The atmosphere at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital Nnewi Thursday, 20th May 2021, was thrown into a festive mood when both management, staff, and a section of Nnewi youths came out en mass to give a rousing welcome for the Acting CMD who was away for an extended couple of days.
The demonstration and jubilation which was spontaneous left the Acting CMD shocked and pleasantly surprised. In his words: “I didn’t know they are going to do this, I was away. That is to show you how we are here. Some of these people must have seen what we are doing here and are beginning to appreciate them”. 
Clearing the air on some of the rumours flying about the Teaching Hospital, he said: “For some time now, a group has been actually spreading wrong information about the Hospital. Going to the Internet to dish out false information that NAUTH is not working, that when you bring patients here, that they die and all what not; but we all know that is not the truth.
“We have put in a lot of efforts and resources to reposition the Hospital. To now go out there to peddle unfounded rumour is very unfortunate. And there are two ways to go about it: either you allow it or you correct it immediately.
If we were selling goods it would have been okay, but in this case, we are selling services and our Clients’ perceptions of the qualities of the service we are providing is very important.
So, if you allow people to ruin that perception of the quality of the services you are offering to them, it becomes rather unfortunate. The Hospital has done an advertorial debunking that negative perception. If we allow such to go on, it is not good leadership.
“Leadership is more about how to correct the wrong perception. It will not be good leadership if we allow people out there to spread false rumours about us. The workers here are people who have laid down their lives to serve the people, so, for you to cast aspersions on them on the basis of petty politics is very wrong.
“I don’t know who sponsored that rumour, but whoever did that and the Reporter that reported it has done a great disservice to the system. When you get that type of report, what I expect from you as a responsible Journalist is to do your investigative Journalism, because it is very bad to smear the image of a big Institution like this. You can’t say because people are saying this and that you just go ahead and report it.”
Who is Dr. Joseph Ugboaja
Continuing, the Acting CMD stated that they are building an Institution and that they have a vision and would not want anybody to come and water down the vision, explaining that one of their challenges was the proper perception of NAUTH, stressing that before now, the perception of NAUTH was not right, but steps are being taken to correct that perception. In his words:
“The current situation we have now is that the members of staff are up and doing, the staff are all happy and so, there is a new lease of life. This is the present reality on the ground and we will not allow some individuals to smear that image.
Positive image projection is one of our thematic areas and we will not allow anyone to rubbish us. If we allow it, we won’t reach our mission. The vision is that sooner than later people should be coming from the U.K. and the U.S.to come and seek medical services in NAUTH.”
On the magic behind the fast pace of progress and whether the Government has released the Take-Off Grant? Dr. Ugboaja clarified:
The Hospital has been here for years and we have not been able to move to the permanent site. I took over on the 25th of January 2021. On the 1st of February, we started moving to the permanent site and as of now, we have moved almost all the Departments. It is not magic. What you are seeing is a product of key factors.
“The first factor is the leadership. The fact is that if you want the growth of an Institution like NAUTH, you must get the right leadership. The leadership that has the right orientation and the right mission.
“A leadership that is courageous enough to do that which is right. Secondly, you should also have a good workforce that is disposed and willing to key into your vision. The vision that is not shared is a dead vision and even if you share your vision and people did not buy into it, it will also die.
“When you see us make progress on our way to achieving our goal, it means we have a vision and we are the custodian of that vision and people have bought into it. That is why when it was very inconveniencing for us to move to the permanent site when the roads were so bad, our staff accepted it and happily went to work.
“The third factor which is the major factor is that we have partners and stakeholders who are also in the vision and are interested in the vision.
“All these people are passionate about making sure that the Hospital becomes a reference point in medical practice in the world. Now assuming we don’t have all these people and we have all these wonderful visions, where do you get the funding and we know that Nigeria is financially challenged.”
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