our family house. I started my primary school at Kwalli Primary School in 1966. By 1967, we moved to the GRA and I joined Magwan Primary School. In those days primary school was seven years. In class six I sat for the Common Entrance and passed. I was enrolled at Government College, Kano now Rumfa College in 1972.I was in Rumfa College between 1972-1976 where I passed out in division one. I then proceeded to School of Basic Studies between 1976-1977. I passed out in 1977 and got admitted into the Faculty of Medicine, ABU, Zaria in 1977. I graduated from Medical school in 1982 as the best student in my class in Pediatrics. After that, I did my housemanship in two places. I did my first six months in Kano here. I did surgery and obstetrics and gynecology posting between August and around January, 1983. Then, I moved to Zaria where I did another six months in pediatrics and internal medicine. The reason for doing that is because I am more interested in pediatrics and internal medicine for my post-graduate. After the Housemanship, I was posted to Owerri, Imo state for my youth service in 1983. The people were extremely nice to me. I made a lot of friends both Muslims and Christians. I happened to injure my hand during the orientation and Camp commander asked me to stay in the clinic to attend to people since I am a doctor. I met a lot of people there especially the nuns. They were very friendly. I remember one taxi driver who saw me as a northern corps member, he took me in a taxi and showed me round town, free of charge. At the end of the orientation camp, I was posted to Holy Mary Hospital, a Catholic Hospital. Unfortunately, it was during the period of electioneering campaign. Many of us were scared. I was bloody scared. I had enjoyed my orientation camp and had a good posting to a hospital which I thought was going to be enjoyable, but the fear and apprehension set in. I decided to go home and perhaps seek redeployment. When I got to Kano and I applied for redeployment, I thought it was going to take a long time but I got it that same day because they were looking for doctors.

I was posted to Murtala hospital. Honestly, I regretted not doing service in Owerri. They were so nice. Who knows I might even have come back with an Igbo wife if I had stayed there. After my service, I told my employers, Health Management Board, that I wanted to start my post-graduate programme immediately and they agreed and sponsored me. I went back to Zaria around July 1984. Exactly two years later in 1986, I sat and passed the part one of the national and West African exam which is a major exam for the post-graduate training at first attempt too. Having done a major part of the post-graduate training, I decided to sub-specialize in clinical hematology. At that time, there was no Teaching hospital in the north. I had to go to LUTH where they had a well-established department under the renowned Professor Olu Akinyanju. I came back in 1989 and sat for the part two of the national and West African Colleges and I passed. I returned to Kano and was appointed consultant physician in late 1989. I was posted to the Nasarawa Hospital, now Abdullahi Wase Hospital. The idea was to use Nasarawa to train house officers and we did. I worked with Dr Abalaka of the HIV fame, who was a consultant surgeon. Because of my specialty, I worked three days in Nasarawa and two days in Murtala Hospital. After a year, I was bored and I yearned for academics. I told my employers and they agreed. But I must give the credit to Professor A.M. Yakubu the then Dean of the Department of Medicine, ABU, who kept persuading me and other graduates who had become consultants to come back to the department and take up teaching appointments.  In fact, he personally came to Kano to give me my appointment letter. So, I left for Zaria to take up appointment as Consultant Physician and lecturer. A month after, there was a vacancy in the department of hematology. Late Professor Nayaya, then VC, ABU, appointed me Acting HOD of hematology and blood transfusion. Alhamduliha. I became a consultant at the age of 29 and became a head of department at the age of 30.

How did you become Commissioner for Health and Secretary to the Government?

I normally take my annual leave during the Ramadan. In 1992, I was on my annual leave here in Kano when the then young Jigawa state governor, Ali Saad Birnin-Kudu, sent a message through a friend Umar, the present Attorney-General of Kano State, that he wanted to see me. I had no idea why, but I took off the following day. He told me that he wanted me to work with him in Jigawa and I said Jigawa was a young state and any contribution I could make is worth the while. I thought he was thinking of appointing a director or something like that. One evening, I was in my parlor listening to the radio when I heard that I had been appointed Commissioner for Health along with eight or nine others. It was a pleasant surprise. People started trooping into my house to congratulate me. That was how I temporarily disengaged from ABU Zaria. I was Commissioner for Health between 1992 and 1993. You know in 1993, there was serious politicking:  the Abiola June 12 problem and Abacha took over. Few months before Abacha’s coup, my governor called me and asked me to help him get someone to replace his SSG because he wanted to sack his SSG. I took several names to him, but he kept rejecting them. One day, he called me and said I should meet him at the liaison office here in Kano. I met him there and he said, ‘doctor, why don’t you consider working with me as SSG. ‘What!’ I exclaimed, because I was shocked. I told him that was too much for me because I just turned 31 then. I pleaded with him to allow us to continue searching for other people, but he insisted that I must be the SSG. At that point, I asked him to give me a day to make consultations. He gave me two days to do that. I went straight to my father who was a former permanent secretary as well as one-time secretary to the military government. He was himself shocked that the governor had decided to make me his SSG. He advised that I should not betray his confidence, but should accept the appointment on acting capacity and we should continue to search for a substantive SSG. I took the SSG job for a couple of months before the Abacha coup. The governor had wind of the coup and hurriedly called me that since I had refused to be sworn in as substantive SSG, he will swear me in even if it  was 48 hours to leaving government house. I protested but he insisted and that was how he swore me in 48 hours to the coup. We had a new military governor, Ibrahim Aliyu. The executive council was dissolved and I packed my things and left for Kano. The police commissioner, who was acting as governor, called and said ‘I need you to come because as the SSG, you can’t go like that.’ I went back and represented in many function. When the military administrator, Colonel Ibrahim Aliyu, was appointed I continued to work with him till March the following year. We had a good working relationship. Colonel Ali wanted me to stay back as Commissioner for Health, but I told him I could not. I told him I just wanted to go back to academics. He said I should get him a commissioner. Just as I was preparing to go back to Zaria, again my mentor, Professor Sadiq Wali, called me and said there was the need for me to join him in nurturing Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, which was then known as Bayero University Teaching Hospital located at Murtala Hospital.  I joined the Teaching hospital. I left Jigawa in March and by April, I was employed as Senior Consultant Physician. Within a month, I was appointed chairman, Medical Advisory Committee (MAC). That is like deputy CMD. I was running the hospital with the Director of Administrator, Malam Sanusi Adamu,   who recently retired. I had the responsibility of setting up the hospital and organizing programmes like drug revolving fund. At that time, the staff strength was not more than 100. We recruited doctors that we sent for residency training. After two years at Murtala hospital, I was mandated to move the BUTH hospital to its permanent site. That is the present site of AKTH. We stated in 1995 and we completed the movement in 1997. I was chairman MAC for three years and I thought I had had enough and somebody should take over. I went back to my normal medical practice but just for a month.

