As the tenure on incumbent Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital (UCTH), Professor Thomas Agan gradually comes to an end, the tussle regarding who succeeds him has effectively moved to Abuja.

A total of 13 candidates applied for the CMD’s job in which two were screened out and nine went through to the interview stage of the selection processes, which took place on January 16, 2019.

After the interview exercise, five names were shortlisted as “appointable” and sent to the Presidency from where the next CMD is to be picked from.

The Guardian’s investigation revealed that five names in order of performance at the interview stage are Prof Ikpeme Ikpeme, who took first position after scoring 87.8 per cent. He was followed by a former Commissioner for Health in Cross River State, and acting Chairman Medical Advisory Committee (CMAC) of the UCTH, Prof Edet Ikpi, who carded 78.1per cent.

Prof. Ngim Ngim was in third place with the score of 72.6 per cent; Dr. Ofem Enang came fourth with 70.2 per cent, while Dr. Queeneth Kalu took the fifth position with 69.5 per cent. Profs Ikpeme and Ngim are from the South Senatorial District of the state, while Ikpi and Enang are from the Central Senatorial District.

Reliable sources said one of the main things that shot Ikpeme to the zenith remains the fact that he was the only contender that submitted his plans and vision for the hospital with timelines. He also had the highest number of publications, 54 of which he presented. He attracted orthopedic instruments grants to the hospital valued at N2.5m and a desktop analyser to the laboratory.

As has been the practice in the past, the exercise has now been enmeshed in intrigues, high-wire politics, as well as ethnic sentiments even up to the Presidency. Prof Ikpeme was said to have come first in 2011 selection, but was dropped due to ethnic and secular politics that favoured Prof. Agan, whose Northern Senatorial District never produced a CMD before.

There are allegations that the outgoing CMD has an interest in a particular candidate. But at a recent press briefing, Agan denied favouring any candidate over the others, saying to appoint Ikpi as CMAC was the decision of the board and the Presidency.

On insistence by some persons that any contender to the office of CMD must be a professor, a source said that “the Act setting up teaching hospitals does not require you to be a professor. It only requires that you should be a medical doctor of 12 years experience and a consultant for five years.”

•Excerpted from The Guardian report