THE ABUAD Experience, Experiment and Expectations– NiMSA SW Convention ’22

A gathering of medical students is no different from a gathering of people from all walks of life — interesting and full of experiences. This year’s NIMSA Southwest Regional Convention was the 8th of its kind and was hosted by Afe Babalola University’s Medical Student Association(AMSA). Or, ABUAD, as you would repeatedly find in this narrative.

So let’s get to it — a tale of FUN, FEAR, and Frreaaakkkinggg with the Good, the Bad, and the “ABUAD.”

Day 1: DEPARTURE FROM IFE (ABUAD EXPERIENCE) – 25th of August

33 delegates registered from IFUMSA. However, only 28 people left from Ife (the rest were to join us in Ekiti by themselves). The departure time was supposed to be at noon but as the General Secretary, Eben, put it: “some individuals have the propensity for lateness.”

Five categories of individuals boarded the Bus from Ife, including:

• Those who squeezed their entire abode into a big box: Sisturrr, it’s a 3-day convention, not an emigration scheme. Abi, are you moving to your husband’s house?

• Those who just took a single small bag – Haba! Please don’t come and beg me to give you perfume or borrow shoes in ABUAD oo.

• The latecomers – We said to arrive by 11 AM, but some guys decided to make their own arrival time at 1:15 PM. How will you say you’re in a place as busy as campus gate, yet we hear echoes in the background? Brother, be truthful jare. You dey house, no be tap dey run for background? You never bath sef😂

• The suspicious, uncannily cute ones– Like be black or white, don’t just be fine anyhow — what is your real aim at the convention? To lure unsuspecting children of God, abi? 

• Those who were borrowing iPhones to snap pictures all around (Yeeee! Who stone me? It’s not me oo, na report them say make I write)🤣

The 44th, IFUMSA’s 001 – Adegoke Kolade James, took a group picture when we finally left Gloryland and sent it to the group at 1:30 PM. 

However, TROUBLE, they say, has three children. The first child was ‘LATECOMERS,’ so let’s meet the second child.👇

The coaster bus conveying us developed issues between Gloryland and Phase Two gate and stopped working. Some ‘mechanics’ came to fix it, and the journey continued. At about 2:30 PM, somewhere or rather NOWHERE (because till today nobody knows that place, all we could see were bushes, fast-moving cars, and kidnapper-like hawkers) between Ife and Ilesha, our coaster bus slowed to a stop. 

We stayed there for about an hour again before these mechanics arrived again to fix the bus. We got down to stretch our legs and engage in chit-chats, not knowing what was in store for us. I know they must have been fixing something, but to be frank, it all sounded like drumming to me. 

At some point, the people inside the bus were even dancing to their rhythm because it was more interesting than what was emanating from Miracle’s “80% – Radio/20% – MP3” player😋

Around 4:30 PM, it was clear the mechanics turned musicians weren’t making any headway. That was when we dropped the courteous “medical student-ish” behaviour and gave them a piece of our mind.

A passerby would have heard comments, screams, and threats like:

• Do you know the people who are on this bus?
• Don’t allow us to show you the other side of us oo. Do you think we’re children?
• I am the only medical student in my village oo, they must not kidnap me.🙄
• Let’s just go home and start again tomorrow.
• Can’t we hire another bus and sleep in Ilesha?
• Let’s burn down the bus company.

Quick advice, don’t ever push Abubakar, Noni, Teemah, or Muteeat to the wall because these people have full-blown “agberos” living in them. But what’s my own? I just came in peace to enjoy violence🤗.

Heavens on our side, they managed to get the vehicle moving at 5:30 PM. The driver was only just pushing the car from the steering as every five minutes or so, the car would grunt in pain and threaten to stop. That was when the music changed from WORDLY to GOSPEL PRAISE AND WORSHIP because DJ Miracle and Teemah sef agreed that it is better to call on God so we can all live long😆.

It was beautiful to see brothers and sisters from different races, religions, and beliefs unanimously acknowledging the existence and power of a Supreme Being. Just so you know, they changed it back to WORDLY music when we entered Ekiti State. Humans, so fleeting and ephemeral🙂.

ARRIVAL AT ABUAD – “ABUAD, welcome to IFUMSA!” 😎

When we arrived at Afe Babalola University, the night had already eaten its supper. We got there a few minutes before 9 PM; a journey of three and a half hours magically turned to seven plus. Someone must have been listening to “everything na double double” earlier in the day.

One very striking thing about ABUAD is the fresh air. From the moment you enter the school, you’ll notice that a lot has been invested in the greeneries. We all descended, checked in our names and were searched scantily by the security men who looked like they had already experienced enough drama for one day. 

ABUAD is indeed a place of surprises. Do you know moving around anywhere within the campus is free? Yeah, just walk into any car with the “Free Campus ride” label and tell them where you’re going. After having our meals with the meal tickets handed to us on entry, we moved to our hostels. 

