Tales of Leadership (06): An Interview With Moses Ojile, 2k25 Majority Leader
In this edition of the tales of leadership series, UIMSA Press spoke with Moses Ojile, the majority leader of the 2k25 class on his leadership of the class over the last three tenures. In this interview, he spoke on how he has been able to combine class leadership with his own personal responsibilities as well as important highlights of his time in office so far.
Q: Could you please introduce yourself and your class?
Moses: My Name is Moses Ojile, I’m the class rep/majority leader for the MBBS 2k25 class.
Q: Are you a first time majority leader?
Moses: No, this is my third time being a majority leader.
Q: Let’s go back to the very first time you contested for the role of majority leader, what led you to contest for the office?
Moses: Prior to my vying for office of class senator, I had served as the pioneer welfare director of the class, I also served as the class coach and then I was a congressman. Having garnered those experiences, and seeing my influence in the class and how things had went well under me, I felt the need to join the class leadership. That’s how I took the senate form and eventually became the majority leader for the first time.
Q:Going back to your introduction, most classes have a tag name starting from 100 level that they use for various events such as quizzes, debates and all. Can you tell us what your class name is and what led to choosing the class name. Also, we’ll like to know if the class name extends to the BDS class and if there are plans to ensure that this class name is kept.
Moses: Yes, we have a class name and a unique name at that. The name is Mavericks, and we got the name in 100 level by creating a poll where people dropped suggestions and ‘Mavericks’ had the highest number of votes. So far, the class name has reflected, Mavericks refer to people that do new things, break new barriers, and set new standards and so far everywhere we’ve been through we’ve always created new standards and we’ve done things that maybe other classes have not done before, in essence we’ve been unique, that’s the word. Yes, we intend to continue using this name because it’s branded already, we have a logo already and we also have a letterhead that we use in writing official class letters and all.
We intend to continue using the name up until final year, when a unified name between MBBS and BDS would be created. But as it stands, BDS have their own name, they’re called Ad Astra. But for now, we’re called Mavericks and we’ve been Mavericks so far. All the way from 100 level, we’ve done things that other classes are emulating such as the packages, even up to MB having two double distinctions.
Q:Back to your first time contesting, what was the campaign and elections like?
Moses: Starting the first campaign I actually thought it was going to be difficult. And even before I declared my interest I had met a few people. And they said from the experiences they’ve had with me in the class as welfare director and so it was nice hearing that from classmates. I then had to plan a very good manifesto despite that. We were about 12 that contested for the senate, and that’s been the highest number so far so I had to put in a lot of work which was well received by my classmates. Having to sit down to even plan what I had for the class was a really nice experience because personally, I’m someone that loves innovation. And eventually I was elected.
Subsequent elections have been pretty much the same, most times people reach out to me and ask to be sure I don’t have plans of not contesting and that’s because of the good works that we’re doing and then I’ve been also privileged to work with a an excellent team of senators from the first time, the second time and even this third time.
Q: Is there any item on your manifestos that has proven difficult for you to achieve or bring to reality?
Moses: What we normally do after election is that we combine all manifestos of the senators and that’s what we use to form the year plan for the class. I think the most difficult ones have always been the ones where we have to fundraise and we knew from the outset that it was going to be difficult because fundraising is always difficult. There was one for the last tenure, where we had a plan to fundraise for some class projects and it was difficult but we eventually got through with it and most of the times the majority of our funds were from classmates. There was also a case where we gave foodstuff to some of our classmates that needed it and although it looked very difficult from the outset we were eventually able to achieve it, to a point where there were excesses and we had to give them to the cleaners in anatomy.
Q: Has leading the class challenged you in any way?
Moses: Most times it has been about balancing leading the class and academic roles with my own personal life as well, so it’s doing many things at the same time and still being excellent in all. No matter how good you are, it’s still a challenge. But with God’s grace, the good people of the class and other members of the class leadership it has not been too difficult. The reason is that I see this as all of me, I don’t see myself as majority leader here and Moses there, I wake up every morning as Moses and majority leader of the class. I have also been able to function well by dividing the responsibilities, so as the majority leader I don’t have to do everything. For instance, in cases where people come back to ask questions about information that has already been passed, I don’t get pissed off about it anymore, I might just copy the response and paste it whenever anyone asks for it.
Accommodation has also been another issue, for instance I had to start working even from home, I also had to resume clinicals without any accomodation because I had to be available on the first day of class to keep things running smoothly.
Q: Which is more challenging between managing your academics and managing the class?
Moses: I would say it’s academics, because in medical school there’s always a lot to do, reading everyday, going to wardrounds, chasing procedures if you’re in medicine so you have to always be up and doing. Since we’re comparing I’ll say that’s harder because like I said I have found leading the class more like a family.
Q: What habits of your classmates tend to stress you out?
Moses: I’ll first of all really like to appreciate my classmates, because they’re really a wonderful set of people and they’ve made the leadership very easy. Habits that stress me include the information thing I mentioned earlier, also when deadlines are set and people don’t do things until the deadlines have passed or maybe when an information is passed ten times there’s always that one person that doesn’t see it the whole ten times.
