NSP Celebrates Pa Oshin, First African Physiotherapist @95 •Urges FG To Honour Living Heroes
The Oyo State chapter of the Nigeria Society of Physiotherapy (NSP) has described the first African physiotherapist, Pa Abayomi Oshin, as a hero and an icon who deserved a national honour while alive.
Celebrating the physiotherapist who turned 95 years, last Friday, the society said Pa Oshin has left indelible prints, not only in the Physiotherapy profession, but also in the fabric of the Nigerian healthcare system.
The Oyo NSP described him as the doyen of physiotherapy in Africa and a selfless Nigerian who began his career at the University College Hospital, Ibadan on 10 January, 1955.
The society disclosed that Pa Oshin is also the only chartered Nigerian physiotherapist who later travelled to the United States of America (USA) as an exchange physiotherapist from 1958-1959.
NSP, Oyo State chapter, however, called on the Federal Government to identify and honour national heroes, especially in the health sector, while they are still alive.
The society, in a statement by its Special Adviser on Media and Strategic Communication, Faysol Oluwakemi, frowned at the attitude of the Nigerian government of not celebrating national heroes during their lifetime.
It therefore tasked the Federal Government to recognise those it described as change-makers who have played significant roles in nation-building.
“It is so unfortunate that the government of Nigeria has failed to recognise a patriotic Nigerian who doubles as the first physiotherapist in Africa and father of the physiotherapy profession in Nigeria, Pa Dr. Thompson Abayomi Oshin, who turned 95 last Friday.
“Pa Thompson Abayomi Oshin (PT, Ph.D) was born on Friday, 30th July, 1926 at Mobalufon, Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State in his maternal grandfather’s house and was raised in Sabongari, Kano where his parents lived then.
“Dr Oshin, who speaks Yoruba, Hausa and English languages fluently, had his elementary education at the Holy Trinity School, Kano and migrated to Lagos in 1941 to commence his secondary school education at Lagos Baptist academy.
“He passed the Senior Cambridge School Certificate Examination in 1946 and the University of London Matriculation Examination in 1947.
“Despite the fact that Pa Oshin had always has a passion for caring for the sick, injured and people living with disabilities since his early days in the Boys Scout, his father wanted him to study Law.”
“As a result, he contacted a friend in England, who introduced and encouraged him to study Physiotherapy which was a burgeoning healthcare profession with a lot of prospects in Africa which later led him to study Physiotherapy at the Physiotherapy School, Peto Place, Regents Park, London.
“Pa Oshin, in 1963, enrolled for a two-year Diploma in Teacher of Physiotherapy (Dip. T.P) course at King’s College Hospital, London and returned to Nigeria in 1966 at the expiration of his course.
“He single-handedly started the first B.Sc (Physiotherapy) programme in Nigeria at the University of Ibadan in October, 1966.
“He obtained his Bachelor of Physical Therapy degree from the University of Manitoba, Canada in 1969; his Ph.D from the University of Ibadan in 1982 and thereafter transferred his service to the University of Ibadan as a lecturer in 1973.
“Dr. Abayomi Oshin was appointed the first Head and Consultant Physiotherapist to the University College Hospital, following his appointment as a lecturer in the University of Ibadan.
“Subsequently, Pa Oshin, in 1959, co-founded the Nigeria Society of Physiotherapy (NSP) with Oyo State as the first chapter.”
