Mr. Reginald Martins would have been an athlete. But for reasons best known to him, the ebony black, Masters degree holder in Accounting, chose to be a banker. He had been the darling of the banking profession until a few months ago when he started exhibiting symptoms alien to those around him.

It all started when his skin began to experience crawling-like movement. Then it graduated to him hearing strange sounds. While he was stilling grapple with that, the banker started hearing strange voices. The frightening part of it was that the voices had weird aspects to them; at times they may be critical, complimentary, neutral, or command him to do something that could cause him or others harm. Soon, vision of patterns, lights, beings and objects began to cloud his reasoning.

He was initially taken to a Pentecostal church in his area in Yaba, Lagos, since his relatives and his wife felt that he was experiencing spiritual attacks. When the spirit behind the attack could not be cast out, he was taken to an alfa somewhere in Epe, the outskirt of Lagos. But the condition never improved; this led to different suggestions from friends and well-wishers until his relatives saw wisdom and took Reginald to Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital (FNPH), Yaba, Lagos.

At the gate of the hospital, the relatives ran into a frustrating hitch: there was no health professional on hand to attend to them even though it was on a Monday. Reason? Members of staff of the Nigerian Union of Allied Health Professionals (NUAHP, a member of JOHESU) and nurses under the umbrella of National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives (NANNM) in the hospital had been on an indefinite strike.

The strike, which began a month ago, is part of the protest by the staff of the hospital to force the former but now Acting Medical Director (MD) of the hospital, Dr. Rahman Lawal, to retire from his position for a new substantive MD to emerge. Lawal’s four-year tenure ended this year, a few months after he attained the compulsory retirement age of 60. While the medical workers are saying he did not have the locum standing under the public service rule to be re-appointed for another term, Lawal told The Guardian that he is qualified for another tenure because he retired in 2011 as a medical consultant to pave way for him to be MD.

NUAHP, which comprises laboratory scientists, pharmacists, clinical psychologists, and radiographers among others, is not the only union asking Lawal to go. Also, Lawal’s colleagues in the FNPH branch of Medical and Dental Consultant Association of Nigeria (MDCAN) are even more vociferous in the fight to force Lawal out of office. The Guardian’s investigations reveal that MDCAN members have not been working since, as they claim they could not attend to patients alone without the assistance of other members of staff.

While speaking to The Guardian on the matter, FNPH’s MDCAN Chairman, Dr. Grace Ijarogbe, accused the MD of low performance. Ijarogbe also accused the MD of conniving with some officials in the Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH) to perpetuate himself illegally in office, and urged the relevant authorities to intervene in the crisis.

But all the attempts have not made the former MD to budge. He is relying on Oronsaye document dated 2009, which gave career MDs the opportunity of overstaying the age of 60 so long they retire from service before taking up their appointments. The circular read in part: “ For the avoidance of doubt, and in order to maintain discipline and integrity of the Public Service, extant Public Service Rules, which prescribed 60 years of age or 35 years of service for mandatory retirement, should strictly be complied with.

Accordingly, the following guidelines shall apply:(1) that career officers who wish to take up tenured appointments should, at the point of taking up appointment, retire from service to ensure they run their term uninterrupted; (11) that career officers who have not retired or choose not to retire from service, before the commencement of their tenured appointment, must leave office on attainment of the mandatory age/years of service for retirement and (111) that career officers who are currently holding tenured appointments are required to retire from the service with immediate effect and continue to run their term. Failure to do so would mean that they would vacant office on attaining the mandatory retirement age or at the expiration of their term, which comes first.”

Lawal has been the acting MD of the hospital since August, after receiving a letter to such effect from the Federal Ministry of Health, even as he applied to head the hospital for another four years. The Guardian obtained a copy of the appointment letter, which was signed by a Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Health, Mr. Linus Awute and addressed to Lawal on August 20, 2015 titled Re: Letter of Recommendation Dr. R.A Lawal (Medical Director).