What were the challenges you faced as CMD, AKTH.

When I took over in 2003, I met a lot of challenges on the ground. There was serious problem of power; salaries were not fully paid, and, in fact, only 85 percent of salaries were paid. There were debts running into hundreds of millions owed contractors and staff cooperative society. Honestly, my first two years were my most difficult years. I was practically on the road to Abuja every week or twice a week as the case may be. I was going there to appeal to those who matter. I used my connections and father’s connections to people in high places to see how we could address these problems. Within three months, I was able to pay full salaries and settle the loans owed staff cooperative and other loans. I was able to get PHCN to put on a dedicated line and issue of power became history. Within two years, I had settled the hospital to an extent that we had money to employ new hands. Another challenge we coped with was the pariah status of AKTH. Then, most people believed that if you are admitted in AKTH you will die. They said all sorts of things. That we were ritualists who used human parts. That affected the hospital negatively. We had to go on a media blitz, arguing that primary hospitals were referring patients who came here to practically die. At that time, when treatment of HIV was still difficult, HIV patients who die in our hospital were blamed on us. We had to educate the people on what was happening to win back their confidence. I had to appeal to staff, too, to improve their attitude to work and care generally.  So, with time, our patients doubled. Today, most of the time, the hospital is full to capacity that we have no bed to admit people. Our cleanliness, too, has won us patronage. We have won awards as the cleanest hospital in Nigeria, award as the best injection safety hospital and the best patient friendly hospital in terms of indigent patient policy.

Let’s go personal now, how did you meet your wife.

I have two wives, Aziza and Zainab. I met my first wife through her mother. I was her mother’s doctor. She is from the Galadanci family where I have some few friends. The mother had cancer and she was referred to Zaria and they asked to see Dr. Dutse. They brought the biopsy which was done and I gave it to a pathologist. She was admitted and later referred to the UK because it was difficult cancer. I and one of her brothers went to the UK with her mother. She eventually died there. This thing happened in 1987 and we got married in 1990.That was how we met and later got married. I met my second wife at AKTH. She is an administrator. She is the Assistant Director of Human Resources. We are blessed with four boys, three girls.

Has any of your children taken to medicine.

None yet. The eldest has entered the university and she is going to read Economics.  The second one and the third one are showing inclinations to medicine.

What is your take on health care delivery in Nigeria?

Appalling. The indices are there. Maternal mortality rate, childhood mortality rates, we have one of the worst in the world. People still rate AKTH high, but I think we are not near international standard. It is my wish that the person who takes over continue the work. It is terrible. But the worse thing is our attitude to work. I think our attitude to work is the most devastating thing about healthcare delivery. It is the most horrendous thing I have ever seen. People are lackadaisical. The healthcare can’t be an island in a country that is corrupt and lawless. What do you expect in healthcare system? When I said attitude, I mean the behavior of doctors, nurses, the lab scientists, pharmacists and even healthcare administrators. We need to be kind, understanding and caring to patients in our hospitals. The reason why most people who could afford to pay for medical services are travelling abroad is because they don’t entrust us with their lives because of our attitude. With the level of equipment now in hospitals, if we improve our attitude, we can do better. Let’s put saving of lives first before we talk about money.

You were instrumental to the development of the BUK Faculty of Medicine. Tell us about that.

Just when I thought I was tired with administration and wanted to concentrate on pure medical practice, a call came from the then VC of BUK, Professor Bello Bako Dambatta, that I should see him one afternoon. I went to see him and he told me that there was very serious crisis in the Faculty of Medicine. The students had been demonstrating, the entire deanery had resigned and parents  were agitating over the fate of their children. The faculty then had existed for more than 10 years without accreditation. After pre-clinicals, students were often sent to their clinical in other universities. Professor Dambatta told me that he learnt that I was good at fixing things and that he was offering the acting dean of the Faculty but I should first tell him my terms. I said I was humbled but I don’t have any terms. I discussed with my CMD if they are willing to continue paying my salary while I continue there as acting dean. He agreed. I swung into action. We had two major problems. First, we had to find solutions to two sets of students who had overstayed without graduation and had been rioting and abusing everybody. Secondly, we had to get accreditation because the medical council I clearly told BUK that they couldn’t graduate anybody from the faculty.  Secondly, I started networking to see how I could attract colleagues to take up teaching appointments so that we can get full accreditation. Within two years, we got full accreditation and by 2000, we were able to graduate the first set of medical students from the BUK, after 15 years of establishing the faculty.