According to him, his push for nuclear medicine reform was viewed not as a contribution, but as a threat.
A former Assistant Director of the Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH), Dr Ofodire Emeka, has accused senior officials of deliberate obstruction, persecution and administrative abuse following his sustained advocacy for the reform and advancement of nuclear medicine services in Nigeria.
Dr Emeka, a 2011 NYSC President’s Honours Awardee who joined the FMOH in 2012 under an automatic federal appointment, says his difficulties began when he persistently challenged what he described as the ministry’s comfort with mediocrity.
According to him, his push for nuclear medicine reform was viewed not as a contribution, but as a threat.
“I was punished simply because I refused to accept that Nigeria’s healthcare system should remain stagnant,” Dr Emeka said. “What they wanted was business as usual. What I wanted was progress.”
“Nigeria’s nuclear medicine programme is still stuck in the 1980s,” he said.
“We are operating at Phase One development, while other African countries are already deploying PET-CT, PET-MRI, advanced radionuclide therapies and even proton therapy.”
He noted that Nigeria currently has only two outdated nuclear medicine scanners located at University College Hospital, Ibadan, and the National Hospital, Abuja.
By contrast, he said, countries such as Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria and South Africa have facilities “almost at par with the most developed countries in the world.”
“When people hear nuclear medicine, they start talking about nuclear reactors and insecurity,” he added.
“That is ignorance. Apart from South Africa, no African country produces its own radioisotopes. They import them. You do not need a reactor to deliver world-class nuclear medicine services.”
Dr Emeka further alleged that between 2008 and 2018, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) made serious efforts to expand Nigeria’s nuclear medicine centres from two to eight, but was frustrated by the FMOH’s lack of commitment.
“The IAEA succeeded everywhere else in Africa,” he said. “Nigeria was the only country where the programme collapsed because the Federal Ministry of Health failed to show interest, failed to meet obligations and failed to provide counterpart funding.”
He said he was persuaded in 2012 by senior ministry officials to abandon plans to study public health in the UK and instead pursue nuclear medicine at King’s College London. “They told me the Federal Government was serious about developing nuclear medicine and needed someone with expertise,” he recalled. “That was the biggest irony of my career.”
After returning to Nigeria in 2013, he served as Desk Officer for the National Cancer Control and Nuclear Medicine Programmes at the FMOH. In 2017, he commenced residency training in nuclear medicine at the National Hospital Abuja, where he says he encountered a programme already on life support.
“There was no funding, no direction, no support,” he said. “Residents trained abroad were abandoned on return, consultants were frustrated, and everyone—doctors, trainers, even international partners—blamed the FMOH.”
According to him, one of the programme’s key trainers eventually left Nigeria in frustration. “Our chief trainer, Dr Zaba Jawa, left for the Middle East after daily tirades against the ministry,” he said. “That should tell you how bad things were.”
Disillusioned, Dr Emeka eventually abandoned nuclear medicine training and later pursued a PhD in Pharmacology, which he completed in March 2025. “By then, I had completely lost faith in the nuclear medicine programme,” he said.
In 2023, following the appointment of Professor Mohammed Ali Pate as Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Dr Emeka said he felt a renewed sense of hope. “I believed this was a window of opportunity,” he said. “Professor Pate knew the nuclear medicine programme when it was at its peak.”
He proposed the creation of a separate Nuclear Medicine Office within the FMOH, arguing that the programme had been overshadowed by the National Cancer Control Programme. Initially, the Director of Hospital Services welcomed the idea, but Dr Emeka said it was abruptly blocked at higher levels.
“One senior official told me plainly, ‘You are the one causing tension in this ministry,’” he recounted. “He said, ‘It is not about how important your proposal is; it is about the assent of the Permanent Secretary.’”
According to Dr Emeka, he was even warned that his letter to the Minister would never reach him. “He told me, ‘I bet you this letter will die on the table of the Permanent Secretary,’” he said.
Despite the Minister’s directive that the proposal be formally transmitted, Dr Emeka alleged that the letter was deliberately withheld. He said the head of his unit initially supported the proposal but later admitted shelving the file out of fear.
“He told me he was afraid of making enemies,” Dr Emeka said. “He said the atmosphere was tense and asked me to drop the letter. I told him that would amount to disobeying the Honourable Minister.”
When he reported the obstruction directly to the Minister in November 2023, Dr Emeka said no response came. “That silence was loud,” he said. “It was endorsement by inaction.”
By early 2024, he said the work environment had become hostile. “Colleagues stopped associating with me,” he said. “Nobody wanted to be seen with someone the system had marked.”
On 1 May 2024, Dr Emeka formally withdrew his services after giving the mandatory one-month notice. “I followed due process,” he said. “There was no query, no objection, no response—but my salary was stopped immediately.”
Weeks later, he said he was shocked to learn he had been queried for absence without leave. “How can someone who has resigned be accused of AWOL?” he asked. “That was when I knew this had become punitive.”
By January 2025, officials in the Department of Human Resources allegedly told him that the Permanent Secretary was insisting on disciplinary measures and a refund of government funds. “HR told me clearly that I had already left service and should be allowed to go,” he said. “But they were overruled.”
In September 2025, more than a year after his resignation, he received a letter stating that his withdrawal of service had not been approved due to disciplinary proceedings. “That letter shocked me,” he said. “You cannot reject a resignation one and a half years after the person has left.”
A subsequent petition to the Minister dated 4 November 2025, he said, has received no response. “At this point, the silence is no longer accidental,” he added.
Dr Emeka is now calling for an independent investigation into what he describes as “systematic abuse of power, suppression of official correspondence and victimisation of a reform advocate.”
“I want to know who stopped my salary, who hid my resignation letter, and who authorised disciplinary action against someone who had already exited service,” he said. “This is bigger than me. This is about how reformers are treated in Nigeria.”
He warned that Nigeria’s resistance to reform continues to cripple its healthcare system. “Foreign governments are warning their citizens that healthcare in Nigeria is inadequate or non-existent,” he said. “If we silence people who want change, we should not be surprised that the system keeps failing.”