By Eze Chukwuemeka Eze,
“An unsung, unassuming, foresighted and outstanding leader of Rivers politics, Prof. Henry Ugboma stands out as a vocal crusader of good governance, consciously advocating societal development and the general wellbeing of all.”
Preamble
I have been inundated with calls from friends and associates far and near advising me against embarking on my usual routine of celebrating Prof. Henry Arinze Anthony Ugboma, the CMD of UPTH, on his birthday which falls today.
They have valid reasons for their counsel but one thing with me is that I am a diehard slave to friendship. Once for any reason, I come in contact with you disengaging me from the bond becomes an assiduous task. I therefore plead with those who feel for any reason that Prof. Ugboma should not be celebrated even in his birthday to please forgive me for my stubbornness in this regard.
Ugboma is equally faced with the challenges of the time occasion by the docility and general ineptitude of the leadership class of the current dispensation. This reality may have made it seemingly difficult for him to meet up with the numerous demands from his friends and associates and even to discharge his duties as the CMD of UPTH. So, to me, no reason is enough to fail to celebrate Ugboma on this auspicious day of his birth.
As funny and unbelievable as it may sound, it is a fact that I have not met Ugboma in person neither have I visited UPTH throughout my stay in Port Harcourt and I can’t remember if we have spoken to each other this past one year for reasons I don’t know but the humility, liberality and candor Ugboma expresses during our past interactions distinguishes him from people of his class – people who have attained the peak of their career with global recognition for excellence and classical quintessence. One will only have reasons to appreciate God for the privilege of associating with such a humanist who trail-blazes in the field of Medicine.
With apologies, on this auspicious occasion of the birth anniversary of my friend and brother, Prof. Henry Arinze Anthony Ugboma, I find it a rare honour to be tasked with the service of presenting to the world this phenomenal breed of human specie with whom God, in His infinite mercy and love for humanity decided to bless us with on this great day of our Lord.
An elixir to contemporary Nigerian leadership deficit, Ugboma is a core progressive, party loyalist and condensed advocate of good governance; a reminiscence of selfless service; an intellectual giant and leader par excellence.
His Background and Educational Qualifications
My friend and brother, Prof Henry Arinze Anthony Ugboma was born on 15 November 1966 and to the Glory of God he has distinguished himself as a Nigerian Professor of Maternal-fetal medicine and the present Chief Medical Director of the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, Rivers State.
An alumnus of the University of Port Harcourt School of Medicine, he is a consultant, Feto-Maternal and infectious gynecologist and a Fellow of the International College of Surgeons.
He had training in Leadership and Administration Processes in Rivers State. In 2016, Ugboma obtained a Certificate of Professional Management from the Nigerian Institute of Management (charted). He further obtained training in Information and Communication Technology. In 2017, he became a member of the Administrative Staff College of Nigeria (ASCON). Consequently, in 2019, he was conferred a Fellow of the Institute of Health Service Administrators of Nigeria (IHSAN).
WHAT HE IS TO THOSE THAT HAVE CROSSED HIS GOLDEN PATH
The date November 15 is symbolic to humanity especially those from Rivers State as it reminds us of God’s awesomeness and love for humanity as in His infinite mercy and love, He decided to bless mankind with a unique personality in the person of Professor Henry Arinze Anthony Ugboma JP, MNIM B.Sc. (NIG), MBBS (NIG), FWACS, FICS., a personality who is a source of joy to everyone that crosses his golden path.
Besides his philanthropic gestures, Ugboma freely relates with people of all classes and has been a pillar of support to the progressive course to liberate Rivers from the shackles of the dearth of leadership; a course in which he believes. The fact remains that the person and personality of Prof. Ugboma are a rare breed. Give me thirty of his caliber and I will turn this country into a beacon of possibilities.
Ugboma has also distinguished himself as an embodiment of competence in public office; a rare species of administrator whose track record of achievements in the health profession has restored confidence in public health institutions especially, the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH), where he holds sway as Chief Medical Medical Director.
