IMAN Conference: Oloriegbe Advocates Compassionate, Conscientious Medical Practice
Chairman of the Governing Council of the National Health Insurance Authority, Senator Ibrahim Yahaya Oloriegbe, has called on healthcare professionals in Nigeria to place compassion, competence and conscience at the centre of medical practice.
Oloriegbe made the call while delivering the keynote address at the 27th Annual General Meeting and Scientific Conference of the Islamic Medical Association of Nigeria, held at the University of Ilorin, Kwara State.
The conference, which runs from August 24 to 29, 2026, has the theme, “Compassion, Competence and Conscience: Integrating Islamic Values in Modern Medical Practice.”
Addressing health professionals at the opening ceremony, Oloriegbe argued that some of the problems confronting Nigeria’s healthcare sector go beyond inadequate hospitals, medical equipment and financing.
He identified patients’ fear, the continuing migration of skilled medical professionals and the increasing influence of money on decisions about patient care as major concerns within the sector.
According to him, healthcare risks losing its essential character when medical treatment becomes primarily transactional rather than a professional responsibility built around the welfare of the patient.
Oloriegbe urged doctors and other health workers to treat patients as people entrusted to their care, rather than merely as paying customers.
He said compassion should be reflected in the way patients are treated, competence should require continuous professional development, while conscience should guide practitioners to do what is ethically right even when nobody is supervising them.
For Oloriegbe, restoring public confidence in healthcare will require all three principles to work together.
He acknowledged that healthcare professionals operate under difficult conditions, including inadequate financing, limited infrastructure, shortages of equipment and insufficient personnel.
However, he argued that those systemic problems should not eliminate the responsibility of individual practitioners to maintain professional and ethical standards.
The former senator, who represented Kwara Central in the Ninth National Assembly and currently chairs the NHIA Governing Council, also drew attention to the history of Islamic medicine.
He cited Muslim physicians such as Al-Razi and Ibn Sina as examples of a medical tradition in which scientific competence existed alongside ethical responsibility and concern for patients.
Oloriegbe urged Muslim healthcare professionals to preserve that tradition by ensuring that the quality and dignity of treatment offered to a patient does not depend solely on the patient’s financial position.
He illustrated the point with the experience of an indigent female patient who received treatment despite being unable to pay.
Oloriegbe said experiences of that nature reinforce a fundamental ethical question confronting medical professionals: whether they regard the person seeking treatment principally as a human being entrusted to their care or as a source of revenue.
His position formed part of a broader call at the conference for more patient-centred and ethically grounded healthcare.
Chairman of the opening ceremony and Secretary-General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, Professor Is-haq Oloyede, also urged healthcare practitioners to balance advances in medical science and technology with humane treatment.
Oloyede warned that technical competence alone was insufficient to guarantee good healthcare.
He argued that compassion without professional competence could put patients at risk, while competence without compassion could produce a healthcare system that is technically effective but insensitive to human dignity. Conscience, he said, provides the ethical foundation needed to prevent both from being misused.
Oloyede also called for greater collaboration between healthcare practitioners, policymakers and Islamic scholars as medicine confronts increasingly complex questions involving artificial intelligence, reproductive medicine, organ transplantation and end-of-life care.
Kwara State Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, represented at the event by Commissioner for Health Dr Amina El-Imam, highlighted efforts by the state government to improve healthcare infrastructure and service delivery.
Among the initiatives cited was the transformation of the former General Hospital in Ilorin into the Kwara State University Teaching Hospital, alongside investments in primary healthcare and diagnostic capacity.
The state government also highlighted its free medico-surgical outreach programme, which it said reached 10,374 beneficiaries in 2025.
IMAN itself organised a medical and surgical outreach ahead of the conference, providing treatment to residents across Kwara State regardless of religious affiliation. Conference organisers said more than 1,500 people had been attended to, including patients who underwent general and ophthalmic surgeries.
IMAN National President, Professor Ibrahim Adekunle Oreagba, said the conference was intended to reaffirm the association’s commitment to healing, service, compassion and ethical medical practice.
Oreagba also highlighted initiatives undertaken by the association, including healthcare support for indigent patients, substance-abuse interventions, membership digitalisation, medical publications and collaboration with other organisations within Nigeria and internationally.
He called for stronger investment in Islamic bioethics, expanded access to quality healthcare for poorer Nigerians, leadership development for younger health professionals and the development of a wider IMAN healthcare network.
The Local Organising Committee said 856 delegates had registered for the conference as of August 18, while the scientific programme includes 74 abstracts and discussions covering healthcare chaplaincy, faith-based counselling, women’s health, insecurity and geriatric healthcare.
For Oloriegbe, however, the central challenge extends beyond the conference.
His argument is that rebuilding trust in Nigeria’s healthcare system will require investment in hospitals, equipment, personnel and financing, but it will also depend on what happens during the everyday interaction between a healthcare worker and a patient.
In that relationship, he said, compassion must accompany medical knowledge, while conscience must continue to guide professional judgement.
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