By Ojo Oyewamide

Who is going to save the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA) Teaching Hospital from the fangs of those who want to cripple it? Less than a year after it commenced operations, the hospital has run into stormy weather. For about a month now, it has been shut down by the organised labour, turned into an organised tool in the hands of the Ondo State government.

The shutdown of the tertiary health institution was supervised by Bola Taiwo. The fellow is one of the unfit in the Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa cabinet. A square peg in a round hole. He once blamed some kidnap victims for their unfortunate fate. He goofed in a shameless effort to defend the government he is serving. To him, the victims should have provided security for themselves.

I understand Taiwo is a former state president of NULGE. Perhaps that's what earned him his position as the Special Adviser to the Governor on Union Matters. He is supposed to be a mediator as his office implies. But he doesn't have a sense of mediation or any idea of dispute resolution. I have watched the video where he poured invectives on the hospital's CMD. One wonders what kind of advice he has been offering his boss.

It is heart-rending that the FUTA Teaching Hospital is now trapped in a crisis of transition. The sad development arose from the conversion of a 75-year-old hospital owned by Ondo State into a federal teaching hospital.

FUTA commenced its MBBS programme in 2021. The university needed a teaching hospital where its medical students could receive clinical training. Since it had not built its own, one option considered by FUTA was collaboration with the UNIMED Teaching Hospital. But the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria did not give a nod to the arrangement.

In March 2025, President Bola Tinubu approved the establishment of FUTATH. Professor Olusegun Sylvester Ojo was appointed its pioneer Chief Medical Director. Also, the Ondo State Executive Council, in September 2025, approved the transfer of the UNIMED Teaching Hospital complex in Akure to FUTA. 

The formal handover was completed in October 2025, after the state government and the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). Since then, there have been disputes over staff absorption, IPPIS, union rights, restructuring and the hospital's new organisational structure.

The understanding at the time of the transfer was that FUTATH would absorb workers who had previously been employees of the state government. But it was clearly stated in the MoU that only eligible workers would be absorbed. The absorption would take place only after the Directorate of Human Resources of the Ministry of Health had examined each worker, assessed their qualifications, biodata and suitability to serve as federal public servants.

The verification exercise was conducted between December 8 and 12, 2025. It was based on established public service criteria. These included age requirements, educational qualifications, previous service records, the approved organisational structure for federal teaching hospitals and the prescribed clinical-to-non-clinical staff ratio.

After the exercise, over 800 staff members were found eligible for absorption into the Federal Civil Service. But no fewer than 265 were ineligible. The affected workers were recommended to the state government for redeployment into the state civil service.

On July 3, 2026, the organised labour, including the NLC and TUC, protested at the hospital. The unions accused the hospital management of breaching the MoU between the state and federal governments. One of their complaints was that workers on the authenticated nominal roll had not all been enrolled into IPPIS. They also accused the management of victimising workers because of their union membership.

On July 21, they gave the management an ultimatum. The Federal Government moved to mediate. A meeting was scheduled for July 24 between the unions and the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare. But it did not hold. The labour leaders dodged the meeting because they could not defend their action. Article 5 (5.1.3) of the MoU stipulates that only eligible staff of the transferred hospital would be absorbed into the Federal Civil Service.

Article 5 (5.1.3) states that the Federal Ministry of Health shall "Conduct a comprehensive Staff verification Audit, and absorb ONLY eligible Staff of the University of Medical Sciences Teaching Hospital, Akure Complex, and be responsible for the payment of salaries, allowances and other monuments of such verified and absorbed staff members."

So, the agreement did not guarantee the automatic absorption of all existing workers. The unthinking action of the labour leaders against the teaching hospital shows that they are worse than illiterates. Illiterates cannot read and write. Their situation is understandable. But the labour leaders can read and write. Yet, they can't understand what they read. If not, what's the reasonable argument for shutting down the FUTA Teaching Hospital for close to a month now?

And then comes Governor Aiyedatiwa. The governor reportedly vowed that he would not allow the hospital to be reopened unless the ineligible workers are absorbed into the federal government service. He was even said to have threatened that he would revoke the MoU. His threat is laughable. 

The action of the governor has confirmed either of two things. It is either they are too lazy to read in Alagbaka or they don't understand what they read. Where was the State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice when the MoU was being signed? The MoU is too clear for anyone who can read and understand to know its implications.

The consequences of this impasse are becoming more troubling by the day. The first set of FUTA medical students are to begin their clinical training in September. The teaching hospital is still under lock and key. The students are now at the mercy of Aiyedatiwa and the organised tool. This is a governor who can afford to appoint over 1,000 SSAs and SAs. He can't accept to redeploy the 265 affected staff of the UNIMED Teaching Hospital to ministries and agencies.

It was learnt that before the process of transferring the UNIMEDTH to the federal government began, some people engaged in job racketeering. Appointment letters were sold to unsuspecting applicants. A Special Adviser was even involved. He reportedly gave appointments to about 120 people. This led to an overloaded nominal roll. 

In the old hospital, there were more than 50 accounting officers. Is that not too many for a new teaching hospital? What are they accounting for? Also, there is no place for some categories of workers in any federal teaching hospital. Their jobs are outsourced. The labour leaders want a teaching of hospital where cleaners, messengers, tailors, accounting and administrative officers are far more than doctors, pharmacists, nurses, laboratory scientists and other clinical staff.

Few days ago, one of the labour leaders unleashed violence on the acting chairman of the State Hospitals Management Board in his office. He went violent because the chairman refused to consider his candidate, who is a graduate of Biology Education, for employment. That is the anomaly they want to continue at the FUTA Teaching Hospital.

All of these make the current crisis even more painful because the FUTA Teaching Hospital is not merely another government project. It is an institution with implications for medical education, healthcare delivery and the future of the state. Someone should whisper into the ears of Aiyedatiwa and the labour leaders that history will record their actions and their implications.

Ojo Oyewamide writes from No. 5 Abibirih Lane, Isolo, Akure.