It was Harry S. Truman that said, “Men make history and not the other way around”. In periods where there are no leaders, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous and skilful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better. Great men appear now and again to help shape the course of human history.
Working as the Programme Manager at the Adamawa State Tuberculosis (TB) and Leprosy control unit of the Adamawa State Ministry of Health from 2003 to 2014, the passionate spirit displayed by this gentlemen showed him to be an enemy not only to TB and Leprosy, but to the dreaded HIV/AIDS pandemic that has claimed thousands of lives in the State.
The delivering astute ability of Dr Stephen John is obsequious to will his entire life of fighting TB, Leprosy and AIDS in the entire country, having gathered adequate exposure to leadership and management skills, adequate experience with programme implementation at the international, National, State and Local Government levels and much experienced in working with Local, National and International Partners who supported the implementation of TB, Leprosy and HIV/AIDS Control activities at various levels in Adamawa and other States of Nigeria. The management and control of TB and HIV/AIDS in Adamawa State received a boost through his ever expanding experience in Public Health, Global Health Diagnostics and Advanced TB Diagnostics which was facilitated through several trainings held in various countries funded by the International Partners who have worked closely with him for over a decade.
THE RISING HIGH OF DR STEPHEN JOHN
When he resumed as the Programme Manager of Adamawa State TB and Leprosy Control unit in 2003, the State began to experience a significant achievement in the control of TB and Leprosy. In less than 5 years after assuming as PM, TB service delivery centres expanded across Adamawa State with thousands of TB cases detected yearly, placed on treatment and ultimately cured. There was hardly a community in Adamawa State that did not feel the impact of the TB and Leprosy Control Programme. It was not surprising that he received 2 commendation letters from the Netherlands Leprosy Relief in 2004 and 2008. The Adamawa State Chapter of Radio, Television, Theatre & Arts Workers Union (RATTAWU) also awarded the hard working Doctor a certificate of merit for community service in 2004. Seeing his ingenious efforts in the control of TB and Leprosy, he was made a trainer and mentor of new Programme Managers on TB and Leprosy by the Netherlands Leprosy Relief, the National TB and Leprosy Training Center, Zaria and the KNCV/TB CARE, a Dutch international NGO in Abuja.
His wealth of experience began to take Dr. John outside to impact knowledge to students and Staff of institutions at managerial level. He served as an external facilitator to National TB and Leprosy Training Centre Zaria from 2007 to 2014, he also served in the same capacity for the School of Nursing and Midwifery Yola from 2009 to 2012. He has also been and still is a part time Lecturer for the B.Sc. Community Health Programme at the Modibbo Adama University of Technology, Yola from 2011 till date.
Soon the name John went abroad having implemented a program that targeted Nomadic Pastoralists in Adamawa State who were known to have a high prevalence of TB and Leprosy as a result of the high risk of transmission of these diseases that abound among this special group who had poor access to health services. The “TB REACH” project was funded by the STOP TB Partnership in Geneva and became one of the best implemented TB REACH grants globally. Lesson learnt from this intervention was packaged into a TB case finding guide produced by STOP TB Partnership in 2016.
The wits of Dr. Stephen John have given him Membership to various international bodies which include the International Union Against Tuberculosis and
Lung Diseases, the American Thoracic Society and the World Health Organization’s Global Indigenous Stop TB Working Group. He has been a consultant to the Netherlands Leprosy Relief since 2015 and the United Nation Office for Project Services from 2016.
The growing high of this promising Adamawa state Born Doctor took him to Thailand, Canada, Malaysia, France, Indonesia, Netherlands, Spain, South Africa and Ethiopia as a resource person, where he spoke and presented papers in International Conferences on HIV, TB and other lung diseases as well as development of various guidelines for the control of these diseases for adoption by countries.
Recently Dr. John toppled up a feather in his head haven been selected to join a 15 Man committee of reputable Doctors globally to review the Wave 5 TB Reach Grant applications from hundreds of projects across the world.
DOCTOR JOHN: THE PEOPLE’S DOCTOR
In his philanthropical nature and attitude, he asserted that “all he has and all he will become is because of people and is for people”. The Executive Secretary Adamawa State Agency for the Control of HIV/AIDS has a foundation (Janna Health Foundation) founded in 2012. This foundation focuses on community awareness on HIV, TB and Leprosy, free treatment to the less privilege, mass deworming and nutritional support to widows and orphans. Several communities in Madagali, Michika, Mubi North, Mubi South, Maiha, Girei and Yola South LGAs have benefited.
Indeed a leader was born and titles are not a prerequisite to being a good leader. From being a farmer’s son from a remote part of Michika LGA, Dr John Stephen has gotten a name that is synonymous with hard work, zest abilities to scuttle down the prevalence and spread of TB, Leprosy and HIV/AIDS not only in Adamawa State and Nigeria, but even at the Global stage.
Dr John fine-tuned his destiny through dint of hard work, a path he discovered immediately he graduated from the Faculty of Medicine and surgery of the prestigious Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria in 2000. Besides several other trainings Nationally and Internationally, he holds a Master Degree in Public Health (MPH) and International Course in Health Development (ICHD) from the Royal Tropical Institute of the Vu University in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Today, the 18th of July, 2019, Dr Stephen John was honoured with a National Award at the International Conference Centre, Abuja for his contributions to TB control in Nigeria and beyond. Lets celebrate this humanitarian icon of our time.
