SNIDigital Innovations in Learning

SNI, Surgical Neurology International, an Internet Journal with Nancy Epstein as a debtor-in-chief, and SNI Digital, a new, editorially curated neurosurgery and medical information, multimedia

platform with operative videos, expert interviews, podcasts, and global interactive discussion of information for the next generation of clinicians in 13 languages, with James Osmond as its

editor-in-chief.

Are both pleased to present another in the SNI and SNI Digital Neuroscience Expert Series with interviews of leading neuroscientists across the world

This interview will focus on the work and contributions of of Professor Samuel O'Hakebaalom,

who's from Africa, from Nigeria, has multiple degrees from medical institutions around the world.

Professor O'Hakebaalom received in 2012 the Nigerian National Order of Merit Award

for medicine at the highest national prize given for academic and intellectual attainment.

His vast working experience in Europe, Asia, America, and Africa prepared him for the subsequent global leadership roles he has assumed in Africa and world neurosurgery. He's the president of the

Nigeria Surgical Research Society, secretary, the faculty of surgery of the West African College of Surgeons.

of that organization and foundation president at the AFNS, it's an African neurosurgeons society and honorary president of the NANS and AFNS and CAANS, all African societies. He pioneered

neurosurgery in eastern Nigeria

in 1974 at the University of Nigeria. He served as head of neurosurgery, anatomy, associate dean, dean and deputy vice chancellor, all respectively, and later was elevated to an emeritus

professorship.

He's the founder of the very well-known Memphis Hospital in Inugo, Nigeria, a private hospital with multi-disciplinary medicine

He's contributed over to over 50 books and chapters and books as over 300 references, which you can find on PubMed.

He has done an outstanding job. I'd

like to give you a little bit of background on Nigeria.

Nigeria is located in the west coast of Africa. You can see by the inset and the map here in the lower right-hand corner, where it's located, it's adjacent to the Atlantic Ocean. It has a very

diverse climate ranging from air into humid. That's an equatorial type of climate. Its most diverse feature, however, is its people, because it has people speaking hundreds of languages

throughout the country. The country has abundant natural resources, which has made it attractive to other countries throughout history It's notably has large deposits of petroleum and natural gas

Nigeria's capital is in Abuja. You can see it from the red circle in the middle of the map It's located in the middle of the country in the federal capital territory, which was created by decree in

1976 so Lagos is a former capital that you can see that on the coast near the Atlantic Ocean, and it retains its standing in the country as a leading commercial and industrial city. There's some

major facts of importance, I think you should know, it has a population of 239 million people making it the most populous country in Africa. It was destined to have 1 billion people in 2050 Its

former government is a federal republic with two legislative houses, it has an official language of English, 50 of the population's Muslim, 50 is Christian, and modern Nigeria dates from 1914 when

the British protectorates which were basically in northern and southern Nigeria were joined and after that led to many civil wars about the country then became more settled and independent October 1,

1960, 1963. It is docked at a Republican Constitution and but state a member of the Commonwealth, the nations of the UK. It is a founding place of civilization in the world as is both East and

West Africa, Southern Africa. It is a center of slave trade in the past and it was first occupied by the British in 1861.

Dr. Oheigbalam lives in the in the area in the red circle in the in the southern part of Nigeria called Inugo and you can see that on the map. Okay, I'm talking with this morning with Sam

Oheigbalam who I've known for 45 years or more and

Sam now is in in Nugu, in Nigeria, it's the southern part of Nigeria.

And we're gonna tell us about his life and life experiences, and we hope to learn a lot of wisdom from that, okay?

We'll start out as simple at the beginning.

Were you born in Nigeria?

Yes, I was born in Nigeria and the south eastern part of Nigeria. Now I'm going to demonstrate that it was then it was just eastern Nigeria.

And what did, how many brothers and sisters did you have, and what did your mother and father do? Well, the last run of a family of six girls and we lost one, And we lost one and then the only.

And then there that's where before me, I would have lost the family. So you had 60 mother and 60 girls, and you were the last, the youngest of all of us. Yes, I was the youngest, yes. There's

seven children, right?

Then right. And what did your, at the time you grew up, how big was it? How big was the city or town you were in?

By the time I grew up, well, you know, by the time I was gone, in fact, my first sister was married. The first in the family was already married and the second one was very close to getting

married. It was really the last and grew up without the sisters. Only two of them were still family. The rest were living away with their husbands. And so, what did your father do? What did your

father do? What did you say? I thought I was a civil servant with the local government. He worked for the government. Yes, I worked for the government, civil service, civil service, local

government.

