From trailing her late father through the halls of his Edo State hospital to becoming a seasoned midwife shaping lives across Delta State, Eki Omozuwa’s journey is a masterclass in dedication and service.
Over the years, she has balanced night shifts, community outreach, and family life, all while educating women on critical health issues, from cervical cancer to hygiene, and mentoring the next generation of nurses.
In an interview with Rita Oyiboka, she opens up about her journey, the challenges and “japa” syndrome in nursing, her passion for health education, and why her motivation goes far beyond money.
Can we meet you and hear a bit about your journey?
My name is Eki Omozuwa. I am from Edo State. I have been in Delta State since 2008, when I came for my midwifery programme at the State School of Midwifery, Asaba, Cable Point. I completed the programme in 2010.
After that, when St Luke’s Hospital was built, I got a job there. We were among the first staff employed there; in fact, we were the very first set of nurses employed at St Luke’s Hospital. I worked there for about three years.
I was also involved in President Goodluck Jonathan’s programme. Some midwives were sent out to different communities to reach the grassroots, and I was part of it. I think I did that programme for about three years as well.
After those three years, I got an appointment with FMC Asaba. While I was still working with St Luke’s, at one point, during President Jonathan’s time, there was a strike. Being a workaholic, I could not just stay at home. The strike lasted for about three months, and I decided to use my time productively instead of sitting idle.
I then went to Temple Clinic, which is how I got a placement there. I informed the Managing Director at the time, Dr Popo, that I was only coming because of the strike and that once work resumed, I would stop. Lo and behold, after three months, when work resumed, I called off as I had said.
However, Dr Popo later called me back. He said that all the pregnant women and most of the patients insisted that I should be around to take their deliveries. At the time, I was doing antenatal care, conducting deliveries, nursing women, and giving them proper care. Because of this, he called me again and said I should come back on a contract basis, depending on the days I would be available.
I then started going back. I thank God for Mrs Popo. She is a nurse. She studied and worked extensively and had been our past tutor at the School of Nursing and the School of Midwifery. She also worked in the UK, specifically in the theatre.
While I was at Temple Clinic, she was the one who taught me everything about theatre work: how to arrange the theatre, how to become familiar with the instruments, how to prepare a patient, post-operative care, and all of that. Even so, while I was at Temple Clinic, it was not easy for me.
What were some of the challenges you faced during those early years?
One of the challenges was that there comes a time when your spouse feels you do not have time for the family. It was initially difficult for me to balance doing all these things and still taking care of my children.
But, as God would have it, I had a very good nanny. I had just started having children then. In 2017, I had my first child. I had help who carried my baby everywhere with me. Yes, because St Luke’s had a crèche for nurses, and Dr Popo had an upstairs space, but I would stay where the nanny could be with my child. So it wasn’t easy at all. That was one of the challenges.
Then, secondly, of course, we get tired, and I had to read. Yes, I had to read most of the time to stay abreast of the current nursing regimen. So those are the two major challenges. Basically, it is your family that suffers. But because of the timing and the night shifts, my spouse understood what the night shifts entailed. He was very supportive, but it still wasn’t easy, especially when your own child is sick.
You have to leave your child to nurse another child. It is not easy, but it is what we have, the oath we have sworn.
Another challenge is when you yourself are sick. You still go to the hospital until they find a replacement for you. Only then will they tell you, “Okay, you can now go and take a break,” after a replacement has been arranged.
And where did you get your first degree from?
Okay, I actually did my nursing at the State School of Nursing, Edo State, from 2003 to 2006. As I mentioned earlier, my midwifery was at the State School of Midwifery, Asaba, from 2008 to 2010. Then I gained admission into the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), and I think I graduated last year, where I got my first degree.
Currently, I am doing my Master’s at the NOUN. I also look forward to further qualifications. My schedule is so tight that I was advised to go into education so that I can merge it and begin lecturing.
Why did you choose nursing as a career?
First of all, my dad was a doctor before he died, Dr Omozuwa in Benin. He had a hospital. When they came to pick us up from school, we would go to the hospital to wait for him to close before he took us home.
I used to see the nurses there in their white uniforms, clean nurses, because he never used auxiliaries or quacks. He never patronised them. I would look at them and see how efficient they were, walking up and down. You would see them moving briskly, even giving orders to my dad: “No, doctor, you can’t do this; you need to do it like this. Doctor, you must do it this way.”
