A legend has fallen: Tributes pour in for Professor Egbuna Olakunle Obidike

Professor Egbuna Olakunle Obidike, in an interview with Blueprint after winning the 2024 Blueprint Africa Whistleblowing Prize

Professor Egbuna Olakunle Obidike was a pioneering scholar and paediatrician, a much loved and revered mentor and educator, and a fearless champion of hands-on clinical training to save lives.

Tributes came pouring in this week with the news of his passing.

Management and staff at Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital in The Gambia hailed him as “the architect of Gambian paediatrics (who) constructed the very framework of modern paediatric care in our nation”. They described him as a true legend whose enduring legacy “lives on in every life saved, every medical student he inspired (and) the monumental impact of his life’s work”.

Former students recounted the profound effect his teachings had on their professional development. One, Dr Omar Lamine, recalled his uncanny ability to deliver off-the-cuff lectures from memory “with remarkable depth and clarity”. His aim, in his words, was to “remove the cobwebs”. His students later realised Obidike’s “seemingly spontaneous” lectures were actually distillations of deep subject matter knowledge and expertise that would soon be published in his book Essential Clinical Methods in Paediatrics. Lamine believes this book became in many ways the paediatric counterpart of the classic textbook on clinical skills, Hutchinson’s Clinical Methods.

Professor Obidike graduated from Government College Umuahia, Nigeria in 1975, and the University of Nigeria Nsukka’s College of Medicine in 1981. He joined the paediatrics department as a lecturer in 1992 and became a professor of paediatrics in 2008. He also served as a consultant paediatrician and paediatric cardiologist at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital in Enugu. Later, he became a visiting scholar at the University of The Gambia School of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences too.

In 2021, the veteran paediatric expert was invited to establish a post-graduate training programme at Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital. His visionary leadership in setting up the administrative systems and infrastructure needed, including a dedicated library and seminar room, and his deep expertise in shaping clinical and academic standards, was described as critical in enabling the hospital to meet accreditation benchmarks for post-graduate training that adhere to local and international standards.

He placed a great deal of emphasis on practical training in clinical skills, an area he believed had been neglected over the years, and instilled in young registrars the importance of meticulous record keeping of clinical histories.

These practices helped Obidike and fellow Nigerian paediatrician Professor Vivian Muoneke discover that young patients at the hospital were dying of kidney failure caused by a toxic cough syrup that resulted in the fatal poisoning worldwide of more than 300 children. It later emerged that their quick-thinking actions, including pushing strongly – in the face of initial opposition and scepticism – for the link to be investigated and for a temporary ban on cough syrup sales, may have averted a far deadlier global crisis. Both were honoured with the 2024 Blueprint Africa Whistleblowing Prize for raising the alarm.

When Blueprint interviewed him at the time, he made a point of giving due credit to the trainee doctors in Gambia. “The young entrants who started the program are the real heroes. Without them, it would not have been discovered as easily and timeously as it was,” he told us. “Gambia protected their children and protected the world. And it all started with those young registrars.”

His influence is likely to be felt for generations to come. As the Medical and Dental Association of The Gambia put it: “Professor Obidike may have departed, but his lessons, mentorship and the professionals he helped shape will continue to speak for him. His legacy lives on in the classrooms, wards and lives of those he taught.”

A true legend has fallen. May his gentle soul rest in peace.