Links to The Official Reunion Pictures. (D1 /D2/ D3 ) of MBBS'87 Uniben

D1

Thursday 28/09/2017.

Meeting and greet - Evening

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0BxAAiMThvGtxd0dXYjZvUzdBWEE

D2

Friday 29/09/2017

Academic session - Morning

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0BxAAiMThvGtxdGpwYkFiOGhMZm8

D3

Saturday 30/09/2017

Gala Night Photographs

 https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0BxAAiMThvGtxbGFzbDE3dFJuNWc

Six Years a Medical student Part 3 by Dr Wilson Orhiunu

By September 1983 we felt euphoric. We had crossed the Red Sea and were drinking Red Red Wine in the land of promise that also flowed with milk and honey for the non-drinkers. Having passed the second MB exams and the biochemistry re-sit, my name was now written in indelible ink on that roll call of medical students. The prevailing wisdom was that unless one did something crazy like murder or steals a lecturer’s wife, one was guaranteed to graduate as a doctor.

We were intoxicated with different things in that class. Some with the success of crossing over; others with youth, strength and beauty. Of course, some were “all of the above”. UB40 were Number 1 in the UK and it was all about the ‘Red Red Wine’. Life was sweet. By November Prof Lionel Richie was urging us to “throw away the work to be done Let the music play on”.

All night long was how Ugbowo campus rolled. The song at Number 10 on the UK charts was a metaphor for life in our campus ecosystem. Young, strong and gifted, you did it all night long. Actions depended on your affiliations. The sea dogs sailed, the palm wine drinkers gyrated and the buccaneers sailed with a crazy rallying cry; let the devil that leads you guide you!!! Haba!! Imagine passing JAMB only to end up being led by the devil! Then there were the other confraternities, Eiye, Black Axe and Maphite who all moved at night. The “daytime” clubs were the Skomit Club who held the Miss Skomit Beauty contest and they were prim and proper people. Klova Club, Lions (Leo Club) and the Rotary club also existed

Members of the Christian Union prayed for all our souls. It was all night long for everyone.

There was a group for everyone, sport teams, board game players, and various tribal groups collectively called Parapo.

Faculties had societies whose aim appeared to be the organisation of parties and meetings. Those who loved politics went to the Student Union Senate either representing their halls of residence or contesting for a seat in their faculties.

I tried my best to throw away the work to be done but a heavy textbook and a weak right arm meant I did not throw the work far enough. G & G, as we affectionately called our main text for the year, was always within eyeshot. Goodman & Gilman’s The Pharmacological basis of therapeutics was the main compass in this year’s voyage through the Sea of Pharmacology. Having watched from afar the stereotypical images of doctors and nurses giving tablets and injections, it was now time to get up close and personal with drugs. Impressive sounding words like Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics gave one a certain air of superiority when talking among ourselves albeit loud enough for eavesdroppers to hear and marvel.

I belonged to my own corner of the ecosystem; the dancers. We formed a group and got on with keeping fit and practicing. For the first time, I began to notice the power of dance on the observers. I had classmates who played football; games lasting 90 minutes with a 15-minute break in between each half. We all watched them and patted them on the back. When it came to the dancers who usually danced to songs lasting no more than 10 minutes in a single performance, you got applauded but some felt you were not serious with your studies. Dance has a way of living on in people’s minds long after the dancer has forgotten the steps. The illusion is that the dancer is permanently dancing.

Pharmacology introduced us to the blood-brain barrier. Most terms studied in class usually made its way into our daily conversations in the hostel. Alcohol, that drug that needed a large quantity to bring about a physiological effect was talked about a lot. In addition for the guys, girls went through the blood-brain barrier with relative ease. We were permanently falling in or falling out of love, a most intoxicating period.

If Ugbowo campus was Onitsha, then every Saturday night was an Ofala festival. The one hosting the hottest party would be the Obi and crowds would gather at the front of Hall One to be transported to the makeshift palace where the night long festivities would occur. My friends and I pulled resources and threw a party where we paraded as Ndichies (red-cap chiefs) while our girlfriends were the Ikporo Ogbe association (wives in the king’s clan)

So intoxicated was I that I tossed off my red cap and ascended the stool reserved for the Igwe at that party. Booze, love, youth, who knows what moved me.

I served in the Student Union Senate in the 1983-84 session (so says my certificate; I don’t remember too much about it).

The second of December 1983 saw the release of the Michael Jackson video ‘Thriller’. It was on the NTA news and Vincent rang like crazy to call us to watch it. We were all blown away. By December we went home for Christmas with ‘Thriller’ on our minds

It’s close to midnight, something evil’s lurking in the dark

By the 31-12-83 there was Change as Major General Muhammadu Buhari braved the harmattan to stage a coup. Gone was our Alhaji Shehu Shagari. The New Year continued where the last one stopped. Culture Club was No 7 in the US charts in January 1984 with the ‘Karma Chameleon’ tune that had the line

Karma, karma, karma, karma, karma chameleon

You come and go, you come and go

Which mirrored our soja come soja go government.

The mood soared in February when we danced to Madonna’s ‘Holiday’ with its infectious intro and addictive bass line. Everyone’s top was plastered to the skin due to sweat at parties and a table fan was stationed over the stereo’s amplifier to avoid overheating. The DJs used cassette tapes. No CDs or MP3s.

I read my G&G and life was sweet. We experimented with a certain cat in the lab. Injecting drugs into it and checking its heart rate. It died in the end, foaming at the mouth. Can’t shake that image.

Dance practice was in the evenings while we learnt about drugs all day. Someone tipped us that the Klova Club was to stage a male beauty pageant to rival the Miss Skomit contest and the first prize was to be a brand new car (The usual prize in Uniben at the time for pageants). My group of friends started planning where they would seat in the car. I would drive and my girlfriend would sit up front.

I soon heard the sponsor with the car had pulled out. I went on to contest despite little real faith among friends that I would win although Mary Onochie said that I would. I won and became the first ever Mr. Uniben much to the displeasure of the Black Axe and Eiye confraboys in the audience who had some of their members contesting. A mini-riot with flying bottles of beer broke out and I was smuggled out of the main auditorium.

I made the NTA network news which was a big deal at the time. Fame was the new red red wine.

Dance practice continued till we performed our own version of Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ at the Miss Skomit 1984 beauty contest which was well received.

I continued hanging out with my G & G till I passed my Pharmacology exams. This year was one long Made in Onitsha Ofala festival full of drugs that crossed the blood-brain barrier at will. Love, beauty, youth, strength, good fortune, intelligence, good education and God’s mercies were all in abundance.

Chidinma

(God is God)

Doctors and technology An address by Professor F A Orhewere via a video message on 28/9/17

Doctors and technology

An address by Professor F A Orhewere

to the Class of 1987 Medical Graduates of the University of Benin

September 2017

It is my pleasure to use this opportunity to express greetings to the Class of 1987 medical graduates of the University of Benin, on this occasion of this reunion. 

It is thirty years since the wonderful exhilarating experience of that graduation ceremony, after five or more years of toil.  For some it was pure joy, for others profound relief.  Today, and this weekend, I hope all of you, including my daughter Mary, will recall with nostalgia your memories of yester-years.

Your training period overlapped the time when I, as a University Teacher and practising surgeon, ventured into the heart of university administration first as Dean of the School of Medicine from 1981 to 1985 and later as Deputy Vice-Chancellor from 1986 to 1988. Alongside these roles, I maintained the pleasure of teaching students and the satisfaction of clinical orthopaedic practice.  Notwithstanding this incursion into administration, I trust your exposure to all specialties of medicine, and to orthopaedics in particular, was significant, encouraging and fruitful.   I congratulate all of you in your various specialties and wish you success in your chosen fields.  I am delighted to hear that some of you have chosen the honourable specialty of Orthopaedics. 

As your former teacher and one-time career adviser, I feel obliged to use this opportunity to talk to you about potential redundancy. I must warn you that whatever your specialty of practice, there is looming on the horizon a danger to the profession of which we must be aware: it is complacency. 

Technology has significantly invaded our lives and medical practice, for example, in pathology and other specialities.  A host of appropriate questions and patient information fed into a computer can lead to reasonably accurate diagnoses and recommended line of treatment including drugs.  At present, where surgery is required, technology has not yet bypassed the surgeon though it can be a valued surgeon’s assistant. 

Therefore, it behoves medical doctors to embrace technology for the good of their patients and to maintain their clinical relevance and uphold their professional dignity.  It would be complacent of doctors not to embrace technology for good. This will be different according to your circumstances.

But back to today and this weekend. 

Your shared experience of medical school and your individual journeys in the intervening years have brought you to today.  Thanks to modern technology (and your hard work), this is your weekend.  Enjoy yourselves, and reminisce a while.  Reignite old friendships and establish new ones.

I wish you a happy reunion. 

God bless you all. 

Brief Biography

Professor F A Orhewere

In a career spanning 50 years, Professor Felix A Orhewere held various appointments including Senior Consultant at the National Orthopaedic Hospital, Igbobi, and Pinderfield Hospital, Wakefield, Field Lt Colonel Nigerian Army Medical Corps, Professor of Orthopaedics at the University of Benin, and Chief Consultant for Sokoto, Kebbi & Zamfara States, University of Abuja Teaching Hospital, and the National Hospital Abuja. 

Born to Anglican Missionary parents of Ora, Edo State, Professor Orhewere attended Government College Ibadan and, in 1948, was one of the foundation students of University College Ibadan.  Consequently, he was one of the first batch of students sent in 1951 to the United Kingdom to complete his medical studies where he graduated from Guys Hospital Medical School, University of London in 1955.  He became a Fellow of Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (FRCS Ed) in 1962 and Master of Orthopaedics (M Ch Orth, Liverpool) in 1963.  He retired from orthopaedic practice and teaching in 2005.  He enjoys music, photography and travelling.  

Six Years a Medical Student. Part 2 by Dr Wilson Orhiunu

In September 1982 on reporting back to Campus after the summer holidays one got that – butterflies in the stomach-feeling that top-flight soccer players get in World Cup years. There was a prevailing tension in the air that could be cut with a knife. Any misplaced tackle could terminate any chances of making a mark on the biggest stage of all.

As would be expected from a youth full of promise I broke my right humerus in a silly duel of armed wrestling. Being right handed things did not look good. I could barely lift that huge biochemistry textbook talk less of reading its contents that included the unpalatable Kreb’s cycle. Faced with anatomy, physiology and biochemistry I took the battle to them one handed. God smiled on me and I only failed Biochemistry. The result night for the second MB examination was like Oscar night in Hollywood. I told ‘so called’ friends about the disappointment I had in failing Biochemistry and was later to discover that I had been widely tipped to fail the three subjects and have my name erased from the medical student’s list.

They had all believed the lie that academic attainment was inversely proportional to the ability to dance, irrespective of how much time you spent reading or how well you accumulated the facts.

Being one handed for a spell this important year slowed me down socially. I had just two shirts that fitted as my Plaster cast was extra- large and wouldn’t slip into any of my other shirts. When one becomes handicapped, other senses become heightened. I could not do any dissections so I was delegated to the group that read the dissection manual out loud while abled bodied students dissected away at the cadaver who for some strange reason had bullet holes. That was a forced position of learning.

Then Third World came to Campus for the best show ever. While dancing on a chair I lost my balance and I feared I might fall off and break the other humerus but regained my balance just in time. The group was on tour and on their return journey they were back for an encore which was more enjoyable that the first show. The gate fee was ten Naira and it was a packed house. That song – Now that we’ve found love -which had peaked at Number Ten on the UK charts in October 1978 drove the audience delirious with delight. All the work to be done was forgotten as were the hungry mosquitoes waiting for our return to the hostel. Those anopheles’ nasty girls who suck blood painfully with blunt proboscis and insult by gloating about their meal all night in their dinner provider’s ear.

Some of our past leaders in Nigeria must have been members of the Third World for they too sang- Now that we’ve found crude what are we gonna do with it? Well, the answer is the same both for love and crude oil. If you have no plan before good fortune strikes, you waste the opportunity.

Dancing on the floor was a tune that had us in ecstasy. It has peaked at Number 13 in 1981 so was a fresher jam with opportunities for the bad to show off fancy guitar playing and soothing harmonies. The song 96 degrees in the shade was so emotional, and that bass line made you forget all your ‘issues from childhood’. It was a good thing I didn’t pay too much attention to the song’s lyrics. A song about death by hanging and we were dancing! The song that brought the roof down was Try Jah Love. We hummed it all the way to our beds and mosquitoes that night. If you huger, I will feed you with my love….

We all loved food and could relate.