A proud son of Rivers State and public servant extraordinaire, Ugboma has carved a niche for himself in all spheres and posterity will continue to be fair to him for his unwavering commitment to the health and safety of members of the public whose health needs at UPTH are met with very professional and accelerated attention.
The trailblazing leadership model adopted by Ugboma has transformed the formerly moribund UPTH into a health tourism site for all Nigerians. With the daily delivery of top-notch facilities to the institution as well as the modern health facilities added to the institution’s catalog of equipment, there are countless reasons for the rain of warm felicitations that has continued to pour in on the CMD in commemoration of his birth.
Prof Ugboma and His Love For His People:
From verifiable records, Ugboma sponsors and assists hundreds of families with bags of rice, funds, and assorted Christmas presents to celebrate both the Christmas and New year festivities. It is on record that this humanist and philanthropist per excellence, had before this time influenced the employment of most of our unemployed youths. This forced one Lady Mary Okeke to state, “Yes, indeed Prof. Henry Ugboma is a great and wonderful leader. He also has a heart that is very pure like a diamond.May the Good Lord always continue to bless and protect him all the days of his life. Amen”.
PROF UGBOMA AND HIS FEATS AND WHAT GREAT MINDS SAID ABOUT THIS ENIGMA OF A MAN:
To those who may not have been opportuned to know the professional background of Professor Henry Arinze Anthony Ugboma JP, MNIM, a peep into his records will do some good:
B.Sc. (NIG), MBBS (NIG), FWACS, FICS.; the gentleman is an astute professor of Feto-Maternal Medicine at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Faculty of Clinical Sciences, College of Health Science, University of Port Harcourt and an honorary consultant, Feto-Maternal and infectious unit at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Faculty of Clinical Sciences, College of Health Science, University of Port Harcourt.
He is of Feto-maternal medicine and consultant Obstetrician and Gynecologist at the University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria.
Currently, he is the Chief Medical Director (CMD) at, the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, Rivers State.
A Professor of Professors, here is one man who has put in the hard work to be where he is today, with loads of experience in the field of Medicine and hardcore leadership.
The Black American Rights Activist, politician, and propounder of the Kingian Principle of non-violence, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., was very much on point when he asserted that “an individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity”.
This is akin to the citation offered by Albert Schweitzer which states that “the purpose of human life is to serve and to show compassion and the will to help others.” One can safely infer that Prof. Henry Ugboma has by no small means carved a niche for himself as already stated, as he continues to break new grounds and discover opportunities in his services to humanity.
Henry Ugboma has severally been said to have acquired the rare label of a barrel of sound human breeding, having been raised in a dynamic cultural setting with distinct and rigid societal mores, where sound etiquette, a deeper sense of brotherliness and love are practically inculcated as a holistic approach to life and held in high esteem. He is voracious in thoughts and well-spelt-out ideas, as he is beautifully decorated with other attributes traceable to excellence, tact, focus, and results-driven programmes, among others.
Prof. Ugboma and His Appointment And reappointment as the CMD of UPTH and Some of His Feats:
A renowned academic, Prof. Ugboma is an advocate of the sermon of education. To him, and like every other enlightened Nigerian, education remains the cardinal weapon and chief liberating force for the dismantling of hedges and remains of bifurcation occasioned by primordial feelings of ill-will, ethnocentricism, and sectional disharmony. Students in their hundreds, cutting across languages, have continued to benefit from his annual education grant, a strategic project among a litany of others, adopted and explored as a problem-solving technique to foster a renewed sense of hope among young people.
The administration of former President Mohammadu Buhari must have been vividly inspired by Leo Tolstoy’s proposition which appears to be Ugboma’s life principle anchorage, that “the sole meaning of life is to serve humanity”, when it certified him a worthy servant and shouldered on him the responsibility to steer the affairs of the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH), as Chief Medical Director (CMD) for two terms.
