Nigeria is lucky that Mr. Sawyer ended up in the care of Dr. Ameyo Stella Adadevoh and the team she led. A less able lead or a less dedicated team could have let itself and the country down.
Unlike many of her peers, Ameyo didn’t play god. Nor did she celebrate not having read any medical journal after Medical School. On the contrary, she knew her specialty and invested heavily in being up to date with the latest journals and skills in it. She was always honest about where the limits of her skills lay and would happily refer cases to colleagues with the
requisite specialty whether in or outside Nigeria. She had one heck of a professional Rolodex!
All of us who had the privilege of ever having been managed or attended to by her would testify that this was a professional of exceptional thoughtfulness, ability, diligence, and application. The many colleagues whom she mentored or supported would too. We’ve all lost an outstanding person, support, redoubt, and professional.
Ameyo had one of the sharpest minds you’d ever meet. She was at home discussing experimental physics, molecular biology, public health, lip-stick, the science behind bra-sizes, or different genres of music. She loved life. She was the mother of a son whom she loved more than life itself and lived with a mother to whom she was devoted. The void she leaves behind cannot be filled. They deserve our thoughts, care and prayers.
Because of the circumstances of her passing, there may be no grave to memorialise Ameyo. This is why we must give careful thought to how to do so. We must hold up and celebrate her example of selfless professionalism to the point of death. And, as a people, we must be grateful that someone like her is still in supply in our country.
Ameyo always had the Hippocratic Oath hung in front of her on the left wall in her consulting room, just beside her certificate. I once asked her why? She said if you don’t believe (in) it you shouldn’t be here. She died true to her oath and calling. Our country owes her a debt we can never repay. She was truly and exceptionally special.
Chidi Odinkalu is the chairman of the National Human Rights Commission.