I went everywhere weighed down by the Second MB fever, heavy books and a right arm cast. It was a fever with just one cure; exam success.

At one of my fracture clinic appointments my X-ray was put up by Professor Orhewere our teacher and orthopaedic Surgeon and he began to grill his students about the complications of Humeral fractures. I instantly experienced how patients feel when their cases are discussed to their hearing in impeccable English. I felt like one being punished for one’s sins. By the time they had gone through all manners of mal-unions, non-unions and perhaps student unions I was sweating. Radial nerve injury and a claw hand brought temporary urinary incontinence to me. Imagine breaking a bone and its sharp edge tears through a nerve and paralyses a hand. How would I hold my partner in the blues (slow) dance after the up- tempo beats had finished and the lights had been dimmed?

The fracture soon healed up and I could wear my shirts. My right elbow was frozen at 90 degrees and it was back to UBTH for physiotherapy. Strange hairs and scales had grown on the arm and forearm and all the muscle bulges were gone. This was the least adventurous period of my student life and it brought focus. It is almost impossible to fracture a bone and not get good with bone and muscle anatomy. Perhaps the fracture was divine. Are all things not divinely designed? Apart from my physical limitations bringing focus, a close friend with an I go die attitude to jacking (excessively studious) helped to bring me back to the reasons for which we were on campus. Hang around the ‘jackers’ and you become a ‘jacker’, a Hyper-jacker or even an intergalactic one.

 The notes I couldn’t take in class were loaned to me and I had a study partners who helped me along the way.

By June 1983 every breath I took and every move I made was for the Second MB examination. I saw that success could belong to me. Surprise- surprise, the Police were Stinging at Number 1 in the UK charts with Every breath you take.

The exams came and went with me passing Anatomy and Physiology. I passed the Biochemistry re-sit a few months later and the summer holiday was sweet.

Glossary of terms

Jacking – Reading

Hyper jacking – Moderately strenuous efforts in reading

Intergalactic jacking- Excessive reading that would put the stamina of Martians to the test.

Six Years a Med Student. Part One by Dr Wilson Orhiunu

Six Years a Med Student. Part One

This time in 1981, I was rubbing my hands with glee in anticipation of signing the matriculation document that exam success at the hands of JAMB brings. Six years later at about the same time I passed my final exams and had become a Doctor.

This year marks thirty years in the oldest profession on the planet second to farming.  Since 1987, it has always been patients on my mind so much so that I have mistakenly called other fans at the stadia I have been in “patients” accidentally when referring to the fans.

Few can boast of being in the same profession for thirty years in these days of rapid change. Very few boxers, footballers and pop music artists last this long and we all know that the average career span of a drug dealer is five years. It is not that I am plugging medicine as a career for the stereotypical young black and gifted but no one ever got shot drug dealing for AstraZeneca or Pfizer.  I am filled with gratitude as I look back at my ‘upandan’ career. We are still standing ba?

Fellow classmates of a bygone era would no doubt be bringing out the wine to celebrate the big 3-0 as I do or perhaps as we do. I want to look back and thank my lucky stars that life, the patients or all the sundries of cabals did not kill us.

Since the mood is good and one’s head is in a giddy place I will take a trip down my hippocampus and regurgitate the musical backdrop that formed the canvas on which my experiences were painted during my time in the University of Benin.

Alhaji Shehu Shagari was President of Nigeria when I attended to do my Registration in September 1981. Soon after, ASUU went on strike for a few weeks.  Endless love was Number 1 in the US featuring the melodious harmonies of Diana Ross and Lionel Ritchie.  By the time we returned in November to restart our education, The Rolling Stones were No. 2 in the US with Start Me Up.  Boy, did they start us up!  We students were being fed a diet of Physics, Chemistry and Biology in what looked at the time to be giant lecture theatres.  One felt bombarded with an endless barrage of facts and figures.

The exciting campus life was powered by subsidised meals at 50 Kobo per meal ticket.  However, no matter the academic work load there was a release valve with Earth Wind and Fire’s Lets Groove.  It shot up the US charts peaking at No. 3 but as far as Uniben went it was No 1 for almost a year.

Just as we were about to get up from all the ‘get down’ that the Earth Wind and fire heralded in, we young students were confronted with a question from across the Atlantic.  One that was rhetorical, mischievous and seductive.

