When God says no Week 44, 2015

The interview lasted all day and had been grueling. A written paper eliminated many of us and the oral interview was challenging as well. This was a centre for Plastic surgery training which I had been seeking. My friends within the institution had warned it would be tough and I had put in prayers and lots of hard work to get in. Places were very competitive, and applicants were in multiples of the available vacancies. Surely God would answer now and I would be taken! But no: when the intakes were announced that 2012 at Orthopaedic Hospital Enugu I was not among.

Never doubt God’s faithfulness or His ability: His plans for you are beautiful and to bring you to a perfect end. LORD, my heart is not arrogant, nor do I look haughty. I do not aspire to great things, nor concern myself with things beyond my ability.  Instead, I have composed and quieted myself like a weaned child with its mother; I am like a weaned child. Place your hope in the LORD, Israel, both now and forever Ps131:1-3 (ISV). I graduated from medical school Enugu campus in 2009 and was on the merit list, so naturally my House Job was at UNTH. My youth service was at the Ebonyi State teaching hospital Abakaliki. I wanted to specialise in Plastic Surgery so I had my life and plans well laid out. After my internship I sat for the primary fellowship in surgery and passed after my 5^th attempt in October 2011. I had applied to Enugu State University of Technology Teaching Hospital that year with the intention of starting residency after my national youth service but by the time I passed there was no vacancy.

I sought to get a place to begin my training in surgery and attended interviews at the federal hospitals in Abakaliki , Nnewi and Enugu without success. I had worked hard and prayed for each of those interviews. I tried desperately to get into UNTH that 2012 even though there was no official interview at that time; all to no avail. In the interim I worked at the Memfys hospital for neurosurgery from May to October 2012. There God exposed me to the spirit of discipline and excellence. It was a life changing experience. Eventually the big federal centres in Enugu, Umuahia, Owerri and Nnewi took residents and there was a mass exodus from ESUT-TH Park lane. Not only was it a State teaching hospital that paid least, her residency programme in surgery was very new and not well structured. The accreditation was only at part 1 level yet no one had passed part 1 from there. I was offered employment there and I began in October 2012 and met senior colleagues who groomed me. A person plans his way, but the LORD directs his steps Prov 16:9(ISV).

At a time I was tempted to leave but my plans were foiled; I was blind to the opportunity God had presented me with. The residency training began to take greater shape and I got qualified to take the part1 exams. I didn’t succeed in the NPMC part1 in May but sat for the part1 WACS this October ever before those who were taken at Orthopaedic could, and passed! I and another resident are the first senior residents produced there. I was asked by the provost to apply for a job as a lecturer in anatomy, a position offered when part 2 has been crossed. 

 Nonso Jac-Okereke is a senior resident in ESUTTH