Martins Emeje is a Professor of Pharmacy and current Director-General, Nigerian Natural Medicine Development Agency (NNMDA). He shared his childhood experience with SEGUN KASALI , and his reasons for his choice of professional career and plans at promoting indigenous health care system.
AS a primary school teacher’s son, what was your ambition growing up?
Most of us who were children of primary school teachers were not thinking along that line while growing up. You would just go to school with your parents even when you were not yet mature to start school. My father was a primary school headmaster at Local Education Authority Primary School, Enjema in the present Kogi State, but Benue State, then. Then, it was a big issue to be a primary school teacher not to even talk of headmaster. We had always stayed in staff quarters even though it was in the village. I followed my dad everywhere because he was always being transferred from one place to another. But, as one got matured, one would now start saying I want to become this or that. My ambition was to be a pilot then.
How did a ‘village boy’ think of becoming a pilot then?
That time, there were two things we were doing in the village as primary school children. There was this white bird called ‘Lekeleke’, in Yoruba, and it flies at a particular time of the season Now, whenever we saw them in the sky, we would come out and be doing our hands like this (raising his two hands up like a bird) (Laughs). We would be saying Lekeleke, give me your finger’. And, when we checked our fingers, we would see white marks on them. Till now, when I look back, I always try to understand what actually happened. Two, we would see something in the sky very far, they would call it aeroplane, and they would tell us that ‘that thing you are seeing is carrying human beings’. And you would see white line following the plane. So, from then, I developed that ambition of being a pilot, so I can take people up (laughs).
How did you now end up being a pharmacist?
At home then, there was no hospital. I was not born in the hospital. I was born at home and my father was one of the most educated people. But, traditional medicine was what was affordable, accessible to our people at that time. Interestingly, as it was then, so it is till today. What the people in the village can afford and access is that traditional medicine. So, in growing up, there was no sickness.My dad or mum would just go to the backyard to prepare our local medication, herbs cut into different sizes and boiled in clay pots. They would give you the brown water coming out of the claypot to drink, and before you know it, the sicknesswas gone. Without those things, I wouldn’t be alive today. And as I am talking to you today, many children in the villages are still on this traditional medicine.From that time, I wanted to be a doctor because anybody who gave you medicine that time was a doctor. So, it was while in secondary school that we were told that people who make the medicine are different from the people that are giving us injection. The people that give injection are the doctors, while those that make those medicines are called pharmacists. So, I said ‘No, it is pharmacist I want to be. I want to make medicines’.
You must be very brilliant then?
Well, right from my primary school till Ph.D, I never came third. And you know, it was a privilege being a child of a headmaster. If you were, you would be respected and looked up at by the children of other families that their parents might even be bigger in the society. In fact, when I was in primary school, one of my father’s contemporaries was even the Speaker of the Benue State House of Assembly, Mr Reuben of blessed memory. Yet, the children of the teachers were seen as privileged children because the respect the country had for teachers then was enormous. They treated teachers specially. Then, if you were now a child of a headmaster, you would be rated differently.
Differently?
Yes. Let me give you an instance. There was this thing called handcraft. They used agricultural produce to make those things, and they would be marked, since it was part of your continuous assessment. Children of headmaster would not do it. I think children of teachers were exempted also. Your other classmates would see it as lucky not to be participating in such exercise. I think that was the major privilege that one got. Other things were not privileges but for me demerits.
What are those other things, and how were they demerits?
For instance, if you came late to school and they were flogging the children of other people two strokes of the cane, yours would be four because you were a child of a teacher. In our time, your punishment was double for any offence as a teacher’s child. Secondly, is what we called ‘two fighting’ then. You could not fight if you were a teacher’s child. If you did, you would be brought out from the assembly in the morning and two students would hold you, one would hold your two hands while the other would hold your two legs and they would flog you, seriously.
Have you ever, at any time, fallen victim?
No. I never fought. There was no time for that.
Any unforgettable moment or experience, while growing up?
The only thing I can never forget, because it moulded my life, is my family. What I cannot forget is that picture I still have in my mind of my father cooking for me. This was because I grew up in a society where men don’t cook, where men even command their wives to go and cook for them. Yet, I saw my father cooking for me whenever my mum travelled. And I’m saying this, because my wife knows, even though she sees this as a disadvantage. I have never told her to go and cook for me before. Once I’m hungry, and even though she mistakenly hesitated, I will go into the kitchen and cook for everybody, including her. And all my children have grown up with that habit. Nobody waits for anybody.