Dr. Paul John reported that before the appointment of Prof. Henry A. A. Ugboma as the Chief Medical Director of the University of Port Harcourt (UPTH), he was a senior lecturer and Consultant Obstetrician and Gynecologist with the University and the hospital respectively. On assumption of office, he ensured that he worked with the best brains in the hospital to ensure that his transformation agenda was successful.
Before his emergence, the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital was almost flat on its back and beaten into a prostrate position; a sympathetic situation that forced health professionals, tourists, and victims alike to shake their heads in sorrow: standards were appalling, medical equipment was reprehensibly outdated, research was nonexistent because grants dried up. Indeed, the health facility was critically in shambles and near-moribund state.
His passion for service albeit, keeps him burning the midnight oil, conjuring all manner of paradigms, blueprints, and models for an inclusive and globally accepted standard of growth and balanced development for the health institution, and to the pride of all, Ugboma has dominated the health sector in Rivers State and South/South like a colossus, enrooting his vestige in the development of facilities for a holistic overhaul. Suffice it to say the UPTH CMD has a typical mooring spectacularly distinct from the obvious penchant of several Nigerian public servants who are known to be averse to progressive ideas.
Prof. Ugboma and His Enduring Feats at UPTH:
Ugboma saw himself fitting into the parlance of Dalai Lama: “Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries, without them, humanity cannot survive”, when in 2019, the UPTH Assisted Conception Unit produced the first baby from the hospital’s In-Vitro-Fertilization (IVF) programme. The IVF facility was established to assist couples who cannot produce children through the natural process of reproduction. The baby boy with a birth weight of 4.5kg was delivered in January 2019, by a 34-year-old lady who had been married for 10 years without conception.
UPTH under Prof. Ugboma prides itself in its expertise in the delivery of quality services to clients in Assisted Reproductive Technologies; the first and only of its kind in South /South, Nigeria. This is made possible with the availability of equipment for artificial insemination, In-Vitro-Fertilization, Intra-cytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI), and donor cycle – egg and sperm donations. The institution also provides surrogacy and freezing facilities for gametes amidst other top-notch facilities for improved services to Nigerians which make the hospital technologically driven.
In September of 2020, the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital recorded a huge milestone with the purchase and successful arrival of a state-of-the-art 1.5 Tesla Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machine.
The MRI is a medical imaging technique used in radiology to form pictures of the anatomy and the psychological processes of the body, using strong magnetic fields, magnetic field gradients, and radio waves. Primary Care Physicians can utilize tests to analyze the human body system and perceive how well a patient had reacted to treatment.
The Ugboma-led UPTH management team has tremendously improved the quality of infrastructure within the institution and has placed a high premium on staff welfare. In 2020, promotion exercises for junior and senior staff were conducted, concluded, and implemented. No wonder there is a positive quantum leap in staff commitment to service delivery.
Similarly, during the pendency of COVID-19, which grew into a global health emergency, UPTH remained at the forefront of the fight to confront the menace. The molecular laboratory ran thousands of samples from all states within the South/South. Aside from expanding the treatment center, a new one was opened to meet the overwhelming demands on the existing facility, given the soaring number of cases recorded on daily basis. The institution’s readiness and commitment in the fight against the virus saw Shell donate testing machines to speed up the process of detecting cases and reducing the soaring number of deaths.
During this period, the hospital successfully delivered two Covid-19-positive ladies of their babies. The first delivery was a Spontaneous Vertex Delivery of a bouncing baby boy while the second was delivered by the Elective Caesarian Section (CS) of a bouncing baby girl.
The births were made possible by the combined efforts of Doctors, Nurses, Laboratory Scientists, Hygienists, Paramedics, and support staff that deployed globally approved standard expertise, protocols, and work ethics to ensure that the women and their babies were alive and kicking.
Ugboma’s discovery of the best hands for every given task is based on careful observation and insights with clear consideration for competence and more importantly, without bias or prejudice. His love for humanity surpasses his biggest projects. Not only is he a health professional, but also a leader, instructor, and mentor; an accomplished academic, politician of note, and seasoned entrepreneur who has successfully established viable economic platforms for people’s aspirations to thrive and for the provision of social safety nets for qualified trainable and employable people at all levels.