It reads: “I write to extend my modest compliments and acknowledge receipt of a letter dated March 19, 2015 from the Board Chairman of FNPH, Yaba, concerning the above subject matter.
“While the request to the renewal of your appointment as the Medical Director is being processed, I am also to convey the approval of management for you to act in the same capacity after the expiration of your tenure on August 21, 2015, pending the conclusion of a Special Committee assignment on the subject matter.
“This decision is predicated on the preponderances of comments and reports reaching the Ministry, each with a different interpretation of the tenureship of Dr. R. A Lawal as the Medical Director, FNPH, Yaba, giving rise to disruption of services currently being experienced in Yaba psychiatric hospital.

HOWEVER, staff of the hospital would have none of that. While criticising the appointment, Ijarogbe told The Guardian that the Oronsaye document entitled MDs above the age 60 only one term, explaining, “The predecessor, Dr. Ladapo, did a first term that brought him to 59 of age. The Oronsaye document allowed Ladapo to do another term because he was not 60 years of age. All he needed to do was to resign as a consultant and take another tenure because by the time he is 60 years, he would have to retire.

The Oronsaye document is aimed at enabling MDs finish their term, if they are on the precipice of 60 before their appointment. However Lawal rolls the dice, he is supposed to be out of the system. Now he got tenure at the age of 57. That means he acted base on Oronsaye document in his first tenure. If he would be able to complete his tenure without leaving office at the age of 60, what he is expected to do is to resign before taking that appointment.

Even though he brought in a letter after the expiration of his tenure to say he resigned, we know it is not true that he resigned before taking up the appointment. Hospital records abound that he was practicing as a consultant. For us that has serious medical-legal implications. If he said he resigned as a consultant of the hospital, but continued to register patients, manage them, keep them in wards, continue to see the patients in the wards and give instruction for their management, then he worked as a consultant, even though he said he had resigned.

So, what is the purpose for the resignation? We learnt that Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) eventually stopped his salary when he was 60, because he was still in the system as a consultant. He had to do some rectifications before he started earning salary again.

Let us even believe that he resigned. What it means is that he should have left office by the time his tenure expired in August this year, as he clocked 60. The supposed resignation does not empower him to take another term. The position of the MD is not a political appointment, even though it enjoys political benefits. How can a second term start after the age of 60? He knows what the rules are. But people just pervert the rules to suit them because they want to perpetuate themselves in power. It is shameful.

The childhood psychiatric consultant added that Lawal’s action is breeding distrust, noting, “For those of us who are members of MDCAN, we are embarrassed because at the end of the day, people would blame medical doctors. We are supposed to be noble men – men who are trustworthy enough for others to close their eyes and allow us to sedate them, knowing that we will wake them to life. That is the amount of trust people have on us. So, if we begin to change rules and break civil service rules that is an indictment on the entire profession. It is an indictment on our integrity.

That is why this fight is a MDCAN issue because Lawal emerged from us. He was part of MDCAN – the association that produces MDs. The other health workers are just looking at us as if we are the ones trying to perpetuate a crime. We keep telling them that we are not part of it. We disassociated ourselves from all the illegalities going on. In fact, we are actively against it. Lawal’s term, the only term he is entitled to, has expired. What he should do honorably as a physician is to hand over to his deputy and leave. Where is it done that somebody who is over 61 is seeking for appointment? When will he complete the appointment? Should he finish at the age of 65?

Lawal said he has resigned from civil service. But he needs to be in civil service to be appointed into the office of MD. The way the Oronsaye document is structured is to give grace to allow MDs close to 60 to complete their terms. So, if you have resigned, you are no longer part of civil service. What are you coming to do with civil service appointment again? It is not possible. The truth is that he has told us that this is Nigeria where everything can be perverted and everything can be done without rules. He told us to stand back and watch.

