Sometime in April, UIMSAites expressed their democratic franchise by electing new leaders into office for yet another tenure. One of those elected was Mr Theophilus Olayiwola, who contested for the position of the SDO clinicals. Having done a good chunk of the first half of the tenure, a UIMSA Press correspondent, Emmanuel Utibe, caught up with him for a conversation on how his service delivery in office has been. The excerpts of that meeting are contained below
Interviewer: A good chunk of the first half of the tenure has gone. Just like this our interview kept running into one hitch or the other, have things also been like that with your plans for your office?
SDO Clinicals: So true. Indeed things have been coming up. There are instances when you think you want to get funds for something and then you are not able to raise the funds. It’s one of those few issues that we have had even though currently I can’t point out any other specific instances.
Interviewer: You have co-ordinated the fresh Clinical intake orientation and also the book drive for this tenure. How well could you say they have gone?
SDO Clinicals: The clinical orientation was fine. I believe people benefited from it. You know sometimes, as we are humans, you could learn and some people would not learn but then I believe it was really helpful for the majority of the class who attended. For the book drive, it has been going well, we have had a good number of people apply and some people have started getting the books.
Interviewer: There are still some issues with some people wanting some books which aren’t yet available. Have there been moves on your end to get more books to address that?
SDO Clinicals: Currently, if I’m not mistaken, from the last SDO Clinicals’ account of stewardship, they were able to increase the books to 66 and we have further increased it to a 100+ books. We have gotten a number of books from people and there are still moves to get even more books.
Interviewer: How well has Academic committee fared given that it’s your constitutional duty to head it, and also, that in your manifesto, you talk about increasing publicity for its activities?
SDO Clinicals: On that end, aside the Clinical orientation which has already been referred to, the Monthly Quizzes and even a mock exam for the 2k23 class who would shortly be starting their MB2 exams. (The mock exams were conducted as promised), the office of the SDO Clinicals and the Academic Committee have worked closely on these and a couple of others, with good publicity around them.
Interviewer: Beside monthly quizzes, you talked about keeping up the Erudite Challenge which began in the last tenure and also organizing an Interdepartmental Quiz. How are the preparations for that going?
SDO Clinicals: For Erudite challenge, the prep is already at say 90% complete (As of the time of publication, the Erudite Challenge has been concluded, with relatively high level of success. However, there was a noticeably low turnout of UIMSAites). We already have the questions ready down and other stuff but then we just need the money, so if you have people that would give us money for it, we would appreciate it. There’s also an inter-MSA quiz and prep is supposed to start this week but then the tests for various classes affected it and so by next week, we should start full scale with the prep (There has been no word on the Inter-MSA Quiz as of the time of publication, contrary to what was promised) Majorly we are looking at making it an inter-MSA quiz rather than an inter-departmental quiz. I think that’s in the year plan.
Interviewer: It is to be said that, initially, among all the candidates, judging by your scores, the screening committee did not have a big trust in your ability to deliver and that was pointed out at the Press Night. What has been the difference right up from then?
SDO Clinicals: Not everybody is a good talker. Not everyone is good at expressing themselves, but when you are given something, you should try all your best to make it work. I would say it’s not really much of a change in person or plan but more about how I was able to express myself as regards my line of thought.
Interviewer: Lastly, aside from what was outlined in your manifesto, are there other plans that you have identified and would like to implement during your time in office?
SDO Clinicals: I think, one of the other things which I have started which was not in my manifesto was Welfare Mails for people like the exams class and the 2k24 class when they were just coming in even if I don’t know if it was functional before. Other things I thought of are scholarship opportunities but then the Assistant General Secretary and General Secretary are already working well on that (The Press can confirm that UIMSAites have been made aware of certain scholarship opportunities via the monthly newsletter, although that is a pre-existing arrangement from previous tenures).
