Category: People & Politics

EIGHTY-YEAR-OLD widely travelled Ifa priest, Dr. Ifagbenusola Atanda, spent the early part of his life in the United States of America. A trained surveyor, the octogenarian still finds time to travel around the globe to deliver lectures. At the Third International Congress on Oral Rehydration Therapy in Washington DC recently, he was invited by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) as a panelist, where he presented a paper titled: ‘The Involvement of Traditional Healers in CDD (Causes of Diarrhea Diseases)’. GBENGA ADERANTI had an encounter with him at his Ile Irunmole Centre where he talked about the secrets behind his youthful looks, why he does not want to grow old, his reason for being a monogamist, some of his nasty experiences in the U.S. and the misconceptions about traditional religion. Excerpts:

HOW do you feel to be 80?

I feel great. I’m thankful to Eledumare. I feel a little bit surprised. Surprised in the sense that when I was younger and I heard about people going 80, I used to think ’80? Wow! Will I get there? If I got there or when I got there, how would it look? Would I be able to do things I was doing when I was younger? Would I fit into society? I did not know that I would still be looking as I am right now. That is the surprising aspect of it. I know that whatever you are, whoever you are, it is not your personal making, it is the wish of Eledumare.

I feel great, I feel thankful that 80 is not the end of good activities, does not mean the end of joyous actions, does not mean the end of achievements, because at 80, as I am now, I’m still capable of doing many things in the area of my ambition in life. My ambition in life is similar to the law of Boys Scout: Law 1, Law 7, and Law 10. Law 1 of Scout says a Scout’s honour is to be trusted. At 80, I believe I can be trusted by anybody because when I was given the Asiwaju Awo of Lagos in 1986, they told me that elderly people were usually given that title. Why? Because elderly people can be trusted and I was young then. They could trust me now that I have become elderly. I can still be trusted at 80, which is Law 1 of Boys Scout.

Law 7 of the Boys Scout says a Scout obeys the laws of his parents, his patrol leader without question.  The first one is parents. I’m a traditionalist; I respect and obey the biddings of my ancestors very much. Law 10 of Boys Scout says a scout is clean in words, thoughts, and deeds. With Law 10, that is what I’m going to use till the end of my life.

When I was told that I was going to speak to an 80-year-old traditionalist, I thought I was going to meet an old man, but you are still looking fit. What is the secret?

You are what you want to make yourself. You have to decide what you want to make yourself; it has to be from your inner mind. From the time you are growing up, you have to see how you use yourself. If you spoil the body, the spirit goes out. If the spirit does not go out and you spoil the body, the body will be bad. That is the number one thing.

I am a babalawo (herbalist). I was initiated into Ifa. In Ifa, the most important thing is taboo; what you can do and what you cannot do, including eating and actions. I still go back to the law of scout; a scout must be in words, thoughts, and action. If I take care of those, automatically, it will give me the result I’m having now. Although God is great, you have to do your own part. You have to prepare for the time when you get older. I don’t pray to ever be old.

When my son introduced me somewhere and said meet my old man, I scolded him, don’t call me old man. Old is rickety, withered, almost useless; that is old. We pray to grow up, not to grow old.

What is the place of roots and herbs in your well-being?

The roots and herbs were provided to humanity by God for the use of human beings. Without this, you cannot take care of the body sufficiently, because the body needs nourishment to be taken care of and part of the nourishment is the use of roots and herbs. The traditional concoctions that you use are parts of roots and herbs. The foods you eat are roots and herbs, though they go through some processes. Till tomorrow, I will still take agbo. That is part of the roots and herbs. Even when you use some European medicines, it does not stop you from using roots and herbs.

You talked about having not to spoil your body. Can you be more specific?

Number one, when you are annoyed and you speak violence, that is the first step to destroying yourself, because every violent statement you make affects your heart directly and then you start to suffer for an offence you have not committed. Two, we believe that some messengers of God that go about and share what people say, they can judge you on that.

Does that mean you don’t get angry at all?

There are situations that you need to react to and people will know you are not happy about it. It is not only when you use your head to break the wall that people will know you are annoyed.

In my life, when there is a situation where I have to be annoyed, I will tell the person no is no, and in the second minute, I will leave the place.

Traditional religion is not as attractive as other faiths because of elements of fear that are keeping people away. Do you think that is correct?

It is an assumption that people run away from traditional religion because it is tough. Wisdom is very rare to come by, but madness is popular because of the human angle. No one wants to go through toughness. In traditional religion, if you disobey taboo, it kills. If it does not kill immediately, it is going to kill along the line. That is the only danger. If it is tough, let’s go the tough way so that we can have a better life. I will never advise that we abandon the tough ways our fathers started.

God created this world with fear. Fear that makes you tremble will straighten you, it will not kill you. When my Oluwo way of living, if I was phoning him, he was on the other side, I would say good morning sir and I would be prostrating. That is an honour. Automatically, his spirit will be blessing me where he is.

This paid off one time while I was in America.

I was taken to court for an offence; they call it misdemeanor. If anybody asks me about my worst experience in America, I will cite this. When I was in America, I was using an international driver’s licence until I got the resident card. I did not know that after getting the resident card, my international driver’s licence would be rendered useless after six months.

I was driving one night and the police stopped me because it was dead in the night and it was a weekend. They stop you dead in the night because they believed that you could be guilty of DUI: driving while you are drunk. That was what they stopped me for. But after doing all the tests and I was not drunk, they asked for my driver’s licence. I gave it to them, and they said ‘this is not a driver’s licence.’ I was shocked. They said, ‘You are a resident. Don’t you know that after six months, you can’t use this? I said I was sorry, I would do that. They said you had better do that, then they gave me a paper. I wanted to get back into the car and they said where are you going? I said I was going home. They said we told you that you cannot drive. They asked if I wanted to go to jail. I asked them how I would get home. They said they did not know about that. I had to call one of my good children to come and pick me up that dead of the night, around 2 am.