This settling-in process was literally easy for the ladies. That’s funny, right? Usually, ladies are the ones who have issues with these things. Some of our IFUMSA Queens had time to settle in and even attend the movie night. On the other hand, the guys had to chill till 10:30 PM before their accommodations got sorted out. 

We received reports that the movie most people voted for the movie night was changed without an explanation. But that disappointment was the last thing on the mind of a tired IFUMSAite who spent 7 hours on the journey there.

At curfew, the gates to the hostels were closed. Fresh air and free transport may be a thing at ABUAD, but freedom of movement beyond curfew is definitely forbidden. However, when in Rome, you must behave like a Roman, so we adapted immediately.

And there was morning, and the evening, the first day of the long-anticipated ABUAD experience.

Day 2 – SYMPOSIUM, QUIZ COMPETITIONS, AND DANCE IN THE DARK PARTY (ABUAD EXPERIMENT)

We woke up to the sounds of water rushing in our bathrooms (or very leaky taps). Nice, right? Ok, but before I go on, the convention was two-fold: the Physical ABUAD and virtual ABUAD. 

The former was live in ABUAD; the virtual ABUAD was the online Whatsapp group named “NIMSA Registered delegates.” All delegates with issues could easily raise them in the group, which would be attended to immediately.

There was a plethora of corporate looks as delegates emerged in their corporate wears. Breakfast at 9 AM was two slices of yam and a spoon of egg or beans. But the queue to even get the yam was like from here to the promised land🤧.

Some delegates had to spend money to get more food for themselves. The rest of us, with no money, had to pretend we were ‘ajebo’ children who were not used to more than two slices of bread for breakfast. After all, if you no get money, hide your face.

The Symposium started at 11 AM for whatever reason it was. Before then, delegates took their time to take multiple pictures before entering the hall. In our defence, who would want to miss out on taking pictures in such a beautiful environment?😄. But the spacing during the Symposium was the first turnoff, like, “Brothers and sisters of ABUAD-land, some of us came to connect – IN ALL FORMS – with other students. Why separate our seats like we are still in the era of COVID’s social distancing?” 🙄

At the opening speech, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor made some statements that generated remarks from the students seated at that moment. He praised ABUAD as the best University in Nigeria and reminded us, students from public universities, that we would probably still be on strike till 2023. 

He further commented on the fact that it was a rare opportunity for everyone present to be in ABUAD at that time and that “we would not be allowed to leave” until we visited their Planetarium, which doubles as the only functioning Planetarium in Nigeria. 

Interestingly, he rounded off his speech with an invitation for us to transfer to ABUAD. (Fun fact, we never actually went on the said planetarium tour😐.)

The Symposium dragged on as one Keynote speaker after the other blessed the audience with their powerful renditions. There was the NiMSA South West Magazine Launch, after which the esteemed First Lady of Ondo State, Mrs Betty Akeredolu, decided to partner with NiMSA Standing Committee on Public Health(SCOPH). Kudos to our able SCOPH-D, Temitayo Matthew (TeeWhy) of IFUMSA, by the way. 

Quiz Competition 

Afterwards, the Quiz Competition followed in another location. The competition was keenly contested by six out of the 12 schools in attendance: UIMSA, IFUMSA, AMSA, EKSUMSA, LASUMSA, and ILUMSA. 

All schools tried their best and brought in their A-Game, but as the saying goes, “many are called, but few are chosen.” 

UIMSA got Gold, LASUMSA brandished Silver, and IFUMSA was awarded the Bronze medal. 

Needless to say, the poor time management of the day’s event led to the Quiz ending at 8.30 PM. Our ever-febrile Quiz team (IQDC) had to sleep over in ABUAD that night and left the next morning against previous plans.

Game Night & Talent Show Turned Fiesta Medica  

That same eventful day, the game night plus talent show on the flier was miraculously changed to a party with an entrance fee of 1K. Or not so miraculously, though, as it was announced earlier, but most people were unsure if that party was a part of the normal NIMSA events or a separate program. 

Summarily, that night, the party was held in place of the Game night and Talent show. And it was either you paid the 1K to attend the party or go and sleep in the hostel. What a bummer!🥺🤧

Comrades that attended the party reported a thing or two:

• Some felt it was relatively ok aside from the pitch darkness the hall was thrown into that turned the event into a dancing-in-the-dark party. 

• While some guys had the fun of their lives, some were severely curved by ladies who weren’t going to dance with a partner they couldn’t see. But maybe it was because they were shy, who knows?😆

• There was also the painful fact that mama had to call by 10 PM. From what we gathered, tickets were still available by past 9 PM, only for the party to end abruptly by 10. This generated dissatisfaction from the attendees, who felt they got little value for their money. And these comrades went straight to the group page to cry out.

And that again was the morning and the evening; the second day of the ABUAD experience slowly turning into a nightmare.

DAY 3 – SPORTS FESTIVAL, CAUCUS MEETING & DINNER (ABUAD EXPECTATIONS)

The day started with several delegates still reeling from the events of the night before, especially after a night of “vawulence” on the WhatsApp page due to the Fiesta Medica Saga.

