By DADA AYOKHAI
A non-governmental organization under the umbrella of Esan Descendants Assembly (EDA) has kicked against the outcome of the interview and the subsequent shortlisting of candidates for the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital Edo State which propped up Edo North person as the most qualified candidate.
The organization which parades itself as a non-partisan organization aimed to protect and project the Esan interest in all spheres, is made up of prominent Esan sons and daughters.
The statement was signed by Prof Oyaziwo Aluede and Ayo Binite as president and secretary respectively.
The supervisory body of the hospital, the Federal Ministry of Health, had set in motion the process of appointing a Chief Medical Director for the teaching hospital following the expiration of the tenure of Professor Sylvanus Okogbenin as the institution’s CMD.
A nine-member interview panel was constituted by the supervising ministry to screen and conduct tests among the five shortlisted candidates to determine the most suitable candidate for the position.
All five candidates contesting the exalted position are staff of the hospital. Four of them, including the Acting Chief Medical Director, Prof. Reuben Eifediyi, hail from Esan while Dr. Mojeed Momoh mni was the sole contestant from Edo north extraction.
The immediate past CMD of the hospital, Prof. Sylvanus Okogbenin, was also of the Esan extraction.
The nine-member panel which include two resource persons, scored Dr. Momoh above the other contestants.
After it submitted its report to the ministry, with all the members signing, the formal announcement of the substantive CMD of the hospital became caught up in the web of the expiration of the tenure of the Buhari administration.
The objections of the Esan body is a claim of alleged financial compromise of the panel and also that they, the Esans, are the custodian of the hospital which is the only Federal Government industry in the Edo Central Senatorial district.
The body contended that whoever occupies the position of Chief Medical Director (CMD) of Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital (ISTH) becomes paramount to them.
In a reaction, an Edo north based non governmental organization, Edo north league said it is irony that ethnic sentimental is being propped up against merits.
According to the president of the Edo north group, Dr Desmond Iyokpa through a press statement made available to journalists said the best candidate has emerged through a competitive rigorous exams and interview.
“That process should be respected, no ethic group he said has a monopoly of wisdom and competence.
“Thank God they are not challenging the qualifications and administrative skills of the person in question who has the acumen to further turn around the teaching hospital for better.
Citing the hospital in Esan land is not a license that all CMD must be an indigene.
The petition by the Esan body is seen by stakeholders at the hospital as a dangerous dimensions to the growth of the hospital where all the previous CMDs are all from Esan extraction.
They wonder what effect competence, as exemplified by performance in the selection interview/examination, has in the appointment of the substantive CMD.
Keen observers are worried that if the primordial ethnic sentiments are allowed to prevail, it will spell doom for the medical institution and damage the morale and work ethics in the establishment.
The Edo north group further called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration to restore sanity in the hospital by upholding competence and capacity over and above ethnicity and pronounce the substantive CMD based on merit as exemplified by the performance of the candidates.
