The emblem of democracy is its appeal to people. Power! Such that the government is seen merely as a mechanism for the people to rule their society, and so the government in a democracy is always answerable to the people. For this, people who get elected in governance are always expected to fulfil promises made to the populace. In light of this, a correspondent of the UIMSA Press, Emmanuel Utibe, caught up with Mr Alimi Mubarak, the Public Relations Officer of the association for a brief discussion on how he has fulfilled the mandate of his office. Find the excerpts of that meeting below:
Interviewer: Good evening Mr Mubarak. Going straight into it, at the start of the tenure just after the election, you were in the center of a controversy so to speak where a certain UIMSAite questioned your ability to deliver on the mandate you were given. So far, some might say you have fared well in office. Can you speak on the achievements made and the challenges faced?
PRO: Thank you very much. So far, I would start with the challenges as everything comes with them, even though ours have not been major challenges. For one, when setting up your committee, you would need to create rapport and even though most people are well known to me, we have had issues with responsiveness on the committee. Much of the committee pools from the 2k24 and 2k25 class and while I had expected my classmates to be really active, I would say maybe the transitioning took a toll on them.
Also we have been able to do some things outlined in my manifesto like the bi-weekly release of contents such as Scrubs Friday, Owanbe Saturday, Throwback Thursday and all the likes (The UIMSA Press reports that most of these have not been consistent). To be truthful though, that has not been going smoothly as we started late due to challenges in creation of the sub-committee and getting members on it. We did try in some of them like the Man Crush Monday and Women Crush Wednesday. We started with members of the 2k19 class as a way of riding the trend of the time as we started around the time 2k19 were in the last lap to being doctors. The rest has not started off well or at all but then we are looking to make sure things fall in place and we get them going as we recognize that these are part of the things that boost our social media engagement.
Speaking on social media engagement, there has been a slight increase in that aspect with the major increase being on LinkedIn. Getting into my tenure, I was advised that LinkedIn is a good platform to connect and push to our alumni and the public at large and that it would help in raising funds for these events. We even had to surmount a problem with LinkedIn as UIMSA had lost her previous LinkedIn account which was on 400 followers and a new one had to be created two tenures ago. When I came in, I met that account at 40 followers and I had to work together with my committee to try to boost it as that was a problem because when people try to tag UIMSA on LinkedIn, the previous account naturally comes up first. We have up to 300+ followers (This has been verified to be accurate) and use this medium to remind UIMSAites to follow us on LinkedIn and tell their friends too to follow us.
Lastly, there is the case of the Ibadan WhatsApp TV which I mentioned in my manifesto and I hold dear in my heart but we have had major challenges here. I have made several efforts, gone to MTN office twice, solely, in bid to surmount the challenge here which is getting the SIM Card for the association. The requirements have been hefty and currently I’m working with the President to get some letterheads and getting it signed by the Dean so that I could take it and try to use it if they would accept. They keep asking for the CAC number of the association but then ours is not a corporation in that sense. We will continue in our efforts as several people have reached out and I had to explain that we are still working on it.
Interviewer: As regards the TV, alternatively, if you are not able to process a SIM card for the association, would there be a fallback to a person registering the SIM in his name for the association?
PRO: Yes, I have had that in mind and even the person who I asked before I included it in my manifesto talked about having done that, herself. But then, I had to try to get one for the association first before exploring an alternate option, as that might also come with it’s challenges down the line. If need be, I could eventually get the SIM and then have it kept in the secretariat as association property. (As of the time of publication, the proposed WhatsApp TV still hangs in limbo).
Interviewer: Moving on, you promised the timely publication of the Medscion Magazine. They (the Magazine board) had a few issues last tenure and you talked during the Press night on how you would ensure the magazine gets published. How are preparations going and what is the outlook of things?
PRO: As regards the magazine, indeed I have been reaching out a lot. The last time the magazine was published was in 2021 by then PRO, Dr Zema Ali and I have been in constant communication with him. He has been of help and I have talked with my committee and the play is to work with the previous magazine, Vagus, which was already in the pipeline. Problem in the previous tenure was mainly funds and then finishing, so I would be working with the previous PRO as most members of the previous magazine committee have already graduated and the rest 3 or so persons are currently in my committee. We plan to still publish Vagus but then we would review those articles, which are now outdated and hope that makes it easier for us to finish up with the magazine as the major thing is to get the Medicon magazine published for UIMSAites and the public use.
Interviewer: Would there then be a call for new articles to augment since you guys would be looking to review out the outdated articles?
PRO: Indeed, we plan to do that. Aother thing we will be doing is reaching out to known writers in UIMSAites on topics which go with the magazine theme and encourage them to put in articles. We would be doing this additionally, as we realize that despite the call, not a lot of people put in articles as expected. We encourage UIMSAites to put in their articles. (The Press can confirm that the review process is in progress. However, there appears to be a delay by the Managing Director from which the PRO is exempt).
Interviewer: Regarding the point in your manifesto about Twitter spaces, how well has that gone?
PRO: We have had a first Twitter space which we held in collaboration with OAU and currently we have not held the next one which we had hoped would be in August. The main challenge here has been coming up with appropriate discussion topics. Initially there was supposed to be one for the UIMSA executives 100 days in office, but at the time, the Executive Council was in a controversial situation with a certain UIMSAite and there was an air of dis-taste. While we acknowledge the need to get feedback, we realized that having that in a public space, open to just about anybody, could bring about a distasteful situation. Currently, I hope that there could still be a space in August or something early in September. (Both of these spaces were not held).
Interviewer: Are preparations for the Primus List already being made or would that be put off till the second half of the tenure?
PRO: According to the Year plan, the Primus list is to come out in December and so the work would start very soon. Usually work on the Primus list starts 2 to 3 months just before it would be published.
Interviewer: Has the redesign of the association website now been completed?
PRO: No, not yet. We have held meetings with the designer. We are also trying to include some things which were not originally in the plan and so my office and that of the Gen Sec have been working on it.
Interviewer: Are there plans not in your manifesto that you have identified and would like to implement while in office?
PRO: Yes, something like an Alumni spotlight where we highlight noteworthy alumni of the association, interviewing them and hoping to gain insight from them that could benefit everybody. It was something done 2 tenures ago, twice I think, and featured on the website. Also, I initially planned to celebrate UIMSAites of the MonthI but I realized that we frequently celebrate UIMSAites on their wins and spotlight UIMSAites with the Man Crush Monday and Woman Crush Wednesday series.
Interviewer: Finally, we already mentioned in passing the issue certain UIMSAites fom the 2k24 class had with the executives and the way it played out on the UIMSA Central Group. Given that some of the issues came up because of what seemed like a communication gap between the executives and their efforts to address the issues brought up by these individuals at the point who felt slighted, do you as the PRO, agree that there was a communication problem there?
PRO: The main thing around the accommodation issue then was the fact that it was an ABH problem and fell more within the purview of the ABH Executives who themselves seemed very much concerned about it. We did try our best as an association too, as we realized that we have the largest share in the membership strength of the hall and we tried to work with the ABH Executives to ensure that things quickly came to order. I tried to explain to people as I could even though I would acknowledge that there was no official notice from the hall. LOoking at that, I realize that while I did try to communicate, one or two public releases would have helped the situation better. By the way, the same way those UIMSAites were affected, I was affected too, and I tried everything within my capacity to ensure issues were appropriately attended to.