The sacrificial and patriotic contributions of the Chief Technical Officer (CTO), RonArch Consulting Limited, Abuja, Mr. Lekan Baderin, to the University College Hospital (UCH) informed the recent award given to him by the management of the UCH.
The Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the University College Hospital (UCH) Ibadan, Prof. Jesse Otegbayo, revealed this in a brief chat with a selected journalist after the award ceremony that was held at the UCH.
Prof. Otegbayo narrated how Baderin salvaged the collapsed elevator projects executed by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the college and also trained some members of the hospital on the maintenance and repairs of the lifts at no cost to UCH.
“There were some projects executed by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the UCH. Among them were five lifts. They started working, but not so long after, all five elevators stopped working. We invited the company that installed them. They were going to charge exorbitantly. We wanted to effect a maintenance agreement with them. They gave us an exorbitant price, and we were trying to negotiate.
“They abandoned us, and the lifts were just not functioning. We were wondering if we could go and look for a technical partner that would help us. How can we install five lifts when none are working and the people who installed them refuse to come and repair them for us? They were giving us quotations that were so monumental.
“Along the way, I don’t know how my people got to know him. They told me that there was one man who said he would repair them and that he had actually inspected them; he said all the faults were minor. They told me that he would even repair the lifts at no cost to us. That is a miracle. It didn’t end there. He also told us that he would train five of our staff on how to repair and maintain the lifts at no cost to UCH. Which miracle can be more than that? That is an instant miracle,” Prof. Otegbayo explained.
The UCH CMD, while expressing the hospital management’s appreciation to RonArch Consulting Limited’s boss, said, “It is only God who can reward you because not many people are like you. You came instantly and did the repair wholeheartedly. Now the lifts are working.”
He added that it is on the heels of Baderin’s sacrificial contribution to the hospital via the repairs of the lifts that the management, staff, and students of UCH consider him deserving of the award.
Reacting to what informed his kind gesture to the UCH, Mr. Baderin said, “Incidentally, I have not had anything to do with the UCH, but when I visited the hospital, I saw patients being carried up, and after I was done with what I came for, I decided to go and check the elevators. My staff told me there was practically nothing wrong with the elevators; if there was anything wrong, all they needed to do was not spend $500 and the elevators would work. If we say we are presenting N500 plus our time, it will take time before it is approved because it has to pass from one table to another. It will take days, and some people will still suffer going upstairs. So what is that money compared to lives? So we just decided to instantly resolve the problem so there is no paperwork, and since that day, the elevators have been working.”
What’s your finding about the maintenance of the elevators in that place?
It’s a brand new elevator and the people in charge didn’t really know what to do when the elevators developed some small issues; they were not trained, and those who installed the elevators didn’t give them any form of training so they left it Some people are scared it’s a machine; they don’t know where to torch it so that it won’t be damaged further. That is why we have decided to train them to be able to handle some small issues, and if they have any major problems, they can call us. We want to ensure that people who are sick are moved from up to down without any stress.
How do you feel about the recognition being accorded to you today?
It was sudden I was not even expecting it because we are just doing our job, our job is to on integrity to individuals, even to If your elevator doesn’t have a fault I won’t tell you it has a fault, maybe because they felt that how rare such is in Nigeria, that is why the honour me
Is there a previous gesture like this?
I have done a lot so that, in most cases, you would not be recognized. In Abuja where you take a train to Kaduna, I went there and said you people should have an escalator here and they told me that they had invited some big companies, they said that to install escalators they have to destroy the staircase, those staircases were huge and there is no way there will be tampered it without affecting the entire structures, I look at the whole scenario and said I would install escalators for you without destroying anything nor affect a single structure and not know, I wrote my report, my mechanical drawing, structural drawing, calculation, send to the ministry and I was following it up and the ministry called the consultant team the consultant told them it is visible the only thing it was we don’t have anything on that station to carry any huge load and I told them not to worry, I will perfect everything and today the escalation there is working but do I get any recognition for that?.
