A TESTIMONY ON PROFESSOR G. C. ONYEMELUKWE MON.

I am honored to write a testimony on this Physician, immunologist, teacher of teachers of international repute, an efficient manager of human and material resources, my professional father and mentor, Professor G. C. Onyemelukwe, whom I had to honor of meeting in 1987, when I was a clinical student at Ahmadu Bello University. While at the Medical school “Onyems “(as he was fondly called by us), was an excellent teacher both at the classroom and at the bedside. He was through, and a strict disciplinarian no one dares to come for his ward teachings or ward rounds without thoroughly clerking his patient and reading around the case. The hard-working students were on the other hand encouraged by the professor and even received cash prizes for outstanding performance from him.

 As fate will have it, I was admitted into the residency training program at the Department of Medicine, ABUTH in April 1991 where I had the privilege of knowing Professor Onyemelukwe more closely. He has indeed impacted more in my professional life than any other person in the department or elsewhere. Prof. was compassionate and offered all the mentorship, guidance and counselling that I needed to succeed. He is indeed my professional father figure, and that is true for most of us then at the Department of Medicine. It is indeed difficult if not impossible to mention all the things that Prof. has done to ensure my professional growth. He guided me to take-up Endocrinology as a carrier and sought for sponsorships for me to attend conferences in Cameroon and Germany in addition to offering me a comfortable office space and laboratory in the then immunology unit in addition to providing several consumables required for my dissertation. He has thought me the art of academic writing early in my career for which I remain eternally grateful to him.

Prof. Onyemelukwe supported my bid to Head the Department of Medicine and the later the Dean of the then Faculty of Medicine and was always available to offer invaluable advice and support whenever the need arose.

Professor Adamu Girei Bakari.
Provost, College of Medical Sciences,
Modibbo Adama University, Yola.

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