By Oyesola Green
Fresh crisis is brewing at the Federal Medical Centre, FMC, Idi Aba, Abeokuta, Ogun State, over the alleged refusal of the Medical Director, Professor Abdus Samiu Adewale Musa-Olomu, to step aside long after attaining the mandatory retirement of 60.
Musa-Olomu, according to those pressing him to do the needful, has two official dates of birth (DOB); the first being January 6, 1960, and the second-January 6, 1964.
Though the age discrepancy as well as allegations of corruption and high-handedness in the running of the institution had dogged his steps since 2021, pitching him against the staff union, the current crisis stemmed from the Medical Director’s refusal to leave office on January 6, 2024, when he clocked 60, going by his second ‘official’ date of birth.
His traducers say rather than quit, he is sitting pretty in the office, claiming that his is a ‘tenured appointment’.
By this action, those who can’t wait to see his back, insist he has joined the growing list of public servants who maintained their seats and exalted positions at all cost long after their mandatory retirement age.
Though the roiling crisis erupted at a time most staff members thought the issues had been settled forever, however, very few people would be surprised that the issues have resurrected from their ashes like a phoenix, seriously haunting the Medical Director.
As stated, Prof. Musa-Olomu, who has two declarations of age, attained the mandatory retirement age of 60 years based on the January 6, 2024 (DOB), and should have left office that day. But six months down the line, he is still hanging in as Medical Director.
The records of the Abeokuta-South, Ogun State-born Professor Musa-Olomu at the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, (where he did his residency in General Surgery), and Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital, OOUTH, (which he joined in 1999), showed his date of birth as January 6, 1960.
A declaration of age document, dated February 24,1978, and sworn to at the High Court of Justice, Abeokuta, confirmed that he was born on that date. By this declaration, he ought to have retired in 2020 at the age of 60.
But his record at the University of Ilorin from where he joined the Federal Medical Centre, Abeokuta, indicated that he was born on January 6, 1964. He backed this up with a declaration of age sworn to at the Customary Court, Kisi, Oyo State, which stated that the change occurred on March 2, 2009.
It was this latter date that Prof. Musa-Olomu adopted as his date of birth when he joined the FMC, Abeokuta. Even at that, he ought to have retired six months ago (January 6, 2024).
Musa-Olomu was on leave of absence from the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, UITH, when he was first appointed as Medical Director of the Federal Medical Centre, Abeokuta, on June 1, 2017, by the then Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole.
But the Medical Director had a short honeymoon with the Board, Management and Staff of the FMC as his style of management soon put him at loggerheads with his colleagues, most of whom couldn’t wait to see his back at the end of his first term in 2021.
Indeed, since 2021, there has been no love lost between the Medical Director and the FMC Board as well as staff unions in the hospital. They variously accused him of high-handedness, falsification of his official records, especially his date of birth. They also accused him of alleged financial improprieties and nepotism as exemplified in the allegation that he employed his son, Babatunde, and granted him study leave with pay barely a year into his employment.
Babatunde, an engineer, according to a report by the Punch newspaper, was reportedly employed on October 19, 2018, and posted to the Works Department of the FMC. And contrary to Civil Service regulation that stipulates that only confirmed staff members can enjoy study leave with pay, the Medical Director reportedly approved study leave with pay for his son, Babatunde, for a course in a German University.
Meanwhile, an investigative panel set up by the Board to probe Musa-Olomu’s alleged misconducts found that four other officers were granted study leave about the same time as Babatunde-two of them within the country and the other two outside the country. Of the three who went outside the country, only the Medical Director’s son was reportedly given study leave with pay.
However, owing to the ear-tearing noise and agitations against this preferential treatment, atop a petition of abuse of office against Prof. Musa-Olomu, his son, Babatunde, reportedly refunded the salaries totaling N2.4 million which he collected during the period of study abroad.
Aside the allegations of nepotism and flagrant disobedience to extant civil service regulations and the hospital’s Board, Musa-Olomu’s traducers also accused him of purchasing a refurbished Computerised Tomography (CT) scanning machine for the hospital for N230 million . They also claimed that he spent a humongous amount of the hospital’s money to fix the machine when it wouldn’t work. The actual cost of the machine, they said, was N235 million. But that the FMC paid N230 million, leaving a balance of N5 million. And it was not clear at the time of filing this report whether the balance has been paid or is still outstanding.
However, insiders insisted that the N230 million spent in procuring the unserviceable machine was the cost of a brand new one. Still, the equipment broke down just four months after it was installed.
Indeed, the relationship between the Medical Director, the Board and Staff became so sore that many of them rose against his reappointment for a second term in office.
The controversies boiled over when some non-governmental organisations, NGOs, especially the Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership, CACOL, and the Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA) rose against Prof. Musa-Olomu and fired several petitions against him to the Office of the Head of Service of the Federation, the immediate past Secretary to the Government of the Federation, immediate past Senate President as well as the then Speaker, House of Representatives, Right Honorable Yakubu Dogara, just to mention a few.