The girl now drove me home. The police knew my house. They were already around my house but I didn’t know, thinking that after they had left I would drive. By the time the door of the driver’s side opened, we just saw police cars beam their light at the car. But immediately they saw a lady coming out of the driver’s side of the car, they drove away.

As if that was not enough, they charged me with a criminal offence. I went to my lawyer and he advised that the best thing for me was to get a driver’s licence before the court date because it could be very terrible. He said it was an offence that could attract a jail term. I thought he was joking. I went through the hassle. I got a driver’s licence. The licence arrived a day before the court date.

I got to the court and we lined up. There were five of us for the same offence,  and they were showing us a film on their television to make us acquainted with the court proceedings, and the case they were showing was the case of driving without a driver’s licence. They said the penalty was you can be jailed, deported, or fined and the three could happen if you plead guilty. If you plead not guilty, you would have a lawyer and your lawyer will argue. If your lawyer has anything to debunk, that is fine. But if your lawyer is unable to convince the judge, you can go three ways.

At that moment, I had malaria, I had a headache, I had every damn thing. I was shaking. I was cold. That was the worst day of my life in America.

They had already said that I would be number three. The first and the second offenders would have gone into the dock, but the assistant registrar said no, you have to answer the way you sit down. I was the one that sat first because I got to the court very early. Meaning that I would not have a sample of somebody they had tried. Malaria became double, the headache became triple, and the cold increased. Then I remember my late Oluwo. God is my witness, I heard the voice of the Oluwo. He said, ‘Stop shaking, there is nothing they would do to you. You did not do it deliberately. You are not an ordinary person. Go in there, nothing will happen to you.’ The moment I heard that voice, the malaria went away, the cold vanished, the panicking stopped. God is my witness to what I’m saying here today. The next minute, my case was called, it was a white lady magistrate. She said Sola Olalekan Atanda. I said yes, that is my name. And she said what is your name? Because I trained in America, the way they do their things, when you believe you know a thing and they ask you again, you owe them the duty to repeat it because they are superior in that area. I said My name is  Sola Olalekan Atanda. She said thank you.  On so, so date …… She said, is that true? I said it was true and she said do you have a driver’s licence? I said I had a driver’s licence. She said can you show it to the court clerk? I gave it to the court clerk. The magistrate said for good justice, you are discharged and acquitted, so you can go in peace. My god child that followed me to court, Dr. Flora, said Papa, get out of that place. When I got out of the court, that was when I started weeping.

That was to show you what I called honour to Oluwo in the tradition that we have been talking about. If I was not close to Oluwo, how could a spirit talk to me and cleanse me? So how can someone tell me to drop that traditional religion, to drop that culture because it is tough? That will be sickness; that will be unwise. God is not stupid to have made us Africans, to have built Africa the way it is; to have set up its government the way it is.

Were you already a babalawo during that American experience?

Oh yes.

How do you feel each time your faith is degraded?

When my faith is degraded by other people, I pity them because they are ignorant. If they knew, they would not do so. If you see fire and you say it is beautiful until you touch it and it burns you, that is when you know. A lot of people have been brainwashed, deceived, just the way our forefathers were deceived by the Europeans. You cannot destroy the work of God, no matter what.

My fear is that in the next 20 to 30 years, all the things you are doing now will go into extinction. What is your take?

When a thing starts to go down and down, it may get to a place where it will stop. But by the time it gets to a rock and stops, then it will go back again. We are now on the rise. It was going down some time ago. If you see some books on ifa, they were written by white people. It is very much on the rise now. Ifa , Osun, osa are on the rise now in America, Brazil, and Cuba.

Terrorism is creeping into the Southwest. What can the traditionalists do to help? Why is it that they have not been able to do anything about it?

If there is going to be anything good, it has to come from the grassroots. When things are good, if there is no problem in the city, it means there is no problem in the local government, there is no problem in the city, and there is no country. Do we have that again? The kings are now numerous. They are just kings. You don’t even know how many kings are in a town. When you have a king, the king that is respected by whosoever, a governor, the kingship is a lifetime thing. A king is an orisa on its own. It has a spiritual body, a political body under him. When anything happens in the city, the king calls it two wings, the political and the spiritual. They have divination; we don’t want so, so in the boundaries of the city. They put whatever they have to put. They tell people not to go out on so and so day because we have reinforced. That crashed and we have to bring it back. No babalawo can do anything. Babalawo is not the king of the city. He can only protect his own temple, his own business or anybody that goes to him. Unless the old order is brought back; and it is very cheap if they do that.

But some people said the potency of spiritual power has gone with the past?

No, no, no there is nothing wrong with the potency unless you don’t see the material. Anything is potent if it is complete. It will not be potent if it is not complete.

Our problem is that the politicians have turned Obas into civil servants. They remove Obas anyhow and they impose anybody they want.

How did you become an ifa priest?

Whatever you are has been predestined. I was born into the home of a Muslim father and Muslim mother. But my mother was born of a grandmother of Oya faith. My great-grandmother was called Boyaduro because her mother had a lot of children who died at birth. She had only one child herself, a female, and that female had two children, my mother and her sister. She was very wealthy; the first Iyalode of Osogbo. Her prayer was to have a male on her line to inherit all the wealth because in those days, if you had no male child, all your things would go to the extended family.

She was prayerful. She was also the Erelu Agba of Osogbo, the biggest Ogboni woman in town. She could not do without divination. Prayers were made for her and my mother was pregnant. Unfortunately, some people did something to make sure she would not have a male child on her line. That was the suspicion. Her first child died on the day of the naming ceremony. They just woke up and saw that the boy was stiff. The person that came to do the naming ceremony did not even ask for the child to put water in his mouth. She believed that one of her relations who was a Muslim was part of the coup. So after they did the naming ceremony and they killed the goat, and they wanted to go with the goat, she stopped them and asked, ‘How would you do a naming ceremony without seeing the child? Which means you know what you people have done. Don’t take the goat alone, take the dead child too. This is the last time I will welcome you Muslims in my house. They left in shame before they buried the child.

