Abuja — While the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) insisted yesterday that a medical doctor was best suited for the post of health minister, there were strong indications that the son of Nigeria's first prime minister, Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and a former commissioner in Ebonyi State were in the race to become the substantive minister of health.

THISDAY checks showed that while the former Ebonyi commissioner is a medical practitioner, Balewa's son, Dr. Jhalil Tafawa Balewa from Bauchi State, is an American-trained nuclear physicist. Both names have since been submitted to Acting President Goodluck Jonathan for consideration.

Speaking at a news conference to herald the 50-year anniversary of the Nigerian Medical Association holding April 22, 2010 at the International Conference Centre, Abuja, President of the association, Dr. Prosper Igboeli, maintained that in the health sector, the only person with the required capacity to lead the ministry remains a medical doctor.

He recalled that a time was in the nation's history when the chief medical officer was next in line to the chief justice of the federation, noting that it was the reason why the NMA had consistently called for the establishment of the chief medical officer of the federation or the surgeon-general of the federation, who should be a medical doctor.

The only person that has the extreme knowledge to do many things in the health sector is the medical doctor. I am not a laboratory scientist but I can go to the lab and conduct a test. Nobody else can take you to the theatre and cut you up except the medical doctor. If you put the wrong person there, he cannot do it. It will simply be garbage in, garbage out", he said.

However, other health professionals in the sector kicked against this assertion.

President of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, Azubike Okwor, said a science degree was not necessarily required to head the health ministry but maintained that if a pharmacist or other health professional is found to have the capacity to discharge the functions of such office creditably, there was nothing wrong in taking charge as the health minister. "We have had enough of this rigmarole, what we need is somebody with a proven track record that can move the sector forward", he said.

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