To Doctors Who Dare To Tread Where Others Fear

This is a salute to the over 74,500 registered doctors, and the over 250,000 registered nursing and midwifery professionals in Nigeria. All hats, helmets and whatever headpieces we can find are being doffed with the utmost respect!

The pandemic has opened our eyes to the reason why the medical profession has been revered for centuries. When the stakes are down and our bodies can no longer withstand what the world throws at them, we resort to the solutions that modern science offers.

One of the worst-hit during the COVID-19 pandemic has been the medical practitioners who have to step out on a ledge each day as they go to work. On Saturday, April 11, 2020, Dr. Aliyu Yakubu, became the first doctor recorded to die of the virus. As of May 1, 2020, 113 medical professionals had been infected (amounting to 6% of the confirmed cases at the time)! Yet they continue the battle.

In other words, it’s a dangerous time to have a background in the medical field, yet we need them. Various countries around the world have given emotional tributes to their medical personnel — hundreds of residents in streets clapping in unison as a sign of gratitude; popular English football club, Manchester United, had just three letters emblazoned across its arena in order to form the letters ‘NHS” as a tribute the country’s National Health Service.

L-R: Chief Superintendent of Police, Nigerian Police Hospital Falomo, Ikoyi, Adetuberu Oluwatoyin; Project Coordinator, Health Portfolio, MTN Foundation, Izunna Anegbu; Assistant Commissioner of Police, Nigerian Police Hospital Falomo, Ikoyi, Abiodun Sobowale; Chief Superintendent of Police, Nigerian Police Hospital Falomo, Ikoyi, Okeanonife Juliana and Acting Manager, Health Portfolio, MTN Foundation, Stephen Amuwa at the official handover of medical equipment to the Nigerian Police Hospital, Falomo, Ikoyi by the MTN Foundation on Thursday, June 4, 2020, in Lagos

The excitement on the doctors’ faces as they received medical equipment on behalf of the Nigeria Police Force Hospital, Falomo, Ikoyi, was priceless! Even with their masks on, you could spot the beams across their faces from a mile away.

The donation was made by MTN Foundation in order to assist with the hospital’s operations in attending to members of the Nigeria Police Force as well as the public. The foundation has been one of the boulders of support to the Nigerian Government since the onset of the pandemic. As part of the Foundation’s wider CSI programme, they have donated over 70,000 pieces of personal protective equipment to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).

In case you were wondering some of Nigeria’s largest private companies have been doing during the pandemic? See below: