••• Identifies Poor Patient Experience, Brain Drain, and Financial Misconduct as Key Concerns
Former Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health and Chairman of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Senator (Dr.) Ibrahim Yahaya Oloriegbe, has called for the restoration of ethical values and public trust in Nigeria’s healthcare system, urging medical practitioners to anchor their practice on compassion, competence and conscience.
Oloriegbe made the call on Thursday while delivering the keynote address at the 27th Annual General Meeting and Scientific Conference of the Islamic Medical Association of Nigeria (IMAN) at the University of Ilorin Main Auditorium. The conference was themed, “Compassion, Competence and Conscience: Integrating Islamic Values in Modern Medical Practice.”
Speaking as a doctor with more than four decades of professional experience, Oloriegbe diagnosed what he described as a “loss of ihsān” in the profession, identifying three troubling symptoms: growing fear among patients, the exodus of skilled medical personnel and situations where financial considerations override patients’ welfare.
He cited patients being shouted at or humiliated, breaches of confidentiality, unnecessary procedures and the diversion of medical supplies as practices capable of eroding confidence in healthcare providers.
According to him, the solution requires both systemic reforms and personal ethical renewal. He called for stronger professional training and improved healthcare infrastructure, equipment, supplies and financing, while stressing that systemic deficiencies must not become excuses for abandoning professional responsibility.
“We must never allow a broken system to become the excuse that finally kills our own ihsān.”
Oloriegbe urged practitioners to make compassion the foundation of patient care, competence a continuous professional obligation and conscience the standard that guides decisions even when there is no external supervision.
He also called for stronger professional solidarity, invoking ukhuwwah (brotherhood) as a means of strengthening the profession, with senior practitioners supporting younger colleagues and stronger institutions helping vulnerable ones.
Drawing from the history of Islamic medicine, he reminded participants that compassionate and ethical healthcare was part of the Muslim intellectual heritage, citing the historic bīmāristān and the contributions of physicians such as Al-Rāzī and Ibn Sīnā.
He challenged contemporary Muslim medical practitioners to live up to that inheritance, stressing that medical ethics must move beyond conference themes and professional codes into everyday patient care.
Using the experience of a poor female patient he encountered early in his career, Oloriegbe illustrated the practical meaning of the three principles. He recalled how her inability to pay created hesitation over her treatment, but she was eventually treated and recovered.
“Every code, every oath, every fine word printed on a conference banner, comes down in the end to one frightened person and one choice. Do I treat you as a trust from Allah, or as a transaction?”
He urged practitioners to see every patient as an amānah (trust) and to ensure that inability to pay never diminishes the dignity or sacredness of human life.
Oloriegbe concluded by urging medical professionals to translate the conference’s message into action, reminding them that the true measure of compassion, competence and conscience is found not in what is said at conferences but in how the next patient is treated.
He prayed for the restoration of ihsān in healthcare practice and for greater blessings on IMAN and its contribution to the Nigerian health sector.
