ACCEPTANCE SPEECH BY PROFESSOR INNOCENT A.O. UJAH, FNMA, mni ON THE OCCASION OF BEING ELECTED AS PRESIDENT OF THE NIGERIAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION (2020-2022) ON SATURDAY 30TH MAY, 2020.

Today, history is made in the annals of the NMA that despite the challenges occasioned by the novel virus ravaging the nations, the NMA is also able to collectively evolve a novel approach in using technology to conduct its meetings and further conducting elections using electronic means into the national offices.

I am excited, humble and grateful to God Almighty and you all for electing me as the President of Nigerian Medical Association (NMA). Thank you for this great honor and privilege, whose import is deeply ingrained in my conscience.

You have spoken with your votes and expressed with clarity your trust in me and my leadership ability by this broad-based national and inter-generational support across the country. With this trust comes a great responsibility to lead our great and vibrant Association with confident strides towards the path of glory and positive impact. I am pleased to say that I have humbly accepted to serve as your President from 2020 to 2022. I promise to devote every effort to lead our Association to greatness.

To my fellow contestants, I want to thank you for running an intensely competitive campaign and for opening my eyes to some perspectives concerning our Association. Even though some among us went too far during the campaigns, we must leave that in the past and focus on the present and future of NMA. Therefore, I wish to extend my hand of fellowship to those who contested with me, that you come and join me in this onerous task of leading and transforming NMA. Your ideas, inputs and advice will be greatly welcomed.

I also want to congratulate other members of the National Officers’ Committee (NOC) for emerging victorious in this election. It is my earnest desire that teamwork shall become our modus operandi. I want us to work as a syncytial unit beating with one heartbeat of vision to steer with courage, innovation and persistence the wheels of NMA. I appeal to each member of the NOC to take his roles and responsibilities with seriousness and commitment so that the sum of these individual contributions will lead to impactful outcomes for NMA. Furthermore, I intend to run an all-inclusive government, where the voices and concerns of our members will be heard, validated and served, to guide our actions as NOC. We will work on encouraging more women to play more active roles in NMA.

Our administration will take the issue of the welfare of our members as a top priority. We will lobby and advocate for improved renumeration, realistic hazard allowance, Universal applicability and many others.

We face a crucial time with the Covid-19 pandemic. This pandemic is not just a health crisis but also a socioeconomic crisis. Hence, NMA must be innovative in its approach. We will look at how to reduce the cost of running the association by adopting technology for some of our meetings. We will manage our resources with integrity and ensure that international standards of financial management are adopted in NMA in order to enhance accountability and transparency in the day-to-day operations of our Association. In addition, we will seek innovative ways for sustainable funding for NMA. I want to appeal to our members with such ideas to please reach out to the NOC with their contributions.

The NMA National Strategic Plan will be at the front burner of our administration. We will put together a great team to facilitate policy planning, implementation and evaluation for NMA. It is time for NMA to adopt a development sector thinking and approach in its operations. That way, we will entrench efficiency and effective management of aspirations and our meagre resources.

While leveraging on the gains of previous administrations, collectively we shall open up new frontier in line with my IMPACT manifesto. Our administration will specially focus on seeking mutually beneficial collaborations and partnerships with Government and other organization to uphold the dignity and the welfare of the Nigerian Doctors and improve health delivery outcomes in Nigeria. We shall continue to engage other health workers in order to improve inter-professional harmony within the health sector to understand each other and by seeking and pursuing common goals.

Over the next two years we will continue to build on our strengths, but also take on new directions. As NMA is a professional Association and not a trade union, we will continue our programs to strengthen our professionalism through commitment and solidarity. If each one of us puts in what we can, we will get back what we need and continue to build a strong and vibrant Association.

And as I refer to our proud past as an Association, I wish to acknowledge the achievements of our outgone NOC who have served the Association in the last two years under the leadership of Prince Dr Francis Adedayo Faduyile, we shall build on your successes. I thank you all and on behalf of all colleagues, I present to you all our gift of appreciation.

My special gratitude goes to the IMPACT 2020 campaign team ably led by Dr Chris Piwuna, (the Director-General of the Campaign team) and NMA Plateau for the massive support, and great coordination during this campaign. Your sacrifices, commitment and innovativeness were in eloquent display throughout the campaign. I am saying thank you from the depth of my heart. I acknowledge the support of past presidents, our supporters across the globe, the northern caucus and all the other caucuses in NMA, and many others I won’t be able to mention here due to space. Without your support this victory will not have been possible. I assure you that I will work hard to justify the trust you have in me and the NOC.

I will not want to bore you with a long speech but I promise that together with the NOC, and with the support of all Nigerian Doctors, we shall work tirelessly round the clock to actualize the impact agenda for results, taking each impact agenda seriously as we move the Association to greater heights.

I thank you all and I look forward to an exciting immediate future for us all. Let’s make IMPACT together!
Long Live NMA! Long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria!!

Signed:

Professor Innocent AO Ujah, FNMA, mni
NMA President 2020/2022;
30th May, 2020