“FROM STRIKE TO SURVIVAL: HOW LEADERSHIP INTERVENED TO KEEP HOPE ALIVE AT University of Benin Teaching Hospital”
THE MERCHANTS OF DEATH AT UBTH: EXPOSING THE CARTEL OF SABOTAGE LED BY OLUMOYE MONDAY ABDUL AZEEZ
For decades, the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH) has been a sanctuary for the sick. But recently, a darker story has emerged: a hospital held hostage by a small, powerful cartel, and a leadership forced to take a radical stand to prevent a total collapse of humanity.
THE ARCHITECT OF DECAY
The rot began in the Laboratories department, where Olumoye Monday Abdul Azeez and a group of cohorts have long operated. For years, vital reagents and laboratory consumables, purchased with federal funds for the poor, have vanished.
The pattern is brazen. These supplies are allegedly diverted to private laboratories, leaving the hospital’s own facilities hollow. At UBTH, patients wait hours for results that should take minutes, a deliberate slowing of the gears of healing. In this narrative, "turnaround time" is a life-and-death delay orchestrated by those who have turned a public trust into a private marketplace.
The pattern is as brazen as it is cruel. These vital supplies are allegedly diverted to private laboratories, while the hospital’s own facilities are left hollow. At UBTH, patients are forced to wait hours for results that should take minutes- a deliberate slowing of the gears of healing. In this narrative, the "turnaround time" isn't just a metric; it is a life-and-death delay orchestrated by those who have turned a public trust into a private marketplace.
THE GREAT BETRAYAL: WHEN "SOLIDARITY" BECAME A DEATH SENTENCES
The tension reached a breaking point during the recent JOHESU strike. Initially, a glimmer of hope appeared when Management and the union reached a "Lifeline Agreement." The pact was simple: keep emergency labs open for accident victims and the critically ill. It was a shield for the vulnerable, aligned with the Federal Ministry of Health’s mandates.
But once the gates were shut, the mask of "union solidarity" fell. Olumoye and his clique did not just strike; they barricaded the gates of mercy. They refused to take calls, even from the Chief Medical Director.
The consequences were bloody. The hospital’s blood bank was abandoned. Because access was sabotaged, the entire stock of life-saving blood went bad.
A LITANY OF AVOIDABLE FUNERALS
The human cost of this sabotage is staggering. In a cruel twist of fate, seven staff members of UBTH, some of them union members died avoidable deaths because their own colleagues refused to provide care.
The stories are harrowing. One pregnant woman, prepped for a Cesarean section, faced a nightmare when her donated blood was locked away in the shuttered bank. It took the frantic, direct intervention of Management to break the blockade and save both mother and child.
The cruelty persisted even after the strike ended. In the dead of night, a newborn baby fighting for breath needed a critical blood test. Despite the difficulty of collecting a sample from an infant, the staff member on duty flatly refused to accept it, holding that child’s life as a bargaining chip until Management prevailed at 3 AM. This was not an industrial action; it was a war on the innocent.
THE STAND: LEADERSHIP UNDER FIRE
Faced with this coordinated effort to ground the hospital, the Chief Medical Director, Prof. (Mrs.) Idia Nibokun Ize-Iyamu, chose the only path left: the "Renewed Hope Agenda."
When Dr. Osaigbovo stood to address the protesters, he was met not with dialogue, but with the disorderly shouts of individuals like Talade Ajibola and Helen Uhumwanghon. Yet, his message remained clear: No union has the right to stop the pulse of a hospital. Following a clear ministerial mandate, Management established the A&E laboratory- an outsourced lifeline to ensure that no strike can ever again turn a hospital into a morgue.
A MANDATE FOR LIFE
The CMD’s response to the mob was one of unwavering resolve. She reminded the protesters of a haunting truth: “It could be anybody.” The victim in the ward could be a striker’s mother, a saboteur’s child, or a colleague’s spouse.
The A&E laboratory is an outpost of life in a territory the cartel tried to surrender to death. The CMD has reaffirmed her primary oath- not to any individualor group, but to the good people of Edo state and Nigeria as a whole.
The battle at UBTH is no longer about labor laws. It is a battle for the soul of healthcare. As long as this leadership stands firm, the gates of the laboratory will remain open, and the merchants of death will be kept at bay.
_Efosa Uhunamure writes from Iguobazuwa_
