AMLSN IS BLEEDING
AMLSN IS BLEEDING
Bleeding is rarely fatal at the first cut. It becomes dangerous when it is ignored. What the Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists of Nigeria (AMLSN) is experiencing today is not a sudden collapse but a sustained hemorrhage quiet, continuous, and damaging. Confidence is leaking away. Credibility is thinning. Unity is draining. Accountability has been replaced by silence. Meetings are held and communiqués issued, yet the wound remains open.
The crisis did not begin today. It was planted at the 2020 National Election of the Association held in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State, germinated and manifested in 2023 during the National Election of the Association in Abuja. The disorder, controversy, and unresolved grievances from that process marked a defining moment. At the time, many dismissed it as routine post-election tension. In reality, that was when the bleeding started. It has continued ever since, largely unchecked.
What makes this crisis particularly tragic is that it is self-inflicted. Internal power blocs, acting under the guise of stabilizing the association but have instead weakened it. Through avoidable conflicts, selective processes, and poor judgment, AMLSN has lost opportunities, diminished its national voice, and eroded goodwill built over decades. Those who claim to be treating the patient must first admit their role in causing the injury.
The current mediation process offers little reassurance. Mediation is meant to heal both sides, not to produce a pre-arranged outcome. Yet the process has been widely perceived as lopsided. One must ask how an electoral process already viewed as unfair can suddenly yield legitimacy through a mediation that inspires even less confidence. When supporters of one candidate openly celebrated on the very day a peace meeting was announced, it felt less like reconciliation and more like confirmation that the script had already been written.
The symbolism matters. So does perception. A controversial coalition of the Northern Alliance meeting held in Jos widely regarded as the operational base of entrenched interests only deepened suspicion. In a fractured association, trust is as important as legality, and AMLSN is currently short of both.
There are also serious legal questions that remain unanswered. No court case arising from the disputed election has been withdrawn. No transparent, binding peace agreement appears to have been signed by all parties. The doctrine of necessity, often invoked to justify expediency, cannot override the rule of law. Self-help is not reconciliation. Scientists, of all professionals, should understand that the process determines the outcome.
What happened to the AMLSN HOUSE and who is holding the members of staff to jugular for more than a year?
Perhaps the most troubling dimension of the crisis is the threat to institutional neutrality. The office of the Registrar of the Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria (MLSCN) must remain above politics. That office is not just another position, it is the final regulatory pillar of the profession. Once it is dragged into factional battles, the profession itself becomes unstable.
History is instructive. Traditional rulers who abandoned neutrality for partisan politics paid dearly. The Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Adediran Adeyemi II, was dethroned in 1955 after political alignment against the ruling power. Oba Isaac Babalola Akinyele, Olubadan of Ibadan, presided over a turbulent reign because of political entanglement. Oba Sir Olateru Olagbegi II, Olowo of Owo, lost his throne following political conflict. Institutions suffer the same fate as monarchies when custodians forget their role. As the Yoruba warn, “where you call the head, you do not walk with it”. We should all respect the office of the Registrar whatsoever the situation we find ourselves in.
Another worrying sign is how far the crisis has been allowed to drift externally. AMLSN now appears dependent on direction from the Ministry of Health to resolve an internal leadership dispute. This is an indictment of the association’s governance capacity. Other professional bodies, including the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), have endured prolonged crises and resolved them through internal mechanisms. Why has AMLSN found it so difficult to respect its own elders, particularly the committee of the past presidents?
Equally questionable was the decision to publish the electoral process in multiple national newspapers. This was unnecessary, expensive, and poorly timed. Internal platforms and social media would have been sufficient and far more economical. In a period of crisis, such expenditure reflects misplaced priorities and weak strategic thinking.
Then there is the fear, perhaps the clearest sign that something is deeply wrong. Fear of a transparent process. Fear of open competition. Reports had it that a candidate was threatened and discouraged from contesting, with assurances that he would not be allowed to win, exposing a system already compromised. Where outcomes are predetermined, legitimacy is impossible.
This is not a moment for celebration. It is a moment for sobriety.
When bleeding persists, treatment without diagnosis becomes performance, not healing. An association that refuses to acknowledge its wounds is not resilient; it is in denial. Pride cannot be bandaged, and denial does not stop blood loss.
AMLSN must confront the reality of its crisis, identify the true source of the bleeding, and act decisively legally, fairly, and transparently. If it does not, the association will not collapse in a dramatic fashion. It will simply bleed out slowly, remembered not for how it fell, but for how long it pretended everything was fine.
Adekoya Abimbola Julius
diagnosticnewsreporters@gmail.com