Health

Special Report: A peep into Ahidjo’s many dreams and visions of making the UMTH biggest hospital in Nigeria (1)

Published

1 year ago

September 25, 2023

News Net Global

Special Report: A peep into Ahidjo’s many dreams and visions of making the UMTH biggest hospital in Nigeria (1)

By: Bodunrin Kayode

Everyone has a right to dream. So if the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH) Professor Ahmed Ahidjo’s long-term dream is to turn the hospital into a first-class institution with the largest number of bed spaces in a country where little regard is given to the health sector, then a large chunk of his dreams have come to fruition. And this, many observers make bold to say, concerns the ongoing rehabilitation of dilapidated structures and the building of new ones going on in the community.

Equally, former visitors to the previous massive single German replicated building facility would now actually say, Thank God the hospital has been transformed into the reality of this century. The entire world has been driven by dreams, so why not the managers of the health sector in Nigeria? This is because dreams rule the world of progress today. Without dreams, there would be no progress in the politics of those who refer to themselves as developed. Without dreams, life in the third world will be worse than oblivious. Robert Kennedy, Eleanor Roosevelt, Walt Disney, Harriet Tubman, Mohamed Ali, Mike Tyson, John Lennon, Ralph Emerson, Martin Luther King, and Mohandas Gandhi were all dreamers at one time or another of their lives before achieving anything admirers call meaningful today.

When the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. made his dream speech during the march on Washington for jobs and freedom in August 1963, he never lived to see his dream come to fruition. Those who felt ‘rights activist’ King was too ambitious had to sniff life out of him because he was “going too far,” according to sources, and if care is not taken, the Baptist minister’s “dream” may come true too soon. If it does, like that of Joseph in the Bible, how will the haters respect a black man like Barack Obama who made it to the White House? To his killers, change from institutionalized servitude to freedom is not an option in this life. It took one bold, proactive man like King to even dream about the foundation of change in that society, and it’s beginning to materialize. Change is the most permanent phenomenon in all spheres of life, even here in Nigeria. And it is one of the phenomenal reasons for the very existence of Professor Ahmed Ahijo, who is almost spiritually tied to the hospital, as he confessed during the 40 years celebration.

This is why lots of dignitaries gathered recently at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH) to see the “changes” brought about by the present management team led by Professor Ahmed Ahidjo for themselves and to celebrate the landmarks of achievements planted in the facility.

Transition from the one-building complex system to institutes, complexes, and centers equipped for the next 40 years of service

Indeed, there is no harm in dreaming; it is dreams that give rise to visions. If the old men will dream and the young men will see visions, God himself will be glorified, and humanity will be better for it, as is the case with the UMTH, which is now spiced with several new structures to enhance efficiency in the treatment of patients in north-east Nigeria and beyond.

It has taken the proactive nature of an alumni turned CMD, Prof. Ahidjo, to design and start new structures in the facility to create space for desperately needed expansion. This is because he saw it all from the beginning, when the foundations of the departments were being hatched, and to this day, the “institute, center, and complex system” is now a reality. No wonder we have a “150-bed trauma center” completed by his dexterity. The 1000-seat auditorium and conference center built by Professor Babagana Zulum, the new GOPD/NHIS/Retainership complex, the “Physical Rehabilitation Centre,” built in collaboration with the Red Cross, the “Burns Centre,” built and donated to the UMTH by the North East Development Commission (NEDC), the “85-bed Kidney Centre” the “Radiotherapy and Cancer Centre,” the “150-bed Zainab Shamsuna Child and Adolescent Institute,” and many others.

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Professor Ahidjo is a visionary who has spent so much time transforming some of his dreams into fruition that even those who never thought anything good could come out of this facility are astonished at the speed with which he converts his dreams to reality. Impeccable sources told this reporter that the CMD is so dogged that even when everyone in the finance department knows that there is no money for another new dream, the CMD goes on to utilize his political goodwill in high places to get what he wants done, as it was in the completion of the notorious trauma center. The trauma center became “notorious” because it took several years after its pronouncements by the same federal government before it came to fruition.This facility is the major tertiary hospital in Borno, and there was a need to hurry up to get it done because so many people were losing their lives to dastardly improvised explosive device (IED) explosions from suicide bombers with no trauma center to take them in. While the orthopedic ward was jam-packed to the brim with both military and civil patients,

As a matter of fact, in one of my casual strolls around the facility towards the Old GOPD point during those desperate years of Professor Bashir Tahir’s reign as Chair of the Medical Advisory Committee (CMAC), I found out that some patients had to be given makeshift foams on the floor while their treatment started before they were transferred to the orthopedic center, where Dr. Dapkana and his team would fix them up. Happily enough, the CMAC himself will not move an inch during his ward rounds if the nurses do not get a space to fix up such squatting patients. There was a desperate need for more bed spaces and a trauma center where such patients could enter the theater almost immediately after certain protocols had been established. I became so worried about the Abuja politics and the delay in the delivery of the project that I had to ask the minister, Professor Adewole, during one of his visits to the state to see things for himself and end up in the government house when he was going to give the hospital its trauma facility. From the reaction on his face, he was obviously miffed at my question and looked at Professor Bashir with a strong inquiry: Who is this one? Then CMAC smiled and said, He is a journalist and one of our friends. I am sure my question left a strong impression on him before he left in 2019.

