Introduction
Mr Chairman, I am delighted to be standing here today to pay tribute to one of Africa’s illustrious sons, late Prof Horatio Oritsejolomi Thomas of blessed memory. In the words of late Prof Olikoye Ransome-Kuti, the late Prof Thomas was “a distinguished scholar, an eminent administrator, an educationist and a fine surgeon”. This brief statement really captures the essence of the man that we are honouring today.
Looking at his history, I am particularly delighted to know that he was a 1932 foundation student of Igbobi College, Lagos, which by coincidence happens to be my alma mater as well. Igbobi College was really a fountain of knowledge from which many eminent Nigerians drank and subsequently excelled. Our only challenge was that for decades we could not win the Principal’s Cup for Schools Soccer in Lagos and that really broke our hearts from year to year. I actually blame the Kings College and St Gregory’s College old boys’ mafia for that annual frustration through their persistent and successful romance with the Gods of Soccer.
Prof Thomas was the very first Nigerian to obtain the prestigious Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons (FRCS) in the United Kingdom, after graduating MB.ChB from the University of Birmingham. He returned to his fatherland to serve and later became the Dean and Professor of Surgery at the University of Lagos in 1962. By some sheer coincidence, our paths must have crossed on the old Lagos-Ibadan ‘expressway’ sometime in 1972 when I graduated from the University of Ibadan and proceeded to Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) for my internship. At the same time (1972), Prof Thomas was appointed the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ibadan and came here to serve in that capacity till 1975. By the time I completed my internship in LUTH, it had become quite obvious to me that the University College Hospital, Ibadan, was indeed Nigeria’s premier teaching hospital and the best place for me to do my postgraduate residency in Obstetrics and Gynaecology. So, like a prodigal son, I came back to Ibadan in 1973, bringing along with me a daughter of the soil and later graduate of the University of Lagos (now Dr Mrs Lillian Adekemi Otolorin, my wife). She has been my constant companion ever since. We are both convinced that the Good Lord had a hand in my stubborn decision, against all odds, to go to LUTH for my internship.
Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, the topic of my lecture today is “Countdown to 2015: Community Engagement for Improved Maternal and Neonatal Health”. I feel privileged to talk about this because of my personal experience working in Northern Nigeria (specifically in Kano, Katsina and Zamfara States) in the last 6 years striving to improve maternal and newborn health in the region. My stepping aside from this Ivory Tower into the real world about a decade ago has been an eye-opener for me in respect of the challenges being faced by rural women in Sub-Saharan Africa in the process of giving birth. In the early 1990s, the developed world referred to these unfortunate women as ‘Poor, Powerless and Pregnant’ or the Three Ps. To some feminists or activists, this was nothing but stereotyping of the women in the developing world, but to others it was a catchy phrase to draw attention to their plight. Given what I have seen in respect of these women, I wish to dedicate this lecture to all the poor, powerless and pregnant women in our country as well as all the privileged ones in this audience. I also want to acknowledge the three women in my life, namely my 88-year-old mother, my dear wife the mother of my children and my only daughter.