My mother was a housewife, just a housewife, not to she didn't work.

At that time, what was Nigeria? Nigeria was a Nigeria estate by that time or a separate country, or was it, what was it at that time? And you know, a very safe country. I've been very safe. I,

of course, when I was in primary school, the school where I did my last year was very far, but more than 15 miles away from my home. And I sometimes we tricked it In fact, most of the time we

tricked from our home to that place, but then I had a bicycle too. But there was no danger. There was no fear of kidnapping on the way or getting attacked on the road. The country was very, very

safe. And then even when I was schooling, in the primary school in my town, the school was about two miles away from my home. And I was drinking it, We're not coming back with no fear of danger

at all.

and nothing ever happened to me on those journeys. There was a safe society, like what we're experiencing now. And now I can't even go to my housing in the town. For the last three years, I

haven't slept at my house in the town because of insecurity.

So things have changed dramatically, right?

Okay, so now you're going to school and you went

to, did you go to a missionary school? Did you go to a great public school? What type of education did you have then?

Yeah, my primary school was a mission school. And the second school was the first one I attended was not a mission school. It was a,

well, it was a community-based school

But all the churches, all the religions were accommodated.

At the last one in the higher school, at the last stage of secondary school education, at the Dennis Memorial Grammar School, which was a mission school. And that one was very different from the

Elia ones. That one was strictly an Anglican mission secondary school. But I was there for just two years for the higher school setting, at three university education

And it was the university located in the same town, or did you have to leave your family to go to the university? Now university was out of the country. I was lucky to get a vision to University of

Cairo in Egypt. And then I was a scholarship federal government of Nigeria, so Egyptian government scholarship. So I moved from Nigeria to Cairo, where I did my university education and medical

education.

And I went there for five years, plus in 10-ship, the sixth year. Did you have any family in Egypt or you went there by yourself? I went there by myself. I was sponsored by government, so

government was my sponsor. Unfortunately, during the stay in Egypt, we were cut off by the Nigeria Civil War, which compounded the problem. As well as the Arab Israel War, I said to bless,

during my stay in Egypt, it was a difficult period for me. And at the end of the university education, I had to, I couldn't go back to Nigeria, because of the war was going on this, the African

Civil War. So I had to proceed from Egypt to England for my postgraduate education in New York City.

So when you finished your medical training in Egypt, You were ready to. go into a neurosurgical training and background. You left, David, would you go to England? Yes. I was, I picked up

interest in neurosurgeon, ironically, but I had no contact with any neurosurgeon during my early years in life. No, I was not a doctor for my family.

I was in a late with any person who was a family friend, that was a doctor or neurosurgeon For instance, I couldn't understand. I picked strong interest and passion for the central nervous system

during my medical school education. And then I said, no,

neurosurgeon. But at first, I thought the neurosurgeon was too small, that it would be - I was studying neurosurgeon in neurology. As I

catch it, I'll combine three specialties. Until one of the professors and Karen was, he said, no, You cannot do that.

I think you have to specialize in one of them, but if you can't specialize in the three specialties, I was surprised, I said, you may neurosurgeon is big enough to be a specialty for me, they're

eventually a narrow down to neurosurgeon. And that was, it was,

you know, in fact,

I don't know how to describe it, but it was a strange love or interest or passion for this specialty We don't relate it to anybody who convinced me on their own major age, it was just an interesting

picture of German medical school education on that

Okay, so now you're in England,

you didn't know anybody in England, you had a play, were you still on a government scholarship there?

Yes, I mean, I didn't know anybody in England, but during the day

and

You know, the UK. system was different at the time, you know. I just applied to the UK. embassy that I want to go and specialize in neurosurgeon. And they were gracious enough to grant me a visa,

free entry, and free stay. So I made an arrangement for me to go for attachment to one of the hospitals for three months to get acquainted with the environment. And then during those three months,

I started applying for jobs in the training centers in the

UK. I was first a town court, west from which, and then after the three months, I was able to

go to Wales. My first job was in Wales

Really, from a very early age, you were separated from your family. is there, right? Yes, very much so. In fact, they couldn't even communicate with them because the war was still going on in

Nigeria. So we're just, there was no, the mobiles and telephone system is not as advanced as it is now. And that time, it was a communication work purely by letter writing, and which wasn't

possible because Defra was blockaded.

And so I was completely separated and isolated from the family for the period of about two years until the end of the war. Once the war ended, they knew their contact with

the family.

