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Summary of the Day One of the 53rd National Conference, AMLSN

The day started early with a lot of expectations.

The prophetic prayer made by the NOC Chairman – Mr Uche Odionyenma, when he apologised for the observable hitches at the cocktail event last night – that the AMLSN KADA 2017 will be a success despite all the hiccups experienced due to the frozen Conference account; came true.

Indeed , AMLSN KADA 2017 marks a historic benchmark for the AMLSN family.

Distinguished elders were present, Dignitaries roll call was impressive and AMLSN triumphed.

After a long list of dignitaries roll call, the Chairperson of the occasion, Prof. Alashle Abimiku gave her opening remarks. She gave a beautiful opening speech that commended the association for a great job. She also highlighted the need to strengthen the Medical Laboratory Services in Nigeria.

The National President , Alh. TY Raheem in his usual manner gave an excellent speech that among other things highlighted the very important need for strengthening the Medical Laboratory system in Nigeria; as a panacea for the National Health agenda. He called on all stakeholders to save us from the shame of Nigeria having to send samples to Dakar and other smaller African nations when we actually have the resources and personnel to do better. He also highlighted recent achievements of the Association. He pointed out that the presence of the NMA President was probably a result of his initial visit to the NMA conference last year.

The Keynote speaker Prof. H. C. Isah also did justice to the theme with research findings and verifiable evidence that confirmed the pivotal role of an efficient Medical Laboratory services to the strengthening of the Health Sector.

The MLSCN Registrar, Mr Tosan Erhabor gave a speech on the strides the council had achieved recently; notably E-licensing via the iHris platform , the flag off of the Inspection, training of Inspectors and the contributions to the Centralised posting of interns via meetings.

When the NMA and APBN President who were also present; Prof. Mike Ogirima and Dr Idris Omede (former NMA Chairman) , made their submissions in a good will message. Prof. Mike Ogirima sued for peace and asked Medical Laboratory Scientists to accept the Pathologist as “interpreter” and leader/Head of the Laboratory team.

Prof. Agbonlahor in his good will remarks roundly debunked this with an assertion that “Medical Laboratory Scientists are competent people who have been well trained for 5 + 1 + 1 years (spanning the BMLS training , internship and youth service) and thus do not need the doctor’s interpretation to do an excellent job”.

This heralded beautiful applause from the Conference attendees.

The Representative of the Hon. Minister for Health – Dr Joseph Omedu also gave the speech as sent to him by the Minister apologising for the Minister’s absence due to an urgent assignment from the Presidency. He expressed the Minister’s commitment to ensuring that the medical laboratory system in Nigeria improved as well as a resolve to act on all the requests made by the Association on visits made to him.

Former Chief Justice /Attorney General of the Federation – Nigeria; Mr Akin Olujimi in his good will message also highlighted the already established professional status of the Medical Laboratory Scientists in Nigeria. He called on the NMA to work with this understanding in mind to ensure harmony in the Nigerian Health Sector.

In her goodwill message, Mrs Megan Adediran , Founder and Executive Director of the Hemophilia Foundation of Nigeria passionately appealed to Medical Laboratory Scientists to ensure accurate diagnosis. She lamented the non diagnosis/ low level of efficient, accurate diagnosis of hemophiliacs and other related blood disorders ; including post partum hemorrhage and other ailments that get misdiagnosed in Nigeria.

The Acting Governor, Architect Barnabas Yusuf Bala representing the Governor, Mallam Nasir El Rufai , who is currently in the Netherlands; declared the Conference open to hearty cheers.

The cultural troupe gave a scintillating performance on the stage that attracted a lot of monetary gifts from the audience.

Thereafter, the Acting Governor was led on the tour of the Exhibition Hall , just adjacent to the programmes venue, with a stopover at the MLSCN stand where the MLSCN Registrar , Mr Tosan Erhabor gave a presentation on the Council’s work.

The Conference continued with the Sub theme presentations by Prof. Shehu Abubakar Akuyam and Dr MD Lugos…

The Chair of the Presentation was Dr. Omotosho and the rapporteur was Mr Anthony Abraham.

Alh. Omotosho did justice to the moderation of the session , as well as responded to some of the questions raised by participants and Mr Abraham also gave an excellent summary of the two academic presentations.

Day one ended on a great note with closing prayers from Alh. Dr Omotosho and Mr. Godwin Ihimekpen.

Indeed Opening Ceremony and the start of #AMLSNKADA2017 was a memorable day.

Many blessings to all who worked to ensure that every challenge was sorted out and the programme successful..

Abimbola Onaoluwa.
AMLSN Publicity Committee

Summary of the Day One of the 53rd National Conference, AMLSN