Kool and the Gang interrogating through their leading counsel JT asked, ‘What cha wanna do?’

For your medical students in the science course (preliminary studies) who had been warned by senior medical students that our names had been written in pencil in the Medical students’ list and there was an eraser hovering and eager to wipe us away, we had but one answer.

‘Work out our salvation with fear and trembling’. Well, not in those exact words, but we had our next six years mapped out and we all wanted to see it to the end;

§  Final examinations for the pre-lim year June 1982

§  2^nd MB Examination June 1983

§  Pharmacology June 1984

§  Pathology June 1985

§  Community Health & Psychiatry exams September 1986

§  Paediatric and Obstetrics and Gynaecology finals February 1987

§  Medicine and Surgery Finals September 1987

§  Oath taking Ceremony October 1987

JT ignored our laid -out plans and continued to his next question which was a leading one.

‘Do ya wanna get down?’

Before the young students could muster up contrary compelling arguments the whole band broke into song and the world was a beautiful place.

Get down on it

Get down on it

We even had a dance for the song that mimicked a Giraffe with torticollis about to get an upgrade to tetanus.

We danced and forgot the long-term plan while proud parents back home told anyone within ear shot that their child was ‘reading’ medicine.  Parents had not bargained for ‘dancing and rocking’ medicine.  Christmas and the new year was a first return home from campus and you instantly became the neighbourhood star.  You had stories that made people vow to study and pass JAMB too.

January 1982 saw us back where we had left off.  Let’s Groove and Get down on it continued.  By March 1982, almost in a parental voice kind of way, Imagination hit the UK Charts at No 12 with, Just an Illusion but we no gree.  This notion that the campus was a place of fun was the biggest illusion ever to afflict our young minds.

By May 1982, the heat was on. The UK band Central line had a song, Sunshine which we grooved to. The lyrics fantasised about getting away from it all and enjoying a welcome break.  Ideal for the UK but for us it was hotter than July in the tropics and we were approaching a war.  At this stage, some started having nightmares of President Shagari frowning down at them for partying on a subsidised education paid for by his hard -earned petrodollars.

By the almighty June 1982 Denice Williams was No. 9 in the US with, Its Gonna Take a Miracle. Not just a miracle but loads of coffee, kolanuts and hand-outs for us in Ugbowo campus.  Having enjoyed that heady first year as a University Student where every single experience was a first time one (from the rag day, to the fashion shows, beauty contests, student union elections and Christian union Christmas Carol Service all rolled in), it was payback time.

This uprising (for that was what it was; a battle against failure), brought out the beast in us; we read like maniacs.

Dazz band had, Let it Whip at No. 11 in the US and boy, did we let it whip and rip. I passed all my exams and settled to a summer holiday of domestic chores only for a friend to visit from campus to tell of all the groove I was missing.

I had thought the re-sit season was a mournful experience.  My friend told me that even people without re-sits came to groove on campus.  By the way, he was off to London for holidays having completed his re-sits. Ha!!! Not fair.

To be continued.