Later, my mother was pregnant with me and the Oluwo said this boy coming is a Babalawo and nothing can happen to him. He will redeem your name and be a child like a million for you. That was the prediction of ifa. Things were going well, but when it came to eight months that a child was to come, my mother was not having any feelings. The ninth month, I did not come. My great-grandmother started panicking. Divination was done again, and ifa said Ifangbenusolalowo ni, meaning the royalty in the womb coming in his own time.

I was born about the 10th month. I was already grown before coming out to the extent that I could not walk until they took me to River Niger where the water was used to bathe my leg before I could walk. That was in Zungeru, Niger State. But by that time, because of the religious thing, they were calling me Gbenusola. My father named me Ganiyu but my mother’s side called me Gbenusola, not Ifagbenusola.

I went to school. Things were good for me with my great-grandmother. I was eight years old before she died. I was taken to my father’s house. Here they were Muslims but I was not going to the quranic school because before my great-grandmother died, they took me to quranic school. The alfa wanted to beat a person and the cain touched me. They had to lock up the alfa. Since then, my great grandmother said anybody that took me to quranic school would meet her quickly. That was why I did not go to a quranic school.

I was growing well. I was always having an interest in traditional things, maybe because of the things that were done for me. I did not realise that I would practice the ifa thing until I got to secondary school. I remember in primary school, each time we were acting in a play, I would play the role of a babalawo. I was doing it well, or playing the role of a policeman.

Until I left Osogbo in 1966 and went to Lagos, I was told there was no place I could go except the child of the person that did the divination when my mother was pregnant. He was the son of babalawo of my great-grandmother, Babalawo. That man did not call me Gbenusola; he called me Ifagbenusola and told me to start my study.

But you said you did Survey?

Yes, I went to school. From secondary school, I wanted to be a military officer. They didn’t sponsor me because my family members didn’t like soldier. I said okay let me be the police. My father supported that. I was supposed to go to Southern police college and, after three months, to Sandhurst, to spend 18 months and come back as an inspector. Everything was settled. That was in 1966. I got to Lagos, the day I was to report to Southern Police College, 2nd January 1966, that was the day the coup started in Nigeria That was what foiled my ambition to go into police college. If you can google the police trainees to resume that day, my name should be there.

When I got home I became sick because my ambition was dashed. That was why I was taken to Oluwo. He said why does he even need to join the police. He is a babalawo from the womb. He said he would give me something that would give me lots of money and he took me to Survey school. He took me to federal survey. Three months later, we were taken to the School of Survey Oyo. That was how the survey thing started. I did basic courses and advanced courses.

All along while I was doing surveying, I was doing some other studies on my own. I was doing everything in the mystical area. I wanted to be a psychic aside from being a babalawo. I took different courses, including estate management. I have a PhD in Metaphysics.

Incidentally,it is difficult to see people in your position with one wife. Why monogamy?

What fate does, nobody can change. It is not compulsory for a traditionalist to marry two wives. In fact, ifa said so. It is only one wife that is the best in a man’s house.  When it becomes two, they become a problem. When they say babalawo can have many wives, there are situations when they say this is ifa’s wife and they bring the woman to you. She is not your wife; that woman has come to marry ifa. Your own wife is the one you married, not the one they brought to ifa. That is what people don’t understand.

Could your contact with western culture be responsible for your decision to stick with one wife?

The decision to marry one wife has nothing to do with western culture. I don’t regret marrying one wife.

How did you become an ifa priest?

Whatever you are has been predestined. I was born into the home of a Muslim father and Muslim mother. But my mother was born of a grandmother of Oya faith. My great-grandmother was called Boyaduro because her mother had a lot of children who died at birth. She had only one child herself, a female, and that female had two children, my mother and her sister. She was very wealthy; the first Iyalode of Osogbo. Her prayer was to have a male on her line to inherit all the wealth because in those days, if you had no male child, all your things would go to the extended family.

She was prayerful. She was also the Erelu Agba of Osogbo, the biggest Ogboni woman in town. She could not do without divination. Prayers were made for her and my mother was pregnant. Unfortunately, some people did something to make sure she would not have a male child on her line. That was the suspicion. Her first child died on the day of the naming ceremony. They just woke up and saw that the boy was stiff. The person that came to do the naming ceremony did not even ask for the child to put water in his mouth. She believed that one of her relations who was a Muslim was part of the coup. So after they did the naming ceremony and they killed the goat, and they wanted to go with the goat, she stopped them and asked, ‘How would you do a naming ceremony without seeing the child? Which means you know what you people have done. Don’t take the goat alone, take the dead child too. This is the last time I will welcome you Muslims in my house. They left in shame before they buried the child.

Later, my mother was pregnant with me and the Oluwo said this boy coming is a Babalawo and nothing can happen to him. He will redeem your name and be a child like a million for you. That was the prediction of ifa. Things were going well, but when it came to eight months that a child was to come, my mother was not having any feelings. The ninth month, I did not come. My great-grandmother started panicking. Divination was done again, and ifa said Ifangbenusolalowo ni, meaning the royalty in the womb coming in his own time.

I was born about the 10th month. I was already grown before coming out to the extent that I could not walk until they took me to River Niger where the water was used to bathe my leg before I could walk. That was in Zungeru, Niger State. But by that time, because of the religious thing, they were calling me Gbenusola. My father named me Ganiyu but my mother’s side called me Gbenusola, not Ifagbenusola.

