Break the cycle of oppression

I have seen a lot of posts by doctors where the younger colleagues are upset about the ill treatment they suffered from the older ones. They have a lot of pent-up anger for the older colleagues. Some…rightly so. I smile to myself when I see these posts.

Why if you may ask? Who are the older colleagues? Nobody started from the top of the food chain. This goes to show that the older colleagues today were once the younger ones yesterday. And what is this telling you? That this is a recurring and vicious cycle.

I remember when I just passed part one exams and I did my first call as a senior registrar. One of the consultants I had a close relationship told me something. ‘Gold, the transition from a Registrar to a SR is just in name only. You’re the same person you were yesterday and nothing has changed so I trust your judgment’. I remember that conversation lucidly like it happened yesterday. What is this telling you? ‘You can’t teach an old dog new tricks’. You can try, but its going to take more effort and commitment.

If you were a shoddy registrar, best beliveve you’re going to be a sloppy SR. If you were unkind, mean and lazy as a SR, you’re not going to undergo an abracadabra kind of transition to a consultant with good work ethics. You’re unlikely going to be a good mentor to the younger ones. Jímò tó bá ma da, àti àlàmísì la tí n mòó (the Friday that will be filled with largesse, will most likely be obvious from the Thursday). If you go as far back as your secondary school, you’ll see that you can almost predict the people that will be unkind, lazy and shirk their responsibilities.

We all must try to do right. Be better mentors, be better teachers and care for ourselves holistically. We must try to break this vicious cycle. ‘Do you know how hard it was during our time? So we must also make it hard for the people coming’..This mentality has to stop for things to get better. And its not only in Nigeria…just that our environment enables it more.

As younger colleagues too…it is important to do your work properly and have good work ethics. Mentoring is a two way thing…the mentee must show that he is willing to learn under the mentor’s tutelage. Omo tó bá sípá nìyá ngbé (It is the child that raises his arms up to be carried that is lifted up by the mother). So that the mentoring can be done to full capacity and maximal benefit can be achieved. And do you know when it becomes obvious that the mentoring cycle is complete? When the mentor begins to learn from the mentee and the mentee himself starts to mentor others.

I’m sure this issue of hostility amongst the older/younger colleagues is not just in medicine. I know it plays out in a lot of other professions too.
We must all try to play our parts and do better…..so that posterity will judge us well. This pandemic has shown us that even the next minute is not promised. Of what use is a lifetime of achievements if you have not impacted other people’s lives positively? Asan lori asan !(All for nothing!)