Since the Coronavirus pandemic hit Lagos a few weeks back, the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has not been sleeping well at all. And that is authoritative.
City People can authoritatively reveal that because of the challenges of curtailing Coronavirus, he goes to bed each day at about 3 am and wakes up at 6.00 am to monitor the latest developments on Coronavirus around the world.
Daily, in addition to other state duties, the Governor spends hours on end with the Lagos Health Commissioner, Dr Abayomi to deliberate on what next to do.
The Governor not only now meets with his cabinet members on a daily basis, he also meets with the COVID-19 team led by the Health Commissioner.
Not only that he constantly meets with various stakeholders like traditional rulers, church leaders, Muslim Clergy, Market Women, Labour Leaders, Bank CEOs to brief them on what is expected of them.
He also goes round the state, to see for himself, firsthand, what is happening. He goes the infection disease centre in Yaba, Lagos.
Because of the growing increase in the number of affected people in Lagos State, he is also supervising the creation of more contact centres.
Since the outbreak, Gov. Sanwo-Olu has taken the Coronavirus crisis as a big battle he must win in his state. On a daily basis, he addresses the Press, standing behind a podium to interact with the media and stakeholders.
What has helped him is his determination and the will to succeed. Gov. Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu, the 15th Governor of Lagos State is ably assisted by a brilliant Health Commissioner, Prof. Akin Emmanuel Abayomi.
He is a Professor Emeritus of Medicine
He is 68 years old
Prof Akin Abayomi is a specialist in Internal Medicine, Haematology, Oncology, Environmental Health and Biosecurity.
He studied at the Royal Medical College of Saint Bartholomew’s Hospital in the University of London where he attained his first degree in Medicine and progressing to obtain fellowships from both Royal College of Medicine in the United Kingdom and the College of Medicine of South Africa.
He has worked in several countries around the world in Internal Medicine and has been exposed to a variety of geographical variations of disease patterns within the discipline of Internal Medicine.
He also trained in ecosystem integrity, wilderness management and biosecurity and has a special interest in environmental health and passion for ecosystem integrity and the impact of environmental degradation on human health, practising holistic organic agroforestry in combination with ecosystem conservation.
He manages a 300-acre organic bio-habitat forest conservation project in his spare time in Osun State on the banks of Osun River.
Professor Abayomi’s focus has mainly been on the concept of emerging infectious diseases and the development of laboratory and clinical capacity in Africa.
Professor Abayomi was a PI on the H3Africa Genomic project, Director of the Cape Haematology Bone Marrow Transplant Unit and adviser to the Royal College of Pathologists for Africa.
He was the President of the South African Society of Haematology and serves on the council of the International Society for Clinical Cytometry and the European, Middle East and Africa Bio-banking Society.
Professor Abayomi until his appointment as the Commissioner for Health in Nigeria’s most populous state – Lagos was a Professor of Clinical Medicine at the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research, Emeritus in the Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, the University of Stellenbosch in Cape Town and Principal Investigator of the Global Emerging Pathogens Treatment Consortium or GET, which was established at the height of the Ebola Outbreak to address biosecurity concerns in Africa.
Before his appointment as Lagos Health Commissioner, Prof Akin Abayomi was working with the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIMR), Yaba, Lagos, Nigeria.
In his words: “My focus has mainly been on the complications of HIV and the development of laboratory and clinical capacity to rise to the challenge of the HIV epidemic in the developing world and Africa”.
He is the Principal Investigator Global Emerging Pathogens Treatment Consortium, Ebola biosecurity concerns in Africa, Professor Nigerian Institute of Medical Research, Professor Emeritus, Department of Pathology, University of Stellenbosch, Cape Town.
Right now, he is the man charged with the responsibility of tackling the deadly coronavirus in Lagos and Nigeria at large.
What has helped Sanwo-Olu is the fact that his lovely wife, Ibijoke, is a top-rated medical doctor. Both met at the University. Gov. Sanwo Olu attended the University of Lagos, where he got a Bachelor’s degree in Surveying & Geo-Informatics. He also did a Master’s of Business Administration MBA in the same University.
Dr. (Mrs.) Claudiana Ibijoke Sanwo-Olu is the first Medical Practitioner to become the 1st Lady of Lagos State. She is a combination of beauty and intellect. Her husband is 2 years older than her. He was born 25 June 1965 in Lagos State. She was born on 8th January 1967 to the family of Paulinus Olusegun Carrena of Popo Aguda, a Brazilian descendants area of Lagos Island. She spent about 7 years in UNILAG, for her degree in Medicine. She holds a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) degree from that prestigious University. That was when she met her husband.
Both have MBAs from UNILAG.