I went to school. Things were good for me with my great-grandmother. I was eight years old before she died. I was taken to my father’s house. Here they were Muslims but I was not going to the quranic school because before my great-grandmother died, they took me to quranic school. The alfa wanted to beat a person and the cain touched me. They had to lock up the alfa. Since then, my great grandmother said anybody that took me to quranic school would meet her quickly. That was why I did not go to a quranic school.

I was growing well. I was always having an interest in traditional things, maybe because of the things that were done for me. I did not realise that I would practice the ifa thing until I got to secondary school. I remember in primary school, each time we were acting in a play, I would play the role of a babalawo. I was doing it well, or playing the role of a policeman.

Until I left Osogbo in 1966 and went to Lagos, I was told there was no place I could go except the child of the person that did the divination when my mother was pregnant. He was the son of babalawo of my great-grandmother, Babalawo. That man did not call me Gbenusola; he called me Ifagbenusola and told me to start my study.

But you said you did Survey?

Yes, I went to school. From secondary school, I wanted to be a military officer. They didn’t sponsor me because my family members didn’t like soldier. I said okay let me be the police. My father supported that. I was supposed to go to Southern police college and, after three months, to Sandhurst, to spend 18 months and come back as an inspector. Everything was settled. That was in 1966. I got to Lagos, the day I was to report to Southern Police College, 2nd January 1966, that was the day the coup started in Nigeria That was what foiled my ambition to go into police college. If you can google the police trainees to resume that day, my name should be there.

When I got home I became sick because my ambition was dashed. That was why I was taken to Oluwo. He said why does he even need to join the police. He is a babalawo from the womb. He said he would give me something that would give me lots of money and he took me to Survey school. He took me to federal survey. Three months later, we were taken to the School of Survey Oyo. That was how the survey thing started. I did basic courses and advanced courses.

All along while I was doing surveying, I was doing some other studies on my own. I was doing everything in the mystical area. I wanted to be a psychic aside from being a babalawo. I took different courses, including estate management. I have a PhD in Metaphysics.

Incidentally,it is difficult to see people in your position with one wife. Why monogamy?

What fate does, nobody can change. It is not compulsory for a traditionalist to marry two wives. In fact, ifa said so. It is only one wife that is the best in a man’s house.  When it becomes two, they become a problem. When they say babalawo can have many wives, there are situations when they say this is ifa’s wife and they bring the woman to you. She is not your wife; that woman has come to marry ifa. Your own wife is the one you married, not the one they brought to ifa. That is what people don’t understand.

Could your contact with western culture be responsible for your decision to stick with one wife?

The decision to marry one wife has nothing to do with western culture. I don’t regret marrying one wife.

Prof Kamar Tayo Adeleke is a cardiac surgeon. He chairs the Division of Cardiology at Benjamin Carson School of Medicine, Babcock University and doubles as a professor of Medicine/Cardiology at Babcock. He is the President/CEO of Tristate Cardiovascular Institute and heads the Division of Cardiac Catheterization and Interventional Laboratory at University College Hospital, Ibadan. He is the Founder/CEO of Tristate Healthcare system (THS) which manages Tristate Hospital Lekki, Babcock Tristate Heart and Vascular Centre, Tristate Hospital Ibadan, amongst others. In this interview with Deputy News Editor JOSEPH JIBUEZE, he speaks on complex heart surgery and the first of its kind to be attempted and successfully done in West Africa, performed on a 13-day-old baby with a lethal congenital heart defect called “Transposition of great arteries”. He also spoke on other health issues such as causes of artery blockage, preventing sudden deaths, managing high blood pressure and the need for national health insurance, amongst other issues.

WHY did you return home from the US at a time many of your colleagues were leaving Nigeria in search of greener pastures?

I left Nigeria at a very tender age for America and I was in America for more than 40 years. I was invited by the wife of a former Ondo State governor for medical outreach. I brought about 68 Americans and we saw over 5,000 patients in Ibadan. We went to Babcock University and treated close to another 2000 patients in two weeks. Then they had a sendoff party for us and invited very big people. Prof Temitope Alonge, former Chief Medical Director of the University College Hospital, Ibadan, was there. The governor introduced me and said this is Prof Adeleke who is an interventional cardiologist from America. Prof Alonge jumped and said: ‘An interventional cardiologist and you are from Ibadan?’ I said yes. And he said: ‘We have been trying to find an interventional cardiologist for so many years.’ I think he sent almost about 10 or 15 people to India for one year in training and they still could not do the job. When I returned to the US, Prof Alonge called me. He said the then Minister of Health said that they should find all the means to bring Prof Adeleke back to Nigeria.

What were your initial impressions about the health challenges in Nigeria?

The average life expectancy in Nigeria that year was 46 and I could not understand it. Our parents lived up to 100 years, so why 46? I started researching it and I found that the number one cause of death was heart disease and this disease affects mainly certain geographical parts of the population. What is killing the middle class and the upper class? It turns out that the number one cause is heart diseases – non-communicable diseases. Nobody dies of communicable diseases anymore because the standard of living has gone up. The number one cause of death is heart disease and it affects mainly the middle class and the upper class. The second most common cause of non-communicable disease death is stroke and the third one is cancer. The first two are my specialities. That was when I thought, if I don’t come back to Nigeria to help Nigerians, when I exit this world, God is going to ask me a question and, believe it or not, that was the decisive moment of my coming back to Nigeria.

How was your decision to return to Nigeria received in the US?

I called all my team and informed them that there was going to be a transition; that I would be going back to Nigeria. People cried. I did not even know how I was going to do it or how it was going to happen. So we came to UCH with all the team. We did the first heart catheterization intervention – where I would find out if something is wrong or if someone has the blockages that cause a heart attack and it was open and everybody was there. I think we did about seven cases on the first day. Heart disease is indeed number one. So we took ten cases. I just told them to get me ten cases that had chest pain. Seven of them had blockage of the artery, which kind of gave us an indication that indeed heart disease is a big deal.

