WHEN HEALING SANG, AND LEADERSHIP WALKED IN WHITE

  Hospitals are not structures of brick an

d mortar; they are living scriptures where pain and hope are inscribed daily upon human flesh and spirit. And on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, those scriptures found a melody *-healing did not whisper; it sang.

The corridors that often echo with hurried footsteps and clinical commands were, for once, filled with carols-gentle, resolute, heaven-leaning songs rising from the *UBTH Midwifery Choir.* Their voices were not rehearsed performances alone; they were testimonies. Each note carried the weight of nights spent at bedsides, of hands that had ushered life into the world, of tears wiped silently in labour wards. Christmas had arrived, not wrapped in ribbons, but clothed in compassion.

At the centre of this harmony stood the *Chief Medical Director, Prof. Mrs. Idia Nibokun Ize-Iyamu-* not as a distant administrator, but as a conductor of purpose. Leadership, under her watch, has not been a cold exercise of authority; it has been a *warm orchestration of humanity.* In her presence, the hospital breathes differently. It listens. It responds. It heals.

Then came the moment that transformed song into sacrament. From her own personal purse, *the CMD offered ₦500,000* *to the Midwifery Choir* -not as a ceremonial gesture, but as a deliberate affirmation. It was leadership kneeling before service and saying, “I see you.” In that offering lay more than money; it was validation, encouragement, and *the quiet declaration that those who give life deserve to be celebrated.* 

As voices still lingered in the air, another symbol entered the scene- *Mrs. Okpebholo, Coordinator of the Office of the First Lady of Edo State,* affectionately known as *“All White,”* arrived not merely in colour, but in meaning. *White—the shade of purity, peace, and reassurance—walked into a hospital already alive with grace.* Her visit carried the warmth of the Edo State Governor's heart, extending governance beyond offices and into wards.

Together with the CMD, she moved toward the maternity ward, where Christmas wore its most fragile and miraculous faces *—newborns, nursing mothers, and children too young to understand dates but old enough to feel love.* There, governance met vulnerability, and leadership bent gently over life at its most tender beginnings.

The First Lady’s presence, spoke a language deeper than protocol. It said that public service still remembers the powerless; that leadership can still stoop; that compassion remains a valid policy. Mothers smiled through exhaustion. Babies slept through history being made around them. And Christmas found its truest address—not in decorations, but in dignity restored.

What emerged from that day was not just an event, but a portrait of purposeful leadership. Prof. Mrs. Idia Ize-Iyamu’s CMDship reveals itself not only in commissioned equipment or policy documents, but in moments like this— *when song is allowed, when giving is personal, when partnerships with government are humane, and when the hospital becomes a sanctuary, not just a service point.* 

Indeed, for some of us, this moment felt less like a surprise and more like a fulfilment. Long before her assumption of office, there *had been quiet premonitions—soft but persistent* *intuitions—* that her leadership would arrive with clarity and consequence. *The omens* were already written in her earlier stewardship as Dean of Dentistry at UNIBEN, where discipline met empathy, structure walked hand in hand with vision, and excellence was pursued without noise. What we witnessed then were not isolated successes, but rehearsals for a larger calling. Today, those signs have matured into certainty. Her CMDship has fully ascertained what foresight once merely suggested: *that purposeful leadership, when rooted in character, always finds its season.* 

In an age where leadership is often loud yet empty, UBTH has witnessed a quieter, fuller kind—one that sings with caregivers, walks with government, gives without announcement, and protects life from its first breath. Christmas merely unveiled what had always been present.

And so, as the carols faded and the wards returned to their routines, something remained: a strengthened faith in leadership that heals while it governs. *Under Prof. Mrs. Idia Nibokun Ize-Iyamu, UBTH is not just surviving—it is becoming.* Becoming kinder. Becoming stronger. Becoming a hospital where even Christmas feels medically relevant, and leadership feels profoundly human.

 *Written By:* 

 *Abure Pedro Anetor* 

Manager, Corporate Services and Partnership Unit