BUT when contacted, Lawal would not talk about his performance; he only asserted that he was qualified to be re-appointed MD, and added, “They gave you their version, but they did not tell you that the circular concerning the appointment of the Medical Director says that by the time you finish your four year term appointment, it is renewable just once. If you know that you are going to be 60 before you finish your tenure, you must resign your appointment as a consultant in the hospital, if you had been a consultant. That is to say, you resign your civil service appointment. You know the civil service rule says you must go at the age of 60. But if you resign your civil service appointment, the age of 60 does not catch up with you, you can continue to complete your tenure.
“It is based on this that I was able to complete my tenure as MD. I have applied for a second term, and it is being considered. They have not told me that I am not entitled to it; they have not told me that they will give me or not. But while they are looking at my application, they say I should act. And they have set up a special committee in the ministry to look into all the issues surrounding it”.

On the allegation that he bribed officials of health ministry to be re-appointed, Lawal said: “The letter was signed by the Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Health. Did I bribe the Permanent Secretary? No other person can sign the letter. It is either the Honorable Minister of Health or Permanent Secretary.”

But a source which did not want to be named told The Guardian that Lawal could have avoid this quagmire four years earlier. The source explained that Lawal did not resign in 2011 as the law expected, and added that Lawal resigned as a consultant early this year, but went ahead to backdate the resignation letter to 2011 to make it seem as if it were a political appointment instead of career appointment.

The source alleged that Lawal had changed files containing his employment documents, as part of his cover up. He added that this strategy was aimed at enabling Lawal escape the 60 civil service rule trap and continue as MD.

While explaining evidence to show that Lawal retired this year, the source said that the public service rule mandates MDs to do verification exercise with the National Pension Commission (PenCom) a year before they retire, but that Lawal did not do the exercise in 2010 as the law expected him to have done if he resigned in 2011. Instead, he did it in 2014, ahead of his retirement this year.

In a meeting Lawal had with heads of departments, he said he was on a political appointment, but how come he had been on consolidated salary till this year? We know we are on IPPIS, and once you clock 60, your salary will be discontinued. On January 6 this year, when he hit 60, his salary was discontinued by IPPIS,” the source added.

But Lawal stated that he did not change documents in his file, noting, “How can that be? If I change my file in Yaba, will I go and change my file in the ministry?”

He told The Guardian that he duly resigned in 2011 and that he had stopped receiving salary as a consultant since then. Lawal was evasive on what year he did his verification exercise with PenCom. “If I go to PenCom for verification exercise, it is because I wanted to know the process. When you leave service, what process do you have to go through? It is not because they mandated me to do it. But I needed to know the process”.

He added that it was not the business of the workers to determine who becomes MD, and asked, “When did it become the function of consultants to appoint chief executives of federal hospitals? When did it become the function of JOHESU to appoint MD of hospitals? In which laws of Nigeria is it said when you are not happy with the person appointed by the president, you should go on an indefinite strike without informing the acting head? These are the three critical questions they should answer before they come to me to ask any question. Am I the person that put myself in the office? If they are not happy, there is a civil system they can go through. Where in the books of Nigeria is it said they could declare indefinite strike illegally without informing duly appointed heads? It can only happen in the bush, but we are not in the bush in Nigeria.

If they do not know the system, they should go and learn the system. These are the people who want to become MDs in the future. They should go to civil service rules and find out the rules if they are not happy with what is happening. I did not appoint myself. We are all responsible to the Federal Ministry of Health. Why can’t they go to the Federal Ministry of Health? If they are not happy, why can’t they send their representatives to the acting head of service?
“They have demonstrated almost six times on the same thing. When they are supposed to be working they are not working, but they are getting paid. They do not even care about civil service regulation again.”

On the allegation that he had been attending to patients since 2011 when he allegedly resigned, Lawal said: “But I am the overall boss of this hospital. Should I leave patients? I even told them to stop registering patients under my name since I am not a consultant in the hospital again. But I am the overall MD of the hospital. I cannot leave the hospital unmanaged. Since they stopped seeing patients, so I should fold my arms? I instructed staff not to book patients under me as a consultant. But did they stop? I do not think they stopped, but I have not been seeing new patients”.
Efforts to the position of the Federal Ministry of Health failed to yield result. Director of Press in the ministry, Mrs. Ayo Adesugba, failed respond to calls and text messages put across to her.