Tinubu appoints Thairu Yunusa substantive CMD of UATH
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has approved the appointment of Professor Thairu Yunusa as the substantive Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital (UATH), Gwagwalada. The appointment
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has approved the appointment of Professor Thairu Yunusa as the substantive Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital (UATH), Gwagwalada.
The appointment was conveyed in Abuja, where the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Ali Pate, presented the letter to the new CMD.
A statement on Friday by the hospital’s Public Relations Officer, Sani Suleiman, stated that Yunusa has formally assumed duty after receiving the handover notes from the Acting CMD, Professor Bob Ukonu, at the hospital premises in Gwagwalada, which was witnessed by the hospital’s top management at a brief ceremony.
Speaking after taking over, Yunusa thanked the President for the appointment and pledged to improve service delivery in line with the administration’s policy direction.
He also called for cooperation from the hospital’s management and staff to reposition the facility.
His appointment comes with a record of clinical, research and administrative experience within Nigeria’s public health system, particularly in infectious disease management and emergency response.
Yunusa previously led the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) isolation and treatment centre in Gwagwalada, where he coordinated case management during the COVID-19 outbreak.
He oversaw the establishment of the infectious disease unit at UATH and supervised the development of five isolation centres across the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
He also coordinated the recruitment of COVID-19 case management teams and trained over 400 healthcare workers for pandemic response within the FCT. In addition, he contributed to the development of treatment guidelines and standard operating procedures, while managing more than 600 COVID-19 cases with low mortality outcomes.
His research output includes 28 publications related to the pandemic.
As a consultant physician at the United Nations Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) isolation and treatment facility since 2020, Yunusa has been involved in clinical care for severe cases, training of health personnel, and infection prevention protocols.
His work at the facility included regular training and retraining programmes for clinical teams, with no recorded infection among healthcare workers during the period.
He has also served as a COVID-19 consultant to the Federal Capital Territory Administration, contributing to policy, research oversight, and facility accreditation for treatment centres.
His roles included advisory support on infection prevention and participation in studies evaluating treatment approaches during the pandemic.
In the academic and administrative sphere, Yunusa has held several leadership positions.
He is the current Dean of the Faculty of Basic Clinical Sciences at the University of Abuja, a role he assumed in 2024 after serving as Deputy Dean between 2021 and 2023.
He also headed the Department of Medical Microbiology at both the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital and the university’s College of Health Sciences at different periods.
He previously served as Chairman of the Medical Advisory Committee at Ajaokuta Steel Medical Centre between 2022 and 2024 and has been involved in national capacity-building initiatives on infectious disease preparedness with the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control.