It was set to be a full day as three events were scheduled – the Sports Festival, the Regional Caucus Meeting and the Dinner.

Sports Festival

The Sports Complex was located just beside the school gate. Delegates were seen taking pictures with their merchandise for the convention. 

Then the event kicked off with the shot put, javelin and volleyball games. Next were the track events, which started with MSA Presidents’ 100m male & 100m female races. A quick Shoutout to our 44th anyway; we still love you🥰. And in case you missed it, please check our interview with President-Elect, Adegoke Kolade James. 

Subsequent competitions included the 100m, 200m, 400m relay race and walking race. Next was the game everyone had been waiting for; the football match. It was a battle between the ABUAD and the NIMSA South West teams. 

The game ended 3-2 in favour of ABUAD. There was joy in the air as delegates cheered and supported their MSA representatives.

Below are the Ifumsaites who represented in the respective sports:

• Amarachi (Bronze) – Shotput
• Eben (Silver) – Volleyball
• Abubakar, Daniel, Amarachi, Ayobolu (Bronze) – Mixed Relay
• Peter – Javelin
• Eben – 100m
• Miracle & Spechy – Walking Race

Caucus Meeting

Talk about a meeting renowned for its long intellectual discussions (sometimes ending with vawulence😌); it’s none other than the Caucus meeting. 

It runs in a typical parliamentary sitting format but has many peculiarities. For instance:

• There’s nothing like voting by the rule of the majority. All parties involved must reach a consensus.

• It is wrong to call a point of order when the discussions get heated. And other interesting differences.

After the sports festival, delegates assembled at the cafeteria to have their food and freshen up at the hostels for the caucus meeting. 

It was held at the Clinical Skills Laboratory building in the Hospital. The Caucus Chair, Oluwatayo Olajide and Secretary, Hammed Dauda presided over the meeting as Presidents, current and past executives of different MSAs, NIMSA executives and delegates were seen in attendance.

Pressing issues of the region were deliberated and decided on. And finally, NIMSA CEC aspirants from other regions were invited to campaign ahead of the elections at the upcoming General Assembly in Lagos. 

Summarily, I think every medical student should attend a Caucus meeting at least once in their lifetime.

Dinner: Kulture, yes. Klass?

The Caucus Meeting ended late, which resulted in several delegates arriving at the dinner venue late too. Most had to rush to the hostels to dress up and for the ladies to tie their ‘geles’ and apply their makeup. But the coming moments would soon reveal that paying for makeup and Gele for a dinner that ended in less than two hours from when most guests arrived was simply your loss to bear alone🤣.

People interacted and took pictures with the backdrop before taking their seats inside the hall. A band was on stage, serenading guests with music alongside guest performers. Presidents and the South West executives were called up to the stage to receive their certificates of service.

In addition, Delegates from each school danced to the stage to honour their respective Presidents as they received the certificate. It was an unspoken battle of which MSA had the greatest vibe, but as always, the “Greatest Gbogbo” delivered in the Great Ife style. You could say they were saving the best for the last😉.

To cut the short dinner story even shorter, the super nice security men once again showed up some minutes before 10 PM. I still shudder when I think of them repeatedly saying, “please, 15 more minutes to leave the hall, 15 minutes” 🤧. 

This resulted in guests queuing up to get their food, hurriedly eating, and even executives morphing into servers to make the queue move faster.

Everyone has an account of the story depending on the type of food they got. But our expectations had been dashed again with no opportunity to dance away the night as we had hoped.

Remember the Virtual ABUAD? The WhatsApp group for Registered delegates? That was where we continued our dinner sha😂. Twitter has never seen a better dragging. But by the oaths, what happened in ABUAD stays in ABUAD🤐, (especially the vawulence citizens of Virtual ABUAD cooked that day on a new group created just for that purpose after the main delegate group was locked.😶😬)

And that was the morning and the evening; the third day and final day of the ABUAD experience.

Departure from ABUAD 

The next day, buses were loaded, and delegates departed. Some delegates took a tour of ABUAD teaching hospital while waiting for their buses to arrive.  

The return journey was uneventful aside from the part where we unanimously screamed for joy as we departed from the gates of ABUAD-land. Dark, ain’t it?😂. We were glad to be returning to our unlimited freedom, yet we couldn’t deny the nostalgic feelings for a place we had called home for 2½ days. 

NIMSA SW convention’22 was nothing short of an interesting convention — the kind you won’t forget in a hurry. While some would describe their experience as having 3 parts, the good, the bad and the “Abuad“, the highlight for most was the opportunity to meet people from different schools and have fun. (I bet some people don’t even remember the theme of the lecture held on Friday🤣)

We still look forward to the Planetarium tour the Deputy VC promised us. Maybe the year we can get our brothers and sisters of ABUAD-Land to host another convention. Until then, we are grateful to our hosts for having us and, ultimately, for the experience.

And about the third child of trouble, well, what do you think? Feel free to comment on who/what comes to mind.😂

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(P.S- there was no harm intended while writing this. Just reporting the events with a sprinkle of pure cruise✌)