UMTH: How Professor Ahidjo’s Transformation Agenda Impacted the Information Unit

UMTH: How Professor Ahidjo’s Transformation Agenda Impacted the Information Unit

By: James Bwala

The UMTH PR and Information Department is statutorily responsible for presenting the hospital objectives, decisions, and actions in their true and most desirable perspective, contributing to the awareness of governments, institutions, and the general public about UMTH and its activities, while presenting UMTH as a professional institution in the field of medicine, data analysis,  and projections. But until the CMD took deliberate steps to rejigger this unit, many stories about the transformation that has been going on in this institution would barely get to the public.

The PR and Information Unit has performed primarily on internal communications, leading a traditional way of telling its stories only to a very few individuals without much effort to tell its story beyond the four corners of the hospital. In fact, many staff confesses to the fact that they have started getting readily available information on the activities going on in the hospital with driven interest only when the CMD took over and shifted focus to getting the public’s attention through the active reporting of its activities.

“The decision of the management team to engage public media professionals has helped the hospital in no small way in our efforts to achieve the desired outcome for our activities. It has also strategically helped us in blowing our trumpet to what we have achieved as well as shielding us from mischieve makers and armed chair commentators about what is and what is not and all the yes and no questions that we have to say for ourselves, especially in the court of public opinion or in the circle of murky waters when mischievous individuals seek to pull up in their fashion.” The CMD said this during a chat with NEWSng.

Professor Ahidjo had been in the system long enough to understand the matrix of operations and lead a management that speaks volumes about its achievements. Therefore, when he came as CMD, he understood that the department and unit he needed to work closely with was also the PR and Information Unit, as it holds the key to making the day better if given the needed attention to function well. With the new approach to gatekeeping, he quickly moves to ensure that he increases staff strength and conditioning by training and retraining through consultancies for results.

“There are improvements in the quality of staff because Ahidjo also engaged some journalists to work with the information department to achieve the desired results. He also bought the necessary equipment for quality production from a videographer to steal cameras and computers. The information unit at the UMTH is now better. It has been very silent in the past, but since Professor Ahidjo came in as CMD, the information department has come alive. Although not without some little needs for improvement, the work that Professor Ahidjo did in transforming the PR and Information Unit is commendable. What I think is needed at the moment is for the unit to grow into a directorate since the federal government has given approval for such across the federal institutions. If this unit is upgraded to a directorate, it is going to have a greater impact on discharging duty.. Dauda Iliya, the Chairman of the Nigerian Union of Journalists in Borno State, who has been close to the information department, made this observation while speaking to NEWSng on the current relationship the journalists in Borno enjoy with the PR and Information Unit at UMTH.

Speaking also to a cross-section of journalists in Maiduguri, they said that

In many organizations or institutions, the PR and Information Unit remains in the background or relegated in significance, but at the UMTH, it is understood that the administrator is well informed about their duties and always carries the department along in the discharge of his responsibility. Why an organization or administrator may not have the same understanding as what is obtained under Ahidjo’s management team is largely due to the little or no attention given to this department despite its importance to such an organization or institution.

According to journalists in Borno, the department takes the lead in ensuring that every department or unit is gatekeeper to ensure the right information gets to the public, deescalates rumors, and protects the organization or institution from media mercenaries, who are constantly on a scavenger hunt for negative stories for a targeted analysis, which usually comes hard on the executives and top management of such organizations or institutions. At the UMTH, they recount the number of times journalists visited, and the unit plays the voice and role in linking journalists to either the management or doctors that need to speak concerning their operations, and Professor Ahmed Ahidjo always has his doors open for questions.

In their findings on the relationships established between the PR and Information Unit with journalists in Borno State, media practitioners described the efforts that resulted in such a harmonious relationship with UMTH to largely the accessibility and open-mindedness of the CMD when it comes to media. According to them, it is easy to know who is in charge of an organization or institution from the reception of anyone seeking to make journalistic findings from discussions with the departmental head of the PR and Information Unit.

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“It was different with UMTH under Professor Ahidjo. Several times I go there, and it is easy for me to access the information I need to report on. When it became necessary that I needed to speak with the CMD or CMAC, the connection from the department told me that the management team understood the importance of the information unit..”One of the journalists said:.

While elaborating on his understanding with the PR and Information Unit at UMTH, the Metro-Watch Correspondent, Bodunrin Kayode, told NEWSng that, “I will say that Professor Ahidjo is a PR official himself. He is the No. 1 PR official at UMTH. To me, he is not just an administrator. He is not like other people who just do their job and do not care about the image of their institution. You know there are some people who, when you give them a job, will focus on their job and forget about other things. But in the case of Ahidjo, I will say that he is concerned and cares about the image of the hospital. The few times that I have interacted with him in terms of reporting,  he always gives positive input into what should be the outcome. He cares much about what news comes out of the hospital, and as such, he cares to ensure that the right thing is done. He thinks that even though he does not have the power to be 100 percent perfect, he tries to do his best to attract a positive image to the institution, thereby making him very close to the unit that controls the information flow of the institution.

“I think information management is not restricted to professionals; any wise person should care about his or her image and the image of the organization he or she is heading. It is a fact that Professor Ahidjo is a wise person who can count on that sense. He is very sensitive to reactions to issues coming from within or outside that come to his hearing. I recall a time when a colleague told me about information he received about the hospital, and I asked the CMD for clarification. He said, ‘Kayode, you have been here for a while now to know that such information is not true. That, to me, shows the level of care he has about information filtering about the institution under his administration. This is unlike how some administrators take issues concerning them or their organization and, in the end, fall into trouble.

“Professor Ahmed Ahidjo will always contribute to what is humanly possible. I also think that he has a very good relationship with his staff generally. There was a time I was chatting with the PRO, Mrs. Justina Anaso, and she described the CMD as a “goodman.” In fact, she said that he operates with her department as family. He tries to bring everybody close. The CMD has been very creative, and his impact is felt in all the departments and units in the UMTH. Although I will say that there are still needs that require attention in the PR and Information Unit, I have seen new faces of staff, which means that the CMD is doing something by bringing more hands to help him achieve more in the hospital. I believe some of the achievements to be made are coming gradually, but in general, he has done much.

“He has created so many centers in the hospital and is working round the clock with his management team to leave a footprint in the hospital. I hope that he will pull out the PR and Information Unit to have their own structure. That is a major impact he has to give them to enable them to operate as a directorate. I believe with a directorate of information, he will create a newsroom where journalists can come to brainstorm and create more positive impact for effective coverage of the activities in this large hospital.”

UMTH: How Professor Ahidjo’s Transformation Agenda Impacted the Information Unit