Education
University of Lagos.
University of Lagos.
He was the former Minister of Health. Born on 22 April 1962 in Yaba, Lagos, Nigeria. Chukwu trained as a medical doctor at the College of Medicine of the University of Lagos in 1986.
Subsequently, he obtained post-graduate qualification in orthopaedic surgery from the West African Postgraduate of Medical College.
He is a Fellow of the West African College of Surgeons and a Fellow of the International College of Surgeons. He was the Chief Medical Director/Chief Executive Officer of the Ebonyi State University Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki (2003–2008).
In 2007, he was appointed Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at the Ebonyi State University Abakaliki Nigeria and visiting Professor of Surgery at the University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus in 2010. C. O. Onyebuchi Chukwu was the former Nigerian Minister of Health, who resigned in October 2014, to run as a candidate for the Governorship of Ebonyi state, Nigeria.
Currently, he is the Chairman of the Country Coordinating Mechanism (Nigeria) of the Global Fund to fight Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GAFTM) and the West and Central African Constituency representative on the Board of the GAFTM.
As well as the Chairman of the Bureau of Ministers of Health of the African Union (CAMH6). In 2008 Onyebuchi Chukwu was dismissed as the Chief Medical Officer of Ebonyi University Teaching Hospital by the Ebonyi State government due to an uncovered fraud. Under his watch, the health sector in the country has faced a lot of unrest among the health workers.
In 2014, during Ebola epidemics, the government sacked 16000 resident doctors who had been on strike for eight weeks despite the outbreak.
Onyebuchi Chukwu was first appointed Minister of Health of the Federal Republic of Nigeria by Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, in April 2010 and re-appointed in June 2011. As Minister of Health of Nigeria, he has championed the Transformation Agenda of the President in the health sector with considerable success.
During his term, Guinea Worm Disease was eradicated in Nigeria for which the World Health Organization in December 2013 certificated Nigeria as a Guinea Worm Free country. His term has also seen the worst strikes among medical workers in protest to the poor conditions or pay and working to which he is largely oblivious.
He is an International Affiliate and a member of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons and a member of the Societe Internationale de Chirurgie Orthopedique et de Traumatologie (International Society of Orthopaedic Surgery and Traumatology).