Chairman of the Tunji Olowolafe Foundation, Dr. Tunji Olowolafe, has decried what he described as Nigeria’s excessive emphasis on professional certification at the expense of continuous learning, warning that such a mindset limits professional growth and innovation.
Speaking at the unveiling of the first EyeSi Virtual Reality Surgical Simulator in West Africa and the inauguration of the Gbemisola Olowolafe Centre for Ophthalmic Surgical Simulation at the Guinness Eye Centre, Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Olowolafe stressed that regular training and retraining remain indispensable to raising professional standards and preventing reliance on outdated methods.
“If I may be candid, across almost every profession and vocation in Nigeria, we don’t place enough value on continuous education. Once we qualify, we collect a certificate, and we consider the job done for life. We make the mistake of thinking training is only for things we do not know. But the most vital training is in what we already know—reminding ourselves, over and over again,” he said.
Explaining why his Foundation supported the project, Olowolafe, who is Chancellor of Ekiti State University (EKSU), said a presentation by the Faculty of Ophthalmology of the National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria (NPMCN) during its 2025 Faculty Lecture highlighted the urgent need for the equipment and inspired the intervention.
The Miva Open University Pro-Chancellor said the EyeSi simulator offers surgeons a safe environment to repeatedly practise delicate surgical procedures, receive objective feedback and steadily improve their competence without placing patients at risk.
“This machine gives surgeons—whether qualified last year or thirty years ago—a place to practise delicate movements over and over. It gives honest feedback, and it lets you come back the next day to get better,” he stated.
According to him, the simulator not only reinforces existing knowledge but also equips practitioners with emerging techniques that will gradually replace obsolete methods of practice.
Olowolafe called for the establishment of similar simulation centres across medical institutions in Nigeria to institutionalise continuous professional retraining, expressing optimism that such investments would position Nigerian ophthalmology among the leading medical specialties in Africa.
Earlier, Chairman of the Faculty of Ophthalmology, NPMCN, Professor Charles Bekibele, described the unveiling of the EyeSi Virtual Reality Surgical Simulator as the fulfilment of a vision that had spanned more than three decades.
Bekibele said the project, delivered by the Tunji Olowolafe Foundation in partnership with the Faculty of Ophthalmology and LUTH, had placed Nigeria on the global map of ophthalmic medical education.
He noted that Nigerian trainee ophthalmologists had long travelled to countries such as India, Pakistan and Bangladesh for specialised training in phacoemulsification cataract and vitreoretinal surgery, expressing confidence that the new facility would revolutionise specialist training in Nigeria and across West Africa.
The Centre is equipped with immersive virtual reality technology for simulation-based training in phacoemulsification cataract and vitreoretinal surgery. It has already admitted its inaugural cohort of six trainees, including participants from Kaduna and Onitsha.
The pioneer trainees described the simulator’s tissue-response mechanism as remarkably realistic and expressed confidence that the facility would significantly reduce the need for Nigerian ophthalmologists to seek advanced surgical training overseas.
