THE PROLIFERATION OF QUACKS
Regulatory agencies must guard against hiring unqualified persons
The Association of General and Private Medical Practitioners of Nigeria (ANPMP) recently called on Governor Dapo Abiodun to intervene on the issue of quacks in the medical profession in Ogun State. “We have in a situation where auxiliary nurses open medical facilities and embark on doing surgery for innocent patients,” said Oluwakayode Oyelabi, the ANPMP Chairman, Ogun State Chapter. “And these are health assistants trained informally by doctors and qualified nurses for a period between two and three years to dispense drugs, give injections, check vital signs and carry out elementary nursing jobs.”
Some years ago, a fake medical doctor was discovered to have served in the Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH) for nine years. To worsen matters, the fake doctor rose to Grade Level 13 in the ministry and had worked in the Departments of Hospital Services and Health Planning Research and Statistics (HPRS) before he was eventually detected as a fraud. According to the permanent secretary in the ministry, the quack doctor secured his fraudulent employment by using the stolen documents of his childhood friend and best man who happened to be a medical doctor. With that, he was offered appointment by the commission on 30th August, 2006 and was posted to the Federal Ministry of Health in September same year.
Such is the level of decay in the system. But the challenge is not restricted to the medical profession. While Nigeria is not lacking in professionals in any field of human endeavour, the failure of regulatory agencies to properly perform their supervisory roles has given way to situations where quacks are increasingly constituting a menace in most of the critical professions and industries. Many make claims they cannot substantiate and there are no consequences, while the media cannot be exonerated from this national parade of shame. When people arrange for some of these dubious titles or certificates, especially politicians, the media immediately begin to address them by these bogus labels – ‘Professor’, ‘Doctor’, ‘Engineer,’ etc. Soon it becomes a manner of speaking and the rest is added on.
If our society must do things rightly all the time, we must deal with this quackery that is so pervasive in every sector. But more worrisome is the realisation that many top decision makers in our public services are people who conned their way into critical positions without the qualifications they claim. In Nigeria today, fake policemen are all over the place, doing damage to both the institution and the society just as fake soldiers are rampant. In fact there is hardly any professional field today where these fraudsters have not invaded. From fake pharmacists whose prescriptions are often fatal for hospital patients to fake teachers whose students are candidates for failure to fake journalists who write to blackmail, it would appear as if it is difficult to distinguish between genuine and fake professionals in our country today with all the dire implications for the society.
Underlining the danger that impostors pose to the system, a former Chief Justice of Nigeria once said: “Indeed, judges find it difficult to identify which counsel, appearing before them, is genuine or otherwise. Of even greater concern is the fact that members of the public are often left in a quandary over who they can place their trust, property and even lives in.”
We call on the regulatory authorities, including of professional bodies, to put in place measures that will checkmate the antics of these fraudsters.