So,

where did you go in England, where was your training in England in neurosurgery? I started in the British system and you have to do general surgical tests and then navigate into neurosurgery,

subsequently or specialty So I started in a hospital, in Ruxem,

not west arm first, no, no, there I spent two years then went to another hospital in Devon, in the southern part of England, where I spent another one year, before I now moved on to a

neurosurgical center, here was it,

Sussex That hospital, that was it, was neurosurgery, neurology, psychiatric. center. So I went there for two years or three years. And from there, I moved on to

someone's hospital in London, which is part of the University of London and the National Hospital. In fact, we had a unit at the National Hospital, but I did the last part of my training. I back

answered one day's hospital, Wimbledon

I'm done.

So, you were at Kensin Morley's Hospital in Wimbledon, is that right? Yes, a lot of Jetson, who was the editor of the surgery at that time?

There was anyone there, and you could, there was a general specialty, so specialization was still evolving, even though I came to Monday's had a strong interest in kind of vascular

surgery. A lot of high-resence were done in the center to my surprise, different from the center that I started with, center that I did with, had the

congenital anomalies, trauma cases, a few aneurysms cases, a lot of spank cases, but I had the strong interest in aneurysms surgery, and they were far off from all over the place I started to

tell you how much money was there, had the only city scum in the world at the time because of the city scum. The CT scan, when it was introduced, the first one was, Don't decide that I can smell

it, and we are privileged to train during that time with this evolving technology of CT scan. But people were coming from all over the world to come and see this CT scan, this new magic of quantum

computing CT scan. And

that made a lot of difference in my life, because that, that passion or that introduction to this technology early. When I go to, I tried my best to see whatever we can join the lake in getting

into CT scan, you know, service and technology. But standardly it was not possible government said it was not affordable It was only when I moved on to, to, to hand it for the hospital. many

years later that I reunited with CTSCAN, but then the technology had even evolved to a much higher level. But it was an eye of now, I must say. One of the motivations for me to go into private

practice because I could see that the public institutions did not have

the competition or the demand for funds was too much for the number of the units and department that existed And it was difficult for government to go into and satisfy all the units and then I just

have to find the solution. The only solution I was to

navigate towards a private practice set up. And that's every study and it's one of the first citizen guys in the country, fuck.

So I think CT scanning came out in about 1980. So that's all we're talking about now. around that time, 1980s? Yes, in the 70s and the 70s. Well, initially the cities come were introduced about

1970-71. I left to a UK in 1973,

was already in the years in the center, and that it could get Nigeria out. The first cities come came and was introduced in the 80s, I think 1986 or '07.

And he has met him. I was at it for 85-56, but then you had that, I think, four or five cities, kind of. And

the hospital.

So this is this time you had gone through various stages of exposure to neurosurgery in the UK You wound up in an Atkinson Marley, which was a referral hospital, and you saw a lot of acute cases,

vascular cases, and so forth.

And so, and you were doing this when we had CT scanners who were becoming available. I think MR scanners became available about 10 years later, some, at least - Yes. Yeah, and so - An assumption.

So you were at the time when the neurosurgery was becoming revolutionized by this CT and MR technology, right? Yes, very much so Yes, and the music services had improved, yes.

And Atkinson Morley had a CT scanner, and that also was why it was a major referral center. Am I correct about that? Yes, very

good. And so you spent, did you spend how many years of training in neurosurgery at Atkinson Morley and in England? No, I was, and I got some money for just a year, Right by then I had already

done almost three years in neuroscience.

And at the end of my one year there, I was later because

the war had just ended in Nigeria two years earlier, and there was no new research code service in most parts of the country. In fact, there were only two centers in Nigeria that had the University

of your service, the University of Nevada, and the University of

Lagos, all in the southwest of Nigeria There was no new medical service in the whole of the northern part of Nigeria, which now has six states and the south east part of Nigeria, which now has five

states. None of those areas had any new research code service. So it became a problem of what needs to do after consultation with my peers

The first time, the 10 days of the day, many of my life.

Contemporaries, Nakas and Mollies, who are heading to US and Canada, US and Canada. But that was better to go and help develop neurosurgeon Nigeria. And I got interviewed by the two existing

centers and one of the universities in the East Temple of Nigeria, the University of Nigeria. The first time I happened to be in London and the ones about my training in Nakas and Mollies So they

interviewed me and they met an offer. So at that point, I said I needed more years of exposure as in training, definitely. But the question of the needs that existed, but I had to go and

separation from the family for more than two years. By that time, I had separated from my family and move for more than five, two years. I was also eager to reunite with the family. and the start

of a neurosurgical service in the south is the part of Nigeria that was devastated by the civil war.