How did you end up at Babcock?

We agreed to start with UCH and to make it a major centre in Africa. Unfortunately, the cost of the bureaucracy that goes on in Nigeria, UCH did not materialise. I think we did close to about 40 open heart surgeries at UCH before we left. I got frustrated, picked up the telephone and called the Vice Chancellor of Babcock University. It was on a Sabbath Day and you do not call an Adventist on Saturday, but I had no choice. I called and told him I wanted to bring the cardiac programme to Babcock. He had an emergency meeting with the board and by Monday he gave me the okay. The amount of money that we needed was so much but we borrowed. Then we did the first open heart surgery at Babcock. The then Emir of Kano was the one who opened that facility. The problem we faced at that time was that people who had the money did not want to be the first people to begin with as in the guinea pigs. The people who didn’t have the money were ready to do it. So I was stuck. I remember the first case we did; a young man. I had to go and buy the valve myself. We had no choice because for us to show Nigerians that we could do this, we had to do it for people who did not have money. In the first 75 cases that we did, it was either they did not have money or they paid minimum.

How many open heart surgeries have you done so far?

As of last year, we had done about 420 open heart surgeries. That does not include non-open heart surgeries. The total number of cases that we did was close to 600. Medical tourism is now changing. The most important thing to me is that I want to see the cardiology programme being affordable and accessible. You should not live in Kano and come to Lagos, or Maiduguri and be going to Benin. We need that access, and that is my goal. We did about 36 open heart surgeries at the Afe-Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti. We did the first open heart surgery at Reddington Hospital. We opened a centre at Duchess Hospital, which belongs to Reddington Hospital. If you go to the fifth floor of Duchess Hospital, it’s called Duchess-Tristate Heart Institute.

You recently launched a hospital in Lekki. Can you tell us about it?

We bought all the equipment (from a former hospital). Four months ago, we started the open heart surgery in this building. In two months now, we have done 20 open heart surgeries. The youngest that we have done is a 10-day-old baby. The first open heart surgery we did here, we started at about 5 pm and we did not finish until 5 am the following day. The longest one, we started at 10.15 am and finished at 5 am the following day. The beauty of this now is that what people thought was impossible is actually truly possible in Nigeria. Nigerians do not need to go abroad. I always tell people: Nigeria created the Nigerian problems; it’s going to take Nigerians to solve the Nigerian problems.

Are you seeing a reduction in medical tourism?

The who-is-who in Nigeria are coming here now. The VIPs have been here. Not only the rich people, the masses have also been benefiting. They are the ones that cannot go out of the country. The mission is being accomplished because when we came in, nobody was doing open heart surgery in Nigeria. Today, the last time I checked, maybe about seven centres have been doing open heart surgery. I still remember the first boy that we did. His name is Kazeem, 15-year-old. That is the one I told you about that I bought the valve myself. That boy is alive now and doing very well. A few days ago, I operated on a 42-year-old that came for the surgery. He had blockage everywhere. We had to open him up. A 49-year-old came two weeks ago, with chest pain. It was a massive heart attack. He looked at me and said, ‘Sir, don’t let me die.’ He was sweating. I took him to the cardiac lab. It was a hundred per cent blockage. Guess what, it only took me 15 minutes to fix.

Can you tell us about the surgery you performed on a 13-day-old baby?

We have the right heart and the left heart. The right heart’s function is to carry the blood from all the organs of the body. The blood will go to the right side of the heart. The right side of the heart will pump it to the lungs. The lungs will exchange the blood with oxygen, the oxygen will go in, and the waste product will come out. So the lungs kind of purifies it. Once that blood is purified, it goes to the left side of the heart, then the left side pumps it out to every organ in the body. The left side of the heart pumps out about four to six litres of blood every minute. What happened to this baby is that the right structures came from the left and vice versa. So this baby is not getting any purification of the blood. As a result of that, a very complex surgery had to be done. You have to now take – that is why it is called switch – all those structures that are supposed to be on the left that are on the right, you put them back on the left. That is restructuring. The surgery started at 10.15 am and did not finish till five the following day.

How common is this particular defect?

The congenital heart defect is about 0.01 per cent of the population. Fortunately, this one is very rare. The heart is very complex, the heart is completely formed by the time you are six weeks gestation. Even before some people know that they are pregnant, the heart is already formed. The time to prevent any kind of congenital abnormality is before conception. When you know that there is a likelihood of getting pregnant, you make sure you do not do certain things: you don’t smoke cigarettes or take any drugs that we know can be teratogenic. You have to make sure that the nutrition is sound and stay away from stress. All those things are the things that are going to help with the pregnancy. Infant mortality will be reduced by paying attention to the care of the mother before and during the pregnancy. If we invest in them, we are going to be saving a lot of money in future, and a lot of headaches. There are so many things that just ordinary vitamins, you are deficient in it will cause neurological problems after delivery and if you give those vitamins during pregnancy, you will avoid all those things. Once the baby is born, every single newborn must be properly evaluated. Take care of the mother during pregnancy. Let us spend money to care for pregnant women. Any woman who is pregnant should be automatically covered by insurance because those are future Nigerians.

How would your assess the manpower needs in your field?

In Nigeria, believe me, we only have one pediatric interventional cardiologist. We have a lot of pediatric cardiologists, but when it comes to an intervention like fixing the hole and everything, we only have one specialist. We need to really improve the manpower. How can there be only one interventional specialist in a population of over 200 million people? Even as an interventional cardiologist, I think, right now we have seven in the whole of Nigeria. Out of those seven, Tristate has two of us. About four or five of those seven are in Lagos. So you can now see why we are in trouble. What happened to the Northeast, Northwest and Southeast? We need to be serious about it because your health is your wealth. It’s called the 60-minute golden rule. What is going to kill you will kill you within 60 minutes and I don’t care how supersonic your jet is; before you cross the big pond you are dead. We need to pay attention to our health because our average life expectancy just went up to 52 now from 46. So we are making progress but we are still horribly low. United States is about 84, the same as the UK. Even in Cuba a third-world country, theirs is 80 and yet Cuba does not even have a fraction of the resources we have in Nigeria. What is wrong with us? UCH used to rank among the highest in the Commonwealth countries. No institution in Canada surpassed UCH when I was growing up. Imagine the number of hospitals in the UK that could not match UCH.