There was real teamwork, and that was what I grew up seeing. So, from a young age, people would say, “Eki, you have the brains to be a doctor.” I would tell them, “I am not a doctor. If I wanted to be a doctor, I have the brains to be one, but I want to be a nurse.” That was where it all started.
Then what made you want to look into lecturing?
From my days in the nursing school, I have always been at the centre of passing information, breaking it down to the barest minimum for people who cannot easily understand. Assimilation is of different grades. It might take some people one way to understand; for others, it requires serious breaking down. That is where I knew I had that teaching skill.
Now you find out that in the medical line, when people come to the hospital, they are already at the stage where things have already become very bad. Why? Communication. So I said, “Okay, why not take information out there?”
People call me and say, “Can you give this talk? Come and enlighten us about menopause, cervical cancer, and hygiene.” I actually started from the church. I had a friend, one of the Regina Daniel Foundation programmes, whom I met there two years ago. I got plenty of contacts from there because, according to them, I did well and they understood the information I passed. I got feedback, “Oh, we took your number,” and all of that.
Let’s talk about cervical cancer, how one gets it, and why awareness is so important.
The sad thing is that information needs to go out there to sensitise people. The problem now is how to sensitise women, catch them at the grassroots.
Because now you know the kind of world we are in. You see 13-, 14-, and even 15-year-old girls already exposed to sexual activities. So when you take this information to schools, to the grassroots.
Take it to schools, primary schools. I have a friend whose daughter started menstruating at nine years old. So take it to schools during assembly; you can just talk briefly. As they grow older and mature, you then give them examples.
How does one get cervical cancer?
It is caused by HPV, which is called Human Papilloma Virus. It is usually deposited at the mouth of the cervix. If there is so much operation of this virus, it begins to grow abnormally. So that is the cause.
Other things encourage the virus that causes it. When a girl child starts sexual activity early, like before the age of 15, the chances of having cervical cancer increase, especially when she has multiple partners, because the man actually carries the HPV.
How does the man get HPV?
It is a virus; it can be gotten from anybody. Yes, it can be gotten from a woman who already has HPV.
How will I put it? Before water boils, it goes in degrees, right? So before cervical cancer can develop, it grows gradually. It gets to a point where it begins to accumulate, and then it starts to grow. It is not that once you come in contact with HPV, you must immediately come down with cervical cancer. It also depends on the strains. You have over 100 strains of HPV, but the particular ones that can cause that growth are strains 16 and 18. If the person repeatedly comes in contact with someone who has strain 16 or 18, what happens? It begins to add up, and before long, it starts to grow.
That is why we now emphasise that it is not only women or girls who should be vaccinated against cervical cancer. From nine years old, they should receive the vaccine.
What does the vaccine do?
The vaccine actually prevents the growth of HPV, so even if they come in contact with the virus, it cannot build up and begin to grow. But again, the vaccine is not for all the strains; it is specifically for strains 16 and 18. Those other strains are not common, but these are the most common ones that can cause cancer, especially because these diseases are mostly sexually transmitted.
People, especially moral people, will say, “Just abstain.” Some people also say that vaccines give people leeway to be promiscuous, that if you just abstain, you will not get it. What is the balance in this discussion?
I would say it is fifty–fifty. You cannot insist on total abstinence for everyone; it depends on the person. Some people can actually abstain until marriage, and before they marry, they do all the tests and know if they are compatible.
But where there is no abstinence, you must educate people and let them know they have a right to their lives and the choices they want to make. You cannot go around preaching abstinence to everybody. Yes, if it is a child, you have that right. But once the person is an adult, over 18, and not your child, you cannot force abstinence. We will always preach abstinence, but if an adult says, “No, I don’t want to abstain,” then you tell the person, “Okay, if you don’t abstain, these are the choices you can make.”
They can use condoms. If they still choose not to, then that is their decision. That is the balance. If they are not up to 18, you are not pushing them into sex, but you will give them the information. They still have the right to consent when they are of age.
Are there warning signs for cervical cancer?
Yes. For example, cervical cancer. Some people bleed during sexual intercourse. Yes. Some people bleed after their normal menstruation, beyond five days or even three days, which is a normal cycle. Some people bleed in between cycles.
Apart from bleeding, some will have a foul smell, like rotten meat. You know, during ovulation, you may notice normal fluid coming out of the body. But this one is like water; it seeps out as if you are urinating, and it has a foul smell like rotten meat. That is one sign.
Another sign is persistent vaginal discharge. They treat it and treat it, but it keeps coming back, especially when they are not exposed to dirty toilets and are not having multiple partners. They have treated themselves repeatedly, yet it persists. Then there is abdominal pain.