All said and done, the media he seemingly despised so much made all the noise about the trauma center for several years, but nothing happened until Ahidjo came with his political dexterity and the building was delivered on a platter of gold and commissioned by President Mohammed Buhari in 2020. The CMD, however, told me exclusively about some of his moves, which included shattering some red tape to ensure that humanity does not continue to suffer in this part of the country. Professor Ahmed Ahidjo is really a genius like most lefties of his generation, and his political dexterity while understanding the laws of the power game of those people upstairs in the supervising ministry of health is a case study for the future.

Special Report: A peep into Ahidjo’s many dreams and visions of making the UMTH biggest hospital in Nigeria (1)

Health

Korean Film Festival Returns to Nigeria After COVID-19 Break

Published

2 months ago

September 22, 2024

Ochuwa Ibrahim

Korean Film Festival Returns to Nigeria After COVID-19 Break

By: Michael Mike

The Korean Embassy in Nigeria has commenced the Korean Film Festival in Nigeria after it went on break during the CIVID-19 pandemic.

The latest edition is the 12th Edition of the festival and was hosted at the Silverbird Cinema, in Abuja between 19th September to 21st September 2024 with several movies screened.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, the Korean ambassador to Nigeria, Kim Pankyu, expressed delight with the return of the festival after it was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

He said: “I have come to deeply feel that South Korea and Nigeria share a strong cultural affinity, especially in their love for music and dance.

“Due to this cultural affinity, various elements, such as fashion and cuisine, along with music, are resonating in Nigeria.

“Particularly, there has been a significant surge in the spread of dramas and films.”

He added that: “Along with the global hit ‘Squid Game’ in 2021, the most-watched drama series on Netflix Nigeria in 2022 was ‘Alchemy of souls’.

“Thus, I have come to realise the importance of introducing Korean films to Nigeria, one of the world’s top 3 film-producing countries.”

Also speaking at the event, the Director-General of the National Council for Arts and Culture, Mr Obi Asika, said millions of Nigerians had fallen in love with K-pop [Korean music] and K-drama [Korean drama].

He said Nigeria would continue to learn from the Koreans to improve its entertainment industry.

Korean Film Festival Returns to Nigeria After COVID-19 Break

Health

New UNAIDS Report that Debt Crisis Has Left Health Chronically Underfunded in Africa

Published

2 months ago

September 19, 2024

Ochuwa Ibrahim

New UNAIDS Report that Debt Crisis Has Left Health Chronically Underfunded in Africa

By: Michael Mike

Growing public debt is choking sub-Saharan African countries, leaving them with little fiscal room to finance health and critical HIV services, a new report by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS).

The report said domestic revenues, debt relief and development aid: Transformative pathways for ending AIDS by 2030 Eastern and Southern Africa/ Western and Central Africa, shows that the debt crisis is putting in jeopardy progress made towards ending AIDS.

It added that sub-Saharan Africa accounts for the largest number of people living with HIV, with more than 25.9 million people of the 39.9 million living with HIV globally. The region’s success in having reduced new HIV infections by 56% since 2010 will not be sustained if fiscal space is constrained.

The report, released ahead of the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, showed that the combination of growing public debt payments and spending cuts set out in International Monetary Fund agreements in the next three to five years will, if unaddressed, leave countries dangerously under resourced to fund their HIV responses.

The UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima said: “When countries cannot effectively look after the health care needs of their people because of debt payments, global health security is put at risk,” adding that: “Public debt needs to be urgently reduced and domestic resource mobilization strengthened to enable the fiscal space to fully fund the global HIV response and end AIDS.”

The report said debt servicing now exceeds 50% of government revenues in Angola, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Uganda, and Zambia, adding that even after debt relief measures, Zambia will still be paying two-thirds of its budget on debt servicing between 2024 and 2026.

It said there has been a noted decline in HIV response spending since 2017 in Western and Central Africa, from 0.3% of GDP in 2017 to just 0.12% in 2022.

It said Western and Central Africa will need to mobilize US$ 4.18 billion to fully fund the HIV response in 2024. This will climb to US$ 7.9 billion by 2030 unless efforts are scaled up today to stop new HIV infections.

While US$ 20.8 billion was available for the HIV response in 2022 in low and middle-income countries through both domestic and international sources, this funding was not enough to sufficiently finance the HIV response. Western and Central Africa for example had a funding shortfall of 32% in 2022.

In 2024 alone, Eastern and Southern Africa will need to mobilize almost US$ 12 billion to fully fund the HIV response. This amount will climb to around US$ 17 billion by 2030 unless new HIV infections are reduced.

It said to enable increased domestic resource mobilization for countries to respond effectively to their pandemics, sub-Saharan African countries will need to strengthen their tax systems, including closing tax exemptions which currently cost countries an average of 2.6% of GDP in lost revenue across the region. Donors need also to scale up financial assistance for health and the HIV response between now and 2030, while creditors should offer debt relief to heavily indebted countries to ease the burden.