Q: Has anything ever happened that made you consider stepping down?
Moses: No, it has never happened.
Q: How do you manage conflict between class members, class members and lectures and your class and other classes within and outside UIMSA?
Moses: Conflict resolution is a vital role, we’ve been able to solve conflicts between class members by first acting without taking any sides that is as a neutral party and whenever we resolve conflicts, the aim is always to resolve the case and find a common ground. I’ve had issues where someone did something bad to someone, and the person reported to me, after listening to the person I try to calm the person, I don’t condemn the other person even if they’ve done something bad, I then sometimes apologize on behalf of the person because the other party is still our class mate at the end of the day. I then reach out to the other person and ask for their comments, I analyse the comments and find a way to mediate a common ground between both parties by giving both parties what they’re looking for on a common ground. The aim is always to resolve the conflict as classmates.
Between classmates and lecturers, there are cases where I’ve been called by lecturers where it feels like the lecturer has been insulted. I had to make sure to earn the trust and respect of the lecturers, then the goal is always to find a common ground and usually there’s a need to apologise to the lecturers and pacify any parties that are annoyed. For class-class conflict, we’ve been a very peaceful class so I doubt we’ve ever had to have a fight with another class. We’re friends with our junior colleagues and our senior colleagues. There was a time where there was going to be a little bit of annoyance from my classmates when there was a bit of above the board banging after we lost a quiz, and what I told my classmates was to not engage and then it all died down. We’ve always been a peaceful and not a weak one, for instance there was a time in 100 level where there was an event with one of our classmates at a quiz event and we all made a decision until something was done. We’ve always been peaceful but our interests are always protected.
Q: What has been the peak of your service to your class?
Moses: There are lots. Right from the close of 100 level where we were able to come up with a very good result due to our joint efforts, we had about 50 4.0s (perfect CGPA). Even in pre-clinicals, there have been many instances where people from other classes reach out commending the well organized nature of our class drive. Also our exam packages, I remember in 200 level when Doctor Obeya Mark reached out to me that for us to be doing this in pre-clinicals, it’s something he’s never seen being done and that we were on a way to doing greater things. Other classes also sometimes reach out on how well organised we were especially in terms of our executive meetings, there were also times where we received good comments from our lecturers as well.
Also in MB1, the number of distinctions we produced, also the number of people that passed their resit exams given the amount of efforts that went into organising tutorials for the resit exams, those were very good times. In the first tenure, I won the UIMSA award for the best majority leader. Another very good memory would be my birthday this year, this is one that would last very long in my memory, they organised an entire birthday party without my knowledge and it was one of the best days of my life. There were also times where we raised money for very pressing issues, for instance there was an instance where we raised money for some of our classmates who needed money to pay their HTPL and we raised over a hundred thousand over the night and they were able to sort out their fees.
Q: What has it been like serving on the UIMSA Senate?
Moses: It’s been amazing serving as a UIMSA senator, I find it so interesting and I always look forward to UIMSA Senate meetings, the meticulousness and all. As someone that’s attracted to seeing things well organised, I admire the UIMSA Senate for that. It has also built me in so many ways, my public speaking skills, leadership and connections as well. It was UIMSA Senate my research journey started when I met Adesola, I’ve also since made connections with many seniors and I’m glad I joined the senate at the time i joined the senate.
Q: What are the opportunities you’ve gotten from being a class rep?
Moses: I’ve gotten a lot of opportunities, such as having interaction with our lecturers and our senior colleagues, that interaction opens up many opportunities. I’ve also gotten research opportunities, there are also many events that I’ve been able to attend and connect as a class representative. It has also made certain applications easier because on my CV I’m there as class representative. Those are very good opportunities, and I believe there are more to come as we proceed.
Q: What methods have you put in place to ensure seamless running of class activities?
Moses: Since we came in during the first tenure, the aim has always been that there’s a working structure on ground and that’s what we did and have been doing so far. It always involves all the class senators coming together to put up the year plan, which is like a combination of all the manifestos. Then we have various committees and teams coming together, making sure the class rep is not doing all the activities. We also regularly have executive meetings where we meet and present reports, all this is made possible by the presence of a team of like minded individuals that I work with who ensure that the class is doing great things and everyone is doing fine. As the majority leader, I’m always on the lookout for people that want to work and serve.
I also remember creating a project called 100% committee which included me, the academic committee chairman and the welfare director where we collated all our CA results in an excel sheet in order to monitor the progress of each and every of our classmates and we used to have a “reach out to” and the “watch out for” list, that included people whose performances were not that good and we reached out to them and today those people are still with Mavericks.
Q: If you were not the majority leader, which of your classmates would you trust to take up the role?
Moses: Any of the class senators I’ve served with, because they’ve all been wonderful people.
Q: Would you ever step down from being class rep?
A: No, I don’t think so.
Q: What’s next for you after this tenure?
Moses: I’ll still be in the UIMSA Senate next tenure, there are also other opportunities to serve in bodies outside of UIMSA.
