Mr. Tolu Omotugba, a student of Veterinary Medicine University of Abuja has stressed the importance of animal doctors to the society, adding
that the recent
convention held by veterinary students drawn
from universities across the country at
the university was simply to create public awareness of what the profession is all about
and its relevance.
In this interview, Tolu spoke on the success of
the annual convention and other issues.
Ques: You recently hosted an annual convention for Vet students drawn from various
universities across the country, what do you intend to achieve through the
forum?
Ans: The focus is mainly to bring our Vet
students across the country together and brain storm on tropical issues that are relevant to the profession. The platform was also used to
preach the ethics of the profession to the
government and general public. A lot of people just see us as animal doctors but they don’t know the essence
of this profession in the society. Secondly the convention also brought us
together to get to know ourselves better.
Ques: What is your message to your colleagues and government as regards
improving this profession
for better service delivery?
Ans: This change mantra that is blowing across the country should have
impact on the ministry of agriculture especially the animal production
department as well. Government wants to diversity the economy. They don’t want to rely solely on crude
oil, but the
agricultural sector appeared to have been
short changed or not given adequate attention, we have heard about bread production, cassava production and all that.
We had to do more in such areas as animal production or diary production. Diary production
is like goldmine for
some countries like Cuba; these countries make
earnings and generate a lot of internal revenue from diary production, meaning, milk production. That is why government should give the veterinary department much
relevance under the ministry of agriculture. The president should therefore
make the next minister of agriculture a veterinary doctor to oversee this ministry, if he does that we will be rest assured
that the change he is
preaching would be feasible.
Ques: How do you want your vice chancellor to come in as it relates to improving activities in your university?
Ans: Our vice chancellor is a hard working administrator. Within the period he assumed office, he had tried within his
capacity to reposition
the University of Abuja. The university is currently going through one of its finest moment under his leadership. We
shall still appreciate if he can generate some funds to the faculty of veterinary medicine by way of increasing the
standard of the faculty.
Some equipment that is still needed
should be provided. He can still assist in getting these equipment.
Another issue is in the area of comfort for medical students. Those of us in
this field of study read a lot. If the human medical students in this university are enjoying comfortable environment as to having separate hostel accommodation to enhance their reading
activities, I think the vet students also deserve their own comfort zone in the university to
actually read effectively. So we are appealing to the vice chancellor to work towards having a separate hostel, no
matter how small for
the vet students. It would enhance our reading habit.
Ques: Your message for vet students generally?
Ans: They should read hard, they should
know why they are reading
the course. They should appreciate the value of the profession. They should not read it because
they want to be doctors at the end of their six years in school. Their focus must be geared towards reading the course to assist the society and the government.
Ques: What was the duration of this convention and what were the other
activities?
Ans: It was a week long affair, we did rally to sensitize the
public about what the profession is all about and the dangers of rabies was
treated as a topic. We went to towns and villages in
the Federal Capital Territory and administered anti-rabies vaccination to dogs
in such areas visited. We did that as part of our benevolence to
the society and not because we had money. During this anti-rabies campaign we were able to liaise with the ministry of agriculture to get some of the
vaccines for the exercise. These we gave out to the less privileged, that is, those who cannot afford vaccines for their
dogs.
Ques: What is this rabies all about?
Ans: Rabies is a disease that is deadly, you see a dog on the street and if that dog bites you and if it has rabies, it would be an unfortunate thing as the after effect won’t be pleasant to your health. It would not
take up to 3 to 4 weeks
that the affected person would go down dead.
Rabies does not have cure. So we took it upon
ourselves to actually
vaccinate against this rabies during the convention. So that the
dogs we have are immune. That is creating a situation that even if they bite they won’t be able to transfer the virus to human beings. Usually, if you are bitten by
dogs having rabies you would definitely be rushed to the hospital or clinic but they may not be able to save
your life. That is why the vet doctors have to come in to even prevent the virus from
going from the dog to
the animal. Thank You.