Why King’s?
I had an older brother who I adored. He was studying Law at King’s and I really wanted to join him. At the end of my first year, I decided I didn’t want to study English and left to do Law at SOAS. After that I still had this hankering to come back to King’s and do a master’s.
What’s your favourite memory of King’s?
The beauty of Somerset House and the international body of students.
What’s the key lesson you learnt at King’s?
King’s opens the mind and the desire to learn. As alumni we’re never-ending learners.
You won our Changemaker Award for your outstanding healthcare advocacy. How did your journey into healthcare begin?
I was giving birth to twins in one of the best hospitals in Nigeria, but I had birth complications. Sadly, I lost one child. It was a battle to keep the other baby alive, and my own life was at risk. I called some of the top doctors I knew in the UK, and fortunately my child survived.
One day, a man rushed into the hospital with a very premature baby but couldn’t afford treatment. I happened to be there at the time and paid for him. The child survived and was named ‘Oluwagboadurami’ (‘God has answered my prayers’).
I asked myself, ‘what would have happened to that baby if I hadn’t been there?’. I wanted to give back, and decided to do this by helping people who didn’t have the resources I had.
What experience first made you think, ‘I can make a difference’?
My daughter was born with a hole in her heart. At that time, doctors in the UK were researching paediatric digoxin, and sent me bottles for my baby. Again, it got me thinking about people who didn’t have connections to doctors in London and how I could use my resources to help.
I found a professor from the Beth Holon Centre in Israel, who promised to operate on children with holes in their hearts if we sent them to Israel in batches of ten (with a parent). My friends and I began the Lifestream Charity in 1994, fundraising with a ‘Run, walk, or stroll’ marathon. Over three years, we sent 78 children for heart surgery.
You founded the Wellbeing Foundation Africa (WBFA). How did that come about?
WBFA was founded in 2004 to help ensure safe births and reduce preventable deaths for pregnant people.
If you have a baby in a Nigerian hospital and can’t pay, they detain you. The first few years of WBFA were spent rescuing people and paying their bills. I got together with my friend, the late Joep Lange (one of the researchers behind the first combined HIV medication) to discuss. He worked with my husband (who was Governor of Kwara State at the time) to develop a state health insurance scheme, which cost less than three dollars per person.
I was always fighting against narrowing WBFA down to just health. It doesn’t matter if somebody is healthy if they don’t have a job or an education, and that’s how wellbeing became holistic .
As First Lady of Kwara State at the time, I made every Wednesday ‘HIV Awareness Day’ in my office. There was a lot of stigma around HIV, so I invited people with HIV to come and see me. My staff would escort them to hospital so they could get the treatment they needed, with the dignity and respect they deserved.
Can you tell us about your work with the United Nations?
In 2011, I got an invitation from the then-UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon. He was going to be in Nigeria and had identified 30 or 40 people working in healthcare who he wanted to meet for dinner.
Speaking to Ban Ki-moon was like a meeting of minds. I discovered he wanted to work towards safer births too and gave him my card. I later got a call asking if I’d like to be an advocate for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health, which eventually led to the development of the Every Woman Every Child Movement.
Ban was also interested in engaging with the private sector. I led the Nigeria end of this, contacting influential companies and people to bring them together for a greater cause.
I saw the UN as an emporium of solutions. It was a question of choosing which solutions I could take back home and implement on the frontlines.
You’ve also worked as Special Advisor for the World Health Organisation (WHO) Africa since 2011. Could you tell us more about this?
The WHO Partnership for Maternal Newborn and Child Health (PMNCH) is, in my opinion, one of the most exciting WHO initiatives ever. In 2012 they chose Nigeria as the country to host their global meeting and asked me to attend.
From an ordinary member of WHO, I became a board observer. This gave me insight into the highest level of decision making, but also allowed me to bring the voice of the communities on the ground to those decisions and be a messenger for the voice of the ordinary African woman.
What’s next for you?
WBFA has just received a UK Department of Health and Social Care Grant through the Global Health Workforce Programme managed by the Tropical Health and Education Trust, with the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine to establish two Centres for Excellence in Lagos and Abuja, teaching advanced obstetrics, maternal and newborn skills to Nigerian doctors. We have already taught over 60 doctors and medical examiners in advanced obstetric and surgical skills.
I’ve also been appointed to the Global Breast Cancer Care Council of Astrazeneca. Statistics suggest that people of colour respond differently to certain cancer medications. Even from recent research, I think we can develop something that empowers healthcare professionals to support their patients and find better and newer breast cancer medications.
Any advice for alumni and changemakers hoping to make the world a better place?
Never ignore the small opportunities. Those little actions, when performed diligently, really do build up to big wins.
Always collaborate. King’s alumni community has been an incredible networking space and partnerships have been key to a lot of the progress and impact we have made.