Byanyima said: “World leaders cannot let a resource crunch derail global progress to end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.”

New UNAIDS Report that Debt Crisis Has Left Health Chronically Underfunded in Africa

Health

Flood in UMTH: Professor Ahidjo’s demonstrated leadership in emergencies

Published

2 months ago

September 13, 2024

News Net Global

Flood in UMTH: Professor Ahidjo's demonstrated leadership in emergencies

Flood in UMTH: Professor Ahidjo’s demonstrated leadership in emergencies

By Dr. James Bwala

The flooding in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State in northern Nigeria, has presented serious issues for the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH). The administration of the hospital has been putting a lot of effort into determining the extent of the impact as they prepare to put in place a comprehensive strategy to deal with these environmental issues and guarantee that medical care is provided as usual.

UMTH considers improving its infrastructure resilience to be one of its main tactics. In order to lessen water accumulation during future heavy rains, the hospital intends to improve the drainage systems surrounding its property. It also intends to participate in community outreach programs that educate locals about flood risks and promote preventive measures like proper waste disposal and land management techniques that can lessen the effects of flooding. Furthermore, UMTH has improved its alliances with both governmental and non-governmental groups in order to streamline the mobilization of resources in times of crisis.

Speaking on the destruction caused by the flood at UMTH, the CMD stated that flooding presents serious problems for communities all around the world and calls for efficient response systems. The Chief Medical Director (CMD) has started a number of programs to lessen the negative effects of floods and prevent them from happening again. He claims that the hospital works to lessen vulnerability and increase resilience in affected populations and patients by implementing comprehensive flood control policies and strategic planning.

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The creation of early warning systems that enable prompt alerts for approaching floods is one of the CMD’s planned initiatives. By utilizing cutting-edge meteorological data and predictive analytics, these devices will help UMTH communities get ready for any future flooding. Additionally, public awareness campaigns have been crucial in informing the public about the dangers of flooding and in supporting preventative measures like emergency evacuation plans, which the hospital intends to utilize going forward. These programs are made more effective by including community input, which guarantees that decision-making processes are informed by local expertise.

Two crises were brought about by the flooding: the immediate risk to patient safety and the interruption of medical services. In response, UMTH took extensive steps to protect its patients’ wellbeing while guaranteeing the continuity of their care. These actions included creating emergency procedures. Also, a plan for the allocation of funds for flood control and working with the government to enable prompt responses may be understood in the efforts to assess the level of disruption by the flood.

The mobilization of medical staff to obtain vital medical supplies and support patients in evacuation attempts was a crucial component of UMTH’s reaction. Employees put in a great deal of effort to move patients who were at risk from impacted locations on the hospital grounds, giving priority to those who needed intensive care or had chronic illnesses. In addition, patients were accommodated in makeshift shelters that were established upstairs at the hospital.

Significant worries about patient safety and the operational integrity of medical equipment have been raised by the water occurrences at the cancer centers and radiology departments. The Chief Medical Director, or CMD, has stated that quick evaluations are essential to determine the level of harm done to these devices, especially considering how important they are to treatment plans and diagnostic imaging. Flooding can affect these sophisticated instruments’ calibration as well as performance, which might result in inaccurate readings or inefficient therapy delivery. Therefore, it is essential that a thorough assessment be carried out prior to any device being approved for usage.

Professor Ahmed Ahidjo

The CMD also stresses the need for thorough backup planning and routine maintenance to reduce the likelihood of similar events in the future. This entails making investments in waterproofing techniques for crucial sections of healthcare facilities to guarantee that equipment can tolerate unforeseen environmental difficulties. The current state of affairs emphasizes the necessity of proactive risk management techniques and serves as a reminder of the vulnerabilities present in the healthcare system.

The Chief Medical Director (CMD) made admirable efforts to guarantee that patient care remained a top priority in the face of these challenges. These preventative actions included arranging for the deployment of resources, improving staff coordination, and putting emergency protocols in place to handle the flood of patients impacted by the catastrophe. In times of crisis, the response from patients and their families demonstrates a complex interaction between heightened expectations and thankfulness.

The majority of patient relations’ responses to these initiatives were favorable. Numerous people conveyed gratitude for the CMD’s leadership amid a turbulent moment, emphasizing how prompt actions reduced possible health risks related to flooding. The construction of makeshift hospitals in safer locales demonstrated compassion for patients in times of emergency and built a rapport between medical staff and patients. Since it strengthens the therapeutic connection at the heart of efficient healthcare delivery, this trust is crucial.

Indeed, the flooding has had a substantial impact on the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH), exacerbating pre-existing issues within the healthcare system. Thousands of patients depend on the hospital, a major healthcare facility in northeastern Nigeria, for both routine and emergency care, making it an indispensable resource. There is an urgent need for more governmental and non-governmental help in light of the flood issues currently facing the region in order to guarantee that UMTH can carry on offering vital medical services to the community, Nigeria, and all of west Africa.

Dr. James Bwala, PhD, writes from Abuja.

Flood in UMTH: Professor Ahidjo’s demonstrated leadership in emergencies