tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-87921142104436668282023-11-15T10:05:50.982-08:00DrIMBanaruDrBanaruhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15886566344643570397noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8792114210443666828.post-60690928685182637882013-01-01T17:16:00.001-08:002013-01-01T17:16:24.402-08:00NiMSA 2011/2012: A VALEDICTIONAs the sunrises to usher in the new year 2013, it is also momentous to the NiMSA family as the official commencement of new set of executives and adjournment of the council 2011/2012 sine die!<br />
<br />
The NiMSA term 2011/2012 may soon be found only in the records of history but I am pleased to say it has made remarkable records in gold, and it gives me mixed feelings as I write this valedictory note.<br />
<br />
It was indeed a rare privilege to serve this great association in such a capacity (VP-Internal) that saw me working directly with individual MSAs to build their own structures as affiliate organizations under NiMSA.<br />
<br />
If I am asked to describe our administration in few words I will say; a vibrant team, full of vigor that served NiMSA diligently.<br />
<br />
I recall with nostalgia the emotional highs of such times when disagreements ensue, but we always evolved afterwards more focused and united, thanks to the camaraderie of the President Eilojie Omobude and the VP-external Muzzammil Gandaya...<br />
<br />
To the other members of the council and MSA Presidents it was indeed an honour and great pleasure working with you guys.<br />
<br />
To other organizations and individuals who have in one way or the other contributed to the success of this administration we say a big thank you.<br />
<br />
Our time might have come and gone but the events of our term shall be remembered albeit not perfect but a purpose driven stint and a shining example of the essence of unionism NiMSA had.<br />
<br />
Time-lines created and met, challenges conquered and goals achieved!<br />
We bow out in contentment grateful for the opportunity to serve and hopeful the flag keeps flying.<br />
<br />
I wish the new executives a fruitful tenure, I am confident my brother Bashir Maru is equal to the task, having worked with him in the recent past am sure NiMSA has got yet another competent leader.<br />
<br />
Compliments of the season<br />
Ibrahim M.B Abubakar<br />
Vice President for Internal Affairs<br />
NiMSA 2011/2012DrBanaruhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15886566344643570397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8792114210443666828.post-33470890401660945862012-10-22T11:21:00.001-07:002012-10-22T11:21:49.780-07:00To Auwal Shanono, tribute to a life cut short Written by Ibrahim M.B. Abubakar Friday, 08 July 2011 00:00. dailytrust.comTo Auwal Shanono, tribute to a life cut short<br />
Written by Ibrahim M.B. Abubakar<br />
Friday, 08 July 2011 00:00<br />
in<br />
Share<br />
SocButtons plugin<br />
“We are from Allah, and unto Him we shall<br />
return”<br />
The weekend 4th to the 5th of June, 2011 will forever<br />
remain indelible in the hearts of medics across<br />
Nigeria, and most especially family and friends of the<br />
34th NiMSA president.<br />
That was the ugly weekend that the 34th NiMSA<br />
president comrade Mohammad Auwal Bala Usman<br />
Shanono passed away in violent circumstances.<br />
Indeed late Shanono was a fine leader, a true friend<br />
and an emerging national asset cut shorts at his<br />
prime. Shanono died on a mission to safeguard the<br />
lives of our sisters, aunties and mothers! He met his<br />
death while on his way back from a sensitization rally<br />
on reduction of maternal mortality (if NCWS were to<br />
choose a man of the year, who will rather fit better<br />
than Shanono posthumously).<br />
My first encounter with Shanono was sometime<br />
around August of 2007 in Abuja during the Nigerian<br />
Medical Students Association (NiMSA) unity General<br />
Assembly(unity GA) organized by the Nigerian<br />
Medical Association, NMA to harmonize NiMSA back<br />
into a single entity after the emergence of factional<br />
leaderships. As destiny will have it Shanono was<br />
nominated to be the co-secretary of the unity GA that<br />
ushered in the 2007/2008 NiMSA leadership.<br />
That he who scribe that NiMSA shall live!<br />
As a people of faith, we believe that it is Allah’s will<br />
that we live and eventually die; as the Quran rightly<br />
says “every soul shall taste death”. That is correct,<br />
but in peculiar circumstances like the ugly incident<br />
that led to Shanono’s death, it is permissible for the<br />
kith to seek justice holistically. Though most of us<br />
have refrained from asking why someone will kill<br />
Shanono while on national assignment, because we<br />
believe so Allah ordained, but we still ask for justice<br />
for that our silent hero whose life scared in the sight<br />
of Allah and protected by the laws of the land was<br />
terminated for no justifiable reason.<br />
