BREAKING THE SILENCE, 2014 Breaking The Silence | Page 19

When we (the team)
went to interview
Omotayo Ojo, a
Consultant
Neurosurgeon at the
Lagos University
Teaching Hospital, we
were warmly received.
He is a very learned and
easy-going man and we
had a nice time
interviewing him.
Can you please introduce yourself
Well, I am Omotayo Ojo and I have
been here a long time, I did my
undergraduate studies here and my
postgraduate too, well I have been
here since 1991, a long time.
Tell us about your family
My parents are teachers, I am the
second in line, we are six, my
secondary school was not in Lagos,
it was in Ilesha. I'm married with a
son, eight years old.
What do you like to do to relax when
you are not acting as a Neurosurgeon?
When I am not operating I will
rather go home and stay with my
family, as you can see the pressure
of work is enormous, the tendency
to get sucked in the routine is high,
so as much as possible if I am not
tied up at work, I will rather go
home and fill in the gap and let
them feel I am still a part of them.
That is what I do, stay with my
family and go to church.
Why Neurosurgery? What attracted
you to it?
When I was in my final year in
secondary school I came across an
article on 'Micro Neurosurgery' and I
thought that was what I wanted to
do. At that time I thought Micro
meant a microscope and putting a
slide under a microscope (laughs)
and I wondered how that was
possible.
I came to Medical school with the
intention to be a Neurosurgeon.
Prior to Medical school, many of us
had only seen Neurosurgeons in
movies like Grey's Anatomy series.
How does it feel to be one?
Alright! I do not see myself as better
than other doctors, I think every
specialty is important. I am
sometimes amazed when I see
endocrinologist managing Diabetes
patients well, I cannot do that.
So I think that everybody is
important, whether you are a
General practitioner or a
Neurosurgeon.
How would you describe the current
state of Medical education in Nigeria
especially in the University of Lagos?
Well when I was in medical school,
we were two in a room, now you
about four or more? I did not need a
bucket, because there was always
water. I did not have to worry about
many things, so there were little
distractions.
And the curriculum, I think the
curriculum then was a lot better
than now. Then we did two years of
clinical rotation and public health in
our final year, but now you do
public health in between, I think the
curriculum was better then.
I remember when I had to write my
AMSUL Digest 2014