And the offer that I got from the other two existing centers, I had to turn down, that I now went home to

the center, University of Nigeria to pioneer the

neurosurgical service. And that's covered by the south eastern Nigeria at the time. We're talking about that time, we're talking about what was the population of Nigeria, just going through civil

war, what was the population? I think I am watching 100 sure, but I think Nigeria was over probably close to 100 million in the end of civil war

And I do have very much the East, the West, and the North.

And then,

you hadn't had what's governed by, or hadn't they had the full governance structure. I, on top of this, under the federal government structure, this at Lagos, Lagos was in the capital of Nigeria.

But, so that

was a structure in Nigeria at the time.

So you went back to Nigeria, you became, you got closer to your family

And was your family, and was it in a nougal at that time, or was it some, or was it a - No, no man, my family, I come from a part of Nigeria according to emo states. And then the question, the

nougal then was in an umbrella state. And now it's in

a nougal state because continued the recreation of states. So I live, even though I come from a different state,

part of South Eastern Nigeria.

And so did you initially go and work with the university? And because you had started in private practice, but was your initial association with the university to build a service at the university?

No, when I really looked at one of the Nigeria, I started in the university, right? I've said through that was, I'll find a job at the University of Nigeria And for us, the University of Nevada

and Lagos, that I chose to go to the University of Nigeria and find near the University of Kosovo's. And I was there for almost 20 years or almost years.

That's a bit of frustration because the facilities were very, very scanty and growing the service was very problematic because of financial constraints So, in the first place, I needed to. What

you don't get in a microscope was a struggle.

Not to talk about diagnostic facilities. First, at the time at the University of Nigeria, I was a result of this as well as the new research because I had to do my neurology investigations. I had

to do the angiography. Then we're doing transcology and geography. We had to do it myself. The radiologists were not interested. We had only two radiologists on the ground. They didn't have any

exposure or interest Luckily, I had sufficient exposure in doing the collective angiography. So we're able to do our diagnostic services.

And they just give us a section of radiology you need to do as

neurosurgical radiologist services. It was one by me and one of my assistants until many years later. In Vietnam, I lived at the University of Nigeria. That was the arrangement that was on the

ground We didn't get any assistance.

from the radiologists, we would have to do investigations and separate the results and use them for management notifications.

But after many years, and when I saw the progress was very slow, and I felt that the answer would be the public sector, a private sector

that waiting on the university and government to

elevate the service to high level would not work Because even the services that started before, I returned to Nigeria at a battle, and they goes, Where's this struggling? They didn't have any of

the

facilities that were already being used all over the world. My career in the same day was growing in strength, all over the community globally, but there was no macro scope, no pretty macro scope

anywhere In fact, it took more than

10, 15 years before I could. even get it in micro-school, and to use the University of Nigeria's teaching hospital. And that was after coming for the micro, where I did the micro, neurosatic

culture, you know, feel it. I had a fourth hospital, and when I got back, I insisted, I pushed, I got a micro-school Basic micro-school exercise, which I started with, then eventually used it

until I left the hospital

So you come back to Nigeria, you want

to help the people of Nigeria, you go to the university. University is probably controlled by the state or whatever it is, and you don't have a lot of resources, right? And, uh, yeah, should I?

advances going on a neurosurgery around you and the microscope was being introduced in the 60s and 70s. You had the CT scan and the 70s and 80s and the MR scan and it was a struggle to keep up with.

I won't have talked about that, but at that time it wasn't wasn't it,, it wasn't, it was a no-go-area. Right, not a no-go-area. So that's did, yes Well, when did you come, was it why you

were back in Nigeria, you had left to come to the United States to work with us, or you got some more training elsewhere? Yes.

And then how were you able to take off from your position at the, in the university for a year to go study elsewhere? You had to make some arrangement to do that? Yes. The university had a

sabbatical leave system for staff who have subs long enough. They can get specifically for one year. And if it's approved by the university that they have and reason to go to an adolescent, I'm in

a case that I needed to update my knowledge, walking alone for so many years. I needed an update. I needed to know what was going on in neuroscience. Even though I was very, uh, conference, uh,

addicted sort of how I tried my best to attend as many international conferences as possible in order to keep a grace of what, uh, was going on and being special. And that's the opportunity that I

got from any front hospital and lay your management to improve my skill or training background or surgery. And, uh, I'm experiencing vascular surgery was a big help. And it opened my eyes also to

how far the neurosurgery had grown over the years and then it's What if it made fact to look higher? Just know that we have to find a solution that is not just working in the university, and, you

know, gaining promotions, and all that was not enough. But if we had to advance the neurosurgery in Africa and in Nigeria, we have to strategize. I know how we can achieve that. And I came to

the conclusion

that continuing in the university would not solve the problem That it's better to find a solution outside the university system. So I now went that direction. And I think in my assessment, it was a

wise decision. If I have not done that, I just wonder what could have happened to neurosurgery in Africa or the country by now? Well, at that time, Nigeria was, was a, had a lot of oil reserves

My correcto is the country.

