By Taoheed Ajao

Conceived  as a citadel of medical education to offer services of specialized facilities for medical training and research, the University of Medical Sciences, the first in Nigeria,  located on  Laje  Road, in  Ondo, was founded by  Ondo  State government  on the 22nd of April, 2015.

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The university  has not only lived up to its  uniqueness in the  application of modern techniques in the teaching of medicine,  it has also blazed the trail in institutionalizing intellectual discourses that have attracted the participation of high profile personalities on various aspects of the country’s national development.

The  university has classified  its  discourses into three  main  categories:  1) the Distinguished Guest Lecture  series;  2)  the Founders’ Day Lecture  series;  3)  the Annual Public Lectureseries,  with each one of the three series specifically designed to address issues of human impact relevance. To continue to disseminate information from academia to the community on varied national and topical issues, especially as they relate to health matters and as a way of promoting town-and-gown relationship, the university has instituted the Distinguished Guest Lecture series.

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The series was started in 2016 in efforts to strongly position the  university to lead the pathway for addressing the major health and educational challenges facing the country.

Although there have been four lectures delivered so far in this series, the very first Distinguished Guest Lecture titled: “We Reap What We Sow”,  was given by Emeritus Professor of Obstetrics &  Gynaecology  and former Vice Chancellor of the University of Port Harcourt, Prof. Kelsey A. Harrison on Wed. 15th of June, 2016.

His lecture was on the appallingly high maternal mortality in much of sub-Saharan Africa and the compelling need for safe motherhood practices. His submission was that the unpleasant statistics on infant and maternal mortality were a function of poor obstetric care. The poor obstetric care in the words of Prof. Harrison, “is in turn,  one result of the chaotic socioeconomic and political systems, which is the major underlying disease that has to be treated.” In order words, a chaotic socioeconomic system reinforces negative health indices hence, the title of the lecture: We Reap What We Sow.

The second Distinguished Guest Lecture was given by Prof. Joseph  Balogun, Professor of Physiotherapy,  from Chicago State University on  “The  Case for a Paradigm Shift in Education of Healthcare Professionals in Nigeria”  on the 15th  of May, 2017.

Prof.  Balogun  discovered   the existence of  some curricular dysfunctions  in Health Sciences education in Nigeria  and made  renovations and suggestions  to be implemented  in the training of healthcare professionals.  He advocated for service learning, commitments to primary healthcare and  a return to what he called the  “Ife legacy”  —  a first degree  in the Health Sciences  requirement prior  to  medical  education,  wh ich  became a mainstream paradigm  later  embraced by the NUC in 2016.

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The third Distinguished Guest lecture,  “The Future of Health and the Promise of Primary Healthcare”  by Prof. Mohammed Ali Pate,former Minister of State for Health and global Public Health expert,  on the 19th of Oct. 2017,  dwelled on critical issues relating to primary care and how these can enhance the development of primary healthcare and its eventual consolidation to ensure universal access to quality care for all.

His Excellency Nasir el-Rufai’s  lecture:  “ Transforming Nigeria’s Educational System: Looking back and looking forward”  on the 30th  of April, 2018,  was the fourth Distinguished Guest lecture. It was majorly  on  rebranding the educational sector for better impact and efficiency from the perspective of political administration.

Supported with evidential statistics on the progress of his educational reforms in Kaduna State, Governor el-Rufai  showed how he anchored his reform  programme  on the prioritization of human capital and the democratization of access to educational opportunities.

While the first three lectures in this  series dealt with issues of healthcare delivery, for  wider intellectual scope and a more  eclectic  selection  of themes, the fourth one was on repositioning the educational sector for optimal performance from the perspective of political governance.

The  Annual Founders’ Day Lecture series  was instituted to commemorate the founding of the university  around the first week in every December, since  the 8th  of December  was actuallythe date approval from the NUC to commence academic programs was given  in 2015. This Founders’ Day Lecture series,  according to the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Friday  Okonofua, “…was conceived in 2016 to give opportunity to reflect on the achievements and challenges experienced by the University during the preceding year, and to provide impetus for accelerated action to do things better in the following year in order to meet the laudable mission and vision of the school”.

The very first Founders’ Day Lecture tagged “The University of Our Dream”  was delivered by Prof.  Adamu  Rasheed, the Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission, on Thur. 9th  of December, 2016.  “Secrets of Founding”  was the theme of the second Annual Founders’ Day lecture  delivered  by Aare  Afe  Babalola, Founder and Chancellor of  Afe  BabalolaUniversity, Ado  Ekiti  on the 7th  of December, 2017.

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The third Annual Founders’ Day Lecture, titled  “Ethics, Law and Medicine as Foundation for National Development”  by frontline lawyer Chief  Wole  Olanipekun, SAN, was delivered on the 6th  of December 2018.

While the first two Annual Founders’ Day Lectures centered on  the best ways of  giving the tertiary institutions  sound and judicious funding platforms  and repositioning both the  students, and academic staff for maximum  educational  impact, the third lecture by Chief  WoleOlanipekun  SAN, dwelt on how the interplay of  good  ethics,  rule of  law and  healthy habits can redound positively  to  society’sdevelop ment and professional satisfaction.

The Public Lecture Series provides a forum for intellectual treatises on  any area of interest to the university or society at large. It is also a platform for expositions on  germane  issues of national importance  which  even  surround ing communities somehow  share  in their microscopic  replications.

The first Annual Public Lecture titled  “Some Efficacious Nigerian anti-cancer Herbal Remedies”  was delivered on the 31st  of August, 2017 by Emeritus  Professor of Chemistry, Prof. Joseph I.  Okogun. The second Annual Public Lecture,  “New Universities as New Opportunities to Reform Nigeria’s Tertiary Educational System”  was  delivered on March, 20, 2018, by Prof.  Oladapo  Walker, professor of Pharmacology.

While the first lecture in this series canvassed  better  harnessing  of the unique potentials of the medicinal powers of herbs and roots and the revolutionary application and academic standardization of the acquired knowledge to provide an alternate and sometimes, complementing paradigm of cure to orthodox medicine,  the second  told of the unexplored possibilities  of  modelling  the newly created tertiary institutions  after recognized global  universities  which excel in both 21st-century cutting-edge knowledge and  unbelievable  attraction for  research  grants.

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Thus  far,  in the three year-history of the university, nine lectures have been delivered by nine outstanding Nigerians  whose elucidation of the themes of their lectures, has helped in raising the bar of intellectual inquiry and promoted the deepening of communication between the intelligentsia and the public at large.

The lectures have also become inspirational and motivational for the staff and students and have been the university’s contribution to the advancement of matured dialogue in the search for a better  Nigeria.