Cover interview
BY CHRISTY ANYANWU
Professor Babatunde Lawal Salako was appointed the Director General of Nigeria Institute of Medical Research (NIMR) a year ago. Before then he has been a distinguished Professor at the Faculty of the University of Ibadan. He joined the University College Hospital, Ibadan in April 1990 for residency training in the Department of Medicine and obtained the Fellowship of the West African College of Physician within four and half years in October 1994. He was subsequently appointed a lecturer and Consultant Nephrologist in the Department in March 1996 and by this appointment, he became an honorary Consultant Physician & Nephrologist to the UCH, Ibadan, from 1996 to date.
Professor Salako is a clinician of high repute and has been involved in a number of clinical trials on drug development. He worked with Neimeth Pharmaceuticals International to formulate the drug Miniplus in 2003 following the disappearance of Minizide in the Nigerian market.
As he has served the College of Medicine, University of Ibadan in many capacities some of which include the Chair of Faculty of Clinical Science; Sub-committee on UI 60th anniversary; Member, University Committee on UI 65th anniversary; Hall Master, Alexander Brown Hall; Assistant Editor-in-Chief, African Journal of Medicine & Medical Sciences; Head of the Department of Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan and UCH, Ibadan. He spoke with Effects recently in his office in Yaba, Lagos.
There are a lot of structural changes now in NIMR, what was your view of this establishment before now?
Before I came to NIMR, I had visited twice. My uncle, Professor Wale Salako, was Director General at some point. My first time was when I came to see him because we were all in Ibadan before he came to Lagos. The second time was when I travelled and came back to the country late at night; I couldn’t make it to Ibadan. I stayed with him in NIMR. Then, I knew it as an institute of research, a place where one expects that major health research challenges of the country will be determined, investigated, and then have public health solution proffered to the issues. I also remembered that before then, as a student in Ibadan one of our teacher and consultant, Professor Shodeinde, who incidentally was coming here a few times to give lecture, used to work here. I knew it’s a place where most innovations in health research is expected to happen. That was how much I knew before I became Director General.
From the university to NIMR, how did you feel when you got appointed DG and how was your first day in office like?
When I got the appointment, I just felt there’s a new challenge, which is to make one’s contribution to research in Nigeria. That really is not a joke. It’s a big job, especially in an environment where funding is an issue. To be able to make impact it goes beyond getting happy because you are made Director General. I think it even calls for sober reflection. How do I carry this cross, so that by the time you are leaving, people can see your footprints? If you look back yourself, you can confidently say you have done your best for the institution. And getting here, hearing all sorts of complaints, some degree of ethnic connotation to issues; it’s really a herculean task that one started with. I’m happy that one year after, we have cowed a lot of tension, we have given back to workers their confidence, we have encouraged them to do their work and created a free and fair environment, a level playing ground for everybody. I believe the staff are happy. You can ask them; so that you will know what I’m saying is true or false.
How is the work environment here different from where you are coming from?
What blossom here is mainly research, some degree of training and little service, compared to where I came from, which is the university where you have training, research and service. So what is going on here is also going on in the university, but the institute is much more about doing research unlike the university. The institute is also to fund research for university on behalf of government. There are similar institutes all over the world that take care of the research agenda of the nation and to drive that is the government and their ministries or departments of health. What the institutes should be doing as different from what the universities are doing is to conduct research which is called intramural research. They look at research questions that are challenging to the country and then they fund it based on the priorities given to these challenges. They also should fund research in the universities so that researchers in the universities can help them look at some of the challenges that the institute has identified as a national issue; because most of the time the number of researchers in the institute and their expertise may not be enough for several of the challenges that we have. For instance, if we take Lassa fever, which is a disease that comes and goes in our country and kills a lot of people, the institute if we have funds would have put out a call on maybe the identification of the epidemiology of the sector all round the country, so that we can actually have a time of Lassa fever map of Nigeria, so we know what states are often affected, which states are not affected and look at the peculiarities of those states, why are these people not affected? The solutions to the problem will just be there. We can look at treatments, already there are well known treatments that are used, we can also develop new ones. So some of these things are things that the institute can ask researchers in the ivory tower to do on behalf of government. Beyond that, the institute should support training at the highest levels, PhD’s and MD’s, masters degrees because these are the future scientists for the institutes and for the universities. We should be doing some of these things for our tertiary institutions.
