A SPEECH DELIVERED AT THE EASTERN-VOLTA ZONAL DELEGATES CONGRESS BY SUGRI ABDUL-RAFIQ; EX-OFICIO OF GNMTA. 13TH AUGUST 2021.
Mr. Chairman, the Eastern regional minister, most honored principals, kind and caring GRNMA executives, past and present GNMTA executives, most adorable delegates present, H. E. The Eastern-Volta zonal President of GNMTA, colleagues of the noble profession.
Before going ahead, I would like to extend a warm welcome to every person present over here. Also, I want to thank the organizers of this program for giving me this golden opportunity to speak to you on this important theme: "Revitalizing the trainee nurse and its leadership structures through diplomacy and teamwork"
Again, let me use this opportunity to recommend the zonal president and his team for coming up with this beautiful theme for this year's congress, you could not have settled on a theme so vital than this at this material moment in the life of GNMTA
Mr. Chairman, please permit me to define some key terms in the theme;
Revitalizing: the process of making something grow, develop, or become successful again.
Leadership structures; An organization's leadership structure determines how workflow, accountability, and authority work together.
Diplomacy; The art of dealing with people sensitively and tactfully. Or simply put; Gaining Advantage Without Force.
Team Work; Is the ability to work cooperatively with others to achieve group objectives.
Mr. Chairman, speaking on the aspect of leadership structures, diplomacy, and teamwork of the theme for this congress, I will want to quote my favorite American author, John Calvin Maxwell who has written many books, primarily focusing on leadership, who said that "Teamwork makes the dream work, but a vision becomes a nightmare when the leader has a big dream and a bad team".
And our mother association(GRNMA) rounded it up when they say "Unity is Strength".
The leadership of the trainee nurse in itself has spelled out its leadership structures in its Constitution; from national through to zonal and down to the local level. And these structures teach us about teamwork, it teaches us that the National executive board can not be complete without zonal representatives. It teaches us that the zonal executive board can not also be complete without a representative from each member institution, and that's teamwork. And for us to succeed as trainee nurses and midwives, we must respect the leadership structures and work as a team.
I believe in GNMTA our Association, which stands for trainee nurses and midwives in this nation, and we must elect its leaders with good intention, I believe in GNMTA of opportunities, where leaders must lead with integrity, governing in truth and accountability, speaking as one voice with tenacity, fighting for our interest in Unity, voicing out our concerns using diplomacy, from the legacy of our ex-officios we must not depart. In the spirit of patriotism, we must play our part. Our voice is the tool, no need for demonstrations and picketing. Yes, voice out your concerns through dialogue and diplomacy.
Mr. Chairman, on the aspect of revitalizing the trainee nurse and its leadership, it saddened my heart that today we have gotten to this point where we have to be speaking on revitalizing, revamping, and resuscitation.
But please permit me to continue my today’s speech by quoting the names of few famous GNMTA leaders from history like Emmanuel Geyivor, Akazee Godwin Asabire, and Batiah Sami-Ullah Santi. It is these leaders and many others who made GNMTA famous in the past that today our speeches are centered on how to revitalize GNMTA. But what was common in all of them that made them such famous and remarkable leaders. It was their qualities that persuaded people to respect and follow them.
They sacrificed their political interest, time, energy, and resources to pursue goals that served the interest of trainee nurses and midwives. They constantly manifested a singular willingness to render their services to the admiration of the entire trainee nurses and midwives at their time.
So for us to revitalize the trainee nurse and its leadership through diplomacy and teamwork, we must, first of all, assess the past for it to guide us to build on the future.
And in assessing the past, we will realize that GNMTA has lost its voice, the voice that voices out the interest of the trainee nurse. And we are here today trying to find the voice of GNMTA, the voice of the trainee nurse, our voice.
But should we continue to go round, knocking on people's doors in search of our voice? And how do we know when we find our voice?
Let me give you a clue;
You will know the voice of GNMTA when you find it, it's in the pride of a GNMTA leader, ruthless in defending the Interest of trainee nurses and midwives whose neck is strangled by politicians who try to make him a friend and use him as a pet, but every moment he remembers the people he leads and resists the temptation to be used as a pet.
You will know the voice of GNMTA when you find it, it is in a nurse, it is in a midwife it is in a trainee who dreams of making GNMTA great, drafting a beautiful manifesto, and influencing his colleagues to give him power.
You will know the voice of GNMTA when you find it, it is in the trainee who won the hearts of his colleagues and delegates at the local, zonal and national levels. You will know the voice of GNMTA, it is in the trainee whose shoulders are tasked with responsibilities to serve the interest of trainee nurses and midwives.
You will know the voice of GNMTA, for it is in every trainee, though our voices may not be one. But when we do not speak our future is lost, when we do nothing, nothing gets done. So if you ask me how we will revitalize the trainee nurse and its leadership, I will say is by finding your voice and learning how to speak with it because the responsibility lies on us all.
In conclusion Mr. Chairman, we will be able to revitalize gnmta if we get leaders who are ready to sacrifice for the trainee nurses and midwives. We will revitalize GNMTA if we elect leaders who will not put their political interest ahead of the interest of the trainee nurse. Some of our leaders have become advertisers for certain brands of political parties. And politics is like drug addiction, pathologically spreading like a dangerous syndrome in our student leadership which makes our leaders less effective and gradually sending our great association to Coma.
Colleagues of the noble profession, let us chart the path of the ex-officios who though are out of GNMTA but still have their names echoing in all our GNMTA gatherings.
God bless the nursing profession and make our Association great and strong.
Thank you.
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