The signs I have mentioned now are early signs. There are other signs when the disease has progressed further. We have different stages, from stage one to stage four. The signs I have mentioned are mainly for stage one. There are additional signs for stages two to four.
What are the dangers of cervical cancer?
The danger is that, in the end, the person can actually lose her life. Cancer has no absolute cure. Yes, it has treatment, but it depends, as I said earlier, on the stage at which the person presents.
If, for instance, it is detected at the first stage, they can do surgery. They remove the part of the cervix that is infected, the growth, and trim it out. Yes, this is not the womb itself; it is the mouth of the womb. Think of it like a balloon, the narrow opening where you blow air in. That is the part that is affected. If it has not spread, they can trim it off.
But if it is severe, it depends on the stage. They may remove the whole womb. When the whole womb is removed, the woman cannot carry children, but she can still have children through surrogacy. So she can have children, but she cannot carry them herself.
If it is a very late stage, the treatment is mainly symptomatic, managing the patient and prolonging her lifespan.
Tell us about your personal experience with someone who had cervical cancer.
Oh yes, I have had a story. I will not mention her name. I had a patient whom I knew when I was in FMC. I saw her even when I was still a student. She came from Abuja, but she was already at stage four. Yes, she was already at stage four.
The cancer had already caused compression. You know, when a tumour begins to grow, it compresses other organs or structures around it. It had grown to the point where it was compressing the rectum. That is where stool passes through. So you would see that when she wanted to pass stool, she could not. She was always in constant pain.
So I saw her. Even after she was discharged and they asked her to continue dressing, she told me, “Oh, I can be coming for private dressing,” so I nursed her to death. You know, when you have a patient in the hospital, it is different from when you start seeing them privately. They will relax with you. They will talk to you about everything. So you become attached.
For that particular patient, I truly understood that the earlier, the better. Early detection is everything. I got very attached to her. I think I managed her for about a month before she finally died. So that was it for that patient.
Shifting gears a bit, what’s your take on the ‘japa’ syndrome among nurses?
I do not believe in “japa.” I do not believe in jackpot living. My purpose in nursing is not money, per se. Yes, nursing is lucrative, even before the “japa” trend. Traditionally, the professions often recommended for women were teaching and nursing, because they still had time for their family due to shift work.
For me, it is not about multitasking to make money. I am not trying to build mansions. I do not have many children to send to private universities. I go on vacations abroad. Let me tell you, “japa” is not easy. Yes, the money is there, but you do not have a life. You work around the clock. You work very hard.
The reason many people are becoming nurses is to “japa”. They have bills to pay. They want to meet societal expectations. They want to build houses. That pressure is what pushes them. But that is not my reason. So why would I want to “japa”?
How does the lack of financial motivation affect morale in the nursing profession?
Motivation is not there. In my case, I do health talks. I do health education seminars for groups, women, and even in churches. I do those talks, and they pay me for them. I work at Temple Clinic; I am the matron in charge there. I organise health outreaches; they pay me. I even attend health outreaches and get paid.
But for nurses who do not have that advantage, they are limited to just their salaries. So when you see another nurse and me, and we are on the same cadre, the way I spend will not be the same, especially if her husband is not doing well financially. So it is really challenging. The money is not much.
The truth is that the work nurses do is not commensurate with the salary at all. When you compare Nigeria with other countries, even developing countries, Ghana pays more than Nigeria. Rwanda pays more than Nigeria. So we need to step up healthcare in Nigeria. I am sorry to say, but health is not treated as a priority when it comes to budgeting.
We do not have a voice. Nurses do not have a voice. Look at how they treat us. Sometimes when people want to sell something, they will say, “Not for civil servants.” Have you not heard that? Even for land or houses, they say, “Not for civil servants.” What does that tell you?
But abroad, when you say you are a civil servant, they respect it, because they know your income is consistent. Here, there is stigma, “not for civil servants.” It is sad, even though we laugh about it. We are not competitive in how we pay nurses here.
Yet nurses still persevere.
Finally, what message do you have for young nurses entering the profession today?
My message to young nurses is simple. The Bible says that time and seasons happen to everyone. The reason you entered nursing will always define you. If you are a call nurse, you will always find your way, and people will find you.
“If you became a nurse to help, even to hold someone’s hand as they die, you will be fulfilled. But if money is your only motivation, you will miss it. You will never be remembered as a good nurse.
So I ask every nurse: Why are you here? Is it money, or is it to change lives and put smiles on faces? Your answer will determine your direction.