March 02, (THEWILL) – Every profession has its fair share of quacks. But quacks can intrude and thrive in any profession when it fails to maintain standards and apply sanctions as a form of check on members’ excesses and keep invaders away. The story of quackery in the medical profession in Nigeria is legion; many have been caught performing surgery, which often results in the death of the patient.
Indeed, things got so bad a few years ago, that the Nigerian Medical Association, NMA, introduced a doctor stamp which, it said, will be mandatory on all medical documents issued by any physician that is registered with the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria.
The stamp is an anti-quackery measure. The idea is that if a doctor’s stamp is on any report, the stamp has the file number of that doctor, the name of that doctor, the institution and the year they graduated from medical school. In addition, each medical institution, particularly private institutions, are meant to have a logo of such a stamp by their sample so that it can help to identify a qualified doctor.
That stamp was reportedly made mandatory for registered doctors from 31st march, 2018.
Any doctor who fails to comply with the directive will be treated as a quack. How far this policy has been implemented is questionable.
This is because sometime in February 2025, a depressing story broke about the death of a mother and her baby after doctors and nurses performed surgery on her while watching YouTube Videos to perform the operation. According to the patient’s husband, Onyedikachi Eze, a building contractor, the hospital had called two male doctors and three female nurses to assist with the operation.
He said, “They were hired by Dr Lebechi. Three of her nurses also assisted, bringing the total to five people involved in the surgery. Dr Lebechi was not in the theatre during the operation. She left twice to buy fuel for the generator. The nurses knew me and my wife well. We weren’t strangers at the hospital. It was the nurses who were watching YouTube videos on how to perform the C-section.”
In desperation Mr Eze fulfilled the demands made by the owner of the hospital, Dr Lebechi Chijioke, including buying fuel for the hospital’s power generator, repeatedly going to buy blood at only approved places and while, returning to the hospital from one of the trips to buy blood, heard, “Dr Lebechi casually mentioned that surgery was not her area of specialisation.” In fact, the conduct of the doctors and nurses clearly shows they are unqualified as Eze noted and Dr Chijioke intimated about herself to Eze. They are clearly in the wrong profession. It is for the money.
Expectedly, mother and baby died. Oddly, it was after tragedy struck that Mr Eze started hearing similar stories of doom shared by other patients of the hospital. This is unpardonable and it should not be allowed to stand. All doctors swear an oath to keep life; not to deliberately destroy it. Watching YouTube videos to perform an operation is akin to trading the life of a patient for money.
However, an NGO had to take up the case, leading to the arrest of Dr Chijioke and her husband. Even so, for the hospital to have lasted that long for people to share similar experiences about its operations similar to Mr Eze’s raises the question of not only quackery but also the laxity and oversight of the relevant authorities.
We call on the police to probe this matter diligently and prosecute those found guilty. We urge the NMA to see this avoidable tragedy as a reawakening to the issue of quackery in its ranks and continue to identify culprits and weed them out in the most indiscreet manner.
On its part, the Imo State government must rise up to the occasion and offer all forms of assistance to ensure that this incident never occurs in its domain again.