It's the industry with oil and production and so forth. Very much so, yes. The oil boom had started and had the government, even have been then president of Nigeria, even made a statement that

Nigeria had so much money. They didn't know how to spend it.

One of his troops, international troops, surprisingly, everybody was shocked. If that was the case, what can't we improve our facilities in the medical field?

In fact, the center was strategized and said, All right, they cannot limit every institutionin Nigeria to a very high level. That they would not have hospital that I dedicated, especially Center

for One Area, or the other. And they identified catatoracic surgery, neurosurgery, and infectious diseases. And they wanted to develop three institutions

key reference points for these specialties. I competed for it for neurosurgery and neurology within successivity, but the University of Nevada got that one. And we got kind of the thoracic surgery

because the kind of thoracic surgery, we have more expertise in it in our center. And the infection thing went to medical, nothing but of Nigeria. But if you move with that, promising development,

not much progress was made. The investment in the health sector was still very, very poor. And the characteristics center, which I could have benefited from, because if the facilities have grown

in the center, I was working in the University of Nigeria. And, you know, through the characteristics service, I could have benefited from it, for suggesting that that was not to be. We still

struggle and struggle until the frustration can.

So you left the university because you couldn't really, there were just no resources to expand and achieve excellence in modern neurosurgery. And when did you establish your own private hospital?

Was it just a time? Yeah,

the project wasn't initiated through the, 1994,

and

we started strategizing and planning for it, and looking for funds for it. And then the construction started and the hospital actually kicked off in 2002.

So it's about 23 years now.

And so it was the hospital? who's a hospital-y.

It was a special hospital for neurology and neurosurgery and psychiatry. No, it was started as a, maybe it's also due for

neurosurgery. It's true, certainly. Excuse me. Yes, yes, yes, but subsequently we expanded to include the neurology

and of course the domestic substance were the very prominent part of it because we knew the neuroscientists could only function effectively with good quality diagnostic service. So we invested a lot

of four-time resources on radiology to make sure that radiology was grown to help the specialists also run the reasonable quality service But now, we have a lot of resources to consult but the

full-time.

with having the award at the neuroscientist or in neurology. So to do that, you needed some financial support. You were able to get financial support from the private industry there, or how did

you do that? That must have been a challenge. Very much so. We tried very hard to get help. Try the idea of

transatlantic. We advise that unless the hospital has actually taken off and demonstrated potential that would be difficult to raise

any support from either outside investors or banks, bank loan. We had to, luckily, I had worked abroad for, because I told you I've got a particular project, what about

the projects, about 1994, 1993, and the gradual process of planning. It helped me to mobilize and offense. You know, it was a gradual process that acquired the land, start engaging architects

to do the drawing and drawing, and then start the construction work, and then start the equipment. So it was a stage process. And then I was walking abroad in Santa Arabia at the time. And

luckily, I had the reasonable income So I was able to

invest most of my earnings in this project to make it work. And that's what happened. So I didn't get any financial support from Nigerian banks. And

the only financial help I got was from the British bank, because I had collateral to offer. When I was decided I was able to invest in property in the UK And that helped me raise some funds too.

this incredible story. So

now we're now 20, 25 years later, you've got to hospitals called Memphis Hospital. And it's now multi specialty, right? Yes. And are there other private hospitals also? Or are you one of the

few hospitals in that, in your area, that's a private hospital? No, there are

quite a few now.

Most of

them are multi

specialty services, but probably in Nigeria, that people run their service, but they're not prepared to invest into the equipment that will make the hospital what it should be.

So just a place for consultation and do basic practice and does it. So even though there are many specialized hospitals in the end of the book, but most of them, depend on our hospital for their

diagnostic purposes. Almost all the city MRI done in that part of the country are done in our hospital because we invest, we've tried over the years to invest every day on and we give up reading the

service on the diagnostic side. That is one advantage we will hold over the other centers. So we have, we maintain the reasonable quality of care.

