ABEOKUTA– In January, 2025, when Dr. Dayo Isreal, the current All Progressive Congress (APC) National Youth Leader was appointed as the
Chairman of the Board of the Federal Medical Centre (FMC) in Abeokuta, one of the aim of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was to transform the health institution into a world class model healthcare institution, with focus on improving the infrastructure and ensuring staff productivity.
One year on, Hakeem Adegbenro takes a look at the performance of the foremost youth mobiliser, using the periscope of duty chart and established procedures in conducting the business of Government in a Federal Medical Centre.
Dr. Dayo Isreal’s appointment was widely hailed by leaders such as Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu as a step toward energetic and innovative governance in the health sector.
He therefore assumed office with a clear mission, to collaborate with the Hospital Management led by outgone Medical Director, Professor Musa-Olomu and other stakeholders in bringing significant changes to the health institution.
One of his first point of duty call was meeting with former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, the Alake and Paramount Ruler of Egbaland, Oba Adedotun Aremu Gbadebo for Royal blessings, the Nigeria Medical Association (MMA) executives, among others.
Dr. Israel pledged to transform FMC Abeokuta into a “world-class” health institution that attracts international patients.
He also promised to move the hospital away from the national power grid to renewable energy to ensure sustainable and uninterrupted power for medical services.
“I am excited that I have an opportunity to make a difference in Abeokuta.
“I am excited, and I look forward towards coming to work with you, to lift that institution that I know had been rated “A”. I want to work with you to make it an “A”+
“My goal is to be able to support the management of FMC Abeokuta to make it a world-class institution.
“We must become a model healthcare institution that other teaching hospitals will come to ask us, ” how are you doing it.
“We are not going to make it by word of mouth. We are going to match our words with action”, these were the words of Dr. Isreal after his appointment.
One year on…. Allegations and Petitions
Few months into his assumption of office, several issues arose, which among includes the expenditure of about N25.5m within two weeks by the board chairman.
In a letter dated 11th March, 2025, sighted by our reporter, which was directed to the Coordinating Minister, Prof. Muhammad Ali Pate, CON by the management of the institution, and signed by the then Medical Director, Prof. Musa Olomu, detailing situation report on the activities of the board chairman in regards to financial handlings.
The letter reads, “I humbly write to acquaint you with the activities of the newly appointed Chairman, Board of Management of the Hospital, Dr Adedayo Israel who made a two-week tour of facilties of the hospital including rural annexes. He was received with the honor deserving of his new office.
“During the tour, he dabbied into the day to day running of the Hospital by having Departmental Heads and Heads of Units make presentations to provide him with the challenges of the work place which I consider an interference with my duties as the Medical Director and negates the provisions of the Administrative Guidelines Regulating the Relationship between Parastatals/Government-Owned Companies and the Government to which his attention was drawn.
“No legal document either from the Presidency or the Ministry was presented to the Hospital Management introducing him to the Hospital as the Chairman, Board of Management of the Hospital.
“To maintain the peace, he was given the freedom to carry out his activities. This saw him set aside the position of Government Rules and Regulations in his quest to acquaint himself with the operations of the Hospital.
“His request for an official SUV and Co-pilot Vehicle in the sum of over three hundred million naira drew the ire of the Management as no budgetary provision exist for this demand. This is without prejudice to the fact that I have served as Medical Director for over Seven years without a befitting official vehicle for my office.
“The Hospital was made to spend well over twenty-five million naira to cater for Hotel Accommodation and other incidental expenses on him and his retinue of Police Orderlies, Aides, Special and Technical Assistants at the end of his tour. This has negatively impacted the smooth running of the hospital in meeting the daily needs of providing services to patients and paying vendors for the supply of consumables and services rendered to the hospital.
“More worrisome is his current disposition to the appointment of a substantive Medical Director after my exit on 31st May 2025 as he claimed that it is well within his responsibility as Chairman, Board of Management to midwife the process for the appointment of a new Medical Director against the position of the Ministry.
“This activity, if allowed, will further plunge the Hospital into serious financial crisis as the Hospital is yet to recover from the humungous depletion of scarce financial resources that the two-week tour gulped. Rendering Services will be adversely affected.
‘On June 1, 2025, the Hospital Management and day to day running of the hospital under the leadership of acting Medical Director, Dr Saheed Adediran was totally hijacked by the Board Chairman, relieving staff of their duties and introducing non government staff into the running of a subsidiary of the hospital (FMCA Consult Limited).
In another letter dated 13th October, 2025, a group known as the ‘Concerned Staff of FMC, Abeokuta’ petitioned the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) over what they described as abuse of power, and mismanagement of FMC, Abeokuta by the Board chairman.
Part of the allegations against Dr. Dayo Isreal includes he unilaterally removed Directors of FMCA Consult Limited, a company incorporated by the immediate past Hospital Management in order to increase Internally Generated Revenue for FMCA, making himself the majority shareholder and appointed Ag. Medical Director and the Director of Adminisiraion as subordinaie shareholders, and that he also appointed political followers and supporters who are not civil servants, nor staff of FMCA as managers of the company fully funded by the Federal government.
They also alleged that Dr. Isreal used his political power and influence to intimidate and oppress the civil servant in FMCA, mismanaged government funds in violations of government financial regulations
This, the group says constitutes a total flagrant disregard for law and ethical standards of the institution.
It was also gathered that under the Instruction of the Board Chairman and in an attempt to curry recognition from staff, the Director of Administration and the then Ag. Medical Director, allegedly manipulated the approval to conduct the 2025 Staff promotion obtained from the Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation. This, they say has generated widespread dissatisfaction among affected staff.
An insider plea
A source closed to the medical center, who preferred anonymity stated that the new leadership style of the board chairman is less than desired.
