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Ihekwaba Shares Non-Clinical Service Experience At Valedictory Lecture
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- Published: 17 November 2021
By Humphrey Ogu
How a Professor of Medicine, Anele Ihekwaba, chaired and served creditably on several statutory and non-statutory committees in the University was the thrust of the 20th Valedictory Lecture delivered at the Ebitimi Banigo Auditorium on Tuesday, July 13, 2021.
Delivering the Lecture on the topic: “A Clinician/Clinical Lecturer in a Non-Clinical Committee,” Ihekwaba who is of the Department of Medicine, Faculty of Clinical Sciences, College of Health Sciences, expressed delight that he was delivering his lecture when his former students, Professors Owunari Georgewill and Iyeopu Siminialayi are holding two key administrative positions in the University.
He noted that his lecture would be of immense benefit to his ex-students and other Clinical Lecturers serving in various non-clinical committees in the University, adding that “A Valedictory Lecture is akin to a formal salute to signal the end of a glorious academic career delivered in the presence of peers and academics. It is momentous epoch at which the lecturer seizes the opportunity to share his/her experiences with his/her co-workers, a chance to place on record, notable recollections of the time and accomplishments working with them in the evolving search for the truth.”
Ihekwaba, who had chaired over 10 ad-hoc committees and panels, in addition to serving as a member of other statutory boards and committees in the University, said: “When a Clinician is appointed to chair a committee or panel, it is my considered opinion that he should be guided by the opening sentence, and the closing phrase of the Hippocratic Oath, that: ‘I solemnly pledge myself to consecrate my life to the service of humanity’, and ‘upon my honour’, respectively.”
He added that “When faced with clinical issues, it is usually a straightforward decision task that has a pre-set solution template. For instance, if a patient has headache, it is headache and not that it looks like it! But when the clinical lecturer is appointed to serve in committees or panels looking at non-clinical matters, the challenges of human nature surfaces and one may be tested like the proverbial fish out of water.”
“In course of serving in these positions, I developed a deeper sense of understanding of the character of human beings and how people respond to different socio-economic stimuli,” Ihekwaba, who chaired the Committee on Exploring Out-of-Court Settlement of Disputes in University of Port Harcourt 2020 to 2021, recounted.
In his remarks, Vice Chancellor, Professor Georgewill, expressed joy that Professor Ihekwaba did not retire without delivering a Valedictory Lecture as earlier planned. “We have listened to the Valedictory Lecture delivered by my own lecturer, the vintage Professor Ihekwaba. This Lecture is a compendium of dos and don’ts of serving in committees. It is a must-read for all administrators and members of committees in this University. I sincerely thank Professor Ihekwaba for sharing his wealth of experience with us through this lecture,” the Vice Chancellor said.