His humanitarian ideology rejects blood-politicking and wasteful endeavors as commonly practiced by some overzealous and vicious politicians with inordinate ambitions.
In private and public engagements, the trailblazing Ugboma is stocked with the knowledge that leadership is not only something done to the people but something done with the people, and as a result, he gives thought to the lives of others. Ugboma has transposed himself into an amiable personality of great influence, building legacies and sowing seeds in individuals’ and groups’ lives. A believer in aesthetics, Ugboma displays contagious passion in tackling the concerns of Rivers people and Nigerians in health and health-related areas including politics, education, culture and development, scoring many firsts through innovative development schemes.
As a Professor of Fetal-Maternal Medicine in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Henry Ugboma has published a wide range of articles in widely read local, regional, and international Journals, some of which include: Prevalence and Antibiotic Susceptibility of Staphylococcus aureus and other Staphlococcal Infections in Pregnant Women Attending an Antenatal Clinic in a Tertiary Hospital in Port Harcourt.
His Research interests span across Obstetrics, Parental Care, Obstetric Delivery, Foetal Medcine, Midwifery, Developmental Biology, Gynecology, Endocriminology and Cryobiology amidst participating in high powered international health conferences around the world where he made stunning presentations to the awe of participants and the pride of the country.
Ugboma has authored and co-authored medical and scientific research publications in the field of medicine both locally and internationally.
For this accomplished public administrator of global repute, service to humanity has remained his topmost priority, and to the pride of people of goodwill, he has continued to utilize his expertise in health and politics to drive through the stairways of development. That is the bane of morality in public service.
For anyone working with Prof. Ugboma, it is always an amazing experience as he brings energy and language that generates appetite for learning and hard work and transmutes plain conversations into ideas that inspire innovative undertakings.The bond he shares with subordinates goes beyond the spheres of officialdom and counts more.
Mahatma Gandhi, leader of the Indian Nationalism in one of his reflective moments opined that “the best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” This proposition is true to the life of Ugboma whose commitment to service is for public good.
With the foreknowledge that public office is but a temporary terminal point, Prof. Henry Arinze Ugboma has maintained remarkable decency and sublime integrity in his official endeavors. His trademark and rare humility are virtues every leader should imbibe. His numerous achievements in academics and accomplishments in the political and leadership world have earned him recognition and awards within and outside the shores of Nigeria.
Flesh and blood did not reveal to Albert Schweitzer the very essence of his quote thus: “sometimes our light goes out but is blown into fame by another human being. Each of us owes deepest thanks to those who have rekindled this light”
Men and brethren, Rivers people owe deepest appreciation to all the forces that positioned Ugboma for the good of all. That debt is as exigent as James Allen garnished it when he opined that “no duty is more urgent than that of returning thanks”.
Though Professor Henry Arinze Anthony Ugboma hails from Umu-Awo Ndoni in Ogba-Egbema-Ndoni Local Government Area of Rivers State, he was actually born in Onitsha in Anambra State to Mr. and Mrs. Ugboma and had his initial higher school training at Afikpo in Ebonyi State.
A notable sports enthusiast who enjoys politics with a touch of godliness, Ugboma is happily married to the delectable Dr. (Mrs) Enighe Wanayo Ugboma, a Radiologist, and is blessed with five wonderful children.
Henry A. A. Ugboma is an open-minded individual with a keen interest in people’s and society’s progress.
Happy birthday my brother and friend. I pray God to guide, bless and grant you better and greater years ahead for better services to humanity.
Eze Chukwuemeka Eze is a Media Consultant, Political Analyst, APC Chieftain, member of APC Legacy Projects Media Team & former National Publicity Secretary, nPDP who is based in Port Harcourt, Rivers State and can be reached either through 08022049770 or ezemediaconcept2020@gmail.com
