MEET THE FOUNDERS
MEDIKKA FOUNDING FATHER
PROFESSOR JONATHAN CHUKWUEMEKA AZUBUIKE
MD, FAAP, FMCPaed., FWACP, OFR.
Professor J C Azubuike, fromNkwerre, Nkwerre LocalGovernment Area, Imo State, was born in Aba, where he had his education in Township School, Aba, and then went to Government College, Umuahia. He passed the entrance examinations to the University College, Ibadan, to study Chemical Engineering, and after passing the intermediate B.Sc. of London University ( as was the practice then), he succumbed to family pressure to change to Medicine. He left Nigeria for Bonn, West Germany, to study medicine at the University of Bonn, the then West Germany capital, where he graduated MD in November 1964.
After his internship in Germany, he passed the United StatesExamination for Foreign MedicalGraduates (ECFMG) and then went on to undertake post-graduate studies in Paediatrics, doing the Residency programmes at St Raphael’s Hospital (YaleUniversity Medical Center-affiliated), New Haven, Connecticut, New York UniversityHospital, New York City, and the children’s Hospital MedicalCenter (Harvard UniversityMedical School) Boston, Massachusetts. He took a fellowship in AmbulatoryPaediatrics/PaediatricEndocrinology at the Children’sHospital Medical Center and passed the American Board ofPaediatrics examination in 1970.
After a Fellowship in neonatology at the University of Bonn Teaching Hospital in Bonn, Germany, he joined the Department of Paediatrics of the University Of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Enugu, in 1974 as a lecturer in Paediatrics. He became the Foundation Professor of Paediatrics, University of Nigeria in 1980. He was HOD, Paediatrics, 1979-1982 and 1997-2000, FoundationDeputy-Provost, College of Medicine, University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus, Enugu; 1982-1986; Senate Member of the University of Nigeria GoverningCouncil, 1986-1989 and Deputy-Vice Chancellor, UNEC, Enugu,1989-1993. He retired in 2004. He has published widely in local and international journals and examined in many medical schools, as well as at the West African and the Nigerian National Postgraduate Medical College examinations. He is a Foundation Fellow of both the West African College of Physicians and the National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria. He was Chairman of the Faculty of Paediatrics, National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria from 1999-2002, Vice-President from 2002-2004, and president from 2004-2005.
He was elected Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh in July 2006. He was Vice-Chair, 2000-2002and Chair 2002-2004, NARCH(Nigeria Applied Research for Child Health), a USAID/BostonUniversity-sponsored project to help improve child mortality in Nigeria as well as facilitate capacity-building among young Nigerian academics. He is also the director of School Health Consultancy Services Nigeria. He is the initiator, Coordinator, and Chief Editor of the standard textbook in Paediatrics both within and outside Nigeria, with the title “Paediatrics and ChildHealth in a Tropical region,” which first appeared in 1999. This second edition appeared in 2007, and work is ongoing on the third edition.
He has also participated in academic and professional activities outside of Nigeria. He was a consultant Paediatrician for the Saudi-Arabian Oil Company(ARAMCO) and the Tabuk Military Hospital in Saudi Arabia in 1987 and 1988. He was alsoProfessor of Paediatrics, SultanQuaboos University MedicalSchool, Muscat, Oman, 1993-1995. He is the past President RotaryClubof Enugu, 1999/2000 and 2006/2007, and a Paul HarrisFellow of Rotary International.
He speaks fluent German. Socially, he is an intensely private person and still loves to play lawn tennis till today. He is married to Dr. Adije Bassey Azubuike, a general physician. They have three grown-up children. He received the national award, Order of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (OFR), in 2008. Presently, he is, since November 2013, the Chairman Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria(MDCN), the body responsible for the accreditation of all MedicalSchools in Nigeria as well as the practice of Medicine and Dentistry in the country.
FOUNDER, MEDIKKA ONLINE
OKWUDILI FRANCIS CHUKWUANI
B.Phil (Hons), MBBS, MA (Bioeth), FWACS, FRCS, CWSP.
Cardiothoracic Surgeon, Ohio, USA
In 1978, when he graduated from high school with distinction, he turned down his admission to read medicine at the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN) in pursuit of wisdom. In 1983, he graduated in philosophy with high honors from the Pontifical Urban University Rome; he taught in a high school for one year; and then went back to the UNN, where he graduated in medicine in 1990 as the best Student in public health. He was the editor-in-chief of the 1989 edition of MEDIKKA, which was the first edition to have an International Standard Serial Number (ISSN).
He completed residency training in Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH), Enugu before he traveled to the United States for a fellowship in cardiovascular surgery at the Texas Heart Institute, Houston, Texas, USA.
In 2006, while he was at the Texas Heart Institute, he was contacted by the editor-in-chief of MEDIKKA, for financial assistance for the journal. Instead of offering a one-time assistance, Dr. Chukwuani initiated a plan for an online version of MEDIKKA and has, on his own, been hosting the online version of MEDIKKA for the past 17 years, since 2006.
He is currently a staff of the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Centre and of the Cleveland Clinic’s Euclid Hospital, Cleveland, Ohio, USA.