If I am asked to describe the person of Shanono, I will<br />
phrase it thus; a true comrade who came from a<br />
humble beginning and blossomed into a modest<br />
leader who lived to serve his people remarkably.<br />
In his sojourn as NiMSA leader, he made outstanding<br />
achievements. He was able to among many other<br />
crucial achievements, established strong friendly ties<br />
with related Governmental Agencies and other NGOs.<br />
He hosted a national health awareness rally at<br />
Shanono LGA of Kano state where<br />
Patients were attended to and given free medical<br />
treatments. He has also as NiMSA helms man led<br />
participatory delegations to many health awareness<br />
rallies.<br />
A very notable feat under his leadership was the<br />
successful hosting of the 5th Africa Regional Meeting<br />
(ARM-Abuja-2010) under the auspices of the<br />
International Federation of Medical Students<br />
Association, IFMSA. It was a purpose driven event<br />
with the theme “Millennium Development Goals,<br />
MDGs 3, 4, 5 and 6 the journey so far in Africa”.<br />
The event was well packaged to educate and<br />
incorporate youths in promoting the ideas and ideals<br />
of the MDGs and prompting their implementation<br />
before the target year of 2015. I could recall how<br />
visibly elated the then state minister of health was as<br />
he declared open the ARM plenary when he saw in<br />
the audience not only delegates from African<br />
countries but even those from countries outside the<br />
African fold, there were over 200 delegates all on<br />
Shanono’s invitation!<br />
Memories of my many personal moments with<br />
Shanono echo as I write, just one for the purpose of<br />
this piece. I remember sending him a text message<br />
on the occasion of the 2010 Eid el-kabir, jokingly<br />
asking for my Sallah ram, I did not receive a delivery<br />
report at that moment, it was only around 7 pm that<br />
he called telling he just saw my message that he was<br />
just arriving the country from Tanzania and on his<br />
way to Abuja. He actually was in Tanzania to attend a<br />
function organized by the Tanzanian Medical<br />
Students Association. He also jokingly said my<br />
presidential ram was on its way. Shanono was out on<br />
assignment on Sallah day! That is just one out of<br />
many of the sacrifices Shanono had to make in the<br />
service of NiMSA.<br />
True to his words, Shanono was in forefront<br />
promoting the interest of Nigerian medical students,<br />
sometime around February of 2011, there was an<br />
accreditation embargo handed some medical schools<br />
by the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria MDCN,<br />
my school (UNIMAID), UNN and Shanono’s ABU Zaria<br />
were affected. I was in unceasing contact with<br />
Shanono being the General Secretary of my school’s<br />
association. My constant push and I believe in his<br />
good resolve, he went to Abuja to see the council’s<br />
registrar, he even sent me a text message while at<br />
the registrar’s office, that was the humble voice that<br />
spoke for over 40,000 medical students in 35<br />
medical schools across the country.<br />
My last meeting with him was on the departure of<br />
the first National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of<br />
the 2010/2011 NiMSA executives held at ABUTH<br />
Zaria. He came down stairs from his hostel room to<br />
the students parking lot to see us off, where I and<br />
three others from BUK were waiting to board the BUK<br />
buss to Kano and I will transit to Maiduguri same day.<br />
He brought two branded note books souvenirs of the<br />
national health rally and gave me saying I was a<br />
household in Zaria how he wish I will transfer back to<br />
Zaria, till we meet next he remarked... He then said<br />
we may probably meet at BUK’s health week and that<br />
was to be the weekend that Shanono will meet his<br />
death.<br />
The news of his death enveloped the entire ABU<br />
medical college and sent all and sundry into a<br />
mourning mood as I came to learn. The management,<br />
staff and students made a powerful delegation to the<br />
Anguwan Kanawa residence of the Shanonos to pay<br />
their last respect to the fallen hero medic and<br />
condole with the family.<br />
No one would have summarized the scenario better<br />
than his father did when I called at the Shanonos to<br />
condole them, he said to me “Auwalu got a lot of<br />
praises, it was Allah that gave him such a leadership<br />
position and it is His will that he took him away now<br />
when he is needed the most”. That is certainly the<br />
true picture of the gigantic vacuum created within<br />
the ranks of NiMSA politics.<br />
Abubakar, a medical student like the late<br />
Shanono, is Secretary General, University of<br />
Maiduguri Medical Students Association<br />
<br />DrBanaruhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15886566344643570397noreply@blogger.com0