You’ve spoken a lot about artery blockage. What are the causes?

What we find out in that blockage is just a plaque. The plaque is nothing more than extra cholesterol. Certain people are at risk; people who have a modifiable and non-modifiable risk factors. The modifiable risk factors are gender. Males have a higher risk of developing blockages of the arteries than females. Once they reach menopause and are not having their period anymore, then the risk is the same as males. This means the hormones that they have are what protect them until they stop producing those hormones. Second is family history. If you have a first-degree relative, then your chance of having it is very high because the apple does not fall far from the tree. Those are the two non-modifiable. You can’t change your sex. Even people who try to change it, do not change gender. There are a lot of modifiable risk factors. Modifiable risk factors are all environmental that cause high blood pressure. I had a gentleman that came from Enugu. The only sin the guy committed was living in Lagos. It takes him four hours to drive to work and four hours to return every day. The guy just had chest pain and he went to the hospital. He thought it was malaria. They treated him for malaria for a week and the guy ended up having a heart attack and it was a massive heart attack. I had to drag him from Lagos straight to Babcock and the guy had a hundred per cent blockage in the most important artery in the heart. I fixed it. Unfortunately, the heart muscle was damaged because time had been wasted. So stress is a bad thing.

How can high blood pressure be managed?

For all the years I lived in America, my blood pressure never went past 100/110; at most, 120. When I’m upset, my heart rate goes to 60. Eleven months ago, I have only been in Nigeria for two years, my blood pressure already hit 130/135.  So the environment and the stress have a lot to do with it. So blood pressure is number one. Look at sub-Saharan Africa, one in three sub-Saharan African above the age of 18 has high blood pressure. So calculate. By the time you get to 40, that is 40 per cent, and that is number one of disability and death. Next are diabetes and high cholesterol. If you do exercise, you modify those modifiable risk factors. Make sure you go to check your blood pressure. If your blood pressure is high, take medication. If it will take you three to four medications, as long as your blood pressure is controlled, it does not matter how many medications, your sins are forgiven. Make sure your sugar is controlled. That is why I say everybody must know their numbers. The only way you pay yourself first is to know what is going on with you. When you go to the doctor, do not assume that the doctor is going to give you all the information. It is your job to ask what your blood pressure is, ask if it is normal and ask what you need to do if it is not. Your sugar and cholesterol levels also. If you are not happy with one, go for a second opinion, because you only have one life and prevention is better than cure.

What are your thoughts about health insurance in Nigeria?

The insurance is going to prevent disease because people will go and be screened. The health insurance scheme is going to be taking care of a lot of things for us as it gives us rest of mind that in case you need it, it is there, then we do not have to worry. What the CBN did in terms of healthcare and special intervention fund is commendable because, without it, there is no way Tristate is going to be doing what we are doing. The manpower is very important. We must train the locals because to bring a foreign nurse, just the nurse is costing us about $3500 a month as salary, plus accommodation, transportation and $3500 are based on the current rate of the black market. In other words, it’s changing every month

How are you going about training more Nigerians?

The first thing we did when we opened Babcock was that we brought 12 expatriates. Then we took 20 Nigerians to understudy them. Today out of those 12, I think we only have about three foreigners left. The rest are Nigerians. When we started the open house surgery at UCH, I will say 100 per cent were Americans although 90 per cent are pure American while the rest are American-Nigerian. When we started at Babcock, 30 per cent were Americans. Today it is almost 99 per cent Nigerian and that is because of the training that we have given. When we started here, it was the same thing. Now, this is the problem: out of all those nurses that we trained, almost 60 per cent of them have gone to UK etc, probably 70 per cent. So now we have to start all over again. The two doctors that I first trained, cardiologists to do the intervention, are gone. It took me two years to train them, both females came from UCH. This is a free country, you cannot hold anybody back. I don’t even want to hold them back. We do not have to worry.

How do you think the brain drain be halted?

Let us continue to train them. You can’t force them to stay. What we need to do is to improve the environment to be so conducive that those people will not need to go abroad anymore. I was at a conference. About 29 Nigerians were there at the conference and they wanted me to talk about something. I thought it was a cardiovascular issue. It turned out others wanted me to give them something about how to transition to Nigeria. Then I asked them, 29 of you, let us say the environment is only fifty per cent conducive in Nigeria, how many of you will like to go? Twenty-eight out of 29 except one that just started training said they would return. So Nigerians in America want to come back, and Nigerians in Europe want to come back. It’s not about the money. I have not made any money in Nigeria since I came back. They want to contribute something and live well and freely without any feeling of insecurity. If you make the insecurity go away and have the infrastructure in place, Nigerians will come back. Two Nigerian cardiologists recently came from the US to come and join us now. Two weeks ago, another four came from Atlanta to join us and they are highly trained. So this is what I call brain gain now. What Nigeria needs to do is don’t worry about those that we have because we can’t hold them back. Continue to produce them. Give them the opportunity to be trained, let us look at the ones that are already there. I’m bringing another interventional cardiologist now, probably by next month, from Istanbul, Turkey. We are negotiating $15,000 a month, and that is cheap because I can’t afford anybody from the US. In the US, my students that graduated last year, their salary is $500,000. So $15,000 a month is a break for us. That money is even very expensive but once we train our people, then we can make it happen and I think that is what is going to happen.

Where do you see Tristate in years to come?

