Nigeria is the easiest place for lawbreakers and the toughest place for those who obey law. What makes is sad is that the enablers have the upper hand and the enforcers are abused.
The enablers are mostly the citizens especially any who claim to be journalists, some “bloggers” or so called influencers” who in reality spread influenza not news. They enable to lawbreakers and hail them and they abuse the people who obey the law, they make them feel stupid and abuse the enforcers and make them small.
When a society is like this, what comes out of the society is impunity. We can blame government from here to the end of the world that the country is bad and people act with impunity, but we don’t realize that we as citizens enable them to act like that.
Why am I writing this today? It is about Anu Adepoju who claims to be a doctor. She has become symbol of impunity in Nigeria. She exemplifies everything that is wrong with our dear country. Nobody has been able to stop her or question her. Yet week after week people post how she has damaged many bodies including even killed some. But we enable her on social media. We heap all the blame on the “foolish” women who go to her for body re-styling. How can we keep blaming the victim and allowing evil to continue? Because of this Anu is emboldened, she now comes and makes videos on Instagram blaming the victims too for the damage to their bodies or the the dead. She even said LUTH didn’t have the training and capacity to treat a beauty queen who died because of her mishandling.
She said the doctors there were not specialized enough to save the late beauty queens life. She came out and publicly said that. And she will say she graduated medicine from Unilag- that same LUTH. Let me list the number of government agencies have not been able to hold her accountable for what she has done and how:
Lagos State Government: They have been unable to check her practice, investigate and prosecute her. We hear that DPP told police to charge her with negligence and prosecute in Magistrate Court. Police has not succeed and Magistrate has refused case.
Nigerian Police Command: Not able to arrest detain and investigate because her mother is a senior police officer. A shameful weakness of the police force
Nigerian Medical Association NMA): They shamefully criticized FCCPC for taking action against Anu and sealing Medcontour. And wrote FCCPC to back off. An association of professionals that should be disciplining their own and defending unprofessionalism and fighting off regulatory oversight and endangering the public they swore to protect in their profession. They even took lawyer to defend her in court.
When I think of NMA now, I am so ashamed and sorry for the doctors who have any reputation but are members. Anu by herself says she did one year internship after school with Lagos state and started being a cosmetic surgeon and all those senior fellows, residents, professors and experts in NMA cannot rebuke her for what she is doing. It is a disgrace.
The, NMA are an enabler of bad medicine and behavior that is resulting in injury and death. A doctor who looks like an omo alata, with a butt and boob job, nose ring, tattoos all over who is dancing provocatively and conducting surgery with loud music is medical profession icon and the pride of the NMA. What happened to us in Nigeria? Who cursed us? Who should we beg? How did the NMA leadership become leaders of such a profession?
Medical and Dental Council (MDCN): They are the ones who are suppose to regulate the medical profession and discipline erring doctors. They are watching all of this silently without finding anything wrong. Their silence is louder than Thunder. Or so we thought until a letter form MDCN came out turning away the grieving family of the late beauty queen. MDCN said they were only complaining of a crime so MDCN could not do anything, they could not investigate Anu’s conduct since it was criminal. SO because it is a crime, it is not unprofessional? What a shame. The regulator became an enabler by allowing this impunity and encouraging this quack to continue her quackery and hurt more people.
NASPRAS: ALSO NIGERIAN SOCIETY OF PASTIC SURGEONS: Helpless they are too. They wrote and recorded a speech disowning Anu. That she is not their member and not qualified yet they could not do anything to stop her.
How can any country progress like this? When one single unprofessional and dangerous doctor can destroy all these major institutions, 5 of them?
Finally, in came the Federal Competition & Consumer Protection Commission. They had the courage to take a stance for consumers by sealing the facility and starting investigation. Even after that, no difference. Anu continued with her impunity on social media calling the FCCPC and its executives all kinds of names and even continuing her business and making offers to celebrate her own birthday. She did not even behave as if a govt or agency was involved in her business. The society was losing hope that she could be restrained.
What she was doing wans encouraging others to openly disregard the law and not comply. Somehow FCCPC succeeded where almost all other major agencies and associations failed. They were able to bring Anu before a court to answer for why she was breaking the law and not providing the information FCCPC demanded to do their investigation. The law is clear. When you ignore summons or fail to produce evidence, it is crime.
Instead of feeling the relief that finally, there is one government agency that can restore sanity and order, bloggers and influenzas are high on steroids and over-drive criticizing the FCCPC and its CEO Babatunde Irukera. An agency that proceeded to court without noise is now using “gutter tactics” as the mindless and senseless influenza faceless blogger wrote and the Arise Television that has not even started but is already showing how not to do journalism. TV and Influenza and journalists for sale. Stories for cash. Servants to brown envelopes. Spoilers of the the country.
Everything must be political, minister, VP, President should come and interfere with the due process of law. Someone has court you ask for interference? Isn’t that in itself the problem? ? Are we not supposed to wait and see what the court will say?
As for the court, Nigerians are waiting to know whether it is really the help of the common man or not. The Judiciary has disappointed the common man so many times and seems to hae been bought in some cases but we know the facts here. We are following the case and Honourable Justice Liman of Court 2, FHC Lagos and time will tell if our nation has a hope of reform and progress or if everything gone to the dogs.
Anastasia Enemali is a Journalist and writes from Abuja