However, despite the weighty allegations levelled against Prof. Musa-Olomu, and the serious agitations against the extension of his tenure of office, the Federal Ministry of Health, under Prof. Osagie Ehanire as Minister, still recommended him for a second and final term.
This was also despite the fact that the Board of Management had reversed its earlier recommendation for a second term for the Medical Director following his indictment by a committee instituted by the Board’s Chairman, Dr. Abdul Aziz Labo Mahuta, to investigate the allegations.
But towards the tail end of the Medical Director’s first term in office, the Federal Ministry of Health set up another panel to look into the crisis rocking the hospital. In a letter dated May 31, 2021, the Ministry directed the Medical Director to hand over to the Head of Clinical Service at the expiration of his first term.
Curiously, according to a source, three months after his exit from office at Federal Medical Centre, Abeokuta, the Ministry, under the leadership of the former Minister of State for Health, Senator Olorunnimbe Mamora, overruled itself and recommended the Medical Director to then President Muhammadu Buhari for his second and final term in office.
Not only that, the Minister of State for Health reportedly back-dated the reappointment to cover the three months that Prof. Musa-Olomu was away from office.
This, perhaps, is what the Medical Director latched on to adopt the principle of Tenured Appointment to continue his job, aiming to retire from the Federal Civil Service on May 31, 2025.
That action has angered some stakeholders, both within and outside the hospital, who saw the Medical Director’s reappointment as “an aberration, and a grave distortion to the system”. But all their protests and petitions never yielded the result they desired.
Consequently, another non-governmental organization, the All Youths Reoriented Initiative of Nigeria, AYRION, challenged the MD in the Federal High Court, Abeokuta. But the court thrashed the case, ruling that the not-for-profit organization “has no locus standi to bring up the matter.”
Still, the crisis was far from being over. Dr. Monday Ubani, a former second Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, issued a press statement in which he threatened to challenge the Federal Government in court if the appointment of Professor Abdus Samiu Adewale Musa- Olomu was not reversed with immediate effect. Nothing came out of the threat too.
However, the Medical Director has not folded his arms, taking all the darts thrown at his direction without a fight. He has shredded all allegations, saying he did nothing wrong.
For instance, on the allegation of insubordination to the Board, the Punch newspaper, in an investigative story it published on June 4, 2021, quoted Prof. Musa-Olomu as claiming to have solid evidence to prove that the masterminds of his indictment were paid huge sums of money to hack him down.
He denied any wrongdoing on all the allegations, For instance, on the allegation of age falsification, he was quoted as saying: “I was never indicted for age falsification. In fact, the committee set up by the board exonerated me.”
Barrister Fatai Oyedele, Musa-Olomu’s lawyer, reportedly claimed that his client swore to the first declaration of age in 1976 when he (Medical Director) was just in Primary 6, and that by the time he realised his true age, he had already quit his job at Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital, OOUTH, in 2017.
Barrister Oyedele continued: “In 2009 when he was not in the service of any government parastatal, it became known that the earlier age declaration was done in error. As of that time, he was seen to be older than his elder sister. That was when his father told him that there was a mistake in the age declaration done by his mother. His father then deposed to another age declaration before a Kisi Customary Court.
“The public service rule is that if any civil servant is to do any age declaration, it must predate his employment into the civil service. The 2009 age declaration was done before he secured employment with the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital in 2010 and University of Ilorin in 2011. In 2017, he was appointed MD of the medical centre. So, even in the eye of the law, the subsequent age declaration was done without any intention to get any benefit. His elder sister retired from the Ogun State Hospital Management Board in 2020 at the age of 60 and he cannot be seen to be older than her.”
The Medical Director also said he didn’t violate any government regulation by employing his son and also paying his salaries while on study leave in Germany.
“The ministry says technology is improving and we are acquiring a lot of medical equipment, but when they bring them, there is nobody to repair them. So, why don’t you employ biomedical engineers?” Prof. Musa-Olomu was quoted as saying.
“My son had interest in it and was to be trained in Germany. What I did to the people I mentioned earlier was what we did to him. We did not give him any scholarship. We were only paying (his) salaries like others. But when I saw the petition, I just said he should go and refund the salaries he collected.
“And my son, he’s the first in his class. That is what is paining me about this country. When you see merit, you want to kill it. It is mediocrity that we want to celebrate. Because of my son’s brilliance, they gave him a scholarship. When this boy comes back, he will be repairing equipment.”
And on the purchase of a refurbished CT scanner, the newspaper said Musa-Olomu, through his lawyer, claimed that it was done through a unanimous decision by the Board.
The newspaper quoted Barrister Oyedele as saying:
“When he came on board, the discussion came about how to procure a brand new CT scanner, which would have come at a double price of the amount they paid for this one. They had a consultant, who advised them that since the institution did not have money to bankroll a new one, they should buy this one. They agreed to buy the used one.”