And the people, middle class and so on, look forward to coming to us because they know that the quality of care is higher. And the diagnostic services are of reasonable standard. So we have that

advantage of many of the competent centers in the neighborhood or in the parts of the country we live in. In Lagos and Abuja, yes, there are a few hospitals Not that tough, really even. done

better than us in terms of facilities and equipment. But in our part of the country, yes, we're still probably the best in terms of facilities and equipment. Well, you want to feel very, very

proud of all those accomplishments that took an immense amount of work and sacrifice on your part. I know your

family's also involved in

the hospital And how are you only able to take people who pay or does the government support some of the people who need care there? Or are you making it only on the private sector?

No, the people who come from training, one of them are sponsored by other institutions. We give them some assistance, but they come as doctors employed in the other tissue hospitals. So they send

them for this training because we have a credential for the training. And then when they finish, they go back to the institution that's sponsored them to come for the training. There are every set,

we usually have one sponsored by us fully. And so in the hope that that person at the end of the training would stay on to have an institution to grow in strength 'Cause other than residents would

train, go back to the institution that's possible for them to come for training. But that is how we all present. Most of

those who train live with us and go back to the institution that's sponsored.

And I think one day you told me, we talked about this, that you were trained in neurosurgery, what is it, 25 or 50 of the neurosurgeons in

your area, is that right? Yeah, it's Nigeria, yes. When Memphis started, we had lived in 20 neurosurgeons in the whole country, in fact. And remember, when I came back to Nigeria in 1974,

the whole country had less than 10 neurosurgeons. At the time, the Memphis Hospital started in 2002, we had about 20, 25 neurosurgeons in the whole country. But now the numbers

have gone close to 200. And this is because of our contribution. We have been able to contribute close to 15 neurosurgeons to who now practice in this country, a trend of past room and face

hospital. And they have heard to also start training in other centers. So really it's a multiplier effect. That's really how I see that who have passed through us.

of food training or part of their training, and now number about 50. That meant this, out of this 200 in a year. If I led at 200, the last count we did in December, was still about 160, 17

years ago. I mean, now them, chopper, many of them have lived the country to work in all that part of

the world. So there's not even, I mean, some have retired, some have died. So it's not even, the true figures are very depressing for the population of a country that is, but now I've smelted

at about 230 million in the population of Nigeria. Yes, that's, I think people should know

that there are 230 million people in the predictions. I think by 2050, if you'll have over, you know, we'll have a billion people.

Am I right about that? I direct, yes, I direct to a grain. They said I've got it by 2050.

But Nigeria might be second or third, most populous country in the

world. Even over the Kingdom, the US, probably on the China and India will be ahead of us. Oh, I've seen that in the '90s. We're not there. The neuroscience side has not grown. It's not, and

even now, it's funny, they've got to recruit residents for training. That is such aspect of it. We're not getting as many to train as we expect to get. But if you many residents are so few, now,

you know, there's less than 10 few many residents. And no matter how we're in our center, with this number, we'll train only one of them while they're in the female. And once in, she finished

our training. We're able to recruit another female resident for training.

And we can't understand why. So luckily some move for some of the undergraduates are now realizing the deficit and the danger. And there is some initiative on their side to see whether they can

create advocacy and awareness amongst the students, medical students in the universities to see whether more of them can show interest in the neurosciences and specialization in the neurosciences.

And we hope we'll try to give them support and see whether we can achieve some success in this. Otherwise they are direct, where training them is stood if very depressing indeed. After all the

neurosurgery came to Nigeria, 1962, when the co-finished training at the US returned

to start one at the bottom Since 1962 to now, we have not produced. or even 200, you know, say yes. It's a bit of a sense, like a Christian.

No, it's very difficult. I think in 2019,

in 2012, you received an award from

the, tell us about that. It was a very substantial award for everything you'd accomplish