So, your dad infused that value in you?
Yes. In fact, let me also tell you this, my father was my roommate in the university and for the years he stayed in the university, while I was studying Pharmacy for five years, he cooked food for me throughout.
You mean your dad was also in school, the same time you were there?
Yes, he was also a student. He was studying Education. It was a wonderful experience being in the same school and hostel with my dad.
But, how did that make you feel?
Interesting.That is why I’m unable to come to terms with his departure. I don’t think there is any trait I have that is not from my dad because he was my closest friend. He was a young man , when he gave birth to me and my siblings, he had an NCE, then. In fact, he started teaching as a Grade 2 Teacher. While I got admission to study Pharmacy, he also got admission to study Social Studies Education in Zaria.
How did you handle social life in the university, then?
No, I did not have social life, and this, interestingly, does not have anything to do with my dad. It was not even because of Christianity, but because of my course of study. Anybody who studies Pharmacy does not have social life.
But can we say your dad’s presence in the university shaped your performance?
Yes, it did. This is because I was not among those students that would have to worry about what to eat after lectures. I was not amongst those who would be pre-occupied with cooking. The person, who would give me everything, was already there with me, except when he went on holiday. So, his presence had a positive impact on my studies in school, but not the reason I was a top graduate from the school, because I did not suddenly become intelligent in the university. I had been that since my primary school years, because I was never Number Two while in primary school, same in secondary school and the university.
So, you had no relationship in the university?
No, and it was not because of my dad. At a point, I wanted to be a priest. And as a reverend father, you would not have girlfriend. I was the President of Catholic Pharmacy Students. So, I was the one in charge of fellowship. I was the one telling students they should not have girlfriends. I was the one telling students it was a sin and you would go to hell if you do that. I was a virgin throughout my university days.
Weren’t you seen as a Daddy’s boy in the university?
Oh no, because they did not even know my dad was around. It was only my roommate that knew my dad was. As I am talking to you now, many of my classmates would be surprised when they hear this because they never knew.
How did you meet your wife then?
It was in the church. I saw her and I knew that was my wife. Whenever I was on break in the university, I used to teach in a secondary school free of charge. The best student in Chemistry and Biology was one Micheal Egwu, and he became my friend. So, his father was the most senior pastor in charge of all the pastors in United Evangelical Church. So, I went to visit him. While I was going to his house for the first time, I saw this girl at the entrance of the church. I got to know later that it was choir practice that was going on. I asked Michael who the girl was. I did not know she was Michael’s immediate elder sister.
So, I told the brother she looks like my wife. So, that was all. I did not even ask her to be my girlfriend honestly because I did not know how to tell anybody to be my girlfriend. Up till today, I have never told any girl to be my girlfriend. This was because I don’t even know how to do it. I don’t know how to look at a girl and say ‘Come and be my girlfriend’. But, my wife and I became friends with everyone in the family. Then, one day when they were seeing me off, I told her “Michael had been coming to our house, So, when are you coming?’ She said she would come. So, she came with her brother once and we became friends.
You never told her to be your girlfriend?
Yes, I never did. It just happened naturally. One afternoon, I asked her ‘Won’t you get married?’ She said why was I asking that kind of question. I said it was because I was thinking of marriage, and that I would like to marry my friend when I wanted to marry, and that she was the only friend I had.
Which of your children is taking after you?
I have four children. When I see my children resist any attempt at cowing them down from saying what is on their mind, I used to tell myself ‘Calm down, that that is what you do o’ (Laughs). And I see it in everybody including the girl amongst them.
How would you describe your personality?
I am a proud village man, 100 per cent indigenous, but well-trained. A man in love with his country and, today, given the opportunity to serve.
Looking back, is there anything that breaks you down till now?
The only thing that is my pain, and that I am unable to remove is that my father died. It may sound stupid to anybody who hears this from me. It is not that I don’t know that people die or that I will die.
As DG of NNMDA, you mentioned having indigenous hospitals?
Yes. My plan is to have indigenous hospitals in the 774 local governments in the country. If I do not create a hospital for harnessing and utilization of the things that made me to survive, I will see myself as a failure. Besides, I believe it will be the greatest achievement of this government to do that because importation can never change our healthcare delivery system