Dr Wilson Orhiunu

GP

Birmingham UK 

DR. AMOS UKPABI TO UNIBEN MBBS 87 - Goodwill message

GOODWILL MESSAGE FROM DR. AMOS UKPABI TO UNIBEN MBBS 87 RE: UNION

Greetings from Dr. Amos Ukpabi. When we graduated from the Medical School many of us thought that we may not be able to see each other again for the rest of our lives. But thanks to technology that made the world today a Global village.
With the institution of the class whatsapp group by Chief Pemu most of us are able to link to each other by sharing information in the group. It has been a wonderful experience.
UniBen MBBS 87 Class comprises young guys and gals from Abedi Harrison to Ifueko Umumarongie. What a wonderful class with now vibrant men and women in various areas of medical specialty that embodies General Practitioners, Surgeons, physicians, Gynecologists, Ophthalmologist, Psychiatrists, Pediatricians, Pathologists and all really excelling in their chosen field.
 As this noble class is having its First Re-union from September 28 to September 30 2017 after 30 years I felicitate with all members of the class. It is obvious that not all the members of this great class including my humble self will be able to attend this epoch making first Re-union but in spirit I am with those of you who will be present for his joyous moment to reminisce the past, access the present, project into the future, and moreover to share ideas.
The planning committee for this historic event; you all have done well. I must also commend the initiators of the class project led by Ken Obry (Adu Law) for their inspiration. The committee members for that project 1 salute you all. Thanks also to Babawilly for his stress relieving jokes on the platform. To all those that donated to the class project led by chairman Sly Ajufo I say God bless you and may your pockets never go dry. We must not forget that there are some classmates who are not alive today to tell their stories. May their souls rest in peace.
I pray for Journey mercies for those who are coming from USA, Canada, Trinidad and Tobago, UK, various parts of Africa and those on home ground as you head towards the |Oriental Hotel.
Our ears are open for good testimonies from all the participants. I know say our ladies sabi cook well well!! Make una no forget to provide Capri-Sun for our ladies!!
You will all depart to your various homes with joy and may God's love follow you all. I pray that in the next Re-union most of us who were not able to attend the maiden one will be partakers. God bless us – UniBen MBBS 87 Class is the Best.
Nigerian bi our country and go beta.
Long live Nigeria.
Long live Great UNIBEN.





DR. AMOS UKPABI

MEMOIR:UNIBEN, 1982 by NWACHUKWU CYPRIAN O.

 MEMOIR:UNIBEN, 1982

How and where do I begin this write-up? Let me first say from the beginning that I am not a professional writer. Firstly, if what I am about to write doesn’t flow the way it should, please forgive and try to make as much sense as you possibly can, from the jumbled up facts. There are quite a lot of endowed writers in this unique class. Secondly my experiences in Uniben in 1982 may not be that detailed because I got into Uniben by direct entry which of course happened to be after the first two thirds or more of the year had gone past. So those who started the year 1982 in Uniben would definitely tell a better story. Prior to gaining admission into Uniben, Benin as a town didn’t mean much to me, other than the town where luxurious buses going to or coming back from Lagos do stop for passengers to eat.

Oh, how I used to look forward to those tasty dishes with the very well cooked meat that the hotel/eateries/ restaurants etc, used to prepare each time I was travelling or coming back from Lagos.

When I got my admission letter, while staying briefly with my uncle in Lagos, I came to the Admissions Office/ Exam and Records Office, at Ekenwan Campus to begin the preliminary processes of the later-to-turn-out long drawn battle for registration.  There, I ran into a female student who had then been recently offered admission into the faculty of pharmacy, I think, through direct entry as well. She advised me to go pack my things into campus immediately and start processing the registration formalities while attending lectures; confirming to me that lectures had started for the students who were admitted into medicine through PD (UME). I went back to Lagos, packed my things and came back to Benin, almost immediately. I had not secured accommodation on campus then, so I had to temporarily reside with some of my cousins in town somewhere off Sakponba road, from where I started attending lectures.

In between lectures, I would rush out to go and do one or two things concerning registration and accommodation on campus. I had missed a few lectures in the various courses while waiting for my admission to come through. This period was particularly hectic and unsettling for me.

I was attending university lectures for the first time in my life. It dawned on me that an hour’s lecture is like a week’s lecture at the secondary school level. Those who came through PD (Pre degree course) would have got used to the university lecture system by this time.

Eventually I secured accommodation at Ekenwan campus because by the time I came in, accommodation spaces had been exhausted at Ugbowo Campus. I was shuttling between Ekenwan and Ugbowo every day except on weekends, of course with the ‘Marcopolo’ luxurious school bus shuttles, which I think were quite efficient then, at least going by Nigerian standards.

While lectures were going on, interactions with other student became more, and I became aware via unofficial statistics of the failure rate at the 2^nd MB exam was enough to give me nightmares and insomnia.

Some of our class guys would ask me where I was staying, and when I say Ekenwan campus, they would tell me that those who live at Ekenwan campus during the 2^nd MB year do not usually pass the exams. Some others would say that those who came in by direct entry don’t pass the 2^nd MB.

So there I was, having two unfavourable factors against me, apart from facing the challenges that every other person from our class was facing. Then the famous (or notorious) “tripod stand” policy at the second MB level did not help matters.

(Tripod policy meant that failure in one of the three courses; Anatomy, Physiology or Biochemistry meant you repeat all three the following year. You cannot proceed to the next level until you have passed all three examinations for a tripod cannot stand on one or two legs).