Nigeria has a national honor, which is called the Nigerian National Order of Merits, which is the highest national honor for Merits and academic achievement in Nigeria. And it's an honor process

that I've attended from January, February, and it goes through an identity process in which four divisions, medicine, engineering, the sciences and humanities. So there must be one, there

should be one recipient in one of these, each of these disciplines, one in each discipline. So one in medicine, one in engineering, one in science and one in humanities. And this national

competition goes on, there are panels, each

of these divisions has a panel of assessors that go through the process of assessment and those who have been nominated for their work. They go through the assessment process. And then at the end,

it goes through the report, OK. The international management award has a report. The board will go through the recommendations and any approval as then will go to government. And if all the - it's

approved, then the recipients for that year announced and on the first Thursday of December every year there is this award ceremony takes place at the presidential villa in the capital city and then

it's a big ceremony

and my year and I turned it off when it to I got in medicine and somebody else got in humanities there was not an engineering or science some years no I want this declared very rarely that four awards

are given in a year but at the moment and over the last two three years the system has been a bit more important as if we are of course funded government has a current administration has not

committed enough funds to sustain the company the efforts so we're trying to make sure that it is not, that merit is not. neglected because it's an encouragement to the young people who are trying

to prevent from living in the country. If they know that if they achieve, their achievement is recognized, they will be motivated to stay back and help the country to grow. That if our best

friends live the country, how come with a progress is not possible? So this effort and drive is ongoing to make sure that government does not neglect

and it's a national law, actually it's a law passed in

1979 that this institution should be set up called the Nigerian National Order of Merit. So and then it has been working very effectively over the last two years or three years where the funding has

stalled these problems. There is even a big house or institution in the capital called Merit House That's very tough. How's this? Strong bad, Mr. Chief, sit up and this is where most of the

services are initiated and are ended.

That's what we hope this will continue. So now you've established a private hospital, which is, which is probably one of the leading hospitals in southern Nigeria You've

got a multi-specially hospital there. You have a lot of facilities. You've raised all the money to make this happen, but you didn't stop there. You also got involved in establishing National

Society of Neurosurgery in Africa. Is that right? Do you want to tell us a little bit about that? Thank you very much. Yes, in the, I wouldn't have very active participant in neurosurgical

medicine societies. Me, after my training, in fact, I knew that.

We can't work in isolation. We must relate with the national community. And

even quite early in my career, I've got appointed to the WFNS

long-range planning committee. So in that committee, we played a very strong role to build the world federation. But in the '80s, it was not coming to

you for almost 10 years in the '80s

West African College also played a very strong role in it. West African College is involved in training and post-related education in Nigeria, National College also. I was very active in both

colleges. In fact, West African College, I became the treasurer at Southern Secretary of the

Faculty and progress to board member

and subsequently treasure.

The,

when over the years,

and neurosurgery and neurosciences struggled, and we had a joint association,

excuse me.

Because of our numbers, our numbers were a few, so we couldn't have independent bodies. We had a joint neurologine, it was a punch, called Pan-African Association. And we operated in Venezuela.

And this punch, you know, it was represented in the queveness, by punch In 2015, 2005, in

Morocco, 2005, the deafness had this first conference in Africa, in Morocco, in Marrakesh. And in that meeting, African neurologists gathered and felt there was need to have a continental

association to represent African neurologists in

the deafness.

And everybody agreed, so the committee was set up to work towards this. and I was privileged to denominated into that committee and to even need the committee. So we start kicked off with plans and

the arrangement for to make a society

for neurosiety enough in the continent. Then we progressed and carried a recommendation to the funds, which was the umbrella organization, the fund African Society, and it was approved.

So they were who were mandated to start the

society and to launch it. And this we did in 2008 in Nairobi.

And during the launch ceremony again, I was privileged again to be pointed out by the financial of the African Indian society.

And this led to what it is today with the event. Ultimately, other societies,

Pranghav, December 20th,

2008, another society for a new society was established. Then some problems arose in the continent about coordinating the societies. So the definers decided that we should try to manage these

societies into one humble organization for neurosurgeon, because the numbers have grown by then. So finally, this was achieved. The continental association was established, the cons. So it was

AFNS to then ANS, then the cons. These are the branches of neurosurgeon associations in the continent Um. France is now very, very strong and one of the foundation members and also

a member and honorary president of France. So we have continued to make the association strong and to motivate young people in neurosurgery throughout the continent and luckily the young

neurosurgeons are very, very active. All of Africa now, they're showing a lot of enthusiasm to drive the association. Our last meeting was in Congo, and our next meeting would be in my office in

October. So the association is doing very well and I'm happy that I play the significant role in building this continental association So what we've seen is we've seen you start from a life where you

look

You would ride your bike, or you would go into school a long way away from home, and you had the community to get educated. You got a sponsorship from that from the government, and you studied in

Egypt. You got your medical degree there. You got some neurosurgery exposure in England, and you developed there. You came back to Nigeria to help the people. You started at the university, but

it wasn'tyou couldn't get a lot done there, and they didn't have a lot of facilities, so you established your own private hospital, which is outstanding, and it's now as multi-specialty services.