He alleged that the day to day operations of the hospital has been fully hijacked by him and management has become a porn on his chess board.
“This is inimical to the kind of growth and progress the hospital is supposed to experience.
“A clear look into the activities of the chairman suggest a departure from the rules and regulations of government that should guide the operation of FMC as a hospital.
“The Board Chairman is now the majority shareholder in the consult company incorporated by the previous management under the guardians of the Federal Ministry of health and Finance, through the office of the accountant general of the federation.
“It is an abberation that a part time chairman to make himself a shareholder in a government owned enterprise. This is unknown to the constitution and policies of government.
“More worrisome is the fact that he has directed the FMC Consult to operate a commercial bank account against the TSA policy of government. This infractions and many others should not be allowed to continue.
“The understanding is that when a board chairman is appointed, other board members are also appointed and the supervising ministry inaugurates them to commence operation, this is not the case here. We have only a one man Board, which has not even been inaugurated. This infractions should not be allowed to continue
“We pray that well meaning Nigerians to prevail on Mr President to reverse this ugly trend”, he pleaded
Change is inevitable– Dayo Isreal reacts
Meanwhile, when this reporter called Dr. Dayo Israel, he insisted that the allegations are unfounded, saying that his accusers are only immune to change and doing things the right way.
Isreal maintained that he could not have mismanaged any funds as he is not a signatory or handler to any of the financial accounts at the center or the business arm FMCA Consult.
“How do you mis-manage what you don’t have access to or control. It’s a mere clinging to straw of sinking individuals who have been denied access to continue to exploit the resources of FMC Abeokuta and its business interests.
“Our job as a board is to give fiscal direction and conduct oversight in line with Mr President renewed hope agenda and we would do it no matter whose ox is gored”, he said
Sharing his achievements so far, Dayo Isreal stated that he has been able to ensure financial accountability of the various departments at the center, restructured and ensure proper legal establishment of FMC Consult to protect its unique business entity as a Limited Liability Company registered under CAMA with FMC Abeokuta as the major shareholder.
“Do you know that there hasn’t been any institutional retreat or strategic capacity building training for staff or management in the last 10 years at FMC.
“No strategic direction or vision document for the collective community. We have however ensured that in the 2026 budget, training of staff and retreats becomes a priority in particular for the management and senior cadre, to enable the institution craft its strategic goals for the next 5 years, especially with the recent appointment of a new Medical Director.
“The FMCA Consult, for which generated some of these allegations have never declared or returned dividends/profits to FMC Abeokuta as a shareholder in the last 7 years, as being done in other climes like UNILAG consult.
“There hasn’t never been an independent audited financial report of the consult since inception. We have therefore restructured its composition to ensure its unique identity as a Limited Liability Company under CAMA.
” We inaugurated an acting managing team led by an acting Managing Director, a former Shell Petroleum Senior Manager and in 3 months, a financial report was presented at the board meeting with revenue upsurge. They now present monthly financial reports and business flow. This is how to run a Limited Liability Company.
“As of June this year, 6 of the board members of the consult registered with Corporate Affairs Commission have either retired from the center including the then MD, former DFA and others; while many were no more in their former positions when they were made directors. We had to remove them all and at the June 2025 extraordinary board meeting, we unanimously appointed new directors (professionals) for the consult, as the major shareholders.
“Why the petitioners are pained is that we continue to block the loopholes they exploit to milk the center dry. The moment we removed the Telemedicine Hall management from the hand of the former managers to be managed properly by the consult as the profit making arm of FMC Abeokuta, they felt threatened and that was when this petition came out.
“They believe they can force the hand of the board to return the management of the hall to the staff committee that was managing it before but we are determined that FMC staff should focus on clinical and other services to patients, while the consult focus on profit making businesses. The indiscipline is due to a lack of a substantive board in the last two to three years before my appointment, but change is inevitable.
“You know when there is no board, they only report to the ministry in Abuja, and the abuja people do not have enough time to monitor in details what’s going on in Abeokuta. There are over 70 other federal health institutions in the country with their own issues, so it’s hard to monitor just 1 effectively, which is what necessitated a board anyway, and these guys are always reluctant when they see a board that wants to do its job.
“The level of corruption we met at FMCA is mind blowing. Over 5 security agencies and organisations are investigating the immediate past medical director, from the EFCC to ICPC, to SFU to SGF to various National Assembly committees”.
“It is false for them to say I am running a one man show. The board extracts are there, the minute of meetings are there. The board meeting are fully attended by the Statutory board members which includes the Medical Director, the Head of Clinical Services, the Director of Administration, the Ogun State Commissioner of Health who have been very supportive; We are also expecting other political board members to be announced by the President soon.
“Don’t forget that this is the only Federal Tertiary Institution and Referral Center in Ogun State so it is very important not just for the indigenes, and traditional institutions but also for the government.
“And in line with the schedule of the establishment act, we have also been co-opting senior management to board meeting to enable leadership efficiency.
“Under this new board administration, we have introduced vertical elevation policy for all our infrastructure. We are running out of land at our Idiaba Campus and to ensure this doesn’t happen, we have a board policy that any new building must be vertically elevated and include spaces for expansion as long as the budget can accommodate it.
“As a way to also bring the center out of the debt quagmire, the board also introduced a policy that forbid major infrastructure projects to be funded by IGR, and rather should be funded by appropriation so the meagre IGR can be used to meet critical needs of the hospital including the drugs revolving funds and other essentials.
“These are part of how we are ensuring fiscal responsibility of government funds at FMC Abeokuta.
“For the consult, I am not involved in their finances in any form or ways and not a signatory to any of their account”, he added