My stress level was ceiling high. Throughout my first year in the medical school I never had the courage to write letters with the UBEMSA writing pad, in case stories and faculties changed after 2^nd MB.

The academic pressure was simply indescribable. When I left Lagos in a hurry to come and start attending lectures, I thought that within a couple of weeks, I would be able to visit Lagos again and pick some other of my things. I ain’t seen nothing yet. To put it bluntly, I was simply trapped by the wave of academic pressure.

Apart from eating to remain alive and doing the basic natural human activities, I forgot that I existed, not to talk of Lagos, or visiting there.

My uncle was away on his annual vacation in Jos when I came back to Benin in hurry to resume lectures.

Even though the telephone exchange office was at Ekenwan campus, where I was residing I couldn’t afford the luxury of time to go and make a call to Lagos about what was happening to me in Benin.

Days dragged into weeks and weeks into months. In the meantime, my uncle had finished his vacation and gone back to Lagos. He kept expecting that I would soon visit to intimate him on how I was coping.

When the wait became unbearable, he decided to come check me out one Saturday.  That period was not this era of mobile phones.

Firstly, he didn’t know that Uniben had two campuses. Secondly all he knew was that I was spending my first year in the university, not knowing the difference between PD and Part I. So when he got to Ugbowo, he was taken to Hall 4 (Abuja).

He kept telling me the students he saw there that he was looking for his brother who had been admitted to read medicine and was in his first year. All the people he talked to would find a Pre Degree medical student and mention my name and the student would say there is no name like that in their class. At a point they started asking him whether it was actually Uniben, and not the University of Ekpoma.

He was certain that it was Uniben because the admission letter had come through this office.

By this time, according to him, he had started sweating profusely and stammering.

He was in this state of mind when Theo Asumu (Baby Doc) happened along. One of the other students surrounding him and sympathizing with him identified Theo as a medical student, though at a different level. The asked him about me, and he told them that he knew me but that I was living at Ekenwan campus. To allay his fears, Theo told him that I came in through direct entry. He had no idea of my hostel name or room number at Ekenwan and Theo did not know either.

But at least, he had seen someone who positively confirmed that I was alive and attending lectures. By the time he got to Ekenwan campus, it was about lunch time.

The students encountered advised him to take a strategic position at the entrance to the cafeteria, that if I was on campus at that time that day, I would surely come out to eat. That was exactly what he did and some minutes later, as I came to eat someone called my name, low and behold, there he was.

His first question was what happened and I promptly replied that there was fire on the mountain. I went on to give him the details of the academic pressure and failure rate at the 2^nd MB level.

He just couldn’t blame me in spite of the stress my absence and sudden silence caused in the family.

It is with fond nostalgia that I recollect the names and faces of some of the lecturers in the departments of Anatomy, Physiology and Biochemistry in the Uniben Medical School in 1982 that with their dedication and encouragement helped to shape our character and careers.

I may not remember all of them here, not out of slight, but simply because brain don dey old a and as some of us will say, thirty years no be beans.

I wouldn’t forget Dr. Omniabous (not sure of the spelling now), the HOD of Anatomy then, who had this uncanny talent for remembering and calling every student by his name.

I always wondered and continue to wonder how he managed to do that with a class of over a hundred students. There was  Dr. Sanyal, the elderly and gentle anatomy lecturer; Dr. Singh, who simply sang anatomy and the Bulgarian (I hope) Dr. Misankov.

In physiology Prof. D.P. Photiades readily comes to mind; Dr. Adeghe (the young medical doctor/ physiologist) who did not stay very long with us; Dr. Onyia, with his comical way of delivering his lectures. A few times, one would tell Dr. Onyia that a point he made in renal physiology wasn’t quite clear and Dr. Onyia would jocularly say that he is a lecturer and not a member of the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT).

In Biochemistry, I recollect Dr. Nwanze, who later became a Prof. and the university V.C at the some point, Dr. Ajibade Rokosu, who later left to become a commissioner in Lagos state then; Dr. Opoku, the Ghanaian lecturer; Dr. Campbell, the Americana biochemistry lecturer.

I recollect one time he was involved in RTA (Road Traffic Accident) and was admitted in UBTH. Some of us went to see him there, and he lamented that the pain was excruciaring (not excruciating mind you). We later made jokes out of that; even when in pains he was still blowing slangs.

