The First Ordinary Meeting of the Congress held on Saturday, the 17th of June, 2023. The meeting commenced at 10:12 am in Famewo Common Room, Alexander Brown Hall. The first item on the agenda was the co-option and swearing in of new Honourables into the Congress. The following Honourables were sworn in:
- Adenike Oluwatosin Ajagbe (600L)
- Oluwaseun Temiloluwa Adeyemi (600L)
- Temidayo Odunsi (600L)
- Olawale Adedapo Adegbite (500L)
- Chibuike John-Anthony (500L)
- Ayomide Joshua Adigun (400L)
- Olubanke Adenike Ogunyinka (400L)
- Kehinde Stephen Olajiga (300L)
- Blessing Oluwatosin Olaniyi (200L)
The Orientation of the elected and co-opted Congressmen and Congresswomen was next on the agenda and, after some technical issues, the citation of the guest speaker, Dr. Ebubechukwu Eriobuna, a former member of Congress and a winner of the prestigious provost award, was read. She then proceeded to give a speech to the new members of the Congress, informing them on what is expected of them and how they are expected to conduct themselves, urging them to be involved and not just be passengers in the process.
The Year Plan of the Executives was presented by the President of the association to the Congress after this. Some activities of note are the Research Training, the Games Day and the World Heart Day CHAP, all set to hold before the health week. The President was asked to shed more light on the Erudite Challenge and the Preclinical mentorship scheme, two activities in the year plan. The Erudite Challenge is a quiz competition, before the health week. UIMSAites can come together to form teams as they wish and are not limited to working with only their classmates. The Preclinical Mentorship scheme is initially going to be for the incoming 100L class. Members from 200L upwards will be asked to sign up to mentor them.
The Senate Chairman then presented the Year Plan of the Senate. There will be two Senate Leadership Summits. This will be to help senators become better leaders by learning soft skills. The plan was adopted and the meeting proceeded to the state of NiMSA.
The NiMSA Representative came forward to present this. UIMSAites are urged to participate in NiMSA activities to know more about the association and can do this starting with the NiMSA Southwest Regional Convention holding at Onabisi Onabanjo University between the 21st and 24th of September, 2023.
The FAMSA Report was taken and comments were made and questions asked. The FAMSA Annual Scientific Meeting is set to hold from the 17th to the 21st of November, 2023 in The Gambia. The call for abstracts is currently open till the 13th of July, 2023. UIMSAites who submit articles can sponsor themselves to attend or present virtually.
The IFMSA Representative presented his report and questions about publicity were asked. He responded by saying he would try to work with the PRO to publicise their events. He also explained how UIMSAites can join IFMSA by first being active locally, holding positions before applying to IFMSA. The IFMSA General Assembly is holding in Delhi, India from the 1st to the 7th of August, 2023.
The Year Plan of Dokita was presented by an observer. Comments were made about the poor publicity of the last Dokita Symposium and they were urged to improve this tenure. A point was raised that Dokita should consider making the journal a bigger event, accepting articles from various parts of Africa since it was the first of its type. It was also reported that the winners of the Biennial Professor Adeleke Essay Competition that last held in 2021 haven’t been awarded due to the misappropriation of the prize money by the previous Editorial Board to fund the last journal. The present board is currently looking for funds to replace the misused funds. The Finals of the Dokita Quiz competition is also yet to be held due to GSK not honouring the arrangement to fund the event in its entirety. It was reported that the board is currently working with the legal team in UI to see what next steps to take. They were also urged to give specific timelines as to when things are due.
A motion was moved and accepted for the creation of an ad-hoc committee to look into the issues plaguing the Dokita Board and for the report to be presented at the next meeting of the UIMSA Congress. The ad hoc committee, consisting of 5 members was constituted and is to be headed by Honourable Ajisafe of the 500L constituency.
The Year Plan of the UIMSA Press was read and corrections were made. UIMSAites can look forward to the Medipreneur monthly publications.
After some deliberation the Congress Committees were then constituted, the Congress budget was adopted and an ad hoc committee on Congress Capacity Building programme.
The meeting was adjourned at 14:19 pm.