It’s like you are not really doing all these yet, because you kept saying ‘we should’
No, we are not. Why are we not? We have not been funded to do so. We are mainly an institution that should receive funding from government. There is no other way to it. We must give money out for universities to do research, if we must do research even within the institute itself and should train people or support PhDs, masters, MD’s we can’t generate that kind of money. Of course, government’s table is full. It’s a question of priority. Which one will we do first, will you chase Boko Haram away or give money to researchers. We realized our government cannot do everything. As an institute we should also be internationally acclaimed. We should also be able to compete internationally for funding from other funders apart from our government. That area is a very competitive area. That means before you can win a research grant, you have to be up and doing. You have to be properly skilled, have the capacity and the experience. This is one area the institute is also trying to improve because we do not have enough researchers who can compete favourably at that level. Part of what the institute should be doing is to have e-training or workshop for people on how to write for award -winning research grants. That again requires money to bring experience people together to train people on it. This is what we are currently doing, working with international bodies to see how researchers in Nigeria can take advantage of such training so that in the next few years we can see improvement in the number of grants coming to Nigeria.
How was growing up?
I grew up in a town called Sango Ota. In those days we walked to school (primary school), after school we go back to Arabic school to learn Koran. You go to school in the morning, in the evening you go to Arabic school. I like to hang out with my friends to play football. Oftentimes, I leave some of the things my mum has asked me to do and run away to play football, only to come back for my mum to give me food and then bring out her cane. Then we couldn’t do anything wrong and get away with it, but today, children do things and you just wondered if they came from somebody’s house and it’s because we are changing our culture gradually to that of Europeans where your children can call police for you. The way we are brought up is gradually disappearing from our culture. It’s unfortunate.
Who influenced you more, your dad or mum?
I think it’s my dad. I am the last born of 18 children. You can understand that background. Most of my elder brothers are grown up. He practically taught me the Koran himself. One of the things he told me that I still held on to is that, if I found myself as a leader of people, don’t bother so much about what they say, especially if they are abusing you, if you do, you are unlikely to help them, because you can get annoyed and leave the place. He said I should be sure and certain of what I want to do for them and go ahead and deliver it. When you leave the stage they will realize that ‘this man we are abusing was the one trying to help us oh’. Since we got here, we got people who wrote petitions, people who insulted us, wrote some things in the papers, I said these are distractions because these are what my father used to say. ‘You will have distractions but be focussed.
As the last born of your father, were you spoilt?
Unfortunately, my father was old. He was retired when I was kind of growing up, so he didn’t have much money any longer. I think my senior brother enjoyed the money. I think they paid for it. When I was in the university I go round their houses and collect my dues. I was living well in the university, I even wanted to buy a car as a student in the university, I had one of my brother’s wives car when she travelled abroad that I was riding. I couldn’t complain as a university student.
What lessons has life taught you?
The lessons I have learnt about life is allow my religious instinct to blossom, you don’t need one bogus edifice, you can only sleep in a room at a time, each time I sleep and wake up even though my bed is large I find out that I’m always on one side. Then, why do I need to cheat other people in order to add to my own. Why do I want to take what did not belong to me in order to add to my own, why do I want to make people suffer, so that I can enjoy. I always say there’s nothing to hide. If I travel, or I’m away from the institute, I have no skeleton, everything is open. When you are open with people you work with, they know what is going on, there can be no problem. If we get our capital, I call everybody this is it and what do we do? What do you think we should do? And we go with majority. I often don’t have vested interest. When you have that it beclouds your judgment and you will not be able to take a decision.
The way you tilted your cap, what is that kind of style?
I don’t know whether I have a style. (Laughs) I just wake up and look at myself in the mirror and tell myself you are good to go.
What of your favourite meal?
There has to be a swallow in 24 hours. I have travelled outside Nigeria and there was no swallow and I made sure I came back home after three weeks. When we were growing this is what we ate much and we have developed a kind of liking for it. In those days it used to be eba, now its poundo yam or eba or amala.