You've trained

about half of the neurosurgeons now in Nigeria. You've founded a national society. You've written papers. I know when you were with us, you were working on the anatomy of the cavernous sinus.

That's before it became very

popular. Looking back on all this

and looking into the future, were you? Because we've got to we're going to stop here and go to our Grand Rounds meeting in about 10 minutes. How

do you look at the future for Nigeria?

Thank you very much. I'm very optimistic. I'm fortunate that we haven't made progress over the years, but I believe that Nigeria and Africa in general will have potential. And with more effort and

determination, we can achieve, we can bring neurosurgery to a level

higher than what it is now. That's prayer and what we're working to achieve. And luckily, I'm still healthy and I'm still in a position to contribute and to

We're trying

advocacy to get the government to show more interest. Africa is endowed with natural resources. Most African countries, Nigerian and Periculites, are a very rich country. But unfortunately, this

doesn't translate to what we see in the hair sector. Most of our sources are squandered in thin that, to me, are not as important as they have. Human health is one of the most important aspects of

human life But the government is not investing enough resources on this. And we're trying to push even health insurance doesn't exist. The coverage is over less than 10. And we're trying to make

government push health insurance, make it universal. They pass their law, making it a comparison. That enforcement has not been achieved. If only they can achieve

universal health insurance, then funds will emerge and increase. and the health sector will be strengthened. Some of these things were complaining and not available would become, it will be funded.

But getting the government and the politicians to listen to this advocacy is a problem. And that we can't give up. I have personally invested a lot of resources on this advocacy. Every opportunity

I have to make a speech I have upon it, rich to the highest authorities on this And we hope that we will continue to push through the medical association and the every platform until they listen and

drive and improve health insurance so that more funds will be available to hospitals, to the health sector, to grow, and neurosurgeon will benefit from it. So there is hope. And the only thing is

more effort on the part of doctors, not just neurosurgeons, doctors in general, not that I achieve his number of results. That's excellent. Well, you're obviously a model for

doctors all over the world. You're a model for doctors in Africa. What you achieved, you don't need me to tell you this. You've had awards that said that. You've published many, many papers.

You've achieved excellence as much you're looking for. You've achieved it. You wanted for the rest of your country. And you believe that that's attainable And you're working to make that happen.

Is that correct? Very much so. You're quite living in an area that I had by showing and research on Governor Sanders with all the - what we did in your center. When I came back to Nigeria, I

couldn't sustain that drive. I couldn't sustain that research because of lack of resources. If I had had other sources to continue, I could have probably one of the leading authorities in governor

send us today. But unfortunately, that was done to it because of no investment on research. Couldn't do more than what I did in Hana, France, Washington.

So we're going to accomplish an enormous amount, Sam, I just, you know, an absolutely enormous amount of your life here to be congratulated for that. And it's not only a pleasure for me to know

you It's an honor to see what you've accomplished and to know somebody who is, who is, is determined to help other people as you are. You've done a magnificent job. Thank you, Jim. I appreciate

your contributions too, because you will give me encouragement. You give me the support. You give me the opportunity to advance my career. Thank you very much for what you did. You're welcome

Okay, we'll stop here because we've got to go to the.

Grand Rounds for Sub-Saharan Africa and we'll see you there and thank you very much from me and from our audience for spending time with us today so we can learn more about what you've accomplished.

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Interview with Dr. Samuel Chukwunonyerem Ohaegbulam, a Leading World Neurosurgeon from Nigeria;

James I. Ausman, MD, MA, PhD

Samuel Ohaegbulam, MB, BCh

SNI Digital®, the Global, Interactive, Peer-reviewed, New Video Journal of Neurosurgery and Neuroscience-2024 Edition; "Innovations in Learning" for the 21st century

VIDEO EDITORIAL

NEW SNI Digital® Version 4.2

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Interview with Dr. Samuel Chukwunonyerem Ohaegbulam, a Leading World Neurosurgeon from Nigeria;

James I. Ausman, MD, MA, PhD

Samuel Ohaegbulam, MB, BCh

SNI Digital®, the Global, Interactive, Peer-reviewed, New Video Journal of Neurosurgery and Neuroscience-2024 Edition; "Innovations in Learning" for the 21st century VIDEO EDITORIAL

NEW SNI Digital® Version 4.2

SNI Digital®, the Global, Interactive, Peer-reviewed, New Video Journal of Neurosurgery and Neuroscience-2024 Edition; "Innovations in Learning" for the 21st century

VIDEO EDITORIAL