I’m so excited about what is coming in Nigeria into healthcare and I’m so happy that it is happening in my time. Our plan is bigger than what we have done with limited resources. The coral you saw on the building is not our name, that name was there from the former hospital. Those names are coming down. There is going to be a mega reconstruction. There is a group that is willing to come and in invest in Tristate. So we are going to be changing this place. We are going to be the only level three centre in Nigeria because we are the only ones doing open heart surgery. We will have everything here. Our goal is to have the first heart transplant in Nigeria. The next one is going to be our School of Medicine. The Tristate School of Medicine may even start this year. We have a 15-year road map from 2014 and we have been ahead of it.

“Age is strictly a case of mind over matter.
If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.”
– Jack Benny

Coming to the world is one thing, and living in the world is another thing. From a few steps, one marches forward and forward. Then one day, the story is told of how you arrived at a certain destination in life.
In a world full of ups and downs, attaining the age of 60 is certainly a big deal. For the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rep. Femi Gbajabiamila, he came to the world some 60 years ago, and within that period, he has marched forward and forward. Today, he has arrived at a destination, and his story is being told.
In the past 60 years of his life, Gbajabiamila has gone through a lot and has seen it all. From his days at the University of Lagos to his stint as a practising lawyer, Gbajabiamila has made a mark in people’s lives. But the most defining moment in his life was when he became a lawmaker in 2003 to represent the people of Surulere 1 Federal Constituency of Lagos State.
Of the 60 years he has spent so far on this mother earth, nearly two decades were dedicated to legislative work. As a legislator, he has made history and created a record that nobody else has on our shores. Early enough, a lot of his colleagues noticed his leadership qualities. As a virile, progressive and courageous lawmaker, he naturally became a principal officer in the House after just a term in office. Since then, he has spent almost 16 years in the leadership of the House.
As a quick reminder, from 2007, Gbajabiamila was Minority Whip, later became Minority Leader and served in that capacity for eight straight years. After he contested for speaker in 2015 and lost, he became the House Leader, serving for four years, and eventually became the Speaker in 2019. In Nigeria’s legislative history, he remains the only one that holds the record of being the first to have occupied all these positions. He performed creditably in all of these positions. Here is a man who has an excellent grasp of legislative practices and procedures. Nobody will doubt his legislative prowess.
Truth be told, the last three years of his legislative life have been remarkable. Soon after he became the Speaker of the 9th House, he introduced some unprecedented reforms as he promised in his inaugural speech on June 11, 2019.
One of such reforms was the introduction of electronic voting during key debates. For the first time since the Green Chamber was built, Gbajabiamila ensured the installation of electronic gadgets that would aid e-voting in Parliament. And that was achieved within just one month of his emergence.
Another area that he had expressed so much concern about was the issue of the legislative library. Nigeria is the largest black nation in the world with a rich history. However, the country cannot boast of a befitting library in its legislature. Worried by that, Gbajabiamila established the House Committee on Legislative Library and Documentation. And during the first budget considered by the 9th House – the 2020 budget – the sum of two billion Naira was appropriated for the building of the National Assembly legislative library. As we speak, the building is almost completed.
With his progressive mind and working in sync with the Senate as well as the support of the Executive arm, Gbajabiamila ensured that the nation’s budget cycle was returned to the desired January to December in the past three years. This has helped the Nigerian government to achieve a lot in terms of implementing the budget.
It was also to the credit of the House under Gbajabiamila that the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), the Finance Act, the Deep Offshore Sharing Formula Act, the Electoral Act (amendment), and a host of others were all achieved in just three years.
As for the Electoral Act, Gbajabiamila can be described as the man who saw tomorrow. When the amendment Bill was considered in July 2021, he proposed that a provision be made to compel political parties to conduct primary elections through the direct means, what is known as the direct primary. Gbajabiamila’s idea was to open up the political space for a greater number of Nigerians to participate in the process of electing the flag-bearers of their political parties and reduce the shenanigans that dogged such processes in the past.
Though it sailed through in the Parliament, the president withheld assent to the bill due to that provision. The National Assembly rejigged it and provided other options so as not to throw away the baby with the bath water. But from the conduct of the political parties’ primaries between May and June 2022, most Nigerians came to the agreement that the proposal made by the Speaker was indeed necessary.
One can go on and on in listing the achievements the 9th House recorded with Gbajabiamila in the saddle. Suffice it to say that the Speaker has contributed a lot to the Nigerian Parliament, and posterity will remember him as a legislative hero who worked tirelessly for his country. When the story is written, he occupies a sizable part of it.
Gbajabiamila has stepped onto the 6th floor. But from his looks, many will argue that he does not look it. Like George Burns, an American comedian, once said, “You can’t help getting older, but you don’t have to get old.” To those of us that work with the Speaker, we know he is 60, but he walks and works like a 40-year-old. He exudes a lot of energy.
June 25 every year remains a blessed day. To mark his 60th birthday this year, a book, titled ‘Mr Speaker’ is written in his honour by yours sincerely and Dr Charles Omole. Without a doubt, Gbajabiamila has proved to be an icon worth celebrating at any time. His service, dedication and commitment to the Nigerian people and humanity, in general, are legion.
Dane Peddigrew, it was, who said, “Forget the block. When you’re sixty you’ve been around the entire neighbourhood a few times.” Take it or leave it, in his 60 years, Gbajabiamila has been around the entire Nigerian ‘neighbourhood’ not just a few times but also numerous times.
At 60, his constituents in Surulere 1 are pleased with him; Lagosians are happy with him, and Nigerians are satisfied with his performance as the Speaker of the House of Representatives. We all pray to see his 70th, 80th, 90th and even 100th birthdays in good health. Here is wishing our principal, the Speaker of the House of Representatives Rep. Femi Gbajabiamila, a happy 60th birthday.
•Krishi is Chief Press Secretary to the Speaker, House of Representatives.