Of the three basic courses of the 2^nd MB year -Anatomy, physiology and Biochemistry, Anatomy was the most difficult for me and tasked my power of imagination to almost unbearable limits.

Something will be antero-lateral to another structure, this 2^nd structure will be infero-medial to a third structure and yet this third structure will be superior to fourth structure; and on and on. Oh God!!

With no audio-visual study aids available, Anatomy was simply driving me nuts and I started growing grey hairs! If one observed me reading Anatomy then, one would think that I was developing some little mental problems, what with soliloquy and all.

My encounter with anatomy/Dissecting Hall was a different ball game altogether. With the mysterious, spiritual and sometimes mythical attachments culturally given to corpses, the first few days or weeks at the Anatomy lab were not funny at all.

This period happened to be the time I was attending lectures from my cousins’ place in town before packing to Ekenwan campus.

Their yard happens to be this face-me-I-face you kind of house with the toilet facilities separate from the main building.

Each time I went out to urinate at night, it would appear as if the cadaver (we had male cadaver on our table) was standing behind me and I would develop goose pimples. If not that my resolve to study medicine was unshakeable I would have started thinking of another course during this period.

However with determination and persistence, corpses became completely demystified for me after a few more weeks, and the struggles continued.

My entry into Great Uniben in 1982 brought me face -to –face with a host of unique campus slangs. Even though I have forgotten a lot of slangs of that era, it was such that two or more Uniben undergraduates could be conversing and if you were not in Uniben, you would find it difficult following their conversation.

I can still recollect NFA (No Future Ambition), IYC (International Year of the Child), pepperless (Food without spices for gastric ulcer sufferers), LIG (Loacally Imported Girls), Jambite (Fresh men), JSQ (Junior Staff Quarters), food rosters like:

1-1-1 (3 square meals), 1-0-1 (two meals a day; breakfast and lunch), 0-1-1 (Lunch and dinner), 0-1-0 (one main meal a day; at lunch) etc.

However, feeding wasn’t particularly a problem for most students in 1982 because students’ feeding was being heavily subsidised by the Federal Government and a meal ticket was a mere 50 kobo and a month’s meal booklet was N45.00 (forty five naira).

Even among us medical students, we had terms mostly coined from anatomy; like to be unilaterally or bilaterally denervated, to be anastomosed; we had some anatomical nick names which we gave to some of our course mates, or some of our course mates took like Gastro, Inguinal Canal, Digiti-Minimi, Decussate etc.

Social life for me in Uniben in 1982 was simply non-existent. Maybe it was same as well for a lot of the others in our class because of academic pressure and the fear of 2^nd MB.

Even on the day of our matriculation, I forgot to iron my matric gown and wore the stuff like that to the matric venue. I did not even bother. As a matter of fact, the hours spent during the matriculation ceremony and the signing of the matric register were precious hours I could ill afford. I just wanted to get the matric ceremony over with and go read any books.

The shadow of 2^nd MB kept chasing me till the end of 1982 and even beyond such that when I went home for a few days during the Christmas period, I couldn’t enjoy the holidays as I was daily going to the primary school close to our house to read. It was that bad.

In summary, Med. Uniben 1982, was a period of academic baptism of fire for me, but then it strengthened me physiologically, intellectually, emotionally and even spiritually.

This write-up will not be complete without celebrating all our course mates who survived the obnoxious “tripod stand” policy of the medical school then and ended up graduating as a doctors and making waves in the medical world in different parts of the world.

To our ladies, you all are super ladies and to the gents, you are indestructible academically.

BY

NWACHUKWU CYPRIAN O.

MED ‘87, UNIBEN   

Glossary 

NFA: National Football Association. Also No future ambition

Pepperless: Food without spices for gastric ulcer sufferers at the Uniben Food Cafeteria. Term also used to describe seemingly weak people
IYC : Acronym derived from International Year of the Child and used in a derogatory manner at people acting childishly

LIG: Locally Imported Girls- none University girls from town

Jambite: Fresh man in Nigerian University. Word derived from JAMB: Joint Admission and Matriculation Board. Body in charge of a yearly entrance examination into Nigerian Universities

JSQ :Junior Staff Quarters in Ugbowo campus of the University of Benin. Junior staff turned their living rooms into makeshift restaurants patronized by University students.