He is an avatar. He is a man of tall plans and big ideas. A nationalist of the first order. Rt Hon Olufemi Hakeem Gbajabiamila is 60th today. Born on the 25th June, 1962 to the popular aristocrat Gbajabiamila family of Lagos, young Gbajabiamila attended Mainland Preparatory School for his elementary education and proceeded to the popular Igbobi College for Secondary education. He was a contemporary of serving Nigeria’s Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo.

He proceeded to London, for his A-level education. He enrolled at King William’s College on the Isle of Man, United Kingdom. He later returned to the country of his birth, Nigeria to study law at the prestigious University of Lagos where he graduated with honors in 1983 and was called to the Nigerian bar in 1984.

Gbajabiami, suave and highly cerebral lawyer, cut his teeth in law practice at Bentley Edu and Co, a foremost and reputable law firm that attracted  sound young lawyers in the 80s. After learning from the masters in the law practice, Gbajabiamila ventured out to give wings to his dreams by establishing his own law firm, Femi Gbaja & Co. In the United States of America, he earned his Juris Doctor from Atlanta John Marshall Law School in the State of Georgia. Brilliant Gbajabiamila cleared his papers at the Georgian bar exam in 2001. He subsequently set up his law firm in Atlanta.

The Speaker’s latent interest in politics began to find expression when he joined others in actively campaigning and mobilising support for Bill Campbell’s candidacy who later emerged the 57th mayor of Atlanta, Georgia.  He was the fourth person of the African-American descent in history to emerge mayor.

In preparation for the 2003 general elections, Gbajabiamila returned to Nigeria to participate in the electoral process. He joined the defunct Alliance of Democracy, a progressive party to contest for the Surulere 1 Federal Constituency election. He won the election to serve in the House of Representatives. Over the years, Gbajabiamila has proven his leadership dexterity, and the ability to competently manage diverse interests and tendencies within the convoluted Nigeria’s political space.

When he served as the leader of the minority caucus in the House, he was the daily nightmare of the then ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. He kept the nation alert of the perfidious leadership and unprecedented pillage of the common patrimony of Nigerians by the PDP looting gang. He contributed greatly to the abrupt halt of the PDP reign of terror in 2015. The Gbajabiamila was largely instrumental to disruption of the projected 60 years reign PDP game plan that was truncated to 16 years.

When the All Progressives Congress, APC took over in 2015, he contested for the speakership but fifth columnists in connivance with strange elements within the National Assembly  frustrated the ambition. The Saraki/Dogara broad day legislative coup readily comes to mind. He took the unpalatable incident in his stride and continued seeking the common good of the Nigerian people as the Leader of the House. He provided the needed leadership during the turbulence period and served as a rally force for all the progressives in the House.

Having proved his mettle as the majority leader of the House, it was not a herculean task convincing his colleagues to support his speakership aspiration in 2019. He got all that was needed.. He was well educated, exposed and highly experienced.

Those who know him very well will attest that Gbajabiamila is never a power-drunk. He was not aspiring to feather his nest. He was genuinely concerned on how to use the legislative instruments to make Nigeria better and improve the socio-economic conditions of the people.

That has been the ultimate focus since he took the leadership mantle of the House. He declared from the start that he was out to revolutionise legislative business in Nigeria. He set the agenda for the 9th House of Representatives under his watch. And he has vigorously pursued them to the admiration of many discerning Nigerians.

He discreetly maintains cordial relationships with the Executive arm of government without losing the independence of the legislature. He removed unnecessary animosity that impedes development but rather intervenes occasionally when the need be. In the heat of the COVID-19 pandemic, Gbajabiamila showed exemplary leadership by galvanising the ruling class for the cause of the poor. He openly advocated for direct credit transfers into the bank accounts of the most vulnerable people in Nigeria. He didn’t stop there, he brokered meetings between regulatory agencies and providers of certain essential services like the Pay TV service provider, DSTV and Distribution Companies of Nigeria (DISCOs) for free services for two months.

The health workers who were battling the pandemic also got the support of the Speaker. Hazard allowances that had been owed were released following Gbajabiamila’s intervention. The Health minister was summoned to explain why the welfare of doctors, nurses and other health professionals were not catered for.

The House of Gbaja was a bipartisan, patriotic chamber that prioritises pro-people interventions. Resolutions on the worsening insecurity and other national maladies were in legion. Petroleum Industry and Governance Bill got life under his watch. The Electoral Act amendments bill amidst other great feats were recorded last year.

The celebrated Electoral Act, the Petroleum Industry and Governance Act, Not Too Young to Run Act, the ultimate return of the budget circle to January and December and other landmark legislations and legislative interventions are largely possible because of the support of Gbajabiamila.

On the January and December budget circle, the Speaker recalled the sacrifices and the pains that went into the process. He said, “”through the day and night, forgoing all other considerations in a joint effort to deliver a national budget that meets the highest expectations of the Nigerian people.

“Therefore, I am confident that the National Assembly will give this Appropriation Bill the prompt consideration it demands.

“However, let me use this opportunity to say to the heads of ministries, departments and agencies of the Federal Government of Nigeria that the determination of the National Assembly to deliver a timely budget will not derogate from our responsibility to ensure exhaustive consideration of the Bill.

“We will demand a thorough accounting for the funds previously appropriated, disbursed and expended. And we will take steps to hold to account those who fail to provide the records we need to make informed decisions on the Appropriation Bill. This is the responsibility of the National Assembly, and we will live up to it.”

The man being celebrated today didn’t not forget his constituency in the governance mix. Surulere and by extension Lagos State are getting the dividends of Gbajabiamila’s speakership. Infrastructure, health facilities, schools, medical equipment , ICT centres are all attracted to Lagos State.

Join me in celebrating this great achiever, Rt Hon Femi Gbajabimiala. Happy birthday sir !

• Adigun Thomas writes